Jonathan Green's Blog, page 168

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring guest artist John Blanche

There are now just 4 days left in which to buy your tickets for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014...

In what has to be quite some coup for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014, Sorcery! and Clash of the Princes artist John Blanche is going to be joining us in Ealing on Sunday 7 September.

Yes - the John Blanche, whose mind now works feverishly to create the quasi-Medieval worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000.

John's unique artwork appears in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, which has a whole chapter given over to the Sorcery! series, and which will be launching at the event. So why not come along and get John to sign your copy on the day?

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring Leo Hartas and a Warlock's hoard of goodies

There are now just 5 days left in which to buy your tickets for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014...

One of the artists joining us on the day is the man responsible for a host of beautiful maps - everything from painted charts of Gallantaria to black and white plans of Allansian towns - Leo Hartas!

There are several pages given over to Leo's exqusite cartography in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, which will be launching at the event. So why not come along and get Leo to sign your copy on the day?


Attendees who snap up a full price ticket now will also receive a goodie bag, stuff full of goodies, including the following:
A Fighting Fantasy gamebook (with the first 100 to buy their tickets receiving the highly sought after 25th anniversary edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, signed by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone).A Pax Britannia novel by Yours Truly.A download code for a Tin Man Games app.A limited edition poster.The highly collectible 'Adventurer's Backpack' itself.A commemorative convention programme.And a 32mm miniature of Zagor the Warlock, especially sculpted for this event by Paul Muller and cast by Otherworld Miniatures.

In addition to all of the above, every attendee buying a full price ticket will be entered into a raffle to win the chance to have their name appear in a forthcoming Tin Man Games Fighting Fantasy app!
So what are you waiting for?

Iain McCaig, who illustrated Ian Livingstone's City of Thieves, has a number of pieces of work in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, including two especially commissioned for the book and his first FF-related illustration work in years!

Gamebook Friday: Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring the Fighting Fantasy Auction

There are now just 6 days left in which to buy your tickets for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014...

Amongst the events taking place on the day is an auction of rare items from the vaults of the Warlocks of Firetop Mountain, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone - the first of its kind.

Included among the auction lots are the following:

Two swords created to promote Ian Livingstone's Deathtrap Dungeon video gameA rare copy of White Dwarf issue #1 in excellent conditionIssues #1-9 of the Japanese version of Warlock magazineA rare promotional poster for The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, signed by Steve Jackson and Ian LivingstoneA first edition of the original Dungeoneer Advanced Fighting Fantasy title, complete with letter of authenticationA copy of the Nintendo DS The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, which was never released in EuropeA limited edition copy of the Deathtrap Dungeon video game, complete with a copy of the gamebook and card game of the same name.

To be in with a chance of adding some truly unique and rare items to your Fighting Fantasy collection, you know what you need to do. Buy your ticket today!

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring Arion Games and Inkle Studios

There are now only 7 days left in which to buy your tickets for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014...

Amongst the traders and guests attending the event are Arion Games, publishers of Advanced Fighting Fantasy Second Edition, and Inkle Studios, who are in the process of converting Steve Jackson's Sorcery! books for the iPad.

Inkle will be demoing their latest apps, while Arion will be running games of AFF during the day for attendees to sign up for and take part in.

So what are you waiting for? Buy your ticket for the gaming event of the year today!


Tin Man Games will also be attending Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 and one of their more recent FF adaptations is Island of the Lizard King , illustrated by Alan Langford, whose illustrations appear in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks.

Steampunk Thursday: Lucy Saxon Competition - We have a winner!

Recently I ran a competition offering readers of this blog the chance to win a copy of Lucy Saxon's debut, Steampunk-inspired novel, Take Back the Skies, asking from where did the author take her pen name?

Well the answer is, the name of the Master's wife in the 2007 series of Doctor Who.

Everyone who entered the competition answered the question correctly, but the lucky individual who had their name pulled out of the proverbial hat is...

Amy Cotterill
Congratulations, Amy! Your copy of Take Back the Skies will be winging its way to you from Bloomsbury Books very soon.

To the rest of you who entered, better luck next time, eh?

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring Zagor the Warlock

There are now only 8 days left in which to buy your tickets for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014.

One of the highlights of attending Fighting Fantasy Fest, for gamers, modellers, paints and collectors alike, is the fact that attendees will receive a brand new miniature of Zagor, the Warlock of Firetop Mountain himself, sculpted by Paul Muller and produced especially for the event by Otherworld Miniatures.




Paul began work as a miniature painter with Games Workshop in the mid-1990s, before trying his hand at sculpting. In recent years, he has produced work for several miniatures companies, including Wyrd Miniatures, Heresy, and Reaper. He sculpted Otherworld's first model, the 'Demon Idol' in 2006, and has produced many of the miniatures in Otherworld's Giants, Dungeon Monsters and Undead ranges since then.


Otherworld had this to say about their unusual commission: "Paul is pleasantly surprised to be working on a Fighting Fantasy miniature, so many years after spending birthday present book tokens and paper-round wages on the original FF books (with The Forest of Doom and Seas of Blood being particular favourites)."

Paul Muller hard at work turning Russ Nicholson's original illustration in a three dimensional miniature. 
Otherworld Miniatures will be at Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 on the day as well a number of other traders, so make sure you don't miss out and purchase your ticket today.


Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 will also see the launch of YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, which features original artwork from Duncan Smith, illustrator of Scorpion Swamp.

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring artist Tony Hough

There are now just 9 days left for you to purchase your ticket for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014, so best buy yours before it's too late.

One of our artist guests at the event is Tony Hough, who has been illustrating Fighting Fantasy gamebooks since 1991, including two of my own gamebooks - Knights of Doom and Bloodbones . He has also contributed brand new filler pictures to YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks , which is launching at Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014.

Come along on the day, and not only could you get Tony to sign YOU ARE THE HERO for you, you might also be able to buy an original piece of FF art from his portfolio. Now that would be some collector's item!

Tony's art features a number of times in YOU ARE THE HERO, just as does the work of Les Edwards - the man who painted both different versions of the UK cover of Caverns of the Snow Witch - and so does the artwork of the artists responsible for the internals black and white illustrations on Caverns, Edward Crosby and Gary Ward.

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring Tin Man Games

There are now just 10 days left for you to purchase your ticket for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014, which is causing a stir all over the Internet - such as Charlie Higson's tweet below:


One of the guests attending Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 will be Neil Rennison, the Tin Man's flesh avatar from Tin Man Games. He will be there showing off all the latest FF apps and talking about his experience of converting classic gamebooks, such as House of Hell, for digital platforms.

Tin Man Games have also very generously donated a free download code for everyone attending FFF 2014, so don't delay, buy your ticket today!

Thought for the Day

“I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction - by skipping the parts that bored me.”

~ Jonathan Lethem, American novelist

Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014 - Featuring Russ Nicholson

There are just 11 days left to buy your ticket for Fighting Fantasy Fest. One of our guests at the event is the man who first established the look of the Fighting Fantasy world, Russ Nicholson.

His interweaving pen and ink illustrations have adorned FF gamebooks since 1982 and Russ even has a brand new piece of artwork in YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks which is launching at Fighting Fantasy Fest (and where the softback edition will be on sale for the first time).

His work for FF includes the gamebooks The Citadel of Chaos, Masks of Mayhem, Magehunter and Deathmoor. He also illustrated Steve Jackson's novel The Trolltooth Wars, Ian Livingstone's Adventures of Goldhawk, and both the AFF books Blacksand! and Allansia.

So head over to the DoubleTree Hilton Hotel in Ealing, West London, on Sunday 7 September, and get your copy of YOU ARE THE HERO signed by Russ himself!

Of course, whilst Russ produced the internal black and white illustrations for The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Peter Andrew Jones painted the cover, and he also painted the cover of FF #11 Talisman of Death.