Wednesday, February 11, 2009

My New Blog!

So I've been wanting to blog about completely fantastical things for a while. I've had all of these fun ideas rattling around in my brain. I thought about doing an entire blog on 'found' wizards. (You wouldn't believe how many there are in St. Paul.) Then I had an idea to do a blog on mythology (I'm a big Joseph Campbell fan) and about ancient heroes from long dead cultures slaying impossible creatures. Then there was another idea to do one on news stories that made me think of mythology--like the recent find of 30 mummies in a giant tomb in Egypt.

This fascination for magic, myth, wizards, swords and sorcery all began when I was a kid (of course). My mom bought me D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire. The illustrations in this book are pure imagination and absolute wonder:

What probably did me in for good though was the board game Dungeon! See I was given this game for a birthday or Christmas or something...but I NEVER played it. Sadly, there wasn't anyone my age at the time (about 8) that was interested in playing. I got older, became interested in other things like music and being cool (hello ladies!) and eventually forgot about it. My mom sold it when I was in junior high school at a garage sale. It wasn't until 2 years ago that I saw one on ebay....and I fell in love all over again.

And just look at the game board!


Click on the picture to see a larger version. I love the artwork, it's so colorful and fun. Every nook and cranny is crammed full of monsters of all sorts and shiny treasure. The whole board just screams of adventure! It's also damn-near primitive by today's fantasy art standards, which just makes me love it even more.

Now if there's one thing that epitomizes my love for this game, it's the wizard's spell card. The artwork on this version of the game (there were at least 3) is whimsical without being overly artsy. Every time I look at it, I think about when I first got the game, and how I so wanted to play it.

So it's fitting to christen the blog with the name...

Okay, I couldn't think of anything else. But at least I won't have to create some art for the masthead!

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