A Game of Thrones Vol 2

Title: A Game of Thrones Vol 2

ISBN: 9780440423225

Price: $26.00

Publisher/Year: Dynamite, 2013

Artist: Tommy Patterson

Writer: George R. R. Martin, Daniel Abraham

Collects: A Game of Thrones #7-12



Rating: 4/5

The second graphic novel adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones series picks up where the first one left off. Here we find Lord Eddard Stark’s bastard son, Jon Snow, coming to grips with life serving on the Wall, whilst Lord Stark himself does his best to respectfully serve as the Hand of King Robert Baratheon in King’s Landing, even though he may not be in total agreement with his liege. We also see the developing marriage of Daenerys Targaryen and her brute of a husband, Khal Drogo, as well as picking up with the ever-charming Tyrion Lannister as he attempts to convince Lady Catelyn Stark that he did not cripple one of her sons. There’s also the ever-looming threat of what wintry terrors lay waiting in the background of the larger story.

Firstly, this is a fun book to pick up. It’s interesting to see the artwork on show, depicting characters imagined a million different ways in the heads of a million different people. Whilst drawing on the hugely popular TV show’s visual interpretation of the characters, Patterson’s artwork has a charm and warmth all of its own. It makes the story a pleasure to read, especially considering some of the heavy, lengthy, weighted-down dialogue that is used at certain points.

Adapting such a ridiculously popular modern-day phenomenon is no mean feat, and this graphic novel could so easily have been bogged down by expectation and overkill. Luckily Abraham’s version manages to avoid these pitfalls, becoming another effective point of attack for the Game of Thrones brand. The story here is brilliantly paced. Staying true to the source material, the book manages to cover all of the depth of Martin’s original work, yet keeps the narrative fluid and progressing at all times. Accompanied by fantastically assured artwork by Patterson, the story just feels tonally right.

A perfect read for fans of the original Martin works or the HBO series, this graphic novel is fully respectful to what has gone before it, yet manages to be its own beast in the process. It isn’t as grueling or time-consuming a read as the original books, but it still manages to cover certain plot points and background stories that have been overlooked by the TV series. I, for one, am eagerly awaiting the next instalment of this graphic novel set, and hope that it continues to keep the high standards set by Abraham’s adaptation.

Claw City Clackamas Grand Opening - My Experience

Clackamas Town Center

12000 SE 82nd Ave

Happy Valley, OR 97086

Earlier this year, my roommates and I visited the Claw City in Lincoln City and had a great time there. I'll be the first to admit that I have never been a huge fan of redemption games, but this experience really hit the dopamine button and made me want more.

I'm a Gen X'er that actually worked in an arcade in the late 90's. I loved playing video games and didn't take to playing games with claws or coin push tactics. My experience at the arcade also allowed me to understand the markup from what was paid for the prizes versus what it took to earn them... hence my skepticism of redemption games.

But then my roommates and I visited Dave & Buster's, and I found myself enjoying those redemption games as well. They actually had a Star Wars video game that I really enjoyed more that the redemption games at first, but that changed over times. I kept getting a nice dopamine boost when we would visit D&B's and started a collection of tickets to my name. It's also nice that everything is now kept on a card instead of actually having to cart around physical tickets like from my days at the arcade or even Chuck E Cheese.

When I first learned that there was going to be a new Claw City location at the Clackamas Town Center, I was excited. We visit this mall on occasion for a few of the other stores, but primarily to have dinner at D&B's. I honestly enjoy this mall because of the store options that aren't available in my local are in Salem.

When I first saw that they made an open call for content creators to come cover their grand opening, it made me excited for the possibility of being able to cover it for The Nat 20. This would be the first time covering an event outside of a comic con. I'm thankful for the opportunity for expanding the possibilities for this blog.

I arrived at the mall around 9:30AM, and I saw the line already extending out of the mall and almost to the Dave & Buster's entrance. I really wish that I could illustrate or articulate the length of this line. If you know the mall, the entrance is over by the Cheesecake Factory and Claw City is located just inside between Lids and Foot Locker. When I went inside, I did see that there was a separate line for influencers/content creators... so that's where I stood. Thankfully, it wasn't nearly as long as the other line.

It didn't take long for someone who was working for Claw City to come to check me in and provide me with the $100 game card that was offered for content creators. I will go deeper into what was offered to content creators a little later because this is a bit of a sticking point for me.

The first thing that I really noticed was that this location is much smaller than the others I have visited. Coupled with the amount of people that were allowed in, it honestly made for a fairly uncomfortable situation for a "fluffy" guy like myself.

I took a photo of myself in their photo booth

I will say that they had quite a few machines that offered a bunch of different prizes. Once of my big gripes about the machines at all the Claw City locations is that the prize doors for many of them are located at the bottom of the machine so you have to get on your hands and knees in order to get the prize you've won. For a guy like me who is in his 50's, this is not the most comfortable thing to do. Along with the fact that there was not a lot of room in the location, this felt like something I wasn't going to attempt so this made me carefully consider the types of games that I decided to play.

Being a player of Magic the Gathering, I have seen packs made available as prizes at other locations. In Lincoln City, the cost of the packs is extremely high (3,000 tickets per pack)... and the number of games that allow you to earn tickets is equally high. In the Springfield location, the ticket cost is very low (6 tickets per pack), and the number of games to earn tickets here is also very low. At this new location, the cost for these packs seems very reasonable (50 tickets per pack), but I didn't notice how many games were there with tickets available to earn. If there were fewer people and more room, I would have made the attempt to earn tickets.

When I receive the invitation email for this grand opening, it was indicated that content creators/influencers would receive not only a $100 game card, but also a gift bag and some other incentives. When I asked about this, I was told that there was only a number of bags made available that were already handed out earlier and they no longer had any to provide.

In the flyer for the grand opening, I do see that gift bags were being made available for the first 100 people who came, but I would think that there would be different bags made for the content creators especially since they knew how many they invited in the first place. There was no indication in the invitation email that the bags for content creators would be limited. While not the biggest problem I had with the event, this was one of the straws on the preverbal camels back. 

Here's a screenshot of the email invitation that I received indicating the goodie bag for influencers.

I feel that the location needs improvement. As mentioned before, this was quite a bit smaller than other locations that I have gone to. My favorite location so far is Lincoln City and I think this should be the template for future locations. If Clackamas had the size of Lincoln City, I feel I would have had a more enjoyable experience. I will try visiting again the next time we come to the mall. I didn't get the dopamine rush that I was hoping for, but maybe next time.

Thank you for the opportunity to come and participate in your Grand Opening.

Thank you for all your support!

 

In 2013, I was inspired to start Comic Book Covers 4 Cancer to help raise money for the American Cancer Society. Over the years, we have helped to raise over $19,000 in donations thanks to a large number of supporters. I just wanted to take this time to thank the large ground of wonderful artists who have helped to make this all possible.

While this is indeed a large group of names, I know that there are some names missing from this list. There have been 2 times where my computer has suffered a catastrophic failure and I lost quite a bit of data that included names of artists as well as scans of some really spectacular covers that have been donated. I am sorry for those individuals whose names are missing from this list, but make no mistake that I appreciate your support as well.

Taking a Break

Ever since I have rebranded to The Nat 20, I have been inspired to create and produce content. From the visit numbers that I have been taking notice of lately, this has been a huge improvement. I'm thankful to be able to have this creative outlet and the fact that you all come to read what I have an opinion on.

Over the past few years, I have had some rough things happen in my life:

• 2021 - My Mother passed away.
• 2022 - My Father passed away.
• 2024 - My friend, LCS owner and huge supporter of my non-profit passed away.
• 2025 - My friend (who also shared a birthday with me) passed away.

After the owner of my LCS passed away, I made the hard decision to start the shutdown process on my non-profit. Without his support, I didn't have to level of access to new blank comic books and couldn't support the continuation on my personal finances alone. By the time this is published, the final series of auctions for Comic Book Covers 4 Cancer will have run and ended (hopefully successfully). By the end of 2025, I hope to step away from all the responsibilities and shutdown all the former #CBC4C social media accounts.

In August 2025, there were some changes made on how I work and this transition has taken a mental and emotional toll on me. We are still trying to get our feet grounded and (as of the time of writing) it has already been over 2 months time and there's still a lot of things that are broken. Things that used to work in our old system that are made difficult not because so many things that were easy then are difficult now or don't even have a fully fleshed-out process.

At the end of October (when I am writing this), I took some time away from work to try and get some rest and maybe come back in a better state of mind. I'm only one day 1 of my 4 day weekend, and I feel like I've been able to get some things that I have been putting off done, but I'm having trouble motivating myself to do anything that I feel would be fun and might actually help recharge my depleted batteries.

On top of all that, I have written reviews for most trades that I have. I need to not only read some more to be able to write about them, but I also need to replenish my stack of To Be Read trades.

As for writing about RPG's, I'm in a creative slump. I have been playing for 41 years now and there's so much I want to be able to express. What I really want to do is creative an archive similar to what B.J. Zanzibar's World of Darkness was. I have several ideas on books I want to write for both the classic World of Darkness, but also fantasy RPG's like Dungeons & Dragons... but I don't feel like I have enough time to devote to brining them to life.

With all that in mind, I'm going to be taking a break with posting on a weekly basis. I do have a couple of possible events that I hope to attend and provide my point of view on them, but they are not confirmed as of yet. When they are, I will make sure to post through all my social media sites. If I decide to get back to regular weekly publishing here, I will also make sure to post through my socials. If you don't know how to keep in contact with me, you can find a link to all my socials to the right of here.

I'm going to commit to at least get back to regular business by the beginning of 2026.

Thank you to everyone who has ever read even a single on of my posts here. I do this for myself, but I'm thankful that so many people seem to be getting something from what I have to say as well.

Mighty Nein Origins: Caduceus Clay

Title: Mighty Nein Origins: Caduceus Clay

ISBN: 9781506723730

Price: $17.99

Publisher/Year: Dark Horse, 2024

Artist: Selina Espiritu

Writer: Kendra Wells

Rating: 4/5

Follow the origin story of the Mighty Nein’s Caduceus Clay in this beautiful hardcover graphic novel written by Kendra Wells, illustrated by Selina Espiritu, with colors by Eren Angiolini and letters by Ariana Maher. Created in consultation with the cast of Critical Role!

Generations of the Clay family have tended to the careful rituals in the Blooming Grove. But when corruption begins to creep in on their sacred space, the Clays depart one by one to seek answers. Soon young Caduceus and Clarabelle are the only ones left, and when a dangerous burial quest falls to Caduceus, he must leave the Grove to do the family’s work.

This is the third The Mighty Nein Origins I have read and I’m enjoying the series so far. I do think this is the weakest so far in terms of giving background on the character, but it also felt a lot shorter than the others. 

What I did really like was that this ends at the exact moment that The Nein meet Caduceus. It was so lovely to see that moment come to life on the page, especially the ‘I think I only have three other cups’ moment. 

That was the moment I knew I’d love Caduceus and he’s so cute in this graphic novel. I love him in this art style and how we get to see him at different points in his life. You can’t tell just how tall he is in this though as he spends most of it alone, as I knew he would as that’s the first thing you learn about him.

His family are also really cute. I wish we got just a little longer with them during this graphic novel, but for the sake of consistency of his character background, it makes sense. Caduceus is a lonely guy and it makes him so endearing. I’ll never forget him trying milk for the first time.

The Blooming Grove is so beautiful. The color palette and style of this instalment almost rival that of the Jester one, but not quite. The slightly toned down hues make sense for a graphic novel about Caduceus as he is a walking pastel, other than his bright pink hair I suppose, but it really brought the cozy vibes that I expect from his character.

While this hasn’t been my favorite so far, it is still a very enjoyable read. I still don’t think these graphic novels will be entertaining for those that know nothing about The Mighty Nein but they are a lovely companion for those that love the characters.

Claw City Clackamas Grand Opening

Clackamas Town Center
12000 SE 82nd Ave
Happy Valley, OR 97086

I am branching out my coverage of events for my blog and have been invited to attend the grand opening of Claw City at the Clackamas Town Center in Happy Valley, OR. I hope you will join me there as my past experiences at other Claw City locations have been incredibly enjoyable!

16 Years and still going

 

In November 2009, I started my first blog which was originally titled Zanziber's Point of View. This was originally going to be an outlet for my writing by reviews for trade paperbacks and graphic novels. In those days, I wasn't aware that I could schedule when my reviews were actually published, so there were days that I would post multiple reviews in a single day. I'm so happy when I finally learned to be able to schedule by reviews to publish on a weekly basis.

A few years later, I wanted an outlet for one of my other long time passions; role playing games. In 2012 I began RPG4EVR which was for all my gaming content. Originally, it was meant to be an outlet for my life in role playing, but slowly opened up to include reviews.

About a year later, my dog Zipper died and I published the #PrednisoneKills blog. I published this out of a place of loss and anger and I wanted to make sure that people would be made aware of the dangers of Prednisone and ignorant/negligent veterinarians. While I felt the need to create this content, I didn't feel the same level of passion as I did for my other blogs.

Over the years, I continued to feel burn-out from writing and I lost my creativity several times. I stopped maintaining a regular weekly schedule and would write and schedule reviews occasionally when the mood hit me and the time felt right. I would also add another level to my Point of View blog by writing about my experiences at comic con events such as Rose City Comic Con and Emerald City Comic Con.

At the end of 2023, I felt the need for some kind of change and that came in the form of combining my passion blogs under a single banner. This is when I brought them together under the banner of The Nat 20, and here we are today.

I've also expanded things including Magic the Gathering decklists and recommendations of YouTube channels. I'm keeping myself open for new possibilities. I'm looking forward to the next several years being incredible and I welcome everyone to stay tuned to see where we go.