Welcome home.
This is Audio EXP for July 5th, and the episode title is “Important Deals”.
[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #293]
[Also on Stitcher | Spotify | Apple | YouTube]
Empyreal Media Productions won the RPG Publisher Spotlight this month.
I need to tell them and, with a bit of luck, line up that interview for you. If you’re on Geek Native’s Discord, then feel free to suggest some questions I could ask.
Thank you to our Patreons who make running these interviews and commissioning work possible. You can vote for the August spotlight through the latest private link.
Who could you vote for? Good question. This month’s candidates are:
It’s Superhero Week at Geek Native, and that means lots of superhero and comic book coverage. There’s dramatic news coming in the vein of Superhero Week in just a bit, but let’s first highlight more traditional topics!
For example, Marvel has killed off Thor, and that’s hardly dramatic before. I think the Thunder God has died before, but this time he’s been written out of the 616 lore and reborn as a mortal.
I’m sure there are clever and well-thought-out plot plans coming soon.
2000 AD is bringing back a very rare creature – a Welsh superhero. Red Dragon will return to Rebellion’s flagship series in September, with Judge Dredd scribe Rob Williams at the helm.
I even had time to write up a quick look at what’s happening with the new DC TTRPGs. If you weren’t paying oddly close attention, then it’s hard to know they’re even out there.
Firstly, Cryptozoic will republish the legendary DC Heroes TTRPG, but it’s still waiting on sign-off from DC for some of the supplements.
Secondly, French company Monolith has been selling Batman: Gotham City Chronicles from their website. I can’t find it anywhere else, and the TTRPG even had to share a Kickstarter with the board game.
The big news starts at Diamond. I don’t mean the Diamond that’s been sold to Ad Populum, and that’s important because they shouldn’t get any grief for what comes next. I mean the liquidators running the old Diamond.
This lot has seized control of the inventory of over 100 tabletop games, publishers’ goods that had been in their warehouse. It’s all about the publishers using Diamond as a distributor on consignment rather than selling games to Diamond to resell. I mean, if I send a letter in the post that it does not mean I’ve sold it to the Royal Mail, just that I’ve given it to move.
Why would they do this? American law provides a means for them to do this legally and then use the money generated from selling these items to pay off their debt. It’s all about liquidating what assets they had and reassigning what money might be scraped up to different entities. Generally, the little guys get left out.
Publishers like Goodman Games, Green Ronin and Paizo are all caught up. As a result, you’ll not be able to find Starfinder or Pathfinder in shops for several months.
It’s not a competition to see who is in the most hot water as a result of this asset seizure, but if it were, then Diamond Entertainment would be winning. They’ve $1,000,000 in goods locked away as a result, and the small company may now not be able to pay staff.
Frustratingly, the American court system appears to be in no hurry to speed things along. The case to decide whether Diamond gets to keep the stuff it currently has in its warehouses won’t get underway for nearly two weeks. It might be a disaster for Dynamite by then.
This podcast is called Important Deals because there are some small acts each of us can to do that might help.
You can still buy Dynamite’s digital comics. Dynamite also has the Disney license, and they’ve got a Humble Bundle running.
This deal won’t last long, because Dynamite needs the money now, but if you’re looking for Hercules, Darkwing Duck and Gargoyles stories, then this is your go-to deal.
There’s even Lilo & Stitch content here, which feels timely given the live action movie release and so if you have little ones that can be trusted with an eReader then the bundle might be good for them too.
Humble also has one of the best tabletop TRPG deals I’ve seen in a long time, perhaps ever, on its platform. It’s called Roll Big or Go Home, and it’s a megabundle.
There are superhero games like Masks and Power Rangers, but also more traditional games like Green Ronin’s Threefold, Cubicle 7’s Doctor Who, Chaosium’s RuneQuest and Mongoose’s Shield Maidens. Shield Maidens is a cyberpunk Viking game and they’re not so common!
We’re speeding towards even more deals as it’s nearly Amazon’s Prime Day. This year, though, it won’t be a single day or even a Big Heckin Two Day Prime Day as we had in 2024. In 2025 it’ll be a Big Heckin’ Four Day deal!
Worryingly, cybersecurity experts and even Amazon itself are sounding the alarm and reporting a dramatic spike in attempts to use the event to steal money and personal information.
I’ve written up the common cyber scams and the advice that the experts offer, including what to do if you think you’ve just fallen for a scam. The plan is that as we put together Prime Day megathreads next week, we here in Geek Native HQ can refer back to this article and do our bit to encourage people to be safe and wise.
We’ve also started the first megathread with Anyone but Amazon! Hey, it’s a tradition and I like it as supporting everyone else helps keep the pressure on Amazon to be as less evil and non-monopolistic as possible.
Already in this Anyone but Amazon thread we have Paizo, who have their Founder’s sale, Sideshow Collectables, Free League doing a summer sale and the Studio Ghibli design collection at Uniqlo Europe.
Lastly, did I save any other bundles for the outro? I did. Over at the Bundle of Holding, there’s a deal on the dark and twisted fairytales of Broken Tales. I backed the project on Kickstarter and didn’t regret it.
That’s a wrap. Keep safe, buy a bundle only if you can afford it and I’ll see you next week.
