Master Key: Keeping an Eye on Evil!

Art by Paul Gattuso

When a mysterious ray from outer space shot through amateur astronomer Ray Cardell's telescope lense and into his eye, he was left with strange powers. Now, he can see through solid objects, melt metal or burn flesh with a glance, and bend others to his will by locking eyes with them. Naturally, he turned to fighting crime, because that's what one does after being struck by a mysterious ray from space.


NUELOW Games has collected the five best Master Key stories in a single volume, cleverly titled Master Key. The stories are by Charles Sultan  and Paul Gattuso and they feature the quirky mix of superheroics and hardboiled crime fiction that's previously been seen in NUELOW's Black Dwarf (which also featured Gattuso's work) and Dynamic Man.

In addition to the off-beat comics, Master Key contains all-new  rules for OGL Modern that focus on vision-based superpowers, such as x-ray and heat vision--Master Key's main superpowers. This never-before-seen material is by yours truly, and it is easly incorporated into any d20 System-based game that uses talent trees, even if you don't use any other part of NUELOW's OGL superpower rules.

You can see previews or get your own copy of Master Key from RPGNow by clicking here. It can also be had from DriveThruComics and DriveThruRPG.

The Black Dwarf Strikes at NUELOW Games!

Paul Gattuso's "Black Dwarf" is the latest hero to be retrieved from the forgotten corners of comic book history and put in front of modern audiences where he will find (I hope) new fans.

Black Dwarf is another of the many cool characters that came out of Harry Chesler's production studio during the early 1940s, debuting in the pages of Spotlight Comics in 1944. The series was created by Gattuso, who illustrated all ten episodes. Dana Dutch, best remembered for writing romance comics, is known to have written several of the later Black Dwarf tales, but Gattuso may have written some of them himself. We may never know, as Chesler's records are long gone.

"The Black Dwarf" from NUELOW Games contains six stories and all-new roleplaying game material inspired by them from yours truly and Rob Garitta. It's been released with two different covers--check out previews here and here. (It was released with two different covers.)

Here are a couple scenes of the Black Dwarf in action, as well as a few splash pages from the book, as further preview.

Get your copy of "The Black Dwarf" at DriveThruComics by clicking here.

For July 4th: Complete Golden Age Oddballs Patriotic Edition!

Just in time for 4th of July... the latest release from NUELOW Games spotlights two patriotically themed heroes from the Golden Age of comic books--Major Victory and Yankee Girl. 

In addition to every single Golden Age appearance of both characters, including covers, "Complete Golden Age Oddballs: Major Victory and Yankee Girl," contains brief publication histories for each; an overview of how they are being incorporated into NUELOW Games' emerging comic book universe; ROLF! game stats; and a bonus expansion to the OGL Modern superhero rules first published in "Madden's Boys."

Here's a preview of the book--a couple slash pages and some of the included covers.

Click here to see previews or to get your own copy of "Complete Golden Age Oddballs: Major Victory and Yankee Girl,"

That's no way to treat the mayor!

Earlier this week, NUELOW Games released another book in which I contribute a chunk of RPG material -- this time, a set of rules for creating superheroes in the d20 OGL Modern system with Golden Age teen heroes Dynamic Boy and Yankee Boy being statted out as examples of how to use the rules in practice.

The book in question is titled "Madden's Boys," and it's the fourth in a series of comics/rpg hybrid books spotlighting the work of Bill Madden, an artist who had a brief comics career in 1941 and then faded from the field. He had an energetic and quirky style that in many ways resembles that which would become with underground comics artists in the 1960s and 1970s. I feel that his art has stood up to the passage of time very nicely and that the total obscurity into which his small body of work has fallen is undeserved.

That said, like many Golden Age artists, Madden's execution is sometimes a little rough around the edges. In each of the collections I've worked on, there's always a panel or two that make me laugh... for unintended reasons. The sequence below comes from Dynamic Boy's origin story where he takes on gangsters and corrupt politicians:

Yes... taking his head off with a chair is indeed no way to treat the mayor! (But, whew!, turning the page we discover his head is still attached and his neck isn't snapped!)

Whether you are in the mood for some quirky, early superhero comics, or if you want to see a new way to handle super-characters in d20 Modern games, this is a book that's worth checking out. Click here to take a  look at previews and, I hope, to purchase and download your own copy.