Labyrinth Graphic Novel

I got this a little while back and keep forgetting to show it off. Boom Studios did a Kickstarter for this hard cover collecting their eight issue adaptation from 2024. The cool thing about it is that it adapts the movie novelization which was written while the movie was still in production so there are a couple things here and there different from the final film.

 

 I shelled out a little extra to get the version with the slipcase which is styled after Sarah's Labyrinth book from the movie. Boom Studios was also offering hard cover collections of their two (yes two!) Labyrinth sequel comics. I already have those and didn't feel the need to drop the extra cash to upgrade to hard covers. Of course, I also already have the comics collected here but this is THE story.

 

 This Kickstarter version has an exclusive variant cover that won't be reprinted again. The pages are gold gilded which just adds to how it looks on a table. I like when they do stuff like this so you feel like you're really getting something special when you support them.

 

Speaking of something special...one of the stretch goals was this fantastic art print.

 

 And this enamel pin was unlocked for people that backed on day one (that's me!). The campaign hit its initial $25k goal in 15 minutes! I guess there's a lot of us weirdos out there that love this movie.

 

 I instantly fell in love with the art style. I like that it's sort of cartoony. Disney's been all about live action remakes of animated movies. I think this would be a great candidate for an animated remake of a live action movie! I'd just use the film audio and animate it.

 

At the back of the book are 16 pages featuring different cover art used for the individual comics.

 

The last six pages have character designs. There's two pages each for Sarah and Jareth and the last two have a bunch of the characters Sarah meets, including Alph and Ralph the two dog-like door guardians that pose the logic puzzle to Sarah. Bet you didn't know they had names!

I'm really happy with this one and it's going to be a great addition to my growing Labyrinth library.

Labrytinth - The Adventure Game

Have you ever wanted to grab a few friends and test yourself against the Goblin King and his Labyrinth? Now you can thanks to River Horse Games!

Let's start by looking at the book. Much like the Labyrinth itself, things are not what they seem at first glance here.

They made an interesting choice by cutting a small area out of the pages so that the custom dice can be stored in the book. It's a neat idea but I can easily see it leading to tearing a page if your finger gets hooked in there. Also, the owl in the bottom corner is on every page and you can flip the pages to make his wings flap.

Removing the dust jacket finds a replica of Sarah's book! For me, this alone is worth the price of admission. I'd be happy just to have this on display. But, there is adventure within!

Labyrinth Playing Cards

I did tell you to tune your crystal ball in to see the next deck of cards and that was sort of a clue as to what it might be.

Labyrinth has been one of my favorite movies since it came out. Both the movie and the soundtrack have gotten a lot of play over the years. Back in the dial-up days of Bulletin Board Systems, I adopted Jareth as my first online handle.

There is so much to love with this deck! First, they used the riddle door guards Ralph (red) and Alph (blue) as the Jokers. What better choice is there?

Second, Hearts/Diamonds are yellow with Spades/Clubs being purple. I really like this because it makes the cards more interesting when you're holding a hand. Not surprisingly, the card images are all stills/promo images from the movie.

The court cards in every suit are the Labyrinth (Ace), Jareth (King, naturally!), Sarah (Queen, of course), and back to Jareth (Jack). He's also on the 10 in every suit.

Another fun thing they did was use Ludo on the 4s and the Fireys on the 3s. Here you can see what I mean about having two different colors of cards.

Whoever you're favorite character might be from the movie, they're probably on at least one card in the deck. Sir Didymus? The Wiseman? The worm? They're all here.

So if you ever accidentally wish away your baby brother and need to play a game of cards to get him back, this is your deck! You can find them at Entertainment Earth.

Labyrinth Card Game

The game company River Horse recently released the Labyrinth Card Game. Back in 2016 they put out a Labyrinth board game and a Dark Crystal board game in 2018.

The card game comes in this great box that looks similar to Sarah's book.

The deck of cards is very similar to a standard Tarot deck, plus two Jokers. The cards are the same size, there are four minor suits consisting of 56 cards and a major suit of 24 Labyrinthes which features characters and things in the movie.

The four minor suits are Books, Clock, Orbs, and Owls.
Let's get a closer look at the card back.

The center has the Escher-like stairs. The top left maze has the "false alarm" taking heads. I think the bottom left is the Bog of Eternal Stench. The bottom right is maybe the forest where the Fireys live?

Here's a few of the Labyrinthes. The Blind Beggar, Fair and Unfair have special "abilities" when you play them. The game itself is a variation of standard trick taking card games. While I'm sure this can be its own fun, I was really hoping for something more thematically tied to the movie.

The court card in each suit are King (Jareth), Queen (Sarah, naturally), Jack (Labyrinth denizens), and Cavalier (mounted warriors).

One nice little detail is that the Jareth and Sarah in each suit have outfits that match their scenes together in the movie.

River Horse also has up for pre-order a Labyrinth Adventure Game (RPG) which looks interesting. You can pick up the Labyrinth Card Game from Amazon.

Rhode Island Comic Con 2018

I went to Rhode Island Comic Con this past weekend for the first time and had a blast.

If you're a regular reader, you might recall me having gone to several Boston Comic Cons in the past. The last time I went was before they moved it to the new location so I don't know how it now stacks up now compared to RICC. But I will say RI seems to work much better than where Boston used to be.

The main drive behind checking out RICC this year was that celebs from Mrs Dex's favorite show, Smallville, were making an appearance. Not that I wouldn't want to go otherwise. Who doesn't love a good comic convention? We got to the con about an hour after doors opened and although there was still a line, it went very quickly and we basically walked through the queue area and right in.

After getting in we checked out some cosplay and herded ourselves to the autograph area to check them off our list to make sure we didn't miss them. The auto area was pretty well laid out but there were some congested areas. We walked around to see all the celebs. You can see the guest list here. The "headlining" guests were in a different building altogether and I didn't even try to sneak a peek at them fearing the crowds.

We got autos from Tom Welling (Clark) and Michael Rosenbaum (Lex). Laura Vandervoort (Supergirl) was there also. Tom was a lot taller than I expected and when I mentioned that he said thank you. He followed that up with something else which all of us were laughing about when the photo was taken. We didn't do a selfie with Michael (although he was super fun) because it's all about the money. I can understand having to pay for a selfie if you don't get an autograph but having to pay extra just for a photo taken on your phone is crazy to me.

I don't want to rant too much on the whole pricing thing but I'm interested to see where celeb con appearances go in the future. Between autographs, selfies, and pro photos I can't see the prices some people are asking lasting.

After the Smallville peeps, I wanted to meet John DiMaggio (Bender/Futurama, Jake/Adventure Time) but his line was capped because he had a photo op going on. We got lunch and went back to wait in line for him. It was still going to be about 30-45 minutes before he came back but I was second in line when he did.

Well, make that third in line. There was a group at the front of the line with service dogs. John not only took photos with the people but also the dogs!

He was also genuinely nice and took time to chat with everyone. We then had a little bit of time to explore until we had to get in line for the Smallville panel.

The person that made these was never at their table which is too bad because I would have loved to chat with them about the Labyrinth stuff they did.

We got in line for the panel about an hour before it started. A lot more people that I expected ending up showing up so it was a good thing we got there early! After the panel, we headed to the photo op area for our scheduled time.

The people before us had to take a couple photos because the flash was reflecting off their glasses, so Michael is playing with my wife's glasses lifting them up and down during the photo. Usually these pro photos are a blink and you miss it thing and while we were only with them for a minute or two I didn't feel like we were rushed through like other times I've done these.

With the last of our scheduled things done by 5:30 we finally had time to walk the vendor floor. Of course there was a ton of cool stuff and lots of artists but I only bought one thing.

A Creature from the Black Lagoon Buddha! The photo isn't fuzzy, this "statue" was 3D printed. It looks a little better in person. The guy selling these had a ton of different ones. Pretty much whatever your fandom is, he's got something. This was also the smallest one but it was the best shade of green so I went with it. Definitely check out MuckyChris to see his 3D printed stuff, inlcuding a couple of light switch plates that are pretty neat.

The local Star Wars costuming and droid builder groups were there and had quite the crossover happen when they got a visit from another franchise.

These guys are amazing to see in person. Yes, the eye moves and makes the sound! I'm presuming these are the same guys I see at other local cons because how many of them could there be?

Normally this would be the part of the post where I send you to Flickr for the rest of my pics but there were so many great costumes I have to show off a few more.

Left is one of my favorite group cosplays. There was quite a bit of crossplay (gender swapped characters) going on at the con which is great. The dude on the right was rockin his Wonder Woman outift like nobody's business. Unfortunately, I was only able to catch him while going up an escalator and didn't get  his sword in the shot.

How awesome is that Red Fraggle?

This Gravity Falls group wasn't even together. The girl dressed as Mabel saw the other guys and rushed to get her photo taken with them. The wizard on the right goes by Brandon the Shapeshifter on Instgram. If you like incredible costumes, go check him out. It's hard to tell from the photo but the spell book lights up too.

And that's a wrap!

Even though we probably spent close to half our time at the con in line for something, be it autograph, photo, panel, or food, I still feel like we had a good day and got to see a lot. I know there are areas we didn't get near but I'm good with that. I'd still like to check out the new place where the Boston con is held and would definitely like to go back to RICC again.

Here's all the pics from the day.

Labyrinth 30th Anniversary!

There's been a recent explosion of news regarding it being the 30h anniversary of the movie Labyrinth this year. Or maybe it's been trickling out slowly and I just found out about everything all at once. Either way, I'm bringing it to you in case you missed it.

First up, the Labyrinth board game from River Horse Games is up for pre-order. The game will set you back $50 USD. You can order directly from the game company's site or from CoolStuffInc (which is currently out of stock) for $32 USD.

If you've got an hour to spare, here's a play through video so you can see it in action.
Also, if you leave a Labyrinth limerick in the comments of this video, you could win a 3-Up Jareth figure.

There are three comic collections coming from Boom Studios' Archaia imprint.
You can read a great interview about those at EW.com.

Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: 30th Anniversary Special in August.
A 48-page comic showcasing some favorite Labyrinth characters.

Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Tales in September
This book takes you into the lives of some of the Labyrinth's notable inhabitants including Ludo, Hoggle, and Sir Didymus. It will be similar to the 30th Anniversary Special but be in a more kid-friendly format.

Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Artist Tribute in November.
A whole bunch of artists provide their own illustrations and testimonials.

Then, in October, we have Labyrinth: The Ultimate Visual History. This is the one I'm really looking forward to the most! It promises interviews with cast and crew, concept art, some of Henson's notes, and plenty of behind the scenes goodness.

As to be expected, the film is getting a home video release with new content on September 20th! There's also an Amazon exclusive package that looks totally amazing (above). However, I don't know about schilling out $75 to get this multi-format set. I'll probably stick with the BluRay which will have all the same features.

And the icing on this absolutely delicious cake is a theatrical re-release set for September 11th-14th. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to Magic Dance my butt down to the local movie house! Baby slapping optional.

I would not be surprised to see more Labyrinth related merch hitting the shelves over the summer.
In fact, I'm hoping for it!

April 2016 Loot Crate - Quest

It's dangerous to go alone, take this Loot Crate!

April's theme is Quest and whether you're trying to rescue a younger sibling from the Goblin King or get challenged to a Viking drinking contest, they've got you covered.

I've been playing around with a chromakey app for these photos to make them a little more exciting than the usual plain green background.

The booklet has a couple of recipes for "Tiamat Punch" and "House Cup" drinks and a guide for avoiding quests. It seems to be getting a little heavy with self-promotional ads as Loot Crate now offers several other sub boxes like Loot Anime, Loot Gaming, Firefly Crate, and Loot Pets.

The pin is a d20 on a shield. The pin unlocks a companion in the Neverwinter Nights MMO: a gelatinous cube! There's something I'd never have considered as a companion.

We'll kick things off with a mini-poster for Uncharted 4. Not much to say about this as I'm only barely passingly familiar with the game series.

Next is a pair of Harry Potter horcrux socks, just the thing to keep your piggies warm while searching across the land for mystical objects.

The other object is a little hard to see unless you click for the larger version. It's a d20 silicon ice mold. The "cube" it makes is probably a little bigger than a golf ball. The instructions say to fill it only 90% with water which is hard to do when you put the top on. Anyone know why? Anyone? That's right kids, when water freezes it expands which makes it a bit of a challenge to get it out of the mold.

It doesn't photograph well...heck, it's hard to see it in real life. But it does actually make a d20 shaped ice polyhedron!

From the History Channel's Vikings, and Chronicle Collectibles, comes a 1:2 scale drinking horn. In case you're wondering how you're supposed to put down a pointed drinking vessel, it comes with a neck strap.

And finally is this awesome Labyrinth shirt in tribute to David Bowie. Granted it's one of the movie posters and not a new design but it's Labyrinth!

If you turn the box inside out, you get an a-maze-ing surprise!

Overall, this Crate didn't quite fulfill its Quest for me. It sort of got to the ruins after the real adventures had already been there, killed all the monsters, and taken almost all the treasure but didn't find that one secret compartment in the floor that was stashing a little bit of loot.

If you want to get sweet swag dropped on your doorstep every month, head over to Loot Crate and sign up! Use code AEIOUWHY for 10% off any subscription plan.

Disclaimer
Loot Crate supplies me with product every month in exchange for a review and/or promotion on social media.

Book of the Moment - Jim Henson's Labyrinth

Click to order on Amazon

I was beyond thrilled when I finally got hold of this book for Christmas. Outside of the Star Wars films, Labyrinth is probably the movie I've revisited the most times. I didn't see it in the theater so my decades long love affair with it must be due to home video in the late 80s.

Follow Dex's board Labyrinth on Pinterest.

The movie novelization has been out of print for a long time with copies fetching prices close to $100 on the secondary market. And while it's wonderful to have access to this book, the real reason fans will want it is the final 70 or so pages featuring Brian Froud's concept art and reproductions of pages from Henson's notebook.

For obsessed movie fans like me, there isn't much different in the novelization than what made it to screen. If the different scenes in the book were cut scenes on a DVD, they would probably total less than 15 minutes. The one problem/challenge I had while reading was trying to keep the music out of my head. I tried my best to read it that way to experience it in a new context: a pure fantasy story and not a musical.

At the start of the movie, I've always been very sympathetic towards Sarah, seemingly under the heel of her step-mom. In the book, she comes off as more of a spoiled brat even though the scenes play out almost identically.

There area few fleeting moments that get into Jareth's head where you see his thoughts and motivations. It's not anything earth shattering but it does give you a little something extra to keep in the back of your mind the next time you watch the film. 

Froud's artwork is fantastical and funny, as usual. I've owned the original Goblins of Labyrinth book for many, many years and know it pretty well. I was happy to see a lot of the art included here is not reprints from there.

Henson's notebook pages will take some work to read through, his handwriting is not the best. But it's well worth it to see some of the story ideas, concepts, and themes that gave birth to a movie a lot people hold dear.

If you're one of those people, you probably have the book already because no review would sway you from buying it. For what its worth, I definitely recommend it.

5 out of 5 Crystal Spheres