Carrier bags and charity - Red Nose Day & the Disasters Emergency Committee's Nepal Earthquake Appeal

by Ben Fardon

Hi folks,

With all the major works going on behind the scenes last year, we've fallen behind on telling you about our charitable donations from the carrier bags, but the scheme is still going on!

The months of October-December 2014 were our 15th full quarter and together we raised £42.30.

The months of January-March 2015 were our 16th full quarter and together we raised £36.44.

Last time we donated to the United Nations System Response to the Ebola Outbreak. This trust was set up to unite efforts of the UN to stop the outbreak, treat the infected, ensure continuity within affected countries and prevent outbreaks in countries currently unaffected.  Our contribution will provide vital support to the United Nations as it works to halt the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and treat the thousands of people who have been infected with Ebola virus disease. Thanks to our contribution, the World Health Organization will be able to procure vital supplies, such as personal protective equipment and chlorine, as well as provide crucial technical assistance to the governments of Ebola-affected countries.

For the 15th quarter, we've donated that £42.30 to Comic Relief, an organisation that needs no introduction!

For the 16th quarter, we're donating that £36.44 to the Disasters Emergency Committee's Nepal Earthquake Appeal. As the DEC only takes donations in whole numbers, I've taken the liberty of rounding the donation up to £40.00.

On Saturday 25 April a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal. It severely shook the lives of at least 5.3m people and left many homeless.  Nepal’s major cities, including the capital Kathmandu, have been badly damaged and rural areas near the epicentre have been completely cut off by avalanches.

Already over 3000 people have been confirmed dead and the figure is likely to rise significantly in the coming days. Even those whose homes are still standing are sleeping in the streets because they are terrified by regular aftershocks.

DEC member agencies and their partners are working urgently to provide emergency shelter, food, clean water and blankets.  Once immediate, life-saving needs are met they will work with individuals, families and communities to support them to rebuild their lives.  You can help by making a donation now. - taken from the DEC website

The next carrier bag donation should be in early July. If you have a charity you'd like Proud Lion to support, please email me at shop@proudlion.co.uk.

Delayed delivery this week

by Ben Fardon

I'm sorry to say folks that we've just had the following email from our comic supplier:

Dear Retailer,

Due to an unforeseen error a large number of deliveries were not picked up last night. The problem has now been rectified. Unfortunately due to this some retailers will only receive their delivery on Wednesday.

We wish to apologise for this unforeseen issue and for any inconvenience that this may cause. 

Unfortunately we are one of the affected retailers and won't receive our comics until Wednesday.

Comics will be available as soon as possible on Wednesday, but it's unlikely to be before 1pm.

UPDATE: So we had four boxes arrive after all (with about ten more still outstanding) which has most of our new release comics so they'll be available from 10am tomorrow.

The comics that remain missing until tomorrow afternoon are:
2000AD, Borderlands, Drones, Galaxy Quest, Godzilla Rulers Of Earth, Hinterkind, The Names and Zombies Vs. Robots.

Stay tuned to our social media feeds for more news on the day.

To compound the issue slightly, we will be closed on Thursday 23rd April for annual leave (aka Ben and Rae have a rare day off together and go and see Avengers: Age Of Ultron whilst the Munchkin is at school and before anyone spoils it for us!). Apologies for any inconvenience but we will be open Friday and Saturday as usual. 

Ben Fardon is now dreading tomorrow. Thank goodness for a break on Thursday!

PREVIEWS MAR-APR15 - Marvel's Secret Wars

by Ben Fardon

I can't lie folks, this has been a tough one to put together. After the chaos of Convergence, I was very excited by the prospect of Secret Wars, until we actually began to see the vast array of new titles and the uncertainty that came with it.

Thankfully in the last few weeks, details have begun to emerge about April's Secret Wars titles and Marvel have gone on record as to which titles are ending as Secret Wars kicks off. This makes things much easier!

I think we can now divide Secret Wars into several distinct sections. Firstly we have the main Secret Wars title and a couple of ancillary anthology titles. Secondly, there are a series of interesting titles revisiting classic Marvel events from the last few decades. Finally we have a long list of new titles that expand the new Secret Wars' Battleworld setting in a variety of ways.

But what is Secret Wars? Well simply put, Secret Wars spins out of the recent Jonathan Hickman Avengers titles as the main Marvel Universe as we know it collides with the Ultimate Marvel Universe in what is being called the final incursion. The good news is you don't need to have been reading Avengers or New Avengers over the last couple of years to get into Secret Wars, as the collision of these two realities has created a brand new world in which most of the characters have no idea that this isn't the way things have always been.

The titular Secret Wars miniseries itself is the main event. Written by Jonathan Hickman, this is the spine of the whole event. If you read nothing else, read this book. 

This is accompanied by Secret Wars Battleworld - a title akin to the Vs. miniseries during AvX - featuring all the knockdown, drag out fights that are probably just to crazy to feature anywhere else during this event.

The final part of this initial section is an anthology series called Secret Wars Journal where every issue will feature a couple of short stories jumping around and highlighting different, small but significant parts of the Battleworld.

Both Secret Wars Battleworld and Secret Wars Journal feel to me like ones for completists and not essential if your looking to save the pennies for other titles on the list below.

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After that we have an array of titles re-visiting classic storylines and events from Marvel's past including beloved adaptations such as the 1992 X-Men animated series. A lot of existing Marvel titles are ending to make room for these - in fact some are direct continuations or analogues of previous titles now shaped to fit in with Secret Wars. More on those later.

Finally, there's a bunch of Marvel titles that aren't coming to an end, but are instead telling Last Days stories detailing the final adventures of the features characters before the final incursion. These titles include Black Widow, Captain America and the Mighty Avengers, Loki: Agent of Asgard, Magneto, Ms. Marvel, The Punisher and Silver Surfer.

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Confused yet? Well, let's see if a quick look at the full list of titles (revealed so far!) helps a little. Here you go:


Secret Wars: Battleworld

• Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies
• Ghost Racers
• Inhumans Attilan Rising
• Korvac Saga
• Marvel Zombies
• Master of Kung Fu
• Red Skull
• Runaways
• Secret Wars: Battleworld
• Secret Wars Journal
• Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde
• Thors
• Ultimate End

Secret Wars: Warzones

• 1602: Witch Hunter Angela
• 1872
• A-Force
• The Age of Apocalypse
• Armor Wars
• The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows
• Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders
• Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps
• Civil War
• Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars
• E Is for Extinction
• Future Imperfect
• Giant-Size Little Marvel: AvX
• Guardians of Knowhere
• Hail Hydra
• House of M
• Inferno
• Infinity Gauntlet
• M.O.D.O.K. Assassin
• Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos
• Old Man Logan
• Planet Hulk
• Secret Wars 2099
• Siege
• Spider-Island
• Spider-Verse
• Squadron Sinister
• Weirdworld
• Where Monsters Dwell
• X-Men '92
• X-Tinction Agenda
• Years of Future Past

Secret Wars: Last Days

• Black Widow
• Captain America and the Mighty Avengers
• Loki: Agent of Asgard
• Magneto
• Ms. Marvel
• The Punisher
• Silver Surfer

For more details on each group of titles, click on the header to take you to the marvel.com explanations!

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In the hopes of making life easier for everyone, we've taking the liberty of creating a matrix - a list of everything that was coming out, followed by a list of the Secret Wars comics we'd recommend you get as a replacement. I've taken the liberty of automatically signing our Reservation Service customers up for our recommended titles, but these can be removed without our usual notice period up to the point of release. I've been trying to take the time to talk to you all about these new titles when you pop in, but if I don't see you before Secret Wars kicks off, please do email me for a pdf copy of your current pull list and then we can make alterations where required.

I hope that all makes sense!

Here's a look at that matrix (apologies for the jpeg):

If there's anything else I can do to help with Secret Wars, please do get in touch. I'm really excited for this event, I think it's going to be a whirlwind tour through some of Marvel's greatest moments before leading into the new status quo for the House Of Ideas. I hope you'll join us!

Ben Fardon was very, very happy with Daredevil on Netflix. Roll on AKA Jessica Jones.

TableTop Day 2015 [Gather Your] Party! Exhibition Games

by Rae

At this Saturday's TableTop Day evening event at 2PIGS, we will be running three exhibition games (in addition to all the other awesome games available). These are Star Wars: X-Wing, Star Trek: Attack Wing, and D&D Attack Wing!

Star Trek: Attack Wing – Borg vs. DS9

In this oversized mission, players will be taking sides with either the Oversized Borg Cube or the DS9 to see which team will be the last one standing! Players are asked to bring a 60-point fleet of one or two ships following the standard fleet-building rules. Both the Borg and DS9 will be balanced against the opposing number of players to ensure an even match. The winner (by player ballot) will win a Tactical Cube 001!

D&D Attack Wing – Tiamat, Dragon Queen

Players will be faced with their greatest challenge yet – Tiamat herself. Bring a 80-point legion following standard legion-building rules to team up against the queen of dragons! But be warned, Tiamat may not be alone, and her own army could be more than one bargains for. The winner (by player ballot) will win an Young Bronze Dragon!*

Star Wars: X-Wing – A Podrace in Space

In this game variant, players will not be duking it out over a star map; instead they will be racing around our Pitchcar track in a Deathrace-style showdown! Players will complete one of three laps of the course, picking up random one-use secondary weapons as they move over bonus tokens on the track. The first one to the finish line will win a Han Solo alternate art promo card!

Players are invited to bring a single fighter ship and manoeuvre dial. All ships must have a small base, and cost no more than 30 points. No upgrades are allowed, and all primary weapons, boost, and cloaking abilities will be disabled. Ships with shields will not be able to perform any manoeuvre higher than a “4”. Please bring any required tokens and manoeuvre templates with you.

Doors for [Gather Your] Party! open at 6:30pm, with games set to start at 7pm. Tickets cost £3 in advance, or £5 on the door. See you there!

* The prize for D&D Attack Wing was previously listed as an Aarakocra legion. This was in error, and has now been amended.

Big Game Hunting Live - TableTop Day 2015 Schedule of Games

by Rae

In just a week's time, we'll be inviting you all to come and play games with us from 10am to 11pm for International TableTop Day! On 11 April players can get involved in tabletop games in three different locations during the day and potentially win some awesome gaming kit in our prize draw. You can also get yourself a ticket to our special evening event, [Gather Your] Party! To get more details, check out our previous posts for the daytime events and the evening party.

Here at Proud Lion, we've got a full day planned of several different games. For those of you who want to plan your day to get as much gaming in as possible, here's a look at our current game schedule!

10am-11:30am: Small games (Batman Love Letter, Age of War, Where Art Thou Romeo, Council of Verona, and more)

11:30am – 12:30pm: Munchkin, Fluxx

12:30pm – 2pm: Dark Seas, Dead Man's Draw

2pm – 3pm: Castle Panic/Munchkin Panic, Forbidden Desert

3pm – 4pm: Alhambra, Geek Out

4pm – 5pm: Terror in Meeple City

For small games, we will be able to sit up to eight people. For all other games, we will have space for up to four players, running multiple games where possible. While we do want to encourage people to just turn up and play, if there is a particular game you have your heart set on, you can claim a spot at the table in advance by sending an email to shop@proudlion.co.uk. (Please note that if you book a spot and do not arrive by the game's start time, your spot will be given to another player.)

In addition to this, we will have a few all-day games and spot prizes to award in store. You will be able to guess how many dice are rattling around in our dice jar, find the hidden Lost Legacy, and get your hands on some vouchers and gaming promo stuff!

If you're planning on coming in, feel free to let us know on our Facebook event (or click here for the[Gather Your] Party! event). Until then, play more games!

Rae is looking forward to a full Easter Sunday of friends and gaming.