SQUIRMISH! The reviews are in… the best new game nowhere to be seen at Gencon 2016!

Squirmish is on sale this week! Save $5 or more off the Deluxe Edition! The best new game nowhere to be seen at ‪#‎gencon‬ 2016!

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Don’t believe us? Check out the reviews!

“Overall, I’ve had fun with Squirmish both with my kids and with adult players. I think it’s a lot of fun for families. The dice-based abilities mean that there’s still a good amount of chance involved, which gives less-experienced players a chance to take on more-experienced players, so gamers who want something with pure strategy may not like it quite as much. And don’t forget to shout your battle cries as you enter the fray!” – Jonathan H. Liu at Geekdad.

“It’s a simple card game, but it has a lot of meat to it… If you’re looking for a battling card game that you can introduce to people to maybe even get them into bigger and deeper games, this is a great introduction to do so.” – David at Sit Down Standard.

“It’s pretty straightforward and it’s quick to learn, but there’s a lot of different beasts and abilities.” – Alyssa at Sit Down Standard.

“I get several requests for Kickstarter previews every week. Recently, I was sent a request for coverage for a game called Squirmish that was designed by a gentleman named Steven Stwalley. My heart sunk a little bit when I saw the words “card” and “combat” in his elevator pitch, but that all went away when I looked over the art assets he gave me. Squirmish’s art is juvenile, obnoxious, and maybe even a little gross. In other words? I loved it.” – Stephen Duetzmann at Engaged Family Gaming.

“This game is made in direct response to collectible card games aimed at the pre-teen age group, such as Pokemon. There are battling monsters in this game, but unlike a collectible game, everything you need to play is included in one box. I’m a Pokemon Professor and Judge for the card game, so I was really very interested to try this out. It did not disappoint and actually exceeded expectations.” – Chandra Reyer at TSR’s Multiverse.

“I don’t know what to say other than you might like it and maybe others won’t. I am one of those who like it. I don’t think it will replace Pokemon for me, but it is much easier to carry around around than all my Pokemon equipment! It is not cute. However , there are some cute Squirmish monsters. Cawfeather, Opossrat, Killgor the Conquerer, Cupcake, and a few more. I say anyone 2nd grade to 9th might like it. The Battle Cries are really funny! But don’t attempt to make a Donald Duck voice for Pompaduck. Oh, and be sure to add Googly eyes. 😉 Heheheheheheheheh 🙂 (^._.^)/ Keep on Gaming! Meow!” – Chandra Reyer’s Daughter at TSR’s Multiverse.

“It’s a really good game! I like the fighting.” – Ty (age 9) at Board Gaming at Home.

“Ty’s age, absolutely brilliant game. If there’s one downside, it’s the sheer variety.” – Russell at Board Gaming at Home.

“I like all the little characters that have been made up… they’re great fun.” – Kelly at Board Gaming at Home.

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‪#‎cardgames‬ ‪#‎cardgame‬ ‪#‎tabletop‬ ‪#‎tabletopgames‬ ‪#‎tabletopgame‬ ‪#‎tabletopgaming‬

Squirmish: The Card Game of Brawling Beasties

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(FYI, this blog is dead. You can find my new blog here.)

A card game called Squirmish that I’ve been working on for the last year and a half is currently on Kickstarter (ending June 12th). Please check it out! I’d love to hear what you think about it. It is a 2-4 player beast-battling card game for ages 7+, and it takes about 30 minutes to play.

Here is the video for the kickstarter:

Here is what the reviewers are saying about it:

“Overall, I’ve had fun with Squirmish both with my kids and with adult players. I think it’s a lot of fun for families. The dice-based abilities mean that there’s still a good amount of chance involved, which gives less-experienced players a chance to take on more-experienced players, so gamers who want something with pure strategy may not like it quite as much. And don’t forget to shout your battle cries as you enter the fray!” – Jonathan H. Liu on Geekdad.

“I get several requests for Kickstarter previews every week. Recently, I was sent a request for coverage for a game called Squirmish that was designed by a gentleman named Steven Stwalley. My heart sunk a little bit when I saw the words “card” and “combat” in his elevator pitch, but that all went away when I looked over the art assets he gave me. Squirmish’s art is juvenile, obnoxious, and maybe even a little gross. In other words? I loved it.” – Stephen Duetzmann at Engaged Family Gaming.

“It’s a really good game! I like the fighting.” – Ty (age 9) of Board Gaming at Home.

“Ty’s age, absolutely brilliant game. If there’s one downside, it’s the sheer variety.” – Russell of Board Gaming at Home.

“I like all the little characters that have been made up… they’re great fun.” – Kelly of Board Gaming at Home.

“Want battling beasties that you don’t have to find in blind packs? Want the world’s best collection of creature designs, names, and battle cries (that provide +1 damage if shouted aloud during your turn) that I have ever seen? Want a kid’s card game you’ll actually want to play with your kid? Back this very modest Kickstarter and get the whole 108-card pack (plus stretch goals)! Highly recommended.” -Zander Cannon (Eisner-award-winning cartoonist behind Kaijumax, Heck, and Top 10)

The initial deck is 54 cards… it goes up to 108 cards if we hit $15,000.

Thanks for listening! Please tell your friends!

This blog is dead! Long live the new blog!

This blog is too bloated for its own good, so I am sealing it in carbonite.

My new blog (which I’ve been using for a while) is here: stwallskull.com

The new blog features more of my work and much less comics history and other content. So, if you like my comics, you’ll want to follow it… if you were following my blog for the other content, it probably isn’t worth your time, though. Thanks for checking the blog out.

Monkey’s Paw Book to Debut at Autoptic This Sunday

I will have a very limited number of copies of a new complete collection of Monkey’s Paw, my insane collaborative monster comic with Ben Zmith (along with almost 60 pages of bonus materials) available this Sunday (August 18th) at the Autoptic festival in Minneapolis. Really, this print-on-demand edition was printed to promote the comic to publishers who may be interested in publishing it… but I’ll be selling some of them. We’ve done a first printing of 20 copies, many of which are already gone. I will gladly draw something in the book for anyone purchasing one… the book will run you 12 bucks.

“An awesomely farcical horrorshow of monsters, freaks, and killers.” -Zander Cannon, author of HECK and The Replacement God

In the event I sell out of them, or if you just prefer reading comics digitally, you can read them all online at our website at webcomix.org/monkeyspaw… so I suppose you should really consider saving your money for the enormous quantity of other incredible comics that will be available at Autoptic this weekend, anyhow.

Regardless, please stop by my table for a free sample Monkey’s Paw mini-comic if you’re inclined… I’ll have a lot of other self-published stuff available as well, including my big collection of Soapy the Chicken (soapythechicken.com) webcomics (which I am looking for a publisher for as well).

Thanks for listening!

Lutefisk Sushi Volume E Opens this Friday! (November 2nd)

Above image by Lutefisk Sushi Volume E featured artist Zander Cannon.

Spread the word! The Lutefisk Sushi Volume E opening is this Friday!

Lutefisk Sushi Volume E is a limited-edition, hand-silkscreened bento box of mini-comics created by over 35 Minnesota cartoonists (the boxes will be sold for $25 each… which is well under a buck a comic). It is the fifth set in an ongoing series started in 2004. The opening reception for the release of LSE is this Friday, November 2nd, at Altered Esthetics gallery from 7PM to 10PM. More information can be found here.

I have a new mini included in the box, Freaky Tiki. Much of the original art from the mini is hanging at the gallery… any of which you can purchase for a twenty spot.

News of Stwallskull: Twin Cities Book Festival This Saturday, October 14th, The Dead Living in Double Barrel, Freaky Tiki, Monkey’s Paw News, and The Roe Family Singers

As you can probably see, my site is all messed up… it got hacked this week. I’m attempting to restore it from backups, but this is proving more challenging than I would have hoped for various reasons I won’t bore you with.

Below is a sketch I made of the wonderful Roe Family Singers setting the woods on fire at the 331 Club earlier tonight… boy, do they make some beautiful music. They play there every Monday to the most unbelievably enthusiastic Monday night crowd you are ever likely to see. Two of the members of the band, bandleader Quillan Roe and Adam Wirtzfeld on the saw, are also excellent local cartoonists. I can’t recommend checking their show out highly enough.

I also posted the image on Ken Avidor‘s fantastic group sketch blog, Urban Sketchers Twin Cities, which he was nice enough to invite me to participate in. There are lots of wonderful sketches of the region there to check out.

I have a table at the Twin Cities Book Festival this coming weekend. I will have pretty much everything I currently have in print there for perusal. I’m always delighted to draw something in copies of my Soapy the Chicken book with purchase, fyi… just ask if you’re interested.

I’ll be premiering two brand new mini-comics:

The first one is The Dead Living, a horror story I did that will also be in this month’s issue of Zander Cannon and Kevin Cannon’s incredible digital anthology Double Barrel, coming out this Wednesday from Top Shelf. If you haven’t checked out the other issues of Double Barrel, you really, really should… and I would do it before you pick up the one my comic is in, as the brothers Cannon are doing some extremely engaging serials that you will want to start at the beginning (a sequel to Kevin’s brilliant Far Arden called Crater XV, and Zander’s paranormal pulp opera, Heck among many other wonders). Double Barrel is the first digital comic I’ve purchased, and it is one hell of a deal… many of the issues have over 100 pages of some of the best comics around for a buck (the most recent two issues are $2, but back issues go down to $1. If you are like me, once you start, you won’t be able to wait for them to drop in price). Anyhow, getting back to The Dead Living… I’ve never done a horror comic before, so it seemed like an interesting challenge to attempt. Horror and humor seem like two of the hardest things to pull off well in comics. I went off of Steve Bissette’s advice/requirement to contributors to his wonderful horror anthology of the 80′s and 90′s, Taboo… I tried to draw something that I found genuinely frightening. So, if I succeeded, hopefully you will be in for an unpleasant read.

The other new mini-comic is called Freaky Tiki. It is a collection of drawings of strange and obscure minor island deities that perhaps exist. I made it for inclusion in the upcoming Lutefisk Sushi Volume E show that the Cartoonist Conspiracy is putting together with our friends at Altered Esthetics Gallery. It is our fifth Lutefisk Sushi hand-silkscreened, limited-edition box set of Minnesota mini-comics (the first was in 2004). So, if you plan to come to the opening for that on November 2nd and buy a box, you will not want to purchase this mini from me… you’ll get one included in the box.

Note that, of much greater interest than me at the Book Festival, noted genius Chris Ware will be there, and he will be giving a presentation on his incredible new box of books, Building Stories, at 12:30 in the Taxi Room.

Please note that if you have been waiting for updates to Monkey’s Paw, my ongoing webcomic collaboration with Ben Zmith… they will, unfortunately, be slowing down. They will continue, but we can no longer maintain the every Friday schedule. Ben and I were drawing them on our lunch breaks every day, and, alas, Ben got a new gig so now we can’t draw together as frequently. That said, we did every Friday for something like a year and a half… which is a pretty damn good uninterrupted run of free comics, I think. Anyhow, while you wait for updates, you can always check out the archive here. Soapy the Chicken remains in hibernation, but will be returning again one of these days.