The Knight City Chronicles

HeroPress Comics Is Going Dark...

2011-12-08T16:40:00.000Z

A quick note for those not already aware, this blog is now on extended hiatus while I focus my attention on my new swords & sorcery campaign - Tekralh - which will be covered, as normal, on my main blog with "in-character" pieces and "adventure write-ups" (as were seen here for my Villains & Vigilantes campaign) appearing on the revived Chronicles Of Tekralh site.

I hope to see you all over there!

Meanwhile At The Grand Classic...

2011-07-14T10:25:00.000+01:00

Showing all this week -

Alien Beach Crashers (1964)

Agents Of C.O.M.P.A.S.S. - In All Their Glory...

2011-06-25T18:00:00.004+01:00

The latest Agents Of C.O.M.P.A.S.S. cover from HeroPress Comics.

Art by the company's latest discovery, Rebecca Whitaker.

HeroPress publisher Sean Gentry said: "This is a work of art. We are so proud of Ms. Whitaker for having the patience to work with the Agents who, as active superheroes within our community, are not the most punctual when it comes to arranged sittings! I hope we will be able to utilise her talents on future issues and other projects."

If you wish to see larger pictures of the individual characters click on their "character tabs" above to go to their "profile page".

Behind The Mask: What's Happening With Knight City?

2011-06-23T21:00:00.005+01:00

Since my announcement the other day that I'd be stepping away from Gamesmastering duties on the Villains & Vigilantes/Knight City campaign, I'm sure you've been losing sleep wondering what would become of Knight City itself.

Well, fret no longer, dear reader. Knight City isn't going away - it remains a "work in progress", but with less pressure on I shall work on developing it at my own pace.

I still have plenty of ideas and material to post up on the campaign blog (The Knight City Chronicles), including one particular surprise that I'm as excited to see as anyone!

So, if anyone has anything they wish to contribute to the ever-growing Knight City 'universe', rest assured it is not dead (just dreaming) and the Tuesday Knights will revisit it again one day.

In the meantime, Pete will be returning us to his wicked Top Secret SI campaign and I'll have a chance to play again, which - of course - frees up more time and brainpower away from the games table to continue work on Knight City and my ideas for also returning to Tekralh.

Issue Four: From Rhudjistan With Love...

2011-05-25T12:00:00.148+01:00

The action picked up from the prologue cliffhanger, with Surgeon surrounded by CHESS agents determined to take him in for questioning in relation to certain "terrorist accusations". However, the brainy superhero managed to use his power of persuasion to convince them that he could come in under his own steam and that they should head off.

He then tailed them back to the nondescript CHESS field office in Central, took up a position in a nearby 24-hour cafe and called in his colleagues, Skyscraper and Nightshade. He also texted his COMPASS superior, Nick Law, who assured him he would get on the matter straight away.

By the time Skyscraper and Nightshade had turned up, Nick had gotten back in touch with Surgeon to say he had spoken with CHESS's commander Steele and they needed to come in to the LAW Enterprises building.

Rendezvousing at the COMPASS HQ in the LAW building, Nick explained that he and Surgeon needed to go to CHESS to clear the matter up, but he stressed that Steele was adamant that he had evidence to implicate Surgeon in terrorist activity.

Skyscraper and Nightshade tagged along for moral support, but were not allowed into the interrogation room at the CHESS offices.

The Silver Fist hideout in mountains
behind an isolated Rhudjistan village

Steele presented photographs and video clips, from surveillance satellites, that placed Surgeon's alter-ego, Dr James Ironside, in a Rhudjistan village known to be a base of operations for the terrorist group, The Silver Fist, and as the evidence began to mount up - even though this Ironside had a scar over his left eye - Surgeon even began to doubt himself.

Until Nick was able to have some of the footage recovered from the team's trans-dimensional encounter with Surgeon's other-worldly clone sent over to his tablet device and he proved that not only was Surgeon in this country when he was also supposed to be in Rhudjistan, but that there was also a Surgeon doppleganger!

Steele accepted this and then cooked up with Nick and Surgeon a scheme where the Agents Of COMPASS would be flown to Rhudjistan with a detachment of six Navy SEALS to try and quickly extract the duplicate Dr Ironside, using Surgeon's resemblance to him to their advantage.

Sometime later, after a long flight and a humvee journey through the Rhudjistan desert and into the mountains, the Agents and a team of six SEALS - all disguised in native garb - located the village under cover of night .

Leaving two SEALS to guard the vehicles, the heroes slipped into the mountains behind the village and surveyed the area. Nightshade - with his superpowered night vision - spotted a cave entrance behind the village and slipped inside, past the inattentive guard, using his darkness control, to scout the entrance to the cave complex within.

Exploring the cave system

He then brought the others down, using his sleep-inducing power to render the guard unconscious and the team made their way quietly into the terrorist hideout.

Eventually coming across an occupied communal room, the heroes were initially stumped as to how to proceed, before eventually deciding - having left the SEALS to cover their escape route - that Surgeon would brazen it out, posing as the terrorist leader, with Skyscraper and Nightshade simply as additional muscle.

Unsurprisingly, as the terrorists had no reason to think otherwise, it worked and the Agents found themselves disappearing further into the belly of the beast.

After several trips up stairways, but no other direct contact with 'hostiles', the Agents came into a large cave where scaffolding had been erected against one wall and Surgeon's "clone" was working on deciphering an expanse of strange, primitive hieroglyphics.

A handful of goons were chatting in the far corner of the room and just as they noticed the Agents coming into the room, the Agents attacked. Nightshade enshrouded the Silver Fist members in darkness as Skyscraper was able to grow to his full height and slam the duplicate Surgeon into the rock face, having caught him off-guard.

However, that was about the last time things would go their way! The benighted thugs started firing wildly while their leader stabbed at Skyscraper with his cybernetic arm - another way to differentiate him from 'our' Surgeon.

The cave system

But then he used his emotion controlling ability to persuade Skyscraper that there was no need for them all to be fighting. Skyscraper offered to help him down from the scaffolding, at which point Surgeon used his power to free Skyscraper's emotions from his clone's influence... only to find himself falling under the spell of his duplicate.

Things went downhill from there!

Nightshade was winged by a stray bullet and although Skyscraper eventually took out all the goons by bashing them with a scaffolding, Surgeon and his new best friend had sauntered off deeper into the caves for a chat. Alt-Surgeon really only wanted to pick the brains of his peer, explaining about the archeological work he was doing here and even sharing a picture of some troublesome glyphs he was unable to decipher.

He suggested to Surgeon that if he and his colleagues left now, he would be willing to let them go and they could "forget all about this misunderstanding". Surgeon felt this was pretty reasonable and, after this alternative dimension duplicate had showed him the way, he headed off through the caves towards the exit.

Alt-Surgeon then returned to the fray and turned his powers on Skyscraper and Nightshade, calming them down and suggesting that they follow their team leader. Nightshade expressed concern about the SEAL team - having heard gunfire breaking out from the direction they had left the military contingent.

Their 'captor' was quite amicable to this and sent his men to retrieve the soldiers. Battered and bruised the SEALS were handed over into the custody of Nightshade and Skyscraper and they all followed Surgeon out of the cave system, back out into the chill night air of Rhudjistan.

It wasn't really until they were all on the flight home, that the Agents and SEALS "woke up" and realised that maybe the terrorist leader wasn't being that reasonable at all and he was wasn't really their BFF!

The issue closed with their plane touching down at the military airbase in Seven Oaks with a rather unhappy Commander Steele and Nick Law waiting to greet them.

A sketch of the baffling hieroglyphics done by Surgeon's duplicate - the second symbol from the left
was identified as a crude attempt to reproduce the emblem of The Black Sun organisation.
The rest remains a mystery...

Issue Four - Prologue...

2011-05-19T12:00:00.005+01:00

View from the Law's apartment

"Sometimes I wish I was Skyscraper," Nick Law said to his wife, across the dining room table. "So I could deal with problems by growing large and punching them in the face."

Clare laughed.

"I know who leaked the information about 'Peter' to the CWLA," he said, with a tone of exasperation in his voice, "but there's nothing I can do about them - except sideline them from sensitive projects in the future - without endangering the privileged information I have about SAGE. I didn't want this to become a drawn-out legal battle, I just wanted what was best for the boy."

"No idea how long he'll be staying with us, then?" Clare asked. She never minded helping Nick with his problems when she could, but wasn't totally married to the idea of caring for this strange six-year-old boy in the same apartment, high up in the LAW Enterprise's Building, as their newborn son, Alec.

There was always "Jason", the LAW Enterprises AI computer that kept an eye on everything in the building and the family nanny - a retired superheroine herself - was more than willing to help out and Pete had his own room, on the opposite side of their home to Alec's, but even so...

---""--- ---""---

via

"I don't belong here, I don't belong here," Peter's mind was screaming as he rocked back and forth on the bed those odd people had provided him in a sparsely decorated room. He clutched his knees to his chest as tears rolled down his cheeks, as they done for days, weeks... he didn't know how long. His lips moved and a peculiar sigh came out that sounded like "ia, ia, ia" if anyone had been listening.

Whenever he tried to remember where he came from - or how he had got to this hideous place - his mind exploded with white hot barbs of pain and random images of curling pillars, cloaks, indescribable colours, foul odours and arrhythmic chanting.

---""--- ---""---

Doctor James Ironside swallowed a couple of self-prescribed sleeping tablets, followed down by a whiskey chaser, then stubbed out his Fleur-de-Lys cigarette and lay back on his expensive Egyptian cotton sheets.

A generally satisfying day, yet while he had cracked the problem of poly-bionic optical membranes, he still felt no closer than before with his recipe for a perfect curry.

Drifting off to sleep, he was momentarily surprised by a fleeting thought about Janice, his ex, but then it slipped out of his mind as he slipped into the welcoming embrace of chemically-induced sleep...

CHESS agents outside
Dr Ironside's house

Until he was shocked awake by the simultaneous sounds of his front door exploding open and the window of bedroom shattering as a man in a black uniform swung through with a laser-sighted gun aimed square at James' chest.

The bedroom door crashed open as a half-dozen other 'soldiers' in black, military garb burst in, their laser-sighted weapons tracing patterns around the walls before settling on James, who was calmly pulling a cigarette from the packet by his bed.

"Doctor James Ironside, " it was a statement, not a question, from one of the men.

One of the other intruders was speaking into a shoulder mic: "We have Red One, Bishop S, repeat, we have Red One. Over."

James now recognised the CHESS logos on their uniform.

"You have been identified as a hostile target and are being detained as a threat to national security. You WILL accompany us to the CHESS field office for an initial debriefing."

"Now, now, gentleman," Doctor Ironside said, lighting his cigarette, and putting his 'bedside mana' to the test (he knew their weapons couldn't hurt him, and was also pretty sure these were supposed to be the good guys).

"Can't we talk this over like civilized human beings. Whiskey, anyone?"

Issue Four Teaser...

2011-05-17T12:00:00.010+01:00

Chuck Norris : Karate Kommandos

2011-05-15T12:00:00.007+01:00

Remember, kids, "sometimes violence isn't a lot of fun"... but sometimes it is!!!

Showing weekday mornings on TEKtv, before Rise'n'Sine.

Science Fiction Double Feature...

2011-05-14T12:00:00.000+01:00

Playing all next week at the Grand Classic in Ryde, a double-bill of sci-fi greats:

The Mysterians (1957)

Gigantis The Fire Monster (1959)

$15 for both movies (students with a valid ID card: $12)

Supplied by Monster Island News!

Knight City Quality Media...

2011-05-13T21:44:00.000+01:00

The Herald

Knight City's premiere daily newspaper that deals in hard-hitting social stories and in-depth political exposes. Its main offices are on the Ivy Dean Industrial Estate.

Kincaid & Harvey

Knight City's oldest and most respectable newspaper is written and printed out of offices located at the heart of the industrial estate - with its own bar, The Ink Spot, across the road.

The editor is Rory Brown, a widower whose two sons were rescued from an inter-dimensional childnapper by The Agents Of COMPASS, so he is very pro superheroes and will seriously question (although not quosh if the facts are there) any negative stories that are brought to his attention.

A strong campaigner for the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press; a true child of the 60s - he's done it all and got the T-shirt to prove it.

City Desk chief reporter is Miranda Jones, a drunk and a nymphomaniac who has only held on to her job through a not-too-secret affair with Rory. When deadline looms she can often be found doing last minute research in The Ink Spot. That being said, she's good at her job and will stick to a story like a dog with a bone.

Senior crime correspondent is Tony Kincaid is seen as more of a Philip Marlowe-style private eye than a contemporary journalist. Tony slouches round the seedier parts of the city in his trenchcoat sniffing out the sordid and the illegal ... and sometimes he even writes about it.

Senior reporter is Lucy Harvey, utterly humourless and devoid of a social life - or any social skills - journalism is her life. Cursed with a hair-trigger fiery temper, it's her cracking writing skills and ability to the get the stories everyone says are impossible that keep her in work.

Chief photographer Holly James is a party-loving bisexual with an eye for the great picture. The love 'em and leave 'em type, she doesn't let her wild social life interfere with her first love - taking pictures. She plays hard and parties hard, but gets the job done ... even if she leaves a string of casualties behind her!

The Sentinel

A second-string, weekly newspaper, based in Stackhouse, that deals in scandal and gossip rather than hard news.

Holmes' filing system

Knight City's other newspaper, The Sentinel is more interested in gossip and shock stories than the hard-hitting social commentary that has made The Herald's name.

It is staffed by a host of well-meaning reporters and several highly-strung sub-editors, but is best known for the giant statue of an armoured knight that stands on top of its rambling Gothic home, which is also the paper's logo which appears on its masthead.

The visored figure holds a spear in in its right hand and shield in its left, and has a net thrown over its shoulder.

The editor of The Sentinel, known variously as "Scoop" or "Mac", is Angus McCartney. A very tall and broad, sandy complexioned Scot, who seems to be quite vulgar (in a nice way) and gets even ruder when he's had a few to drink. Most people really like him and his wife (also Scottish) 'whose appearance and personality resemble nothing more than a roll of rusty chicken wire'.

Scoop's chief sub-editor is the fierce Hope Majors, who doesn't truck any visitors in the sub-editor's den. Her deputy is the more approachable Grace Redmond, who has rather a reputation as a flirt - which tends to put her at loggerheads with her uptight boss.

The photojournalism department is headed up by the kindly old father figure of Marcus Holmes, who treats everyone like his grandchildren and is loved by all. Under him are highly-strung, caffeine junkie Olivia March; the French 'artist' Philippe Beauchamps and the lazy photographic assistant Fernanda Pettle.

TEKtv

Televisual Edutainment for Knight city. Broadcasting from the Central District, this is Knight City's only dedicated TV channel.

TEKtv evening news studio

Situated in The Grand Hall Tower, opposite Central Station, TEKtv is the city's premier 24-hour a day, seven day-a-week, television broadcaster.

As well as screening the monthly Formula Dee Grand Prix, the station's flagship programme for the last 20 years has been its breakfast show Rise'n'Shine with husband and wife team Colin and Janine Steele.

Before joining the Rise'n'Shine team, Colin Steele was an actor - best known for his portrayal of the HeroPress character Captain Dynamo in the late '80s serial of the same name.

Other popular programmes on the network include:

Other People's Problems - soap opera
Let's Cook - with Ophelia Haddock
Travellers - sci-fi serial
Cap'n Cape - superhero detective series starring former Star Quest: Endeavor and Dimension Jump star Scott Capuletti
Captain Dynamo - superhero action series

and children's programmes:

The Adventures of Mr Fallover

and

Jellyhead

The evening news is brought to the public by newsreaders Jane Anderson and Marian Forsyth and weatherman Nigel Truffle, while fomer Herald journalist Luke Bavastock presents semi-regular documentaries on the channel, such as Chips, which looked the city's silicon barons, and Inside Japan, which took at peak at the latest technologies being developed behind the willow curtain.

The Great Blogger SNAFU of Friday 13th!!!

2011-05-13T18:09:00.002+01:00

I'm sorry to report that the Blogger crash of the last 18 hours or so has somehow deleted a couple of (what I thought were) quite interesting articles on (a) places of interest in Devil Heights and (b) the quality media of Knight City (newspapers and TV).

I'm rather "miffed" about this, as the only thing I lost on HeroPress was an amusing video I published around 9pm last evening I thought we were safe here.

Iif they don't magically appear in the next 24 hours I guess I'll have to draft them from scratch again...

Tales From The HeroPress Bullpen...

2011-05-11T12:00:00.069+01:00

Scintillatin' Sean Gentry here with a taste of what this month's other World of HeroPress titles have to offer:

KOKOPELLI #1: Scarabs (And Other Insects) - The youthful hero, and probational member of The Agents, gets to save his girlfriend and best friend from an insane Egyptian priest who is trying to steal a sarcophagus from Miskatonic University.

Kokopelli also has to face Amon Seth's mystical dog-headed henchmen!

THE WATCHMAN #1: Time For Action - The hero with a destiny discovers a robbery in progress at Knight City's central station and tries to prevent TimeKeeper and his goons from making off with a haul of antique clocks.

However, The Watchman hasn't counted on TimeKeeper's "temporal freeze-ray" gun!

AVIATOR #1: Look, Up In The Sky! A back-up feature to Agents Of COMPASS #2; the city's newest hero finds himself caught up - behind-the-scenes - in the Agents' escapades.

AVIATOR #2: Flame On! A back-up feature to Agents of COMPASS #3; while the Agents are off in Neverland, the aerial avenger has more down-to-earth problems with an armoured German villain called Feuerkraft, who is probably connected to the apartment fire in Agents of COMPASS #2.

AVIATOR #3: In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night, part of the HeroPress Free Comic Book Day special. A surprise visitor turns up at Aviator's apartment.

Points Of Interest: Selebourne

2011-05-09T12:00:00.013+01:00

This district is dominated by docks, factories and the massive rail yards - possibly the largest freight terminal on the East Coast, with global scale cold storage facilities and warehouse space.

Selebourne Railyards

The industrial heart of Knight City, several fuel storage depots, as well as a natural gas processing plant, are located in this district.

Streetwalkers

The borough's place as city's main source of revenue has faded in recent decades though as the port has seen a decline in business.

One business though that hasn't seen a decline is prostitution, while most of the city's brothels can be found in Veil Street, Ryde, there isn't a corner in Selebourne - especially closer to the docks - that isn't frequented by "ladies of the night" and their very protective pimps.

This is partly because of the constant turn-over of crews from the docks - both merchant sailors and truck drivers - but also because it is one of the least patrolled areas by Knight City's finest.

Large portions of the district are derelict and the accommodation available here is not of the most desirable kind.

With the rail yards and factories running round-the-clock, the constant noise, smell and light pollution make this a grim place to have to live.

Old Chinatown

The narrow, twisting streets of this district of Selebourne are strung with bright flags and washing lines, people sit in doorways smoking and gossiping and the main languages spoken are Chinese.

The subject of much urban myth in the rest of the city, there is even said to be a hidden, underground section (Kowloon) which no Occidental has ever seen.

The whole borough is rumoured to be controlled by vicious Triads, although they don't seem to bother non-Orientals.

However, Mayor Salmonson declared the Triads extinct in 2005 when the Major Crimes Unit arrested Li Jin Shaw - aka Red Robe - who was said to be the Grand Uncle of The Triads and sentenced to life in Stackhouse Prison.

Soon after this Salmonson disbanded the Triad Investigation Bureau and redirected its resources to other areas.

Dog Track
One of the few bright spots in this industrial wasteland is the dog track, which is open most nights for gambling and racing.

The Fish Tank

The oldest continuously operational bar in Knight City - although it has gone through a number of name changes in its years of trading. The Fish Tank somehow even managed to stay open during Prohibition (although no-one can adequately explain how).

It also has a (justified) reputation as one of the toughest bars in the city, with its frequent brawlers taking great advantage of the borough's lacklustre policing.

Popular with stevedores, visiting bike gangs and low-level hoodlums, this isn't the establishment to visit on a first date.

Acme Factory

Specialises in the manufacture of oversized props for films, advertising and promotional events.

It is also popular, with those who have the money to spend, a source of personal amusement for those who want their own one-off giant coins or animatronic dinosaurs!

View of Selebourne under the bridge to Keech Island

Knight City News Update...

2011-05-07T12:00:00.091+01:00

Dateline: Monday, March 21, 2011

CAR BOMBINGS ROCK RHUDJISTAN

A wave of car bombing around American interests in Talahbhad, capitol of Rhudjistan, has been blamed on the terrorist organisation that calls itself The Silver Fist (قبضة من الفضة)

This group of violent militants has been seeking to drive foreign interests out of the country for years, but has stepped up its operations in the last 24 months.

So far, in the current wave of attacks, no Americans have been killed or injured.

CUSTODY BATTLE FOR 'PETER'

Ten of the children rescued by Knight City's Agents Of COMPASS, during their recent classified mission, have returned to their families. However, one remains the subject of an increasingly heated custody battle.

Thadeus Graves

Known only as "Peter", no biological parents have been formally been identified for the final child. Initially Nick Law, CEO of LAW Enterprises and commander of The Agents Of COMPASS, had struck a deal for the British organisation SAGE to take care of the child.

However, the Child Welfare League Of America has stepped in, demanding that the child be allowed to stay in America and be cared for here.

Speaking on behalf of Mr Law, Thadeus Graves - of Tumbleton, Graves & Minor - said: "My client intends to fight this all the way to the top. In his opinion, the experts of SAGE are in the best position to cope with this child's specific needs."

However, a CWLA spokeman said in rebuttal: "As far as we are aware this SAGE group is simply a gentleman's club and has no business dabbling in matters of child care. We shall be petitioning the court to have the child removed from Mr Law's care and placed into a specialist home where he can be treated by qualified professionals."

FIFTH STREETWALKER SLAIN

A fifth, as yet unnamed, prostitute has been murdered in Selebourne.

No details have been released about the nature of killing, although unofficial sources are already linking it to the four previous murders in the borough this month.

Police have no leads and are appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

Issue Three: Never Say Never Never Again...

2011-05-04T12:00:00.144+01:00

Nightshade wisely took the powder he discovered in Rory Brown's house to the COMPASS HQ in the LAW Enterprise Building, where he met Nick Law and The Watchman.

Having briefed them on what had occurred, Nick called in the rest of the agents (who were available) - Skyscraper and The Surgeon - and explained that his experimental 'dimension portal' (designed through reverse engineering details he had obtained from the film footage of the German machinery - back in issue one - along with some input from other sources) should be able to transport them to wherever the 'powder' (which he was unable to analyse) had come from.

Concerns were expressed about blinding traveling to an unknown location, as well as getting back, but The Watchman pointed out that these two children were just the latest to go missing and so there were potentially 10 missing children (known to have disappeared from Knight City) to be rescued.

The heroes stepped through the portal and in a moment found themselves in a garishly bright jungle... and they had changed into "stunted, 'deformed', cartoon-versions" of themselves. They quickly discovered their powers still appeared to work normally, though.

Watchman climbed a tree and spied nearby a bay with a pirate ship moored in it and in the distance an incongruous castle sitting on a hill.

Suspecting the pirates might be to blame for the missing children, the heroes headed towards the inlet - where they created a distraction with faux cannon balls (created by Nightshade - special effects provided by The Surgeon), which frightened the pirates and made them abandon ship. Watchman used this distraction to search the ship, but found it otherwise abandoned and almost derelict.

Smee

The Surgeon stepped out of the jungle to try and calm the pirates, but at first they accused him - because he dressed in green - of being an ally of Pan. Eventually he managed to calm them down and they decided, instead, to elect him their new captain - as they told him that Pan had killed their previous commander, Captain Hook.

Surgeon took the pirate name Captain Doc, while Skyscraper became High Pockets, Watchman The Clock and Nightshade Mr Black as the heroes joined forces with Mr Smee and his three cowardly pirate chums.

The pirates revealed that they knew Pan stole children from "the other world", but didn't know how, and that he lived in the castle.

The Agents of COMPASS steered the pirate ship around Never Island, until they discovered a bay, where some mermaids were frolicking, behind Pan's castle.

Watchman and Nightshade snuck ashore, as they had spotted a rusted grill at the base of the hill that appeared to cover a tunnel leading under the castle.

At this point, The Surgeon climbed into the crow's nest and used his sonic powers to magnify his voice as he "called out Pan".

The cocky man-child appeared on the battlements and challenged The Surgeon - while Watchman and Nightshade ran along the underground tunnel to a ladder, which led up into the castle. There they found Pan's throne room and then a door off it that led to flight of steps disappearing back underground.

At first The Surgeon was able to placate Pan - after an initial incident which involved the skeleton of Captain Hook being hurled at the superhero - but when he mentioned 'Wendy', the boy flew into a rage and despite the presence of Skyscraper (in his giant form), neither hero seemed capable of hurting Pan... and it was only The Surgeon's invunerability that was keeping him safe.

The sight of Hook's skeleton had been the final straw for the pirates and they jumped overboard and swam off - never to be seen again!

In the dungeons of the castle, Watchman and Nightshade found the ten children, caged up and attached to bizarre machinery that appeared to be siphoning off their tears!

Surgeon spotted a fine thread that was connecting Pan to his ever-present fairy companion, Tinkerbell, and severed this with a swipe of his sonic scalpel. In an instant Tink disappeared over the horizon with Pan in hot pursuit.

Taking advantage of this lull, Watchman and Nightshade got the children out of the dungeon to the shore (and despite a minor distraction with a giant, ticking, mutant crocodile appearing in the tunnel - which Nightshade held at bay with his forcefield and then a slight incident when Watchman went to talk to the mermaid and they tried to eat him) and eventually up onto the pirate ship, which Skyscraper then 'propelled' round the island - using the mast, which he snapped off, as a massive punt.

Pan, Tinkerbell & Croc

They were almost home when Pan - and his enslaved Tinkerbell - returned. There was another short tussle, which saw Nightshade enveloping Pan in a sphere of darkness, and then Watchman blasted the fine link between Pan and his slave... and she shot off again, with Pan once more in pursuit.

The Agents got the children ashore and headed towards the location where they had first appeared on this strange island - with Skyscraper carrying the children in ship's jolly boat.

The Surgeon, as the slowest of the group (and the leader) brought up the rear and when Pan attacked again he heroically stood his ground, to allow the others to escape. He took quite a pummeling as the island (if not all of reality) appeared to be coming apart and fueling Pan, the angrier the man-child got the stronger he became and the more of reality appeared to warp.

Tink managed to signal to The Surgeon to cut her free again and after several attempts she succeeded - this time heading off to the clearing where the other were now gathering, She hurriedly explained to Watchman that she could send them all home... but it would be all of them!

In the nick of time, The Surgeon managed to scramble back into the clearing and Tink did whatever it was she needed to do and the Agents suddenly found themselves back COMPASS HQ... with 11 children!

Nick Law and his staff tended to the children and alerted the emergency services, while The Surgeon and Watchman tried to communicate with the wailing child that had - moments earlier - been the being called Pan.

The child was clearly mentally damaged, yet Dunwich didn't seem an appropriate locale to send a six-year-old boy - who now seemed to be a totally normal human child - and eventually Nick and Watchman agreed that the wisest course of action would be to hand him over to SAGE (The Surgeon had heard of SAGE, but knew it only as a British gentleman's club, while Skyscraper was convinced it was a gardening club and couldn't really understand how they could help a traumatised young child).

First Contact!

2011-04-30T12:00:00.149+01:00

It's hard to imagine that there is a single soul on Earth who is not aware - to some degree or another - of the events that unfolded on the Moon when John Young and Charles Duke - of Apollo 16 - made "first contact" with the alien that materialised before them in the Descartes Highlands.

It was April 22, 1972, and the world would never be the same again.

The entity revealed itself to be Exarch Farillor of Rythos, an emissary from his planet seeking to make contact with intelligent life in our solar system.

Rythans are beings composed of air currents and small particles of 'ice'. Many have the ability (or 'skill' as they call it) to condense their particles into humanoid forms.

Elder Rythans (such as Farillor's mentor, Rhyll) disdain this skill, saying it is lowering the noble Rythans down to the level of "solids" or "monoforms". Then again those most skilled in "body-forming" can change their shape or even increase their size to spectacular effect.

The entire Rythan culture is very skill-orientated and the best of the best of the warrior caste are asked to join The Crystal Guard (an elite Imperial unit and the only Rythans who regularly travel by starship; most simply dissolve their solid forms and travel through space as clouds of particles or - if they are able - use the 'storm portal' skill).

A Rythan's natural ability to control its own body and its immediate environment allows for such abilities as altering temperature by thought and healing wounds by binding molecules together. However, the most impressive Rythan skill is the "storm portal" (mastered by Farillor), which opens cross-dimensional portals over vast distances.

No Earth scientists have yet worked out how the Rythans can do this, but it is still fascinating to watch the clouds and light show.

The planet Rythos is said to be one of the most beautiful in the galaxy. Bathed in the glow of its red sun during the day, it is dominated by sweeping, multi-coloured, ice plains and intricate crystalline palaces and statues.

Rythos - Temple Of Eternal Thought

Rythos - Jungles of Tarqil

Rythos - Coast of Pahoon (at night)

Rythos - The Inhospitable Wastes of Drubdarr (at night)

The largest artificial structure on Rythos is The Temple Of Eternal Thought, which is rumoured to sometimes glow as brightly as our own sun and houses the spirits of The First Five Rythans, held in a form of suspended animation.

Rythan mentality encourages learning and this is why when Exarch Farillor made his way eventually to Earth he was accompanied by his eldricar (mentor/teacher/guide) Rhyll.

In the years since his arrival, Farillor has been co-operating with a number of global organisations (such as CHESS and COMPASS) and governments, sharing what knowledge he feels he is able to and helping mankind better understand its place in the universe.

He has only ever spoken publicly of one other alien race, the Lyrars, a mysterious, reptilian race driven by a desire for knowledge and technology. Short-tempered and generally impatient, Lyrar space craft (as well as their costumes, buildings etc) are a mish-mash of ill-fitting parts and often unfinished.

Typical Lyrar (artist's impression)

Farillor tells a - probably apocryphal - tale of Lyrar starship captains halting their journeys mid -starjump and demanding their crew build a new adaptation he has just thought of!

The trouble with the Lyrans obsession with tinkering is that it doesn't stop with technology - they have been known to 'mess around with' with other lifeforms to "try and improve their basic design".

Although they quickly discovered that most sentient lifeforms didn't want to be improved this way, the Lyrar response wasn't to stop their experiments but to create 'The Harvestors' - a crack squad under the command of one Cropmaster Krandir - to help ignorant races appreciate what a great gift they were being given.

Earth scientists, with Farillor's aid, have deduced that his world orbits the star we call Proxima Centauri, approximately 4.2 light-years away from Earth. Neither Farillor nor the less communicative Rhyll have any idea where the Lyran home world is.

Farilllor's behind-the-scenes scientific assistance is almost certain to have been the major boost to the American space programme that has seen the recent launch of the first manned mission to Mars (due to arrive any day now).

Issue Three Prologue...

2011-04-28T12:00:00.125+01:00

Dateline: Saturday, March 19, 2011

Prof. Rasmussen

The excavation leader, Professor Rasmussen, took off his hard hat and rubbed the back of his hand across his brow. The light was fading and they had still found nothing after more than a week of digging.

The debris from the collapsed building had been carefully removed before his team of expert diggers had moved in, but now it was time to break the news to Mr Law.

Rasmussen pulled out his mobile and hit the speed-dial, connecting him directly to Nick Law's ear-mounted bluetooth.

"What have you got for me, Carl?" Nick asked immediately, knowing pleasantries were unnecessary with his old friend.

"Nothing good, Nick," the Swede said. "There are definitely signs that something large and tubular was here. Any other dig and I'd say it was probably the location of an mains pipe - but then where would it have disappeared to? No, whatever you were looking for is long gone, my friend."

Nick cussed. This wasn't his day.

---""--- ---""---

Pat O'Malley was trying to find the answer to life's problems in the bottom of a beer mug when Joe McGovern pulled up a stool next to him at the bar and signaled the barmaid for two more beers.

One of the many Irish bars in Devil Heights

"What are we gonna do, Joe?" Pat asked. "Not only have we lost the apartment contract to them Gallows fellows, 'cos o' all that super-hero nonsense, but now I hear they've also got a contract to demolish St. Margaret’s Orphanage. What's the world coming to, Joe? What's next? Are they gonna gentrify us all out of the Heights now? Ain't we good enough for this city anymore?"

Joe shuffled a bit with embarrassment, his boss didn't know his secret - that Joe was really the hero Skyscraper that the media were blaming for accidentally collapsing the unfinished building in the Heights the other week.

"Oh, Joe, forgive an old man his moanin'," Pat grinned at his friend and employee. "Things ain't that bad, I suppose. We got other contracts. But I like working in the old neighbourhood. Gives me a sense of pride to be givin' something back. Ain't that what that Law fellah is always talkin' about? Givin' back to the community."

---""--- ---""---

The Surgeon sat in a darkened room, his mind empty of distraction. He wasn't bothered by the recent goings-on with the Agents or the negative backlash from the public, he was simultaneously visualising complex medical procedures, balancing his cheque book and concocting the perfect curry recipe with his 190 IQ.

Nothing else was really of any interest to him.

---""--- ---""---

Although he had his work and his training, Kevin was starting to go a little stir crazy with the enforced "break" that Nick had demanded - especially as his efforts to modify his new belt knife (the original had been lost in the tunnels under the city after he had loaned it to Skyscraper) didn't appear to be progressing.

Thus, the invitation from his old university buddy, Rory Brown, to come round to his house for a meal, some beers and a "catch-up" was just the pick-me-up he needed.

Kevin aka Nightshade

He hadn't seen his dear friend for a couple of weeks and decided a night off was just what the doctor ordered.

Rory was his usual ebullient self, shaking Kevin's metal hand enthusiastically and welcoming him into his home. A young widower, Rory's wife had died in a dreadful car accident but they had two wonderful young children - Michael and John - who were asleep upstairs.

Just as the wine started flowing with the reminiscences of carefree university days, there was an enormous crashing sound from upstairs. Rory smirked. "The boys are excited that Uncle Kevin has come to visit, I knew they wouldn't be able to sleep. Let me just go and check on them."

Rory slipped away from the table and disappeared upstairs. Several moments later, Kevin heard Rory yelling and swearing - it certainly didn't sound as though he was chastising the boys! Something else was going on!

Kevin's bionic legs carried him swiftly up to the top floor bedroom where he burst in to see an incredible sight. The two young boys were floating outside the open bedroom window, sixty or so feet above above the road below. Their eyes were closed and they seemed oblivious of the fact they were being drawn towards the spectral shape of a man (or a boy?) hovering in the air before them.

Rory was leaning out of the window, sobbing and screaming his lungs out. Before Kevin could react the boys and the incorporeal figure seemed to blink out of existence in a flash of light. Something caught Kevin's eye and for a moment he thought he there was a second small blink of light, then he was standing at Rory's side looking out over the rooftops.

Where he put his hands to lean out of the window, the sensors in his bionics detected a slight crunch and he looked down to see a strange, slightly glowing powder or sand of a kind he had never seen before...

New Look Logo For C.O.M.P.A.S.S.

2011-04-26T21:00:00.009+01:00

As part of its PR campaign - after the recent Agents Of COMPASS "faux pas" - LAW Enterprises today unveiled its new-look logo for the venerable COMPASS organisation.

"A new look for a new age," Mr Law was quoted as saying.

The new logo was designed by LAW Enterprises' foremost graphic designer Paul V Fleming.

What All The Fashionable Off-Duty Heroes Are Wearing...

2011-04-21T12:00:00.006+01:00

The Society of Adventurers & Gentlemen Explorers...

2011-04-19T12:00:00.114+01:00

To the general public the Society of Adventurers & Gentlemen Explorers (S.A.G.E) is an old-fashioned, Victorian gentleman's club that just happens to be based at the fictional home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

The truth, as is usually the case, is a lot stranger...

HG Wells

In 1895 Herbert George Wells published his famous Time Machine novel, although only a handful of select colleagues knew that it was actually a smoke screen, drawing on his own scientific breakthrough in primitive dimensional travel.

'Earlier' in 1842 Queen Victoria had been saved from assassination at the hands of Edward Oxford by the time-traveling H G Wells, who spoiled Oxford's two shots at The Queen before wrestling him to the ground, but disappearing before the would-be assassin was detained by the authorities. To mask his identity Wells uses the identity of The Professor.

As The Professor, Mr Wells has been influential in dealing with extraordinary events that occur throughout the space/time continuum.

His greatest discovery has been the 'Thin Wall Theory' that suggests that the barriers between alternate dimensions are, for as yet undiscovered reasons, thinner than scientific data suggests they should be over the United Kingdom.

The 'Thin Wall' first became apparent in the early 18th Century as the first 'novels' were being produced. The 'inspiration' for many of these literary greats was in fact a cause-and-effect of concepts breaking in across the 'Thin Wall' between alternative dimensions.

Later in 1850 Queen Victoria, in covert meetings with key members of state and Professor Wells, established the Society of Adventurers & Gentlemen Explorers (S.A.G.E.) by Royal Charter.

S.A.G.E. HQ

S.A.G.E. continues to operate to this current day as the covert agency dealing with worldwide issues in the field of inter-dimensional activity.

Due to the extra-dimensional nature of the members of S.A.G.E. many of its field agents exist outside of the normal laws of time and most are considered by the public as fictional characters.

S.A.G.E. is based at 221B Baker Street, London which was found to be a stable dimensional gate to a fixed point in Limbo, which in itself is a dimensional 'cross roads'.

There are a few scattered dimensional gates, including one between Earth and Mars in a cave in the North American wilderness, and another in an isolated Kansas farm to The Land Of Oz.

These, and the position of other gates, are closely-held secrets within S.A.G.E.

D.A.

Each operative of S.A.G.E. is required to wear a D.A. (Dimensional Anchor) when operating in a dimension that is not their own.

Designed by Professor Wells and developed further by Nick Law (after the unfortunate incident of the "wolfman" in London) these bracers allow an 'alien' dimensional being to co-exist in an alternative reality. If destroyed the bearer simply returns to their home dimension.

Current members of S.A.G.E. include:

Robinson (Explorer and Survival expert)
Friday (Robinson's friend and butler)
Lord Greystoke (English noble with great jungle craft skills and the ability to communicate with animals)
Dr Watson (England's second greatest detective and a top rate surgeon)
Modesty Blaise ('60s super-spy)
Sir Harry Flashman (Rogue, cad, coward, master of languages and born with a very rich lucky streak).
The Watchman (Comic book hero from the Second World War)

by Steve

Science-Fiction Double Feature...

2011-04-14T12:00:00.014+01:00

Playing all next week at the Grand Classic in Ryde, a double-bill of sci-fi greats:

Earwigs (1954)

It Came From Yesterday (2011)

$15 for both movies (students with a valid ID card: $12)

Portrait Of A Great Man...

2011-04-12T12:00:00.040+01:00

Nick Law, a portrait painted by Robin Stacey

This week saw Nick Law unveiling a portrait of himself in the new Law Wing of The Knight City Museum, painted by renowned artist Robin Stacey.

At a small ceremony, attended by such dignitaries as Major Peter Salmonson and business mogul Max Masters, Mr Law thanked the artist and explained to the guests, and members of the media, that this new wing was just a part of his commitment to the continued growth of the city.

When questioned about the recent unfortunate incident involving members of The Agents Of COMPASS and a half-built apartment block in Devil Heights, he quickly pointed out that not only were no members of the public injured in the affair but his company was picking up the tab to have the tower rebuilt, using new contractors (Gallows Inc) with even higher quality specifications.

Max Masters And Rhudjistan...

2011-04-10T12:00:00.067+01:00

Julian Sands in the role of Max Masters,
in the Nick Law biopic I Am The Law!

Knight City didn't really bloom until the post-War years thanks to major investments from immigrant German businessman, Heinrich Schwartz.

His first son, Maximilien, was destined to succeed him as CEO of Delta Vee Industries and when Heinrich was jailed in 1970 for the rape of his daughter-in-law (a foul act that ultimately resulted in the birth of Milhouse Schwartz) he did.

Max immediately changed his surname to Masters, divorced his wife and left her CHILD Industries which she passed on to her son, Milhouse, when he developed genius-level IQ and a penchant for writing computer code.

Max Masters turned his business eye to salvaging the struggling the International Cybernetics Corporation, changing its core product line from weaponry to robotics and setting up his colleague Thomas Lyle as chairman.

The increase in technology-based industry saw exponential growth in Knight City - but with law and order lacking behind, until the appointment of Peter Salmonson as mayor.

A sketch of Max as he was supposed to appear
in the HeroPress comic, The Patrollers... until
his lawyers had the comic withdrawn and pulped

The city had developed a shallow obsession with wealth and technology - the welfare of the common man had fallen by the wayside; the police had become lax and corrupt, streets were rarely cleaned, property values dropped through the floor and the dark alleyways of the city became the haunts of muggers and killers.

Man Behind The Myth: Max is a corporate shark, constantly moving, constantly looking for struggling prey, splashes in the water ... then he strikes. It is all about the money and the bottom line. He has made his fortune by taking over ailing businesses and either turning them round and selling them on or asset stripping them and making a profit by the bits and pieces.

His operating ethic is the flip-side of the city's richest man, Nick Law, but Max is unhindered by moral qualms or concerns for the well-being of mankind.

He is also incredibly rich, famous and influential in and round Knight City - and women are drawn to him like the proverbial moths to a flame. He is both interesting and dangerous.

He has been known to fly London Philharmonic Orchestra in to play a single piece of music that a particular woman liked when he was "entertaining her" in the penthouse suite at the top of the Delta Vee building in Central. His lavish parties are notorious around the globe for their decadence and if you can honestly say you've been invited to one of his shindigs then you have "made it" in Knight City society.

One of Max's many going-concerns is the Worldwide Protection Organisation.

MOTTO: fiat iustitia et pereat mundus
("let justice be done, even should the world perish")

WPO is a private mercenary defence force run, with a client list including several major world government and major corporations in global hot spots like Rhudjistan.

Rhudjistan is a rugged, mountainous, lawless, bandit country on the border of China and Russia that is a useful asset because of (a) its extensive poppyfields and (b) it's the world's primary source for the rare chemicals needed to make XJ-93.

XJ-93 is the strongest plastic known to man and is valued by corporate giants like LICC, Delta Vee and LAW Industries for its manufacturing uses, including the process of poly-bionics, as pioneered by Dr James Ironside. Therefore mining the rare minerals is the major industry in this cash poor country - not that the locals see any of the benefits!

Rhujistan is also a breeding ground for terrorists because of the destruction brought down on the tiny country by various invading armies over the years - hungry for its natural resources (the rare minerals and poppy fields)!

With global military resources already stretched to breaking point through America's 'war on terror', foreign powers need to rely on private armies to protect their interests in the country. Hence America's own use of Worldwide Protection Operations to guard its Embassy.

The mountains are riddled with caves and tunnels used by terrorists and smugglers to hide from the American forces.

Burly WPO security guards in enormous puffer jackets, sporting the WPO logo on their sleeves, can also be seen outside Mr Master's estate in Beechmont.

Issue Two: From Heroes To Zeroes...

2011-04-05T12:00:00.002+01:00

After the brisk business of the team meeting, in which The Surgeon was nominated and approved unanimously as the team's field commander, The Watchman headed off on his own assignment as The Surgeon, Skyscraper and Nightshade descended to the basement carpark to meet Ms Amber and take charge of the "company car" Nick Law has given them.

Ms Amber & The Car

Rather unexpectedly then - instead of heading straight to Devil Heights to begin the investigation into the disappearances of homeless people and rumours of mythological "silver dragons" in the subway tunnels, the trio decided to take the car for a spin, found themselves a nice seafood restaurant in Lyndhurst and enjoyed a light lunch, before picking up several crateloads of McDonalds to take to the homeless people of Devil Heights.

On the way to their destination - the Dilbert Street Underpass - they spotted a burning apartment block and stopped to help the embattled fire brigade. The Surgeon used his aura of calm to prevent any panic and Nightshade created forcefield ladders and slides for residents on various levels to escape by.

The Surgeon tried to go in and do a final check, but the building was on the verge of collapse, and so bionic-legged Nightshade powered up to the top stairs - wearing breathing apparatus and enveloping himself in a forcefield - to ensure the building was totally evacuated.

He managed to get out just as the building collapsed in on itself.

The team were hailed as heroes by the fire brigade, residents and news teams on the scene. The Surgeon discovered, from the fire chief, that the blaze was believed to have started in the basement meth lab.

As the clean-up crews moved in, the heroes drove a bit deeper into Devil Heights and found themselves at the Dilbert Street Underpass.

Captain Morgan

A very brief discussion with the homeless guardians known as The Morlocks, and their leader, Curly, and the distribution of the food they had brought with them, led to The Agents being introduced to Captain Morgan, the homeless character interviewed in the press about the disappearances and who had claimed to have seen the "silver dragon".

Morgan led them deep into the tunnels, away from the abandoned subway tracks, deeper into maintenance and finally sewer tunnels - with a brief pause to show them the old graffiti about "The Legend of Exsoupalot".

The deeper our heroes found themselves, the more bricks they started to notice fallen from the walls and the more bare earth was visible beneath...

The Monster!

...and then suddenly, erupting from one particularly large patch of earth, came an enormous worm-like creature with vicious clawed paws that ripped at the air in front of the shocked agents.

Skyscraper felt slightly impotent in the fight - until Nightshade tossed him his dagger to use - while The Surgeon was, naturally, concerned that his sonic powers would bring the ceiling down on them all.

Captain Morgan had already beat a hasty retreat as the three men executed a more restrained fighting withdrawal until The Surgeon opted to flee back to the nearest domed - and more secure - location they had passed through. From there he would co-ordinate the masterplan he'd devised to conquer the beast from below!!!

Their plan was to draw the creature into this area, so Skyscraper could make use of his increased height, The Surgeon could bring the roof down and Nightshade could create a forcefield umbrella to protect them, while allowing the monster to be trapped and - hopefully- crushed in the falling masonry, while they retreated (once Skyscraper had returned to normal size) back into a side passage.

The plan was going well and Skyscraper was landing some meaty blows on the monster, although it was clawing him quite nastily as well, until he noticed - through the gradually widening hole in the ceiling, as earth and rubble continued to fall, dislodged by The Surgeon's blasts, a half-finished tower block. In fact, the very one he had been working on when he was "zapped" by a falling meteorite and gained his superpowers.

The slick, silvery monster was trapped, by a combination of falling materials. Then Skyscraper decided his best option was to grow large again and try to pull himself through the ground and prevent the building from toppling completely into the sinkhole The Surgeon's blasts had opened up!

Unfortunately, he wasn't quick enough! Instead, Skyscraper just managed to pull himself out of the ground as the building collapsed - pinning him under a mess of scaffolding, girders, I-beams, window frames, bricks etc

The Surgeon easily navigated his way back out of the tunnels, with Nightshade following and, after a quick explanation to the homeless community, made their way to the sight of the collapsed building... along with a couple of news helicopters, a TV crew and the emergency services.

By the time rescue teams had freed Skyscraper enough that it was safe for him to shrink down, Nick Law had turned up on the scene and taken charge. To say he wasn't pleased was an understatement. Having called in some favours already to find the necessary equipment to save Skyscraper, he demanded a debriefing from The Surgeon and then set about organising a team of professionals to come in and excavate the - now refilled - sinkhole for proof of The Surgeon's claims about a giant snake creature.

From the description he was given, Nick believed the creature to have been an ajolote or Baja worm lizard that had been somehow transported across the country from its native habit and then affected by the meteorite that had transformed Skyscraper.

A "Normal-Sized" Ajolote

He later suggested that maybe slipping it one of Skyscraper's "reducto" pills might have shrunk the creature back to normal size and saved him - and the city - a major headache.

At least no-one had stolen the car...

Gangs Of Knight City (part one) ...

2011-04-04T12:00:00.001+01:00

artwork by Patrick Zircher, from ORGANIZED CRIMES by Ken Cliffe (FGU 2019)

SHAMROCK DIARIES: Irish street gang with a history dating back to the 19th Century when the milk delivery boys of the old Shamrock Dairies in Devil Heights formed their own 'protective union'. The biggest and meanest gang in the city these days, partially due to legacy membership as whole families have been enveloped in the organisation over the generations.Originally known as The Shamrock Dairies, they changed the gang name to Diaries in 1985 after the release of the Chris Rea album - apparently their boss at the time was a big Chris Rea fan!

THE MORLOCKS: A small (12-strong) gang operating in Devil Heights, they are the self-appointed guardians of the "tunnel grubbers" - a homeless community inhabiting part of the abandoned tunnel system under Knight City. Their leader is called Curly Johnson and they mainly patrol the area of the Dilbert Street Underpass and the subway tunnel system in that part of Devil Heights.

THE BLOOD BARONS: Sworn enemies of The Shamrock Diaries. They primarily operate in and around the industrial area of Seleborne, but stray into Devil Heights for the occasional rumble with the Shamrock Diaries boys. The second largest gang in the city, their colours/uniforms is a strange mix of old school punk and Goth. A lot of members boast of their obsessions with death, the undead, vampires etc

CHAINSAW SEX QUEENS: A small fem-gang, heavy into drug-dealing and running strong-arm protection rackets in the borough of Ryde. They operate mainly in the streets around the XXX cinemas, adult 'specialist' shops and sleazy - often nameless - drinking establishments that fester in that borough.

HeroPress Launches New Titles...

2011-04-02T12:00:00.022+01:00

This morning at WonderCon in San Francisco, Sean Gentry - publisher of HeroPress Comics - announced a new spin-off title from the popular Agents Of COMPASS: Kokopelli, focusing on the adventures of the Agents' latest probationary recruit.

"The first issue alone sees Kokopelli tackling ancient Egyptian priests and dog-headed monsters on the campus of Miskatonic University. It must be Tuesday," he joked.

Gentry added that his staff were also hard-at-work on a second new release, The Watchman, about the fan-favourite, time-traveling war hero.

Dunwich Asylum For The Criminally Insane

2011-03-25T12:00:00.172Z

Approaching Dunwich Asylum, across Dyer Bay, from the north

Dunwich Asylum For The Criminally Insane occupies the entirety of Keech Island in Dyer Bay, Knight City.

Originally a Union fortress during the Civil War, it later became a hospital, then an insane asylum and finally - with the advent of the meta-gene "situation and its attendant problems (as well as benefits) - a maximum security "asylum for the criminally insane".

Ariel view of Dunwich Asylum, looking to the north.
The lighthouse is off to the right

Director of Operations here is Dr Oram Liefhouse, author of Do Real Men Wear Masks? - overtly a critique of the obsession with so-called "superheroes", superhero comics and HeroPress in particular, but actually a study of the emotional 'masks' we all wear in our day-to-day lives.

Dr Oram Liefhouse

Liefhouse is also the city's foremost advocate of the SPEAR movement, which aims to take young adults and shape them into better people - through strict organisation and discipline. He makes sure members of SPEAR are on street corners everyday handing out 'recruitment' leaflets to potential new members; inviting them to introductory talks at public halls around the city.

Dr Leifhouse

Dr Chester LeHavre, Doctor Leifhouse's assistant

A small detachment of CHESS "enforcers" are stationed on the island, but are only allowed within the walls of Dunwich with Dr Liefhouse's permission. Their job, primarily, is the recapture of any escaped "superpowered" residents although they can be called in should a riot or similar disturbance erupt.

As access is - understandably - restricted to this facility, a great deal of myth and rumour has built up over the year about what exactly goes into the treatment of patients here, especially those with meta-gene abilities.

When permitted, access is either via the road bridge from Selebourne, via the sea (there is a harbour on the south-west side of Keech Island) or air (near the harbour is a small heliport).

Unlike their depiction in comic books and movies, costumed characters incarcerated here are not allowed to keep their costumes, gadgets etc In fact, part of Dr Leifhouse's regime is that they are stripped - as much as possible - of any reminders of their alter ego, down to referring to them by their birth names rather than their chosen supervillainous codename or identity.

Particularly troublesome patients will eventually find themselves relocated to Ward 19, although no-one has ever spoken of what particular treatment is offered in that isolated area.

Exterior view of East wing

Patient undergoing corrective surgery

A treatment chair

The infamous "Ward 19"

Not all cells are solitary - depending on the particular issues a patient has

Current patients include:

Maria Von Snoot aka Dizz-E

The unclassifiable "Patient Zero"

Kathleen Pendergast aka Fallen Angel

Greg Butts aka The Human Snake

Issue Two Teaser: "Urban Myth Blamed For Disappearances"

2011-03-22T12:00:00.000Z

Clipping from Knight City Herald, March 5, 2011

The Legend of Exsoupalot: subterranean graffiti near the homes of the 'Tunnel Grubbers'

Miskatonic University...

2011-03-20T12:00:00.035Z

Campus layout - slightly adapted from Chaosium's 1987 Miskatonic U. Graduate Kit

Click to embiggen

Established in 1690, Miskatonic University in Knight City is a mixture of the old and new, with the majority of its very old holdings being located in the Lower Campus, between Garrison Street, College Street and West Street, south of the Manuxet, while the bulk of its campus sits at the end of Aylesbury Street in the borough of Ryde.

Total enrollment at the university is presently 2,625 men and 2,427 women (5,052 in total), overseen by a faculty of 1,944 and 2,699 support staff.

While it offers a broad syllabus of subjects for study the university is actually best known internationally as the inspiration for many of the place names and characters in the work of 1920's pulp horror author HP Lovecraft, who was known to have visited on a number of occasions.

In recognition of Lovecraft's affinity for the university, 1966 the Derleth Library was renamed the Lovecraft Library.

With the rising growth in global recognition of Lovecraft's work, the university has also seen a large increase in tourism - which "seekers of knowledge" traveling from around the world to try and find a copy of Lovecraft's fictional dread Necronomicon amongst the university's stacks.

Some come away slightly disappointed that it isn't the moody, Gothic environment, full of shadows and arcane lore, that they imagined - but a modern, thriving university campus - but most are just delighted to recognise names from books and movies and feel they walking in the footsteps of HP Lovecraft.

The university gift shop also does a roaring trade in Lovecraft-themed memorabilia, as well as its own university-branded merchandise.

Upper Campus

The Warrens (student housing)

Allan Halsey School Of Medicine

Jermyn Hall Of Anthropological Studies

Miskatonic University School Of Medicine, Munoz Clinic

The Twisted Quad, looking in the direction of the Lovecraft Library from the Jermyn Hall

Another view of Twisted Quad, Lovecraft Library (left) and Tillinghast Science Center (ahead)

The campus grounds

The Lovecraft Library

Lower Campus

Atwood Science Hall, Lower Campus, South of the Manuxet River

Munroe Residence Dormitory

Richard Upton Pickman Dormitory

Armitage Library

Coming Attractions...

2011-03-15T12:00:00.018Z

After the excitement, thrills and spills of issue one, here's some teasers of what's scheduled for The Agents Of C.O.M.P.A.S.S. down the road...

Issue Two: An urban legend comes to life as the agents investigate mysterious disappearances in Devil Heights.

Issue Three: A dinner party turns into a man-hunt as the agents take a trip that's out of this world and "straight on 'til morning".

Issue Four: An old enemy shows his face and one of the agents finds himself on the wrong side of the C.H.E.S.S. board.

Knight City's Original Punk Rockers...

2011-03-14T12:00:00.000Z

As well as cutting-edge technology, Knight City is also famous for being at the forefront of the American punk rock movement "back in the day" with the arrival on the scene of The Bondage Girls.

They took the world by storm in the '80s with their outrageous stage shows and extreme behaviour off-stage and while their music was described as 'trash punk', it also contained early elements of rap and distinct African influences.

The Bondage Girls were:

Tyke (real name Edward Kyte), the foul-mouthed lead singer who was crippled in a gang-related shooting and now spends most of his days propping up the bar in The Little Bar in the Central Business District.
Brad McStravick, the violent guitarist, who now owns Woodsgate Studios in Arkdale and produces many of today's top acts.
Daddy 'Bud' Auxin, on backing vocals and anything else that came to hand. After The Bondage Girls split, he joined Terminal Leaf and then carved a name for himself as a successful solo performer and songwriter. He is now a joint owner of The Little Bar.

Tyke, Brad McStravick and 'Bud'

The Bondage Girls' albums:

No Preplanning
Weren't Bad (featuring their top ten hit: Digging A Tunnel)
Progression
Conscious-free Brothers OST (soundtrack to the surrealist, gangster film by Flotex Films)
Live In Knight City
That's Not What I'd Call An Album
The Biggest Sell-Out

They gained enormous notoriety for such vulgar acts as parading strippers through hotels, appearing on stage as whip-wielding nuns, faking horrible acts with stuffed ferrets, showering their fans with beer and spittle, running amok in a senior citizens' club, consuming large amounts of vodka martini cocktails, kidnapping reporters, fighting with their minders etc

Their lyrical content also courted incredible controversy, veering from intelligent, cutting satire to outright obscenity - no taboo was sacred. To this day about 25 per cent of their back catalogue is still blacklisted by the courts and can NEVER be played on the radio.

Consequently tickets to their gigs were like gold-dust! The band imploded after their final album - Biggest Sell Out - and the consequent world tour in '88/89.

The band members went their own way, only really getting back together in the early 21st Century .Although then it was more on a social - rather than professional - basis, and no worthwhile music was produced from these brief, and increasingly strained, "get-togethers".

Almost Complete Discography

WEREN'T BAD (WWLP1, March 1985) 1. Bondage Girls At The Forum 2. Girl 20 3. Narcissus 4. Freefall 5. Knobs & Knockers 6. Digging A Tunnel 7. Pangolin 8. Please Them 9. Last Summer	PROGRESSION (WWLP2, April 1985) 1. Down To The Sea 2. I Take The Grasses off The Graves 3. Down In The Cotton Fields 4. I Want To Kill Myself 5. The Planet of Love 6. Social Statement 7. Progression 8. C-Catherine 9. Suspicious Immediately 10. Shut Up!
CONSCIOUS-FREE BROTHERS (VLP1, August 1985) 1. Conscious-free Brothers 2. I Glanced At The Party 3. I Love Her Hair 4. Interlude 5. Raunchy 6. It's All Gone Soft 7. Sad To Happy 8. Too Unstoppables 9. Listen To Me People 10. Pregnancy	"LIVE" - RARITIES (CR@P 91, April 1987) 1. That's The Sort Of Person I Am 2. Mass Santa Do 3. Mandy Smith 4. Hanging On The Telephone 5. Let It Be 6. America 7. Demolition 8. I'm From Outer Space 9. No Strings On My Guitar 10. Tommy What? Tiny Turbo 11. You're Special 12. Jungle Noises 13. Out of Body, Out of Mind 14. Bryonny 15. B@st@rd 16. The Stairs Look Down 17. Nous Sommes En France
WHERE'S NICK? (WWEP3, January 1986 - deleted) 1. Hartley, Vince And Burchett 2. Wet Look 3 & 4. Tracks lost.	THAT'S NOT WHAT WE'D CALL AN ALBUM (WWLPBG3, July 1987) 1. Write That Down 2. I Can't Touch Her 3. Excellent Ending 4. Look To Yourself 5. Well Here We Are 6. Come In Here 7. I'm Going Back To The Office Cynthia 8. I'm Sorry - Did You? 9. The Cupboard 10. Boots
BIGGEST SELL OUT (NGS - BG4, March 1988) 1. Down Californi' Way 2. Mouth Organ 3. Beechmont Rap 4. Samba Carnival 5. Booked My Reservation 6. Biggest Sell Out 7. Chendo Nuts 8. I'm In Love With A Girl From Devil Heights 9. Conga Carnival Scratch 10. The Sound Of Sh*t 11. Ba Ba Black Sheep 12. Stinking Scratch Elvis	ABSOLUTELY NO PREPLANNING All master tapes and recordings of this album - The Bondage Girls' first - have been lost or destroyed.

Illustration By Pete

Nick Law Speaks...

2011-03-14T02:33:00.000Z

"I'd refer you to the classic British science-fiction series Doctor Who. We are Torchwood and C.H.E.S.S. is UNIT."

- during one of his rare interviews, Nick Law was asked about the working relationship between C.O.M.P.A.S.S. and C.H.E.S.S.

The Secret And Fragmented History Of C.O.M.P.A.S.S.

2011-03-10T12:00:00.190Z

Compiled by me, with major input from Nimbus, Steve and John Stater.

"Always in motion is the future."

- Yoda, Empire Strikes Back

"You must unlearn what you have learned."

- Yoda, Empire Strikes Back

Following Copernicus' death in the mid 1500s, a collection of like-minded scientists, philosophers and philanthropists originally formed the secretive European order known as the Céleste Ordre du Méta-Physique, Astrologique, Saint et Scientifique (C.O.M.P.A.S.S.) to protect and promote scientific principles whilst demystifying the mysterious and bringing injustices to light.

------ "" ------ ------ "" ------

However eventually rival secret organisations and cults, such as The Bavarian Illuminati and The Rosicrucians began to spread rumours that C.O.M.P.A.S.S. was really a mnemonic for the words to a ritual, one which if ever spoken could ... well, nobody knows what it would do.

The Illuminati gossip mongers declared that the meaning of the name has been stricken from most records and wiped from most minds...

------ "" ------

Over time, the small group of individuals that made up C.O.M.P.A.S.S. grew in number, expanding its influence across much of the western world whilst investigating and utilizing what in those times were deemed the miraculous and empowered.

That was until the early 1900s when the Order suddenly and unexpectedly collapsed in upon itself.

No one now knows quite what happened but, by the coming of the First World War, the handful of remaining members had fled to the distant corners of the planet.

However, by the outbreak of World War Two, one senior member of C.O.M.P.A.S.S. had made his way into the White House and managed to convince the American Government to establish the Company of Allied Super Soldiers, which gathered 'mystery men' of the Allied Forces to resist the nefarious plans of those who would guide an Axis assault on the rest of the world.

The legends of ‘Alpha Company' are written in the history books and their exploits still told today in the halls of power across the world.

In the post-war world, one of Alpha Company's founder members, Eagle 1 - blessed with longevity and a keen military mind - was tasked with ensuring that the ideals of the Company of Allied Super Soldiers was maintained in a world that now had to adapt to the dawn of the meta-power.

C.O.M.P.A.S.S. was restructured; placed under the authority on the American government and private individuals like Knight City's Nick Law (a distant descendant of one of its original members), whose wealth and influence helped to resurrect the ancient meta-scientific Order to fight for truth and justice.

At the spearhead of C.O.M.P.A.S.S. stands 'Alpha Company' and its Agents of C.O.M.P.A.S.S., once again ready to protect the world against injustice; in whatever form it takes.

------ "" ------ ------ "" ------

The pinoeering advances that Law Enterprises has made in the field of technology has been crucial as the world adapts to the increasing meta-gene phenomenon.

Nikola Tesla

Law Enterprises is often the go-to place for unusual technology that rises to the surface of understanding; there the best scientific minds work on the altruistic programmes of their employer.

However what the world is unaware of is what goes on under the hood of Law Industries. Deep in the foundations of Law Industries' central base of operations in Knight City lies an impregnable room that houses the C.O.M.P.A.S.S. "god-machine" supercomputer.

This hyper-advanced sentient technology (whose origins are in themselves wrapped in mystery, but are believed to include algorithms dating right back to Copernicus and Johannes Kepler, as well as early theoretical designs from Charles Babbage and Nikola Tesla) keeps a watchful eye on the world it resides deep within; always looking to defend the values of justice and right that are displayed in its partner.

The face of "Jason"

Law and C.O.M.P.A.S.S. share a deep connection and mutual trust clearly borne out of years of working together closely.

Its "mouth-piece" (and "face") throughout the entirety of Law Industries, as well as the current headquarters of The Agents of C.O.M.P.A.S.S., is the highly advanced artificial intelligence known as the Janus Computer Network (or "Jason").

Much more than a simple intranet or access portal to the World Wide Web, the JCN intelligently controls every automated aspect of the Law facilities, from food dispensers up to air conditioning, as well as running incalculable amounts of operational software for the company's numerous staff.

For the few with knowledge of the "puppetmaster" pulling the JCN's strings, there is a degree of concern as to who is actually running C.O.M.P.A.S.S. these days - is it really Nick Law or is it the mysterious supercomputer buried deep beneath Law Enterprises?

Issue One: Kidnapped Out Of Time & Space...

2011-03-09T09:00:00.005Z

Black Sun symbol

Snatched somehow from the express elevator they were riding up to their HQ at the top of the Law Tower, The Watchman, Nightshade, The Surgeon and Skyscraper found themselves chained to plinths in an old, German castle.

They soon learned, from Oberfuhrer Muller, that they were being held in Schloß Blut (Blood Castle) as prisoners of "The Black Sun" aka Kraken aka The Eternal Reich.

Muller, translating the words of his commander, explained to The Watchman (who he claimed to have met before - but when Watchman was looking older!), that Kraken had tried to kill him before (because of the crucial role he played in WWII in turning the Nazi tide), but fate had always found a way for him to escape or come back and so they had decided to simply remove him from the timestream and thus thwart fate that way.

For a while they were taunted - in German - from a balcony, by the group's leader, known as Totenkopf (or Herr Fuhrer), but then he retreated back into the depths of the castle, allowing Muller and an American collaborator - Dokter Amerika - to begin their experiments.

Oberfuhrer Muller

However, at that point it became clear that although the Nazi's knew all about Watchman (and had removed his pills, leaving him effectively powerless), they knew nothing of the other Agents Of C.O.M.P.A.S.S. - who they were merely holding as bargaining chips to get Watchman to behave.

Nightshade used his bionics to slip his shackles, Skyscraper grew large shattering his bonds and The Surgeon used his sonic powers to eventually vibrate himself free. Around this time he made the shocking discovery that Dokter Amerika was, in fact, an alternate reality version of himself - with the same face, voice and (almost identical) powers.

Doktor Amerika

A scientist - Professor Stein - up on the balcony was shouting commands, but the battle quickly devolved into chaos, with powerless Watchman trying to wrestle Dokter Amerika, Nightshade throwing up a hemisphere of darkness from which he launched a savage barrage of attacks at Muller and Skyscraper concentrated on the Nazi guards who were peppering him - rather ineffectually - with bullets.

In the end, Dokter Amerika fled, the Nazi guards were nearly all concussed by Skyscraper, Watchman found his "power-up" pills on Professor Stein and The Surgeon used his powers of trust and persuasion to convice the remaining soldiers, including Muller, to surrender.

As Muller led them across the courtyard of the castle, The Agents were bewildered by the strange orange sky, riven by rainbows and bolts of light, where giant eyes and mouths pulsed in and out of existence and doorways floated through the air before popping to nothingness.

Muller led the heroes to a tower where a rather anachronistic 'transporter' system was located. Unsure of whether to entirely trust Muller, eventually the agents realised they had no choice and allowed him to "send them home".

They found themselves back in the elevator, as it arrived at its destination and they were greeted by Nick Law's secretary, inviting them through the foyer for their meeting.

Rather crucially, Watchman had picked up the old cine-camera that was being used by one of the guards, standing on the balcony next to Professor Stein, and so had a record of not only the fight, but the technology the multidimensional Nazi organisation had access to.

Nick Law would find this very interesting!

Issue One Teaser: The Face Of The Enemy...

2011-03-08T21:00:00.012Z

Transported suddenly from the safety of the LAW Tower, the Agents of C.O.M.P.A.S.S. find themselves prisoners
in Schloß Blut!

There they discover they are being held by:

"The Black Sun Rising,
The Kraken That Never Sleeps,
The Eternal Reich!"

And its minions answer to:

ROBOT-HITLER... with frickin' laser-beam eyes!

Agents Of C.O.M.P.A.S.S. Meeting Agenda...

2011-03-07T18:00:00.004Z

And So It Begins...

2011-03-04T21:00:00.003Z

AGENTS OF

ALPHA COMPANY -

Commander: Nick Law
Field Agents:

The Church And 'Superheroes'...

2011-03-02T12:00:00.062Z

A Brief History of Patronage of the Church

by Steve

At the turn of the Millennium when the meta-normal situation accelerated the Christian church held a global summit [in Rome], where denominational heads gathered to address the implications of "the meta-normal effect".

It became clear that amongst the two billion worldwide Christians there would be many in their congregations who would be affected by the meta-normal effect.

In addition the church also needed to construct a robust opposition to the arcane and occult which theologically caused them great concern.

The conclusion was that transparency was necessary in any gathering of meta-normals so as not to cause undue concern of a power-base being constructed.

The concept of patronage was then birthed. Any meta-normal who was a member of a Christian faith community could claim local patronage.

A Chapter House

This makes them members of a national network of meta-normals who can make use of national facilities called Chapter Houses that are operated by the cross-denominational church. This might include the sharing of information, running repairs, accommodation, even counselling and support.

In return there is a five per cent tithe of time, where meta-normals provide community service. These acts of good deeds have had an amazingly positive effect on a worldwide scale, providing disaster relief, addressing food and water shortages etc.

For some meta-normals the national patronage provides a stipend for full-time work.

Chapter Houses are designated by the name given to the ‘Patron Saint’ of the country they are built in; and are often old churches refurbished. The Chapter Houses vary in how they are equipped depending on the national government regulations.

Again. in the interests of transparency. the national government determine the facilities of the Chapter House not the church. In many countries a Chapter House is nothing more than a hotel facility with a conference room.

As patrons, the church has invested heavily in technology, particularly invested in its ‘war on the occult’.

Its Light Brigade (based in the Vatican) is an agency sponsored by the church that deals with this growing occult problem, often drafting in local meta-normals for support.

Rachel, Rockette and Formula Dee...

2011-02-28T12:00:00.004Z

Rockette

Rachel Knight was an up-and-coming driver on the global Formula Dee Grand Prix circuit - an American-backed counterpart to the European-centric Formula One racing.

In 2007, she married Knight City's pre-eminent horror author, the wheelchair-bound Tim Knight. Attending the wedding was her boss, billionaire philanthropist Nick Law who met his future wife, authoress Clare Grant (a friend of Tim's), there - and so is forever in Rachel's debt!

A member of Nick's Team Flamers, Rachel, just back from honeymoon in time for the 2008 season, volunteered to test out an experimental new fuel mix, much to her husband's dismay.

Unfortunately the volatile mixture exploded, seemingly vaporising Doctor Snadien Lankanotvitch, the Eastern European scientist who had concocted the mixture, but leaving Rachel relatively unharmed and gifted with an incredible collection of superpowers!

Although extensive investigations (both by Nick Law's security office and the Knight City police) concluded that the explosion was an accident, Rachel still suspects that it might have been sabotage - although she can't prove it.

Now with her portfolio of metahuman powers, she withdrew from racing and became the team's spokesperson as well as a part-time superhero.

This change in Rachel's position within the team opened her seat up to new driver Nick Naztilli, who joined Antonio Wasp on the grid. In their first season together for Team Flamers (2009) they took the coveted Constructor's Cup and Wasp claimed the Driver's Title.

Nick Naztilli


Antonio Wasp

Although there are usually eight teams competing in the competition every year, the Flamer's main competition comes from Team Zerro:

and Blue Clover:

Muhat Mecoate

Paddy O'Dawes

The Formula Dee racing calendar, between April and November, each season is usually:

Montreal, Canada
Long Beach, California
Silverstone, UK
Watkin's Glen, New York
Zandvoort 1, Netherlands
Monaco
Nurburgring, Germany
Budapest, Hungary
Zhuhai, China
Sepang, Malaysia

Rockette illustration by Greywulf, driver portraits by Gutt Wrench

Who Is Nick Law?

2011-02-26T20:12:00.003Z

Nick Law

(as portrayed by Bruce Willis in the forthcoming movie: I Am The Law!)

Adventurer, inventor, philanthropist, billionaire, industrialist, property tycoon, owner of the Knight City Capes baseball team and the Flamers Formula Dee motor racing team, and movie producer Nick Law is one of the great names of modern Knight City ... and almost certainly the richest man within its boundaries. He also a commander, and financier, of The Agents Of C.O.M.P.A.S.S.

A sketch of Nick Law from his cameo appearance in the HeroPress comic: The Patrollers

Law has devoted his life to the betterment of mankind through the study of its past and future. A true 'futurist', he has often stepped in - when the cause deserved it - to solve the city's problems in a very 'hands-on' sort of way.

As a young man he left school and established his own advertising agency - Flotex - in 1981, which invested in a bizarre Australian horror movie that grossed millions in America. Nick then used this money to make the first of the epic Killer Tomatoes From Beyond Mars films (which have spawned multiple sequels) and finance his worldwide archaeological digs.

Nick went on his first Tunguska dig with Zolotov in 1983 and spent four months hacking through deepest Siberia on the fruitless hunt for alien artifacts.

In 1984, on his famous Egyptian dig, he uncovered the lost pyramid of Euclopes The Small, The Boy King, and a year after he tried to repeat his Tunguska dig, but was pushed off course by fierce magnetic storms and ended up in Tibet.

While trapped in a hidden Tibetan valley, LAW Enterprises went public with a ten-times oversubscribed floatation. Who can forget the massive "Have You Seen Nick?" campaign, handled by his own agency. The irony, of course, was that no-one had - he was lost in Tibet!

The sole survivor of the Tibetan expedition, he was nursed back to health by monks who trained him to master his mental faculties in record time - what takes some people a lifetime to learn, Law learnt in six months before returning to Knight City.

Nick vanished again, this time for three months, in 1995 when he led an expedition to South America, looking for the the Golden Condor of the Incas. The expedition was trapped by an avalance in the Andes - Nick doesn't like to talk about this period of his life.

From the company floatation, he bought up a struggling electronics firm - Microcompasitor Components - and after three months of asset stripping tunred it around and started exporting computer parts to Japan. Two thousand new jobs were created in Knight City and he poached Professor Claus Zepplin from CHILD Industries to run it for him.

Nick set a new standard in micro-electronics and was made a Knight Commander by the Queen of England in the New Years Honours List, for his services to global commerce.

Good friends with Mayor Peter Salmonson, Law was once a familiar figure around the city and in the newspapers, but in the last few years he has almost disappeared from public view.

So busy with all his activities and rarely seen outside the CBD-dominating LAW tower these days, he is, nevertheless, one of the men, over the last 20 years, who helped make Knight City the major East Coast metropolis it is today.

Owner of:

LAW Studios in Lyndhurst: This massive, sprawling complex of stages, outdoor lots, special effects houses and editing suites is home to Flotex Films, the producers of such popular movie franchises as the long-running Killer Tomatoes From Beyond Mars science-fiction comedy films and the Anton Dean Top Secret espionage/action film series, starring Pierce Brosnan.
LAW Park in The Central Business District: Home to the Knight City Capes baseball team.. Owned by Nick Law, the team has had a lot of money thrown at it. The Capes have a loyal following and merchandising is just one more lucrative branch of the LAW empire.

Coming in 2011...

2010-12-01T22:00:00.000Z

Taking Back The Streets of Knight City...