comic | ARGNet: Alternate Reality Gaming Network

fury-of-solace Emmett Furey, co-creator of the web-series Bumps in the Night and a staff writer for Comic-Book Resources wondered, “[d]id Bruce Wayne become Batman because he saw his parents murdered in an alley, or were his parents murdered in an alley to facilitate him becoming Batman, the protector that Gotham needed?” To explore the question, Furey donned the villain’s mask, assuming the titular role in Fury of Solace, a transmedia superhero experience.

Furey and his team released the first episode as a musical video entry to Dr Horrible’s Evil League of Evil application video process. The video introduced Fury of Solace, a supervillain who learned from an oracle named Augur that a young girl would save many lives as a superhero, but only if he killed her parents. By getting his hands dirty for the greater good, Fury of Solace helped create the superhero The Orphan (played by Laurel Rankin).

Episode 1.5 brought the audience into the action through an alternate reality game: Fury of Solace kidnapped Max Mason (played by Todd Livingston), the president and CEO of Mason International, and the video with clues to his location was password protected. A photo of a mysterious belt buckle helped players piece together the clues and unlock the newest video, where Fury of Solace listed out Max Mason’s many crimes. The adventure was concluded in Episode 2, an eight page online comic.

One month ago, we were happy to send out a Game Alert about Catching The Wish, the sequel to the 2003 alternate reality game Chasing The Wish. In the weeks since that announcement, the game has exploded onto computer screens everywhere with multiple websites, a rich and engrossing storyline, and interactivity that has added layer upon layer of immersive game play for the players following the story of Dale Sprague and his life-changing wish. The ARG is also tied in with Chasing The Wish: Book One, the first in a series of four comic books based on the storyline originally created by Dave Szulborski, who designed the first CTW and has since worked on projects like Art of the Heist and Who Is Benjamin Stove.

I was lucky enough to get a copy of the comic book last month, and even though I am not necessarily a fan of comics, the writing and artistic design were enough to keep me turning pages. With a script written by Jason Stackhouse, art by P. Emerson Williams and Jessica Kaos, and an overall creative vision by James Curcio, the comic is visually entertaining while delivering a concise and thrilling story. Book One is available through online venues, such as Indyplanet and New Fiction Publishing.

Tag: comic

Fury of Solace: Doing Evil So You Don’t Have To

Catching The Wish: Large and In Charge

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