Io Black

@ioblack.bsky.social

271 Followers 178 Following

Co-creator of drugsandwires.fail (on hiatus). Tech, gaming, roleplaying, occasional moments of lucidity. Marketing was a mistake.

Passage from a book: "This idea of some sort of quantified "goetic energy" expended by spell-casting, which commonly became known as "spell points," quickly began to gain traction. In the following issue of APA-L, John Hertz replied to Johnstone, "I rather like the idea of using up spell-points. I do think they should be restorable by rest." One issue later, Hilda Hannifen expressed more qualified enthusiasm: "I agree that spell casting should be rejuvenated at a faster pace than Lee allows but also at a slower pace than you [Johnstone] would allow: say, one point per hour game time. I like to see limits on magic use as that tends to make a more wary, challenged game group." These deliberations are remarkable for their complete dismissal of the published clarifications of spell memorization in the Strategic Review, of which all parties surely were aware by this point."
The classic Jes Goodwin Eldar Exodite drawing from Warhammer 40,000's Second Edition: barbarian elven types riding around on dinosaurs with a massive, pterosaur-encircled citadel looming in the background.
Magazine ad for the generic RPG supplement "Magic Kingdom Simulgnt," taken from the March 1989 issue of the Japanese console gaming magazine Beep.
Picture of a red bottle of eau de toilette with the following description: "RED SHIRT is a made for the young, modern man of the galaxy who doesn't hesitate: who revels in being alive today. Red Shirt is bright, clean and direct with top notes of Apple, Lemon, Lime and Rosemary with base notes of Cedar, Musk, Amber, Tonka and Leather. Red Shirt fragrance instills confidence, showing the universe your strength, your valor, your devotion to living each day as though it could be your last. A 3.4-ounce bottle sells for $39.50."
Another type-written page of German text discussing problems with a Maoist sympathizer.
A yellowed page of typewritten German text recounting a conversation with potential Maoist recruits.
Cover of a Korean-language version of the Basic D&D adventure module "King's Feast," featuring a cloaked, sword-wielding warrior and a female elven archer posing against a golden background. The TSR name is nowhere to be seen; neither is the D&D logo, which has been replaced with a screaming red "Role Playing Game" in gothic lettering.
Washed-out photo of a "Limited Edition" Korean-language boxed set split into two halves: one with a soaring dragon promoting an "Advanced Set" of D&D rules, the other featuring a character collage from Group SNE's Crystania RPG.
Picture of the Sieg Zion game box originally posted on FromJapan.com, which depicts a cockpit-eye view of mobile suit pilot locking onto a target from behind.
A pile of eight headshots and character sketches on A4 paper, primarily in pencil, alternating between comic book and anime styles.
Screenshot from Mohrta showing the chunky, coffin-wielding golem Ru'uk posed in front of the white-stoned remains of a mausoleum.
The box of the mighty “Barbarian” fireworks battery, featuring 280 shots and all the sub-Conan imagery you could possibly want.
German "Cyborg" fireworks package from 2019, showcasing a cheaply-rendered 'borg lady with a glowing Terminator eye.
Picture of a German fireworks product called "Jokers (sic) Inferno," dominated by an evil clown made up of equal parts fire and AI slop.
Photo of a package of fireworks, featuring a fire-eyed (and flagrantly AI-generated) cyber-wolf surmounted by the words “WILD THROAT.”
Screencap of Don Draper from the TV show Mad Men, drinking liquor in what appears to be a fit of depression. The words "marketing was a mistake" are imposed on the image in the style of a subtitle or closed caption.
Screenshot of a spreadsheet comparing Japanese text, romanizations, and confirmed translations for a small portion of the almost 300 place-names in the Wares Blade rulebook.
AI-generated slopshot of a generic special ops type aiming a rifle at an air conditioning unit surrounded by a wheel of gibberish options: - Cotdemt - Lergevhtiepsappe - Guwht dade - Jalvdonre
Screenshot from Deus Ex, showing off an empty, rainy Paris city street at night. The majority of the view is taken up by shopfronts, whose advertisements add a pop of color to the drab beige building they occupy.
Screenshot of one of Deus Ex's ending screens, featuring a quote superimposed on a bank of static-filled computer monitors: "YESTERDAY WE OBEYED KINGS AND BENT OUR NECKS BEFORE EMPERORS. BUT TODAY WE KNEEL ONLY TO TRUTH ... - KAHLIL GIBRAN"
Ink sketch by comics artist Jean "Mœbius" Giraud, showing a long-haired warrior woman riding on the back of a flying creature broadly resembling a stubby pterodactyl with a bird-like beak. A desert landscape stretches out below them.
The cover of Wares Blade: The Renewal RPG book, released in 1994. A group of adventurers in fantasy garb are assembled in a cluster in front of one of the game's signature Ryude mecha.
The back of a jewel case containing a dodgy copy of Quake 3 Arena, declaring: “Quake 3 Arena sets new standards in PC gaiming with some of the man amazing graphics and hardcore multi-player action ever seen. With new power weapons along with some of the old classics, you can lay waste to the battlefield as you strive to be #1 Game Features: •Completely new graphics engine developed by ID Software using the intest technology to achieve both smooth and curved surfaces, realistic textures and enviromental effects such as for and flowing jave just to name a favaruot. * 3 Different player classes to choose from Light, Medium, and Heaven all with their own strengths and weakness including armor protection and player speed. * A deadly arsenal of weapons ranging from shotguns, to rocket launchers, lightning guns to flame throwers, and even the dreaded BFG. Choose the right weapon for the right situation, and you just migth survive. • A vast array of items to help you stay alive. With health kits and body armor to better shield you, along with the feared "Quad Damage", with which you can cause havok upon your faces. *State of the Art Enemy Intelligent Play against computer bots and if you have what it takes to defeat these deadly drones. * Full support for 3d Accelerators including 3dix: 3aNewt OpenGL at Direct 3d, however Quake 3 is optimized for the VooDoo 3 line of accelerator cards.”
Screenshot from Lunacid, showing a first-person perspective of a violet-tinged gothic hallway illuminated by massive glass windows. A red-eyed Vampire Thrall approaches the player, about to catch a faceful of sword.
The processor - a smug, nerdy, and distressingly bulbous head perched on top of some technological whatsit - takes data from the equally dorky-looking controller, who thankfully has some semblance of a body.
The cover of How Software Works by Ron White, illustrated by Pamela Drury Wattenmaker. Behind a cutaway of a computer monitor, three doofy little homunculi are pictured picking items off of a conveyor belt: a bizarre three-legged fountain pen, representing “Word Processing,” a data table with accordion limbs and neck, representing “Spreadsheets,” and a robot/filing cabinet hybrid, representing the “Database.”
Snapped in a German supermarket: a photo of a box of official Italian Brainrot Trading Card Game booster packs, featuring a sludgy imAI image of some manner of spaghetti homunculus tooling around on a Vespa.
A representative collection of print media relating to tabletop role-playing in Japan, from an issue of '80s game book magazine Warlock to 2019's "buddy detective" RPG Futari Sousa.
A lineup of painted Ryude miniatures developed for the wargame Wares Legion, representing various machines from the Wares Blade setting.
Grayscale illustration from a Wares Blade supplement, showing a grinning, sword-wielding warrior dressed in Middle Eastern-influenced garb posing in front of a Ryude, one of the game's signature mecha.
Promo art of some generic space marine type standing in a equally nondescript futuristic environment with neon piping, leaving just enough space for the game's title: MADNESS BEVERAGE:
The cover of Massive Attack’s album Mezzanine, depicting a close-up of a black stag beetle on a stark white background.
A compilation of reader comments from D&W's Tapas era: "he's looking pretty good with a beard" "The beard suits Dan really good! :D" "Beard Dan is why I get up in the morning." "not sure how I feel about the beard, but it's a good look." "mmmmm dan should keep the beard :D" "... it kind of bothers me how much I like his new scruffy beard. dang you, self." "Beardy Dan is best dan"
Cell phone picture of the driver's side door of a car. A magnetized graphic has been slapped onto the outside, with bold green letters that proclaim "DINGLEJAM RADIO."
"I sighed and reached into the drawer, questing for anything that might still have slightest hint of a high in it. No dice. Only crumpled pill wrappers and empty containers, ghost of hits come and gone. I could rattle off the names without even looking: there was Chew-Z, Substance D, the Squid disc from Strange Days, a vial of Neuroin from Minority Report. There was even a Tek chip from TekWar-which, as highs go, was better than William Shatner's "writing“ but a good deal worse than his 1977 spoken-word cover of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", a song the Beatles maintained had nothing to do with drugs despite the fact that its initials spelled out "L.S.D." And past those, all the way in the back, I could just about feel a dusty syringe that had in happier days contained good old-fashioned heroin, which any wirehead worth their salt would recognize as the drug that Jones the dolphin from Johnny Mnemonic was addicted to. William S. Burroughs was a heroin junkie too, but there was nothing cyberpunk about him-not unless you factored in David Cronenberg's 1991 adaptation of The Naked Lunch, which happened to star Alex "Robocop" Murphy himself: Peter Weller."
An Amazon store listing showing an endless cavalcade of sketchy strategy guides for Clair Obscur, most of which were likely slopped together by ChatGPT and its ilk.
A bar chart from SteamDB showing Steam game releases by year, growing from just 70 in 2006 to 18,764 in 2024.
The notorious "Zombie Santa" loading screen from Call of Duty in all of its six-fingered glory.
Cover of a catalogue for Bandai's "Image Play Game Do Series" originally posted by the Twitter user FMVTowns, showing a selection of game boxes arranged on a coffee table, accented by some random potted plants and two cups of espresso.
Photo of a game of Space Cobra: Final Weapon in progress, taken from the Japanese gaming blog TROOPERS. A glossy map in fetching pinks and blues occcupies the center of the table, surrounded by reference cards and a tray of cardboard chits.
Screen capture from the BBC mini-series Cold Lazarus, showing a bubble-canopied hover-vehicle proceeding down a deserted, tree-lined street. In the distance, large, beige buildings shaped like mushrooms dominate the skyline.
A monochrome drawing of an unnamed neighborhood in Unylsk, cheerless low-lying houses and featureless apartment blocks on full display. A large pile of garbage and detritus can be seen in the foreground.
Panel from Drugs & Wires showing a nondescript gray hotel flanked by two nuclear cooling towers. A neon sign at the top of the building reads "L. L. Livanov."
Panel from Drugs & Wires, showing Fixer glowering as Shitparade explains: "Why d'you think I hang around your sad-sack VCR mausoleum all day. Even popping down to the Alco-Hole is a goddamned marathon."
A panel from Drugs & Wires, showing Troy and her sentient luggage being interrogated by two customs agents in a gray hall that's 90% empty, save for an arrivals board.
Another Dates & Wires background, showing a deserted shopping street. A row of dumpsters occupies the left side of the image, while the right is taken up by a rickety-looking store with large, glass-lined wooden doors.
Background image from Dates & Wires, showing a gloomy and largely empty alleyway lined with disreputable-looking shops selling various second-hand electronic goods.
Panel from Drugs & Wires showing the entrance of the Grand Unyl, whose grand golden signage only barely distracts from the sterile walls, barbed wire, and barred windows.
Mockup of a fake VHS-style video casette marked "Deltamax Advanced Digital Storage." A handwritten label indicates that this one contains "Sim Basic Medical Ethics."
Screenshot of the PC adventure game Void & Meddler, showing Dan standing in the midst of a rainy street lit by neon advertising at nighttime. A dialogue box reads: "This is the last time I buy unmarked medication from Vitaly. 'Reputable source,' my ass."
A mockup Netflix-style show page for "Cowboy Beep Boop," starring the hideously photoshopped visage of Mr. John Cho as Speed Bagel.
Extract from the Stradania travel guide produced for the D&W Volume 1 Kickstarter: "The Polukrug is also home to the country's tiny space agency, Strakosmos, which shares its offices with a multi-level marketing business on the third floor. Other than a discreet listing in the shopping directory, the main giveaway to the agency's presence is the awkwardly named and -sculpted Elegy to Mankind‘s Helpers Among the Stars, a monument near the arcade's main entrances that commemorates the various dogs, mice, rabbits, tortoises, mealworms and zebrafish launched into orbit by the Soviet Union. A particular standout is the life-sized statue of Korol, one of ten amputee newts carried aboard the Bion 7 satellite in 1985."
He proceeds down the rows of desks until he lands at- INSTRUCTOR (hesitating in mid-return) Alina. Lin looks up from her graphic, bloody doodles. LIN Uh huh? INSTRUCTOR What is the meaning of this? He holds the test in front of her. Lin merely shrugs. LIN I thought I did pretty well, personally. INSTRUCTOR Well? WELL? Look here! You've labeled the gluteus maximus as "rump steak"! These are human bodies, not- not- cuts of meat! LIN (cheerfully) Try telling that to my granny. You know, she was the only person who actually gained weight during the blockade. INSTRUCTOR (coldly) See me in my office. Ten minutes. The rest of you are dismissed.
The Drugs & Wires table at the MCM London Comic Con 2015, featuring Mary in a highly #aesthetic shirt surrounded by prints, postcards, and pre-D&W comic compilations.
Excerpt from the "Insider Edition" of Chapter 1, featuring a script page with a cut exchange between Dan and Lin, plus a doodle of the duo action.
First-ever promo image for Drugs & Wires (The Actual Webcomic) from 2015, featuring a moody-looking Dan, Lin eating noodles, and - for reasons that have since long left our collective memories - Vlad.
A series of three panels from the webcomic Drugs & Wires, showing the characters of Dan and Lin walking in front of a row of old Soviet-style buildings. DAN: "'Fighting for the dignity of all enhanced Stradanians.' What the hell are you even thinking? You've got no political experience! None! Who do you think is going to vote for you? You run an illegal mod clinic! Christ, you don't even have a real medical degree!" LIN: "So? Our new Health Minister hawked steroids to every football team in town. Our Finance Minister had a counterfeiting ring running out of his dacha. Didn't do them any harm."
The gently yellowed cover of a book entitled "GET FAXED! Amusing Faxes to Get Attention and Results". Two sample illustrations are shown: a skeleton sitting in an armchair with a speech bubble reading "I'm still waiting for your call," and a hyped-up office worker with the caption "let me guess... THE CHEQUE'S IN THE MAIL!"
A two-page spread from the book Dice Men, showing an early Dungeons & Dragons character sheet and a sketched D&D cover by legendary UK artist John Blanche featuring a squat, bestial dragon seizing an armored hero with its tail.
A two-page spread from the book Dice Men detailing the original founding of Games Workshop. The text is accompanied by a picture of the company’s founders and two pages of handwritten notes from their attempts to brainstorm a business name.