The Steve Jackson Fighting Fantasy Collection 40th Anniversary boxset

The Steve Jackson Fighting Fantasy Collection 40th Anniversary boxset is released today in Japan, having been delayed from the end of last year.

The boxset includes the Japanese editions of Steve Jackson's Sorcery! quartet as well as his newest book, Secrets of Salamonis, and is available now.

The Fighting Fantasy 40th Anniversary celebration in Japan

The Steve Jackson Fighting Fantasy Collection 40th Anniversary boxset will now be released in Japan on 16th February 2024.

The boxset includes the Sorcery! quartet and Steve's newset book Secrets of Salamonis, and it is available for pre-order now.

Second Wave Fighting Fantasy Pre-orders are now open!

The latest wave of Fighting Fantasy miniatures is now available to pre-order from Blue Giant Studios/Atlantis Miniatures.

This wave of releases includes heroic characters like Chadda Darkmane, Yaztromo and Nicodemus, and villains such as Klash the Chaos Warrior, Lord Azzur, Baron Sukumvit and his brother Lord Carnuss, and the barbarian assassin Urzle Ironface.

Fighting Fantasy Legends - New stock available for pre-order!

Selected Fighting Fantasy Legends miniatures are now available for pre-order from Atlantis Miniatures. It is estimated that shipping will occur in early June.

The miniatures that can pre-ordered are the Bloodbeast, the Shape Changer, Shareella the Snow Witch, the Demonic Three (Zagor the Warlock, Balthus Dire, and Zharradan Marr), the Dark Lords (Razaak, Zanbar Bone, and the Archmage), and the Lizard King along with his Black Lion.

Your last chance to preorder your FFF4 T-shirts and badges!

Six weeks today, the doors will open on Fighting Fantasy Fest 4.

Many people will be collecting their Fighting Fantasy 40th anniversary T-shirts* and badges on the day. If you have yet to preorder yours, you have until 12:00pm on Friday 29 July 2022 to do just that!

Mock-up images of the 40th anniversary T-shirts and badges.

(Artwork not final.)

The front of the T-shirt features Zagor the Warlock, by Russ Nicholson, and the Fighting Fantasy logo, while on the back are listed all the solo FF adventure gamebooks that have been published over the last 40 years - 77 in total! The badge will be an enamel pin badge.

Whether you have ordered your tickets for Fighting Fantasy Fest 4 or not, you can order your T-shirts and badges by clicking on the 'Tickets' button on the Eventbrite page and scrolling down to the Add-ons section.

But remember, you only have until 12:00pm on Friday 29 July to do so - so don't delay!

* If you have already ordered a T-shirt, you will have received an email explaining how to specify the size you require.

Fighting Fantasy gamebooks top the bestseller charts once again!

Congratulations are in order for Rhianna Pratchett and Ian Livingstone today.

Rhianna's new Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Crystal of Storms, and Ian Livingstone's reissued Return to Firetop Mountain, are currently the #1 and #2 bestsellers on Amazon's list of Children's Interactive Adventures!

Of course, the Fighting Fantasy series is available to order from all manner of high street retailers and independent bookshops as well.

If you pre-order Crystal of Storms or Return to Firetop Mountain from The Alligator's Mouth, you will receive an exclusive Fighting Fantasy die*.

And don't forget, you can also sign up for an online event, via Chromecast, taking place a week today, on Wednesday 30th September, when Scholastic's Hannah Love, will be in conversation with Rhianna and Ian, discussing the history of the globally popular Fighting Fantasy series, and how a guest author goes about constructing a gamebook.

* You will receive one die with each qualifying purchase.

Dice, Miniatures, and The Warlock Returns...

Three exciting pieces of news for Fighting Fantasy fans this week...

Dice

If you pre-order Rhianna Pratchett's new gamebook Crystal of Storms, and/or Ian Livingstone's reissued Return to Firetop Mountain, from The Alligator's Mouth, you will receive a pair of exclusive Fighting Fantasy dice with your book(s).

You can also sign up for an online event, via Chromecast, taking place on Wednesday 30th September, when Scholastic's Hannah Love, will be in conversation with Rhianna and Ian, discussing the history of the globally popular Fighting Fantasy series, and how a guest author goes about constructing a gamebook.

Miniatures

If you missed out on last year's Fighting Fantasy Legends: 28mm Resin Miniatures Kickstarter campaign, you can now pre-order the miniatures here, and at a knockdown price too!

The Warlock Returns

Available now from Arion Games, via DriveThruRPG, is issue #1 of The Warlock Returns, a brand new Advanced Fighting Fantasy fanzine. Inside this launch issue you will find:

*Denizens of the Pit - New monsters from Titan

*Jungle preparation for the wilder parts of Titan.

*Sizing Up Monsters - Adversary Power Levels

*Welcome to Arion - An adventure for AFF

*Director Advice Articles - Suggesting reading material and plot hooks

*Chinese-Inspired Weapons - For use in AFF

*The Legend of Gareus - Comic Strip

*Torra - A Stellar Adventures setting

*Letters from Arion

*AFF & Fantasy Grounds Unity

Plus a new character sheet from Dyson Logos and a one-page dungeon

Crystal of Storms - available to pre-order now!

Rhianna Pratchett new Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Crystal of Storms , is available for pre-order now!

An astonishingly imaginative, edge-of-your-seat adventure – part story, part game!

YOU, the hero of this story, are a member of the Sky Watch keeping the floating archipelago of Pangaria safe. When the Nimbus isle suddenly crashes out of the sky into the Ocean of Tempests below, you must explore the remaining islands, and battle both storms and sea beasts in your mission to raise Nimbus from the deep.

Crystal of Storms, by Rhianna Pratchett, will be released on 1st October.

The Upgrade of Firetop Mountain

There are now five weeks remaining until Fighting Fantasy Fest 2 takes place on Saturday 2nd September, in Ealing.

As well as Scholastic selling the new editions of the classic FF adventures, along with Ian Livingstone's brand new The Port of Peril, and companies like Otherworld Miniatures and Arion Games being in attendance, we have a number of features that will appeal to fans of computer games.

First off, Nomad Games will be showcasing their new game Fighting Fantasy Legends for the very first time, which will be an exclusive for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2.

Secondly, inkle studios will be there on the day, demoing a run through of their highly-acclaimed ad-app-tation of Steve Jackson's Sorcery!

And don't forget, you only have until end of play on Sunday 6th August to pre-order your Adventurer's Backpack!

Backpacks and Bartenders

There are less than six weeks to go until the doors open on Fighting Fantasy Fest 2.

This means you have just two weeks from today, Sunday 23rd July, to pre-order an Adventurer's Backpack for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2, as we need to allow time to make the correct quantities of event exclusive t-shirts at the right sizes. While there may still be some Backpacks left over after this time, we will not be able to guarantee that you will receive the size of t-shirt you would prefer.

So make sure you pre-order your Adventurer's Backpack by the end of play on Sunday 6th August, and make sure you've bagged yourself a ticket for the event too!

As well as being able to pick up an Adventurer's Backpack at Fighting Fantasy Fest 2, you will also be able to purchase Ian Livingstone's brand new Fighting Fantasy adventure, The Port of Peril, and then get it signed by the author as well!

And don't forget that the special collector's edition hardback comes with an equally brand-new cover painting by the original City of Thieves cover artist himself, Iain McCaig!

Ian Livingstone's The Port of Peril

When the Fighting Fantasy series is re-launched on 3rd August 2017, alongside such classic titles as The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, City of Thieves, The Citadel of Chaos, The Forest of Doom, and House of Hell, one brand new title will be published - Ian Livingstone's The Port of Peril

In this brand new addition to the multi-million-copy-selling Fighting Fantasy series, you - the hero - must travel all over Allansia - from old haunts Darkwood Forest to Port Blacksand - on a dangerous quest. What starts as a treasure hunt soon takes a darker turn, with the potential return of the most terrifying foe of the original books, Zanbar Bone, on the increasingly dark horizon.

You can pre-order your copy of The Port of Peril here!

One month until the official launch of Ian Livingstone's FREEWAY FIGHTER at Forbidden Planet, London

One month today, on Saturday 20th May, you can join an all-star Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks line-up at the Forbidden Planet Megastore in London, for the launch of Titan Comics’ Ian Livingstone's Freeway Fighter: The Comic from 1:00-2:00pm!

Forbidden Planet are pleased to welcome Gamesmaster Ian Livingstone, artist Jim Burns, editor Jonathan Green, and creators Andi Ewington, Simon Coleby and Orlando Arocena, bringing us the first leg of a furious three-way road trip.

Celebrating 35 years in 2017, Fighting Fantasy brought together choice-driven storytelling with a dice-based role-playing system to create a world in which ‘YOU are the hero!’ The series sold over 18 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 30 languages.

Freeway Fighters #1 (Forbidden Planet/Jetpack Burns Variant)

In the new comics series, an unknown virus has wiped out over 85% of the world’s human population. Former I-400 Driver Bella De La Rosa is one of the 15% – living every day as if it were her last. Now, eighteen months after the collapse of civilisation, faced with a new world order where violence and chaos rule the Freeway. She must hone her racing skills and survive any way she can! 

Stepping away from the usual mix of orcs and goblins, FREEWAY FIGHTER is a road trip like no other. Dare you take it? If yes, turn to paragraph 132!

Freeway Fighter #1 (Fan Appreciation Gamesheet Variant)

You can pre-order FREEWAY FIGHTER #2 using the following codes:

FREEWAY FIGHTER #2

Issue #2 of Ian Livingstone's FREEWAY FIGHTER is now available for pre-order, from Forbidden Planet or your local comic store. But no matter how you order it, you're going to need these pre-order codes:

Click to enlarge.

In other news, Issue #1 has been garnering a lot of interest, and praise, from the comics community. Here's what just a few reviewers have had to say about it:

"Ewington and Livingstone together have put together a first issue that feels familiar, but still very entertaining. Normally this world setting is fuelled by macho male leads with women acting in a subservient role. Their choice of Bella De La Rosa as the hero around which this series rotates is brilliant..." ~ Graphic Policy

"Driving fast, and doing it well, are the keys to survival and when crashes happen, they are spectacular. The combination of Coleby’s art and O’Grady’s colours bring that kind of world to life... In Freeway Fighter, Campbell’s job as letterer is pushed out into the forefront to give the high speed chases and resultant crashes a little extra impact." ~ Pullbox Reviews

"This fast paced comic deserves your attention, as the story immediately grips the reader and the art brings it all to life... If you’re looking for something away from the mainstream, pick up Freeway Fighter #1." ~ Heroes Direct

"If you’re a fan of the original “Fighting Fantasy” adventure books, this is a must read." ~ Ain't It Cool News

Ian Livingstone's FREEWAY FIGHTER: The Comic signing at Forbidden Planet

Join an all-star Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks line-up at Forbidden Planet, launching Titan Comics’ Ian Livingstone's Freeway Fighter: The Comic on Saturday 20th May from 1:00-2:00pm!

Forbidden Planet are pleased to welcome Gamesmaster Ian Livingstone, artist Jim Burns, editor Jonathan Green, and creators Andi Ewington, Simon Coleby and Orlando Arocena, bringing us the first leg of a furious three-way road trip.

Celebrating 35 years in 2017, Fighting Fantasy brought together choice-driven storytelling with a dice-based role-playing system to create a world in which ‘YOU are the hero!’ The series sold over 18 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 30 languages.

Freeway Fighters #1 (Forbidden Planet/Jetpack Burns Variant)

In the new comics series, an unknown virus has wiped out over 85% of the world’s human population. Former I-400 Driver Bella De La Rosa is one of the 15% – living every day as if it were her last. Now, eighteen months after the collapse of civilisation, faced with a new world order where violence and chaos rule the Freeway. She must hone her racing skills and survive any way she can! 

Stepping away from the usual mix of orcs and goblins, FREEWAY FIGHTER is a road trip like no other. Dare you take it? If yes, turn to paragraph 132!

Freeway Fighter #1 (Fan Appreciation Gamesheet Variant)

Don't forget, you can pre-order the other variant covers for FREEWAY FIGHTER #1 using the following codes:

The Evolution of a Comic Cover, by Simon Coleby

Simon Coleby, artist on Ian Livingstone's FREEWAY FIGHTER, here reveals the process that he goes through when producing a cover for a comic, in this case Issue #1 of the 4-part mini-series.

Click image to enlarge.

Top left is Simon's marker concept doodle (which looks good enough to publish, right?), but top right are his pencils for the final image. Why the tilt to the left? To leave room for the bar-code on the bottom-right!

When he is happy with the pencils, and they have been approved by the publisher, Simon moves on to inking the image, which you can see bottom left. Having done that, he hands the image over to series colourer Len O'Grady to work his magic. And with the text, logos and bar-code added, you finally have the finished cover (bottom right).

Remember to pre-order you copy (or copies) of Ian Livingstone's FREEWAY FIGHTER from your local comic shop today (quoting the codes below) and help to support not just this comic but also you local specialist comic supplier!

Click image to enlarge.