In Your Face!

I remember coming across this awesome piece of old school post-apoc gaming art sometime back but for the life of me, I could not remember where I saw it. Then, I finally ran saw it in an edited post of Malcadon in the Mutant Future Wiki. Malcadon, did you do this piece? If so, please accept my heartfelt thanks. You did great!

As I sit here waiting for the baby to sleep and garner inspiration for my Friday Mutant Future game, my thoughts turn to Jack Kirby and Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth. I've just finished exchanging angst with a cousin who's visiting from overseas, I'm exhausted as hell, seeing double, and have a ton of stuff to tackle on the morrow.

And this piece of In-Your-Face art is the just the very thing I need to get me looking forward to a game and get me through the work week. Jack Kirby. Kamandi. And my game is going to rock harder than it ever had before!

What's it like?

I’d said earlier that Under A Blood Red Sky is more of a rubber-science game with more of a science fantasy feel than a true science fiction post-apocalyptic one. This game then departs from my usual gritty style which was, for the longest time, my default setting in earlier games I ran in Twilight 2000 and Gurps: Fallout.

No, this time, I’m running something different. Under A Blood Red Sky goes all out with such staples including aliens and rayguns as well as giant insects and talking mutant animals. Just to give you all an idea as to where I am coming from this time, here are a few of the influences which served to shape my particular vision of the Mutant Future:


Jack Kirby’s Kamandi. I grew up reading this comic from the 70s and largely went out of my way to track down many of its issues. I recall combing the thrift shops outside Clark AFB in Angeles City just to find the next installment in the thrilling adventures of The Last Boy on Earth. The mutant animals of my Mutant Future have a lot in common with Jack Kirby’s Doctor Canus, Great Ceasar, Mylock Bloodstalker, and of course, the serpentine Mr. Sacker.



Thundarr the Barbarian. To be honest, I used to see this being flashed on TV when I was in high school but never paid it much attention. Now, I’m catching up through You-Tube and the very excellent posts from The Savage Afterworld which I follow with great interest. The image of an intrepid and eclectic band of adventurers led by a sword-swinging fighting man making their way through the ruins of our fallen civilization is just pure grist of the mill in my Mutant Future.

Gamma World. Arguably the mother of all post-apocalyptic role playing games and the linear progenitor of Mutant Future. Amongst all its incarnations, I still prefer the old first edition with all its clunkiness and rough edges.



My Mutant Future may be more ‘wonky’ than ‘gritty’, as opposed to say a campaign set in the Darwin’s World setting – a setting which I personally think looks awesome. Nonetheless, while our adventures in Cygnet Delta are described as science fantasy, I’d like to think that they are, as my games always have been, very deadly. A well-aimed shot from a Mark XX Hand Blaster will kill you just as efficiently as a well-placed sword thrust or rending strike from a mutant critter.