Tag: Kung Fury

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The Chaos Continues: Vanya 09

The Story So Far

Vanya is a warrior in training, sent to the prehistoric past for a year to test her survival skills against a harsh primeval environment and dinosaurs. Her journey becomes upended as she is drawn both into an intergalactic war with the purple skinned Torridians and the prophecies of the Bone Tribe who seek to hatch Torridian Dragon eggs. Vanya finds momentary respite when she and her lover, Serah, make it to a Federation installation. There Serah is cared for after having been implanted with a cranial device by the Bone Tribe Witch that gives her visions. As the Torridians commence an all-out assault against the base with their legion of cybernetically enhanced dinosaurs, the Federation responds in kind with their army of mechs. As the battle rages, Vanya is sent out into the jungle once again on a mission to retrieve a set of Torridian Dragon Eggs.

Cover is a scene at night. Vanya stands over a campfire, spear in hand. On a tree root next to her is a saber tooth tiger with a scar across its right eye. Beams of moonlight filter through the jungle foliage.
Vanya #09 cover by Zoran Jovicic.

Issue 09 Plot

The large scale battle between the Federation in their mechs and the Torridians with their cybernetic dinosaurs rages on. Taking advantage of an opening, Torridian general Tora pilots her robo-T-Rex, leaps off her mount, and lands on Relo Quarr’s mech, slashing it open. Holding her double ended sword at Relo’s throat, she orders the Federation to surrender. At that moment, in a deus ex machina, a battalion of Astral Guard arrive, mowing down the Torridians and their dinosaurs with their chain guns, laser webs, light blades, and other futuristic weaponry. Seeing the battle lost, Tora impales herself on an Astral Guard’s blade.

Panel shows a T-rex with metal arms that have blades instead of claws, roaring. General Tora, who has purple skin and is wearing green arm, has a double ended blade in her hand. She leaps from her T-rex mount saying "H'yahh!" toward a bipedal mech that looks like an AT-ST from Star Wars.
General Tora leaps from her cyber T-rex onto Relo Quarr’s mech unit.

Meanwhile, Vanya, having survived the rocket attack from a cyber-pterodactyl, encounters a scarred sabretooth tiger, who beckons Vanya to follow. Vanya does so, and their trek takes them across a chasm bridged by a rotten log. The log breaks, plummeting the two in to the treacherous river below, however they make it safe to shore and set up a camp.

At the caves of the Bone Tribe, the Witch grows frustrated that her pheromones are not imprinting on the Torridian Dragon egg. She tries to force the captured Astral Guard soldier Elah into the massive ritual orgy, but Niya offers to take her place instead.

Far at the edge of the Galaxy, a fleet of Torridian ships receive a transmission from the now defeated General Tora.

Commentary

The titanic battle that started in issue eight sees its conclusion in Vanya #9, though with a change in perspective. Issue eight went for big and epic, with many of the panels zoomed out to show the battlefield between the Federation and the Torridians and how large its scale was. Issue nine takes a personal, focused approach, narrowing it down to General Tora and Relo. The arrival of the Astral Guard, though a deux ex machina, was unexpected and a pleasant surprise. The last appearance of the Astral Guard was back in issue seven and it was not a positive portrayal. In that issue, Elah and her squadron of Guard arrive through a portal and are easily tricked and dispatched by the Bone Tribe Witch. The elite guard, the best of the best, did not live up to mythological-esque hype prior issues hinted at. This issue rectifies this portrayal (perhaps the issue seven portrayal is more of Elah was simply an ineffective leader and hence why her men are killed and she and others are captured so easily). The Astral Guard show up, do not falter in any way, and steam roll over the Torridians.

The panel shows two spider web like webs (all straight, no curves), drive through three pterodactyls. The pterodactyls are slices into little tiny pieces.
The razor sharp webs of the Astral Guard make short work of the cyber pterodactyls.
Close up of a xenomorph from the Alien series, who has a criss cross green pattern on his head and shoulders, caused by being caught in a web launched by a Predator.
The Grid Alien from the 2004 Alien vs. Predator movie.

There are a few panels in the Astral Guard battle that might be homages or pop culture references. The Astral Guard shoot a web that passes through a flock of cyber-pterodactyls, slicing them into tiny pieces. This is akin to the Predator’s net weapon in the Predator movies (best exemplified with the Grid Alien in Alien vs. Predator [2004] that survives such a net attack).

A woman in a grey soldier's armor. She has blonde hair and 2 braids. She his holding a giant chain gun in her hands. Her speech bubble says "Time we made the Torridians extinct, boys".
An Astral Guard Warrioress wields a giant chain gun.
A warrior woman wearing a skull with two tusks sticking up from it, face paint, shoulder pads with a skull on them, and holding a chain gun in her hand. Basically a Lady barbarian with a big gun.
Barbarianna from the movie Kung Fury.

Another panel shows a blonde, braided lady Astral Guard, who evokes images of a Valkyrie, holding a chain gun in her hand. This is reminiscent of the synthwave movie Kung Fury (2015) that features a lady Barbarian (named Barbarianna) from the past who also wields a chain gun. These references may be coincidental, but they are bad ass and rehabilitate the image of the Astral Guard as the elite force that Vanya has been training to be a part of.

As the General Tora plot line comes to a close, another one gains momentum and that is the mystery of the sabretooth tigers. In this issue, Vanya encounters a sabretooth cat with a scar with two slashes across its right eye. Vanya follows the cat, which leads to a near brush with death for both of them as they fall into a chasm (though there is some whimsy present in the panel of Vanya and the sabretooth tiger riding the log together as if it were an amusement park ride).

Vanya, wearing a torn white shirt and pants, holds on to a log. Behind her a giant sabertooth cat also holds on. The river they are in goes "Slam! Slam!"
Vanya and a Sabretooth tiger ride a log in the river rapids.

Is the cat friend or foe? Way back in issue two there was a sabretooth cat that was stalking Vanya and company. However, this cat lacked the scars over its eye, so it cannot be the same sabretooth. Its fate is currently unknown: is it alive or perhaps it was one of the sabretooths that perished during the attack on the Bone Tribe back in issue five.

Close up of a sabertooth tiger's face as it peers through tall grass. It has 2 scars that cross its white eye.
Sabretooth tiger in issue 9 that leads Vanya.
The Bone Tribe Witch is topless and wears a primitive skirt. She has a rope necklace dangling from her neck. She has black makeup around her eyes that run a little bit. There are three sabertooth cats around her, one with two scars over its eye. Behind them is a dark forest and a red sky.
The Bone Tribe Witch and three sabertooth tigers at her command in issue seven.

Issue seven shows the Bone Tribe Witch with a pack of three sabretooth tigers who follow her commands. One of the tigers does have two scars over its right eye. Has the Bone Tribe Witch sent this particular feline out to fetch Vanya and lead her back to the Bone Tribe’s caverns? In issue seven the Bone Tribe Witch references the Prophecy of the Dragon Rider. Perhaps the Witch needs Vanya in order to fulfill this role? With the tribe’s ritual orgies causing the Torridian Dragon eggs to hatch, there will definitely be some dragons to be rode.

Covers and Swag Impressions

Issue nine of Vanya was crowdfunded via Kickstarter in September of 2025 with physical rewards being shipped in late January of 2026. With this issue of Vanya came the news that the series was not going to end on issue twelve but instead would be turned into an ongoing series, the first for publisher Bad Bug.

This issue of Vanya was particularly awash with amazing alternative covers. John Royle’s cover gave Vanya a J. Scott Campbell vibe. Renato Camilo (who did the best covers for Vanya issues two, four, and five) brings their A-game again with a spooky night hunt scene between Vanya and a T-rex. Marissa Pope’s cover is particularly vibrant and luminescent.

Vanya is in the nude save for some cauldrons and bracers and straps. She has her dreadlock hair in a beehive with dinosaur spikes sticking out from her. She is poised atop a tree root. Behind her a volcano erupts and a flock of pterodactyls fly by.
Vanya #9 with nude, alternate cover done by Hedwin Zaldivar.

The best cover for issue nine goes to Hedwin Zaldivar who captures both the cheesecake style with the battle-hardened cave woman girl style. Zaldivar’s Vanya sports a giant beehive-dreadlock with dinosaur spikes sticking out from it, a cross between midcentury pinup girl and jungle girl. The cover is also action packed, with an exploding volcano and a squadron of pterodactyls flying about. A great, energetic cover all around.

Issue nine also came with an abundance of extra swag, more so than other issues in the series.

Cheesecake style of Vanya, done in a cute/adorable style with bigger eyes and wing/cat eye liner. She stands, holding a long spear in her left hand. She is wearing a jungle girl bikini top and bottom with boots that have a fluffy top.
Vanya #9 art print by Sam Payne.

Firstly, there is the art print done by Sam Payne who has a distinctive “good girl” style, which is evident in the wing-tipped eyes of the women he draws. This is an adorable iteration of Vanya.

Three stickers. One is Vanya on a knee, bracing herself against a spear. The other is a cheese cake Vanya, standing up holding a long spear.
Stickers for Vanya #9.

Next comes not one, not two, but three (!!) stickers! One of the Vanya series logo, the other is of Yum!’s Vanya cover, and the final one is of the aforementioned Sam Payne art piece.

Two tarot cards. The one on the left is "Justice" and shows Vanya hunched over a puddle, bracing herself against a spear while a T-rex looms behind her. The next one is "The Hermit" and shows Vanya crouched on a tree branch holding a vine, spear in hand, ready to leap off.
Two Tarot Cards for Vanya #9.

Stickers are not the only thing in quantity as this issue came with two tarot cards. One is of “Justice” and uses the Yum! cover art, and the other is of “The Hermit” and uses Tony Tzanoukakis cover art.

A print of a lady cosplaying as Vanya. She is wearing a black bikini top and bottom and is laying in a pool of water that has Lilly pads. She has necklaces and a wait chain that has dinosaur teeth on them.
Vanya #9 Sooyoung Cosplay Print.

And finally, as with issue seven, Vanya #9 comes with a cosplay art print. The model in this print is Sooyoung, and shows a Vanya relaxing in a pool of water, something the character is fond of doing (see issue one and the Bruno Sousa and Tommy Shelton alternate cover of issue three). Overall, this issue of Vanya is mighty stacked with loot and those who contributed to the Kickstarter are well rewarded with some great swag.

Conclusion

Issue nine of Vanya was a nice package of both wrapping up story threads and introducing new ones. General Tora is no longer a menace, but it appears that victory may be short lived as interstellar Torridians mobilize. Vanya is back in her element being a neo-jungle girl who technically has an animal companion now. Will that sabretooth tiger align itself with Vanya or is it truly under the control of the Bone Tribe Witch? The Astral Guard received a much needed image makeover after their less than impressive entrance a few issues back. With this issue it feels like the Vanya series is moving into a new phase, one that is more mature, mature in the sense that the story has become wise to itself and knows where it is going and each character has solidified themselves into a specific role with specific stakes/goals: from Serah coping with her new kinda-psychic dinosaur ability (from the prior issue), to the Bone Tribe Witch working her magic and showing frustration at the ritual, to even Relo Quarr, who has only been present in the most recent issues, showcasing himself as a formidable leader. Vanya has elevated itself from a fun, chaotic at times, hypersexual comic to a story driven one that is taking itself seriously.

For more information on Vanya and the comic’s creative team, check out the links below:

Also, consider checking out the reviews I’ve done of other titles published by Bad Bug:

Categories
Peplum

Weekend Rental: 80s Sword and Sorcery and Retrogaming in A Game Called Quest

Note: This essay was first published in the autumn of 2018 in the Letters from Thanator zine that is part of S. T. Joshi’s Esoteric Order of Dagon APA. This essay has been updated with corrections to spelling, word usage, and various clarifications. 

A Game Called Quest is author S. J. Larsson’s third book, after 2016’s Megalodon: Apex Predator and 2017’s Total Immersion. Published with Severed Press, (as with his other two titles), A Game Called Quest concerns brother and sister Donny and Amanda, joined by friend Kevin, as they play a video game on the Atari 2600 entitled Quest which seemingly has VR capabilities that puts them into a fantasy world called Quintarria. The novella itself has issues: misspellings pop up more frequent than they should and Larsson doesn’t appear to be up to task to convey the story at an appropriate pace and consistent fashion. Despite these shortcomings, A Game Called Quest is noteworthy for its attempt at blending retro-modernism in the form of 80s nostalgia that has surfaced in the past decade along with the neo-peplum/sword and sorcery genre. The ongoing wave of 80s nostalgia is mostly preoccupied with the era’s horror aspect, (as evident in the Netflix series Stranger Things), and Miami Vice-esque aesthetics and for the most part eschews the sword and sorcery element that were popular during the decade. A Game Called Quest’s intersection of 80s retro-ism and sword and sorcery is its strongest facet and deserves exploration. 

Personal copy of A Game Called Quest.

This short-form article will first provide a plot summation of A Game Called Quest followed by an attempt to unearth both the 80s retro-modernism and sword and sorcery elements in the story. Next, additional contextualization will be pointed out between the text and the real world, specifically regarding the usage of Pac-Man and how A Game Called Quest relates to other early console fantasy games, some that flirt with ARG (alternate reality game)-elements, akin to Quest’s VR immersion. 

A Game Called Quest centers on Donny, a fourteen year old freshman trying to purchase a copy of Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 on launch day, but is thwarted by class bullies Brian, Duff, and Ernie. His punk-rock sister Amanda takes him and Kevin, a not-quite-a-friend of Donny’s, to purchase something else to cheer them up. They wind up in a mysterious trinket store where the eccentric proprietor, Royee, rents them an Atari game he created himself: Quest. The three take the game, along with its various peripherals, back home and play it. They are plunged into a fantasy world called Quintarria, with Donny assuming the role of a wizard and party leader, Amanda an elf archer, and Kevin a dwarf warrior. The three set off to save the kingdom, leveling up by killing monsters and bosses while gaining new skills and abilities in the process. At the same time, they also combat the real world bullies who intrude on them. The novella ends with the trio beating the VRgame, besting the bullies, and returning Quest to Royee, whose shop mysteriously disappears. 

The 80s was perhaps the last gilded age of the sword and sorcery genre until the Lord of the Rings trilogy attempted to revive it twenty years later. The decade prior saw the cumulation of literary sword and sorcery, with folks like Lin Carter who edited many fantasy anthologies that gave visibility to both new talent and older, obscure works. The 80s saw the genre transcend the literary world and into other mediums, particularly in the cinematic realm. Examples include film adaptations of Robert E. Howard’s Conan such as Conan the Barbarian (1982, John Milius) and Conan the Destroyer (1984, Richard Fleischer), esoteric fare such as Hundra (1983, Matt Cimber), animated endeavors like Fire and Ice (1983, Ralph Bakshi) and even Italian derivatives such as Ator, The Fighting Eagle (1982, Joe D’Amato) and Conquest (1983, Lucio Fulci). The genre was also explored in video games, such as Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II, Legendary Axe and Golden Axe, and tabletop games as with Dungeons and Dragons.

Despite the popularity of the genre, sword and sorcery elements are greatly lacking representation in the current 80s nostalgia trend. Outrun, the aesthetics that dominate 80s retro-ism and so named after the Sega arcade game of the same name, concentrates on components such as neon-magenta colours, vector gridlines, VHS tracking artifacts and faux VHS boxart, a setting sun broken by clouds, fast cars and palm trees. Synthwave, the music genre heavily inspired by the 80s, focuses mostly on horror elements (especially John Carpenter films and his music), as well police elements such as those in To Live and Die in L.A. (1985, William Friedkin), and cyberpunk and 8-bit/16-bit video game aesthetics. Movies and television shows such as Stranger Things, Kung Fury (2015, David Sandberg), Turbo Kid (2015, Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell), and so on, also focus on these facets of the 80s. Stranger Things comes close to tackling the sword and sorcery genre during this time period, with the children in the show playing Dungeons and Dragons in season one and the arcade game Dragon’s Lair in season two. However, depictions of Frank Frazetta-styled barbarians and ruggedly harsh but fantastic worlds are absent in the present day trend of retro-modernism. Most sword and sorcery depictions appear in shows such as Game of Thrones, but even that series has its own identity and does not rely on 80s homage. The Fox television show Son of Zorn is perhaps the closest example of sword and sorcery done in a retro-modern fashion. Son of Zorn was a live action sitcom with a cartoonish He-Man inspired character named Zorn inserted into the “real world” à la Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, Robert Zemeckis) and Cool World (1992, Ralph Bakshi). The show was not a success and was cancelled after its first season. 

Therefore, while the greater outrun, synthwave, and retro-modernism movements are concerned with exploring the horror, retro-tech, cyberpunk and Miami Vice elements of the 80s, A Game Called Quest differentiates itself within 80s revivalism by centering itself at the crossroads of retro-gaming and the sword and sorcery genre while borrowing heavily from other popular and cult 80s stories. To begin with, A Game Called Quest shares much in common with The NeverEnding Story (1984, Wolfgang Petersen): both involve bullies harassing a young protagonist and a sequence in which the youth visits a store and procures an item (a book in The NeverEnding Story and a video game in A Game Called Quest) that transports them to a fantasy world full of magic and populated by fantastic beasts and denizens. There are also shades of Labyrinth (1986, Jim Hensen) and Tron (1982, Steven Lisberger) present in A Game Called Quest as well, with both films involving heroes going to another world, with Tron complimenting the video game aspect and Labyrinth the fantasy aspect. Though made in the early 90s, it should be pointed out that A Game Called Quest’s plot anticipates Full Moon Entertainment’s Arcade (1993, Albert Pyun) in which teenagers are transported into a virtual video game world. 

Regarding the 80s sword and sorcery elements, attention should first be directed to the novella’s cover. The artwork is a stock piece of art called “Dwarf Knight on Winter Cold” by Vuk Kostic1 that depicts a heavily armored dwarf in a forest during a winter’s night. The placement of the artwork against a solid red background and the typeface of the title has the cover replicate the box art of an old Atari video game. Though the dwarf isn’t quite in the Frazetta or Boris Vallejo style, it still evokes 80s fantasy elements. The story proper, of course, is submerged in video game sword and sorcery, with a party of adventurers fighting dragons, dark elves, snow imps, trolls, chimeras, and more. While the sword and sandal and the sword and sorcery genres share some overlap, A Game Called Quest contains elements of the neo-peplum genre, having been written post-1990, and by playfully making use of the genre tropes in a unique fashion.2 Basically, a contemporary-written book that leverages the sword and sorcery genre but via an 80s retro-gaming framework.

There is some fortuitous irony in that Donny is able to get Quest over Pac-Man. Various times through the story, Donny or Kevin exclaim how Quest is the greatest game ever.3 This is in stark contrast to the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man that Donny had been pining for. This was the first home console port of Pac-Man, though it differs wildly in quality to the superior arcade version. Though initially a best seller, the port’s poor quality eventually had a negative impact to both Atari (who had manufactured an excessive number of cartridges)4 and the overall image of the video game industry. These would be elements that led into the video game crash of 1983.5

Poor reception of Pac-Man aside, there is a greater link between Pac-Man, Quest and fantasy games as they appeared on early consoles. The 2600 port of Pac-Man was programmed by Tod R. Frye who would go on to program the Swordquestseries of games for the 2600. Swordquest consisted of three games, Earthworld, Fireworld, and Waterworld with a fourth release, Airworld, being unreleased (though a version would appear on the Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration compilation released in late 2022). The Swordquest games were not RPG games but instead adventure-puzzlers. Taking place in a fantasy world, players would move between rooms, dropping off items and solving puzzles. The innovative feature of the Swordquest games, much like Quest, is the ARG/metagame aspect of it: accomplishments in the game could impact the real world. In Swordquest, clues are unveiled within the game and crossed referenced in an accompanying comic book. Solving these puzzles would offer the player opportunities to win real world treasures created by the Franklin Mint: the Talisman of Penultimate Truth from Earthworld, the Chalice of Light from Fireworld, the Crown of Life from Waterworld, the Philosopher’s Stone from Airworld and ultimately the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery. The series was ultimately cancelled after the limited release of Waterworld and Atari was purchased by Tramel Technology.6 It is quite uncanny that Quest attempts to blend a video game with the real world in its narrative while the Swordquest series was, in every practical sense, actually able to perform this feat. 

A Game Called Quest is not the best written work as Larsson doesn’t posses either the technical writing or storytelling acumen to truly accomplish what they set out to do. However, the fragments that do exist, the intersection of 80s nostalgia and the sword and sorcery genre via retro-gaming, is a stand out, well executed aspect of the novella. It’s definitely aninteresting take on the sword and sorcery genre as well as a refreshing nostalgia piece that attempts to work with specific80s tropes that are not as popular as others.

Endnotes

  1. “Dwarf Night on a Winter Cold,” Shutterstock, accessed July 19, 2018. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/dwarf-knight-on-winter-cold-537957022.
  2. A few of the tenants of neo-pepla is that while it is applicable mostly to the sword and sandal stories, it has a universality that is can be applied to stories with shades of sword and sandal and encourages different styles (especially post-modern) of storytelling as well. The genre is also not restricted to films, but instead is a true transmedia genre thatcan be found in television, video games, comic books, music, literature, and other media as well. Nicholas Diak, introduction to The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs since the 1990s, ed. Nicholas Diak (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017), 6-14
  3. S. J. Larsson, A Game Called Quest (Hobart, Tasmania: Severed Press, 2018), 18, 130.
  4. Steven L. Kent, The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond – The Story Behind the Craze that Touched Our Lives and Changed the World (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001), 236.
  5. Ibid., 239.
  6. Eric Grundhauser, “The Quest for the Real-Life Treasures of Atari’s Swordquest,” Atlas Obscura, last modified March 8, 2016. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-quest-for-the-reallife-treasures-of-ataris-swordquest.

Bibliography

Diak, Nicholas. Introduction to The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs since the 1990s, 4-19. Edited by Nicholas Diak. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017. 

“Dwarf Night on a Winter Cold.” Shutterstock. Accessed July 19, 2018. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/dwarf-knight-on-winter-cold-537957022.

Grundhauser, Eric. “The Quest for the Real-Life Treasures of Atari’s Swordquest.” Atlas Obscura. Last modified March 8, 2016. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-quest-for-the-reallife-treasures-of-ataris-swordquest.

Kent, Steven L. The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond – The Story Behind the Craze that Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001. 

Larsson, S. J. A Game Called Quest. Hobart, Tasmania: Severed Press, 2018.