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Monday, September 21, 2009

Carpe Noctem - The Invocation issue #2 out now.

Another month and another WHFB e-zine is released to the web! This time we have a new issue of The Invocation - the Vampire Counts webzine produced by the fanged fiends at Carpe Noctem.



You can download the new issue here. Watch out! It is a hefty 45mb!

I really enjoyed the first article in this latest issue of The Invocation which goes over the magic arsenal available to Vampire Counts players (similar in style to my Basics for Beginners - Ogre Kingdoms articles). While I don't agree with all of the opinions it presented I always find it interesting to read another view on commonly used magic items.

The rest of the issue covers a wide variety of hobby articles including; a painting competition, zombie painting, army showcase, forum user projects (which include work towards two different army lists/rule sets within the Vampire Counts book - some of which are quite complex), cool art, a comic (sweet), battle reports, and tactics articles. There is certainly something here for everyone - a most impressive selection!

The look and layout of this issue is fairly consistent with a heavy use of "stained" paper backgrounds and black fonts. The overall feel is one of workmanship, but the sheer amount of content makes up for any lack in the design department. Plenty of pictures (where needed), cool illustrations, and decent font choices/spacing make this webzine pretty easy to read.

I would love to see this webzine switch to the landscape format used by some of the other notable community zines, but I know (from experience) that can be a pain to format. Limiting the use of different fonts would go a long way to producing a more "unified" look to the publication though, and I don't like the script font choice used for the lengthy piece of fiction included near the end of the issue.

Still, I recommend giving this webzine a look if you love (or hate) the Vampire Counts and I am looking forward to seeing the next issue when it comes out later this year.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good to see someone else championing the landscape format for webzines. In a medium that is viewed on a device that is wider than it is tall, it seems like such an obvious choice.

I have also had a look at issue 2, and I agree with everything you have said. Content is good, and there is quite a bit of it. The visuals still need a little bit of attention, though.

The pages of full page illustrations were good, but doing them in landscape was just odd. I had to turn my head to look at them.

Randroid said...

Good point on the landscape illustrations ... strange choice.