Wold Newton

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Superfanboy
Posts: 36
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2022 9:37 pm

Wold Newton

Post by Superfanboy »

Wold Newton started from Philip Jose Farmer's fascination with pulp, old sci fi, and the comics of the Golden and Silver Age, plus one more thing: why are all these tall, (usually) dark haired (usually) Anglo guys from Conan (ptoto-Gael of sorts) to Superman (the first WASP from another planet!) all great heroes (occasionally villains), cunning, strong, tough as an ox and seem to hold the fate of Earth in their big, calloused hands?

Aside from our gray and blue eyed giants, Imaro by Saunders could be an ancient relation of Black Panther on the same way that Conan and Tarzan are kin.

This is very close in spirit to how I want to run my Iridium Age Silver Age game, it takes its subjects with immense dignity and gravity, treating inhuman fantasy with the sort of imaginative rationalization that served Farmer well as a writer of exotic speculative fiction. I won't use Wold Newton directly, though someone really could quite readily. My setting isn't Marvel or DC but something akin to it. I would love to play a Wold Newton RPG but current corporate climate and copyright law make it impossible to coordinate as a profit making venture.

Great collection of articles on PJF's official website. Please keep copies of any of these articles you like, they're free for download and who knows when the website might have problems.
http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Articles0.htm

One of many fan websites.
https://monstaah.angelfire.com/woldnewtonbeyond/
greycrusader
Posts: 1179
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 11:25 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: Wold Newton

Post by greycrusader »

I also tremendously enjoyed the Wold Newton universe concept (first proposed by Phillip Jose Farmer), which almost assuredly inspired Alan Mire’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. While some of the fandom’s attempts to retroactively fit ALL the iterations of certain characters into the milieu got clunky, the in-universe timeline and family trees made for interesting reading.

All my best.
Superfanboy
Posts: 36
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2022 9:37 pm

Re: Wold Newton

Post by Superfanboy »

greycrusader wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 9:26 pm I also tremendously enjoyed the Wold Newton universe concept (first proposed by Phillip Jose Farmer), which almost assuredly inspired Alan Mire’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. While some of the fandom’s attempts to retroactively fit ALL the iterations of certain characters into the milieu got clunky, the in-universe timeline and family trees made for interesting reading.

All my best.
I wouldn't run a Wold Newton game unless someone asked me to, but I do love it. What I do like to do is use it as inspiration: when I do Marvel, DC or Silver/Golden Aged universes I try to take it very seriously, like I'm writing about a historical event and not bonkers cartoons about a man made of rubber slapping around a human kite in a leotard.

Because, in real science (comic science) we know that Plastic Man, as comical as he might appear, is a posthuman force of nature who is almost unstoppable, may never age or die and has very unclear limits to his vast and varied powers. Something Moore and Farmer both do is try to take straight what it would be like for people to be around these planet busting Freaks and obsessive vigilantes, and they're not nearly as funny as they look!
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