Palladium Books^® Weekly Update – October 1, 2010

By Kevin Siembieda

It’s been another hectic week.

UPDATE: Henry Siembieda. My 79 year old father, Henry, has been fighting bladder cancer for a couple of years now. The surgery to remove his bladder and prostate went well, but pneumonia and other complications and setbacks have turned what should have been a 10-12 day hospital stay into five weeks. My Dad is a private person and has asked me not to go into great detail about his condition. Suffice it to say that we had another crisis this past weekend and into the early part of this week. My Dad had been discharged to go to a rehabilitation center last week, but was back in the hospital two and a half days later (last Saturday). There were also health care concerns and I spent much of Tuesday and Wednesday dealing with matters concerning my Dad.

I am glad to report that he seems to be getting proper care now and seems to be getting better. Lately, whenever I say that, it’s a jinx, but hopefully my father will get stronger and better all weekend.

Again, my thanks to the multitude of Palladium fans who care so much and have asked me to continue to make these updates on my father’s health. Also thank you for your prayers and well wishes.

I continue to try to stay positive on all fronts. When dealing with your own problems, I hope you are doing the same. ;)

UPDATE: The Rifter® #52 is at the printer. It’s another great issue. We’re waiting for a ship date, but it should be around October 12.

UPDATE: Armageddon Unlimited™ (for Heroes Unlimited™ and the Minion War™). I think I edited two whole pages this week. The artwork is done and looks fantastic. I’m just waiting on the cover being finished. I hope to work on the book over the next week. It’s epic.

UPDATE: Rifts® Thundercloud Galaxy™. John Zeleznik sent in the finished cover and it rocks. We may not post it in this Update just to keep you in suspense. End of October or November release.

UPDATE: Online Sales. This week’s sales were soft, but they usually are in September. All in all, I think this September’s sales were better than last year’s. I take that as a good sign.

UPDATE: Palladium Collectibles Auction Ends Sunday, October 3, 2010. Alex and I managed to out 18 items up for auction last Sunday. There are a few “Gold Editions,” some out of print issues of The Rifter, some artwork and other good stuff. Check it out.

Kathy Simmons continues to crank out scary, life-sized Halloween props. Her big custom order shipped and the customer loved it. In fact, we’re told it’s supposed to appear on some sort of TV show in Texas, so that’s pretty cool. Meanwhile, every item in her queenofghouls.com Ebay store has two or more people actively watching the item. If you’re one of them, buy it now before someone else scoops it out from under you.

If you want something truly unique and scary, check out her monstrous props. You will not be disappointed. Zombies, Dark Jester, Mad Doctor and his Nurse Assistant, witches, wizards, and more continue to roll out of Kathy Simmons’ garage. Kathy makes one of a kind, life-sized Halloween props for sale in her online store at queenofghouls.com. She’s got a new crawling zombie, a standing zombie, a walking zombie, jester and more available in her online store right now. If you are looking for scary and fun, life-size Halloween props for your Halloween party or yard display, take a look at queenofghouls.com. They are awesome.

This weekend she will be busy putting up her own massive display.

Heroes of the Megaverse^® and “the List”

Feedback on the sourcebook is overwhelmingly positive and most people are loving it. A few people appear to be disappointed not to see source material about Cosmo-Knights in the book and have wondered why they were excluded. We had originally intended to include Cosmo-Knights, but we stopped advertising the inclusion of them a while back. The more I developed Heroes of the Megaverse® and “ordinary people” who became super-heroes, the Cosmo-Knight material suggested for it just didn’t fit. I chose to remove it from the book in favor of other material. I’m sure there will be more on the Cosmo-Knights in future books, and I’m even kicking around the idea of seeing a small, 64-96 page sourcebook done about them in the future.

I regret that there seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding about who would see their names listed in the Heroes of the Megaverse® sourcebook. This has led to the disappointment of some fans who mistakenly thought their names would be included.

Back when I originally announced the Crisis of Treachery, I announced I, Kevin Siembieda, would be creating a special limited edition print entitled A Megaverse United® – also known as the “Mega-Print.” This print cost $50, but in addition to being signed and numbered by me, it would be personalized with the name of the purchaser, AND I promised each purchaser of the $50 A Megaverse® United print would see their name listed in a special publication entitled Heroes of the Megaverse®. People loved the idea and bought the print and lots of other product to help Palladium Books to get through the Crisis.

A few months later, we also released a $10 print titled Heroes of the Megaverse®, with art by Freddie Williams II. Ten dollars got you a nice print suitable for framing, numbered and signed by me. If you purchased this print you did NOT get your name listed, as above. However, in the last four months of 2006, we did do a contest in which 10 people who purchased a Heroes of the Megaverse® print were selected every month. This handful of 40 lucky fans would see their names used in future Palladium titles as fully statted out heroes in upcoming books. Joseph Quigley, presented as the Devil Sax Man in Heroes of the Megaverse®, is one of those winners. Others will appear in Thundercloud Galaxy and future books. With all the craziness of the last few years, only about half the winners have seen their names in print, something I intend to remedy over the next year.

I think, over time, the two prints got confused and merged in some people’s minds. As a result, some of the people who purchased the Heroes of the Megaverse® print thought their names would be included too. As a result, they may be disappointed to find their names are not included even though they bought the other print. Sorry.

More troubling to me, is that it seems during the heat of the turmoil in 2006, Alex posted that to show our appreciation to those who made Pay Pal donations, their names would be added to the list of heroes as well. If I knew about this, I did not remember it. In fact, Alex forgot too, because he NEVER mentioned it while the book was in development or production. Alex does indeed have a list of Pay Pal donators, though it may not be 100% complete. I fear the inclusion of those who made Pay Pal donations was a good idea and a kind gesture that was forgotten and lost in the mayhem of the time period and tumultuous years that have followed. I was surprised when Wayne found Alex’s post about the Pay Pal donators. I didn’t know, or you would have been included. I hope you can forgive this mistake. We all fell down on this one. Wayne, Alex and I, the people who should have known and remembered. I apologize. We’ll add the names we have to the next printing of Heroes of the Megaverse®, but that’s likely to be a year or two away. Again, my apologies.

The omission of those who donated money bothers me tremendously, because Palladium had no intention of asking for donations when I announced the Crisis of Treachery in April 2006. That’s why I made the A Megaverse United print. The Pay Pal donations account was created due to fan demand. So many fans pleaded with us to take donations that we finally acquiesced. I was resistant until two mothers of pre-teen gamers called me and asked that we take donations. They explained that their sons wanted to help Palladium, but could not afford the $50 print and planned to buy the books they wanted anyway, so that didn’t feel special. They wanted to feel like they did something extra to help. They wanted to donate $2 or $5 and the only way they could do that was if Palladium took donations. I was so touched, not only by the boys (I don’t know their names), but by the fact that their mothers cared enough to call the Palladium offices, that I agreed.

I am deeply sorry for any disappointment that any misunderstandings or omissions may have caused Palladium’s wonderful fans. I know there is at least one fan who has taken this very badly. He feels betrayed and cheated. I feel awful and I hope he and any others can find it in their hearts to forgive us. While we did our best to gather and keep the names of the people who purchased the Megaverse® United print together, I wouldn’t be surprised if one or a few of them may have been accidentally omitted as well. I apologize if that happened. I hope it didn’t happen, but it might have. Please don’t take it as a personal slight.

We did our best to acknowledge at least some of the vast multitude of fans who have supported Palladium Books over the years. That included the people who purchased nearly 2,000 copies of the Megaverse® United print, as promised. I dedicated the book to ALL OF YOU. I’ve thanked you and expressed my profound appreciation for Palladium fans on many occasions. I’ve tried in so many ways to let you know how valued and appreciated you are to me and Palladium Books. I tried to make Heroes of the Megaverse® a special tribute to all of you. Please don’t let some omissions and mistakes tarnish that. I fear I’m only human and I make mistakes. I hope you understand.

– Kevin Siembieda, President & Writer

Coming Soon