Mike Mignola’s Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown is getting a second printing! Considering the rather macabre sport, I suspect no board game or role-playing system is in the works. Here, the title offers an idea which I consider is nothing like the games we know, like bunnock. Their bones are representations of soldiers or something else.
With this book, the influences are very central European. I often cite Brothers Grimm as a primary influence and here, the tale is no holds barred. The first chapter introduces Yeb the Spoon leaving home to seek his fortune, and who he meets to earn his first coin are three animated corpses! Whether or not they are meant to represent the Fates, my guess is yes! His challenge is to roll a skull at a bunch of bones and make most of them fall.
Although this game is not the Mayan ballgame where they sacrificed the losers, this one suggests that tempting fate might bring worse consequences later. And we see the host who is watching the journey. This creature is a duck!
The other tales are not as intertwined, and not all of them are as good as the precious or later entry. Hit or miss, only a few stories stand out. “Justice Denied” is one I adored because it draws from Japanese folklore. Another is “Lands Unknown.” When this chapter is also the name of this new universe this creative team has fashioned, I am intrigued.
This piece wonderfully sets up a world that may well compete against H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands. The vistas are crazy dark and everything written is a teaser. But as for who has the silver key to access these places, I will have to wait for what the creative team has planned. The chances for more publications to explore this realm look good!
4 Stars out of 5