This week's cryer from the castle with Brando
https://youtu.be/mS0X38ABNb4
The blog for news, events, releases and commentary from Castle Perilous Games & Books. located in downtown Carbondale IL. New posts every Monday and Wednesday.
This week's cryer from the castle with Brando
https://youtu.be/mS0X38ABNb4
On Sale 11/14
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Here are the comics releasing on October 28, 2026. We will not have all of these on the shelf.
000 AD PROG #2504
ABSOLUTE BATMAN #25
ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #25
ALIEN VS. X-MEN #2
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1002
ARCHIE #2
BATMAN BAD SEEDS GOTHAM GENERAL #1
BATMAN BAD SEEDS SUNRISE #1
BISHOP #5
BLACK PANTHER/NAMOR: DOOMED #2
BLACK TOWER THE RAVEN CONSPIRACY #3
CAPTAIN AMERICA #16
CONAN THE BARBARIAN #36
CRIMES AGAINST NATURE #2
DAREDEVIL #8
DARKNESS (2025) #8
DC ALL IN SAGA DARKSEID VS THE WORLD #1
DEAD ACRE #4
DENVER #3
DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH #39
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: RAVENLOFT #2
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK ESCAPE FROM CHICAGO #2
EYRIE MAGAZINE #15
FANTASTIC FOUR #18
FERAL #27
FINAL BOSS #11
FIREBORN #5
FLASH #38
FORT PSYCHO #3
GAMBIT GONE #2
GATCHAMAN #22
GHOST PEPPER #16
GODZILLA CONQUERS THE MULTIVERSE #4
GODZILLA: REVENGE OF THE DEADZONE [KAI-SEI ERA] #1
GREATEST AMERICAN HERO #3
GREEN LANTERN #40
GROO: THE PROPHECY #3
HANNA AND THE HELLS VS QUENTIN TARANTINO (ONE SHOT)
HARLEY QUINN #1 FACSIMILE
HARLEY QUINN #67
HEARD #1
HELLO DARKNESS #26
HELLO KITTY AND FRIENDS: HELLO WORLD! #3
INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE CAPES #12
JUSTICE LEAGUE THE DARK REALM SPECIAL #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #24
MADAME TARANTULA MAGAZINE #4
MARVEL FANFARE #2 FACSIMILE
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: GENESIS #3
MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS (2026) #5
MINOR THREATS: WELCOME TO TWILIGHT: VILLAINS AND VIGNETTES #1
MONSTRESS #65
POISON IVY #49
POOH BEAR ADVENTURES OWLS NEW HOUSE #1
PREDATOR VS. THE PLANET OF THE APES #4
PUNISHER #9
PUNISHER VS. SPIDER-MAN #4
SATANIC PANIC #1
SOLOMON KANE THE LION ERRANT #4
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #91
SPAWN #380
SPIDER-MAN/HULK: FIRE AND BRIMSTONE #3
STAR TREK: HOLO-WEEN II #4
STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE – DARTH VADER #1
STAR WARS: THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT #4
SUPERMAN #43
SUPERMAN FATHER OF TOMORROW #6
SUPERMAN THE WEDDING ALBUM 30TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1
TANKERS VS ANCIENT ALIENS #5
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: SHREDDER #13
TERMINAL #4
THAT TEXAS BLOOD HELL COMES TO ALLISON RANCH #2
THE AMAZING VENOM #2
THE BEAST OF BORIKEN #3
THE BIG SHAKEDOWN #2
THE DOGSITTER #4
THE ROCKETEER: INFILTRATOR! #4
THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY: PLAN B #5
THOR #802
THOR THE ROCK WARRIOR MAGAZINE #1
THUNDERCATS CHEETARA #2
TOMB OF APOCALYPSE #3
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN LIVES #1
VOID RIVALS #35
WATCHMEN #2 (OF 12) FACSIMILE
WITCHBLADE SAMHAIN SPECIAL
X-MEN #40
ZATANNA (2026) #7
Riftbound Radiance arrived and will be on the shelf tomorrow . We have Vaults, booster packs and booster boxes. However, since we got a small quantity of booster boxes, we are not offering a booster box price.
We expect Pokemon Delta Reign to arrive on Nov. 2 with our pre-release Wednesday the 28th. come in costume on the 28th and get an extra promo pack.
Releases Nov. 7th
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If there is a huge supply of 30th Anniversary
Pokemon boxes and Elite Trainer Kits floating around out there, we
sure have not seen it (See “Pokemon
TCG Sellers Melt Down on Discord”). I have no doubt it is out there but I
also figure the Pokemon Company is directing most of the product to mass market
stores. We have had customers regale us with tales of standing in line at
Target at 7 a.m., waiting until the store opened to join the crowds of
collectors and resellers hoping to grab a box or fifteen of the Pokemon 30th
Anniversary Elite Trainer Kits. Another customer told us how she and her
family waited in a line a block long at the local Sam’s Club to get Elite
Trainer Kits. Even with the staff at Sam’s Club limiting purchasers to 2
Kits each, they ran out about 5 people before my customer could purchase any.
Meanwhile hobby game stores are getting so heavily allocated that one
distributor got the store one 30th Anniversary Elite Trainer
Kit. Not one case of Kits, one Kit,
along with single units of a couple of other 30th Anniversary
items. Meanwhile, Sam’s Club gets enough
Elite Trainer Kits to offer two of them to each person in a line stretching a
block long.
For Halloween, which is the best horror creature? Syd and Dev have thoughts.
Releasing Octobar 31st.
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Distribution problems with Wizards and Magic have just exacerbated (See “Reality Fracture Shipping Times Fractured”). Unlike with the Hobbit, I did not read of any stores not getting prize Play boosters for Reality Fracture in time for the pre-release. However, the delivery window for pre-release kits was the shortest I can remember. Typically, kits arrived 1-3 days before pre-release Friday. With Reality Fracture, our pre-release kits did not arrive from UPS until about 1 p.m. on Friday and I read of stores whose kits were delivered 10 minutes before the store had scheduled the start of their first pre-release. Based on UPS tracking I was unsure as to whether our kits would arrive on time for our pre-release weekend.
I hope Hasbro and Wizards are taking a hard look at their supply chain problems and that the oversupply of Pokemon 30th Anniversary product makes it to hobby game stores, which based on the calls we have had at the store and comments online, could certainly sell them.WotC announced a number of changes to its booster packs, starting with the Nautcis release in early 2027. Play boosters are now just boosters, God packs, last seen during the Theros block, make a return with a chance of 1 in 300 in collector boosters and 1 in 1000 in regular boosters. Collector boosters will lose 2 common and one uncommon card, dropping their card count to 12 and regular boosters will no longer have a guaranteed foil in every pack as only mythic rares and rare cards will now have foil treatments.
We have seen the current state of the trading card game market before. At least twice. After Magic released in 1993, 1994 and 1995 saw a huge number of trading card games hit the market. None of them are widely played today and players either buy extremely limited print runs that are one and done or play with digital cards. We saw a second run in the early 2000s with the success of Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh. Once again, no games from that era have survived to the current day.
The big difference between those runs and the current one is that people played those games. Most of the people buying current TCGs are looking at them at investments, rather than games. Wonders of the First, with its NFT versions of card is making the resalability of the cards a selling point. Unfortunately, the one time we ran a demo session of the game, no one showed up.
Buy TCGs if you want to play them, not as an investment vehicle.
Releasing Oct 17. If you want any pre-order with us by noon Sept 29th.
The Adeptus Custodes.
The apex of the Emperor’s genetic achievement.
His Aquilon Terminators, more akin to battleships than infantry, arrive brand new in plastic for the first time.
Also releasing are a number of Adeptus Custodes kits that were previously only available in Adeptus Custodes Support Battle Group.
Codex: Adeptus Custodes, hitting the shelves with new lore & rules. Available in a new battle focused format, fine tuned for battlefield action.
The new Adeptus Custodes Combat Patrol joins the ranks of our current range. Combat Patrols are customer favorites due to their thematic contents and added value. Be sure to ask us how to best stock these popular items
Peter
Levin, co-founder of Geffin Gaming Partners, according to the September 2026
issue of Fortune Magazine, has collected Pokemon, sports cards,
bobbleheads and comics since he was 4 years old (this year was his 31st
time at San Diego Comic Con) and has a deep love of them but also views them as
an investment vehicle, though like Scaramucci, he has no plans to liquidate his
collection anytime soon. Both men believe investing in these differ from
investments in things like cryptocurrency, NFTs and memecoins as, unlike those
items, cards and comics are tangible and the average person knows what a Pokemon
card or bobblehead is, a non-fungible token, not so much.
This
concerns me because most of the buyers of collectable card games today focus on
the collectable aspect and not the game aspect. We like to stream video related
to the products we sell and while we can comparatively easily find video of
people playing Magic the Gathering, Disney Lorcana and even Yu Gi Oh,
almost all the video that comes up for Pokemon shows people opening
packs and calculating the “actual” versus “expected” value of the box. Most of
our Pokemon sales go to people who have never played and never plan to play the
game and will only keep buying as long as they can find a customer. Eventually
the market will run out of people willing to buy. What happens then?
The valuation of high-grade and vintage Pokemon cards since 2004 has grown, according to CardLadder by over 3400%. Compare that to the Standard and Poor 500 stock market index, which has grown by a “mere” 483% over the same time period. The overall value of Pokemon cards has grown this year 28%, compared to “only” 13% by the S&P 500. AJ Scaramucci of Treasure Trove.com says he has already turned down an offer of over $3 million for the Tales of Suspense #39 and, though Treasure Trove has no plans to sell the comic or the Pikachu Illustrator card, he believes these sort of collectibles are vastly undervalued and expects the Pikachu Illustrator card due to the same type of rarity as that of artworks by masters from the 18th and 19th centuries to reach a valuation of $100 million sometime in the future.
A MISCHIEF OF MAGPIES #2
ABSOLUTE BATMAN #24
ABSOLUTE FLASH #19
ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #24 CVR A HAYDEN SHERMAN
BISHOP #4
BLACK STAR #3
BLACK TOWER THE RAVEN CONSPIRACY #2
BUG WARS THE COMING OF THE WARDOOM #2
CONAN THE BARBARIAN TIDES OF THE TYRANT KING #1
CORPSE KNIGHT #6
CRIMES AGAINST NATURE #1
DC W.I.P. BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS #1
DEAD ACRE #3
DISNEY TIM NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS: ALL HAIL THE PUMPKIN KING ISSUE #3
DISPATCHED #3
DO A POWERBOMB BLACK AND WHITE #3
DORC #8
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK ESCAPE FROM CHICAGO #1
EXQUISITE CORPSES RASCAL RANDY #3
EYE COLLECTOR #4
EYRIE MAGAZINE #14
FERAL #26
FLASH #37
FORGED #13
FORT PSYCHO #2
GAMBIT GONE #1
GENERATION X-23 #8
GHOST OF A GHOST #1
GHOST PEPPER #15
GI JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO #110
GREATEST AMERICAN HERO #3
GREEN LANTERN #39
GUN HONEY DOUBLES DOWN #4
HARLEY QUINN #66
HELLRAISER: RESURRECTIONS – HELL’S COUNCIL #1
INFERNAL HULK VS. WOLVERINE #1
INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE CAPES #11
JUNK PUNCH #4
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #23
LAST DRIVER #2
LAST STARFIGHTER #3
LAZARUS ORDER #2
M1 MONSTER RACING LEAGUE #4
MADAME TARANTULA MAGAZINE #3
MARVEL MANGAVERSE: GHOSTLOCKE #1
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: LEGENDS OF ETERNIA ISSUE #2
MEGA MAN GEAR MASTERS #1
MIKE HOFFMANS TIGRESS MAGAZINE #1
MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN #2
MUPPETS TAKE THE MARVEL UNIVERSE #1
POWER RANGERS GREEN #2
PUNISHER VS. SPIDER-MAN #3
ROCKETFELLERS #14
SMILE: ANY GIVEN SMILE #1
SOLOMON KANE THE LION ERRANT #3
SPAWN SCORCHED #55
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY #5
SPIDER-MAN/HULK: FIRE AND BRIMSTONE #2
STAR TREK (2026) #1
STAR WARS: THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT #2
STREET FIGHTER MASTERS JURI #1
SUPERMAN #141 FACSIMILE
SUPERMAN #42
SUPERMAN FATHER OF TOMORROW #5
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: SATURDAY MORNING ADVENTURES #41
TERMINAL #3
THAT TEXAS BLOOD HELL COMES TO ALLISON RANCH #1
THE DOGSITTER #3
THE FOUNDRY #2
THE ROCKETEER: INFILTRATOR! #3
THOR #801
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS BLOOD OF THE WOLF MAN #4
V FOR VENDETTA #1 FACSIMILE
VAMPIRELLA (2026) #6
VOID RIVALS #34
WATCHMEN #1
WOLVERINE #28
YUMI 00EX #2
Remember Logan Paul’s Pokemon card which sold for
over $16 million (See “Logan
Paul’s Pokemon TCG Pikachu Illustrator Card Becomes Most Expensive Trading Card
Ever Sold”)? It went to AJ Scaramucci, who calls himself a “venture collector” and is,
according to the September 11, 2026 issue of The Hollywood Reporter, a partner
in the Treasure Trove website, which bills itself as “a holding company
structured to hold and compound elite culturally-significant real-world
collectibles” and spent $2 million in cash on a CGC 9.8 copy of Tales of
Suspense #39 (first appearance of Iron Man) earlier this summer. Like many
other Pokemon collectors, Scaramucci got interested in collecting the
cards during COVID though he apparently had no interest in the game when he was
younger and, like many of today’s collectors, has no interest in playing the
game but sees the cards, comics and other epherema as artistic and cultural
items he expects to grow in value over time.
to move more World of Warcraft D&D merchandise to the customer, stores ordering at least one of each SKU of the assorted D&D World of Warcraft products, which means at least one of each of the covers, the DM Screen, Icecrown Citadel Adventure Map Pack, Miniatures Horde Pack and Miniatures Alliance Pack, will receive an assortment of unpainted Murloc miniatures to give away with the purchase of D&D World of Warcraft products. Although the promotion does not dictate how the miniatures are to be given away, it recommends giving one to each customer buying both a book and one other related D&D World of Warcraft product. I hope WotC puts some effort and additional promotional dollars into not only the World of Warcraft promotion but also letting people know about it, making the Murloc figure a rare and hard to find item. Too often, and this is not only Wizards but most other game (and comic) publishers, companies come up with promotions and then rely on social media or word of mouth to get the word out about them. In the case of most recent promotions, the customer comes in, makes a purchase or qualifies for the promotion but has no idea about it and is surprised when we give them the item for which they qualified. We and other stores make in-store signage but if a company decides to go to the effort to design a promotion, also go to the effort to let the target market know about it.
These will release October 3rd. let us know by 3 p.m. Sept 15 if you want any.
The Emperor’s Angels have finally arrived! The 11th Edition release of our most iconic faction, includes new miniatures, new variations, and a new format codex.
Codex: Space Marines is designed for gamers to react rapidly in the most tense encounters and comes in a new format with updated lore, rules, and hobby inspiration.
This release contains multi-purchase Astartes kits that have an answer for all the horrors the galaxy will throw at them. Hobbyists will collect multiple kits to fulfill all battlefield roles.
Keep the tide at bay with new heroes such as Kaius Konorius, who stands ready to sacrifice all in their dedication to their Chapter and the Emperor.
Fluxx is always number one on my list of
recommendations to people coming into the store looking for gifts (as long as
they are not looking for Magic, Pokemon or something specific). With
dozens of different versions of the game, a staff member can usually find one
which fits into the parameters the gifter has set. Although Looney Labs has
fewer licensed versions than in the past (I believe Monty Python and Star
Trek are the only two current ones), the addition of Wonderland, Oz
and Pooh, I mean Hundred Acre Wood, appeals to older gamers and,
although there is Mystery Fluxx, given the characters continued
popularity and its presence in the public domain, I would certainly stock a Holmes and Watson themed
deck.
We are unable to secure a steady supply of English One Piece cards but have found a source for Japanese packs, the same place we are getting our Japanese Pokemon cards. We should start getting in some next week.
Releasing Sept 26
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ACTION COMICS #1102
ALADDIN #2
ARCHIE #1
BARBARA GORDON BREAKOUT #5 CVR A KARL KERSCHL
BATMAN #251 FACSIMILE
BATMAN & ROBIN YEAR ONE DYNAMIC DUOS #2
BATMAN BAD SEEDS GOTHAM CENTRAL #1
BLACK CAT #14
CHACHU #2
CHALLENGES OF DOOM: SPIDER-MAN #1
CLAYFACE CELEBRITY DIRT #3
COMICS THE MAGAZINE #7
DEADLY TALES OF THE GUNSLINGER SPAWN #18
DEATH VIGIL (2026) #2
DOCTOR STRANGE #10
DOOMQUEST #4
EMPEROR AQUAMAN #21
EVENT HORIZON: INFERNO #5
FIRE AND ICE DARKWOLF #3
FIXATION #1
FOLK OF DOONEY HOLLOW #1
FOREVER HOME #1
FURY OF FIRESTORM #6
GI JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO #332
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #20
HELLRAISER: RESURRECTIONS – THE ONANISTIC RITUAL #1
HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: THE WINGS OF FATE #3
HONOR AND CURSE ETERNAL #6
INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #9
IRON MAN #9
KARMAN BLADE #1
MAGIC: THE GATHERING: UNTOLD STORIES–JACE #4
MARVEL GOLD ’76 #1
MARVEL MANGAVERSE: IRON KNIGHT #1
NANO #2
NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH #5
OF THE EARTH #5
OMEGA BOOK #2
PUNISHER #8
SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT DARK WINTER #2
SIX OF US #1
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #89
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG X GODZILLA #2
SPAWN 77 #1
STAR TREK: 60TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL
STAR TREK: DEVIATIONS–EVERMORE
STAR TREK: RED SHIRTS–GHOST OF THE 21ST CENTURY #2
STAR WARS: THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT #1
STAR WARS: THE HIGH REPUBLIC ADVENTURES–PATHFINDERS #5
STARHENGE BOOK TWO A KISS FOR ATTICUS #3
SUPERGIRL #17
TALES OF THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: COASTAL CHAOS #1
TANK GIRL BLUE HELMET SUMMER SPECIAL #1
TANKERS VS ANCIENT ALIENS #4
TARZAN BEYOND #3
THUNDERCATS CHEETARA #1
TMNT: JOURNEYS #13
TRANSFORMERS #36
VALIANT BEYOND: ALL-NEW HARBINGER #8–RISEN #2
VALIANT BEYOND: BLOODSHOT #5
WOLVERINE #27
YOUNG HELLBOY: THRILLING SKY ADVENTURES #3
ZORRO #3
I want to congratulate Don Reents on his announced
retirement from Chessex Manufacturing (See “Chessex
Owner Donald Reents Retires”). Don has been a fixture in the industry and
Chessex was the first national distributor to compete with The Armory,
eventually merging the two companies in 1998 (See “Chessex
Founder Don Reents”). Chessex was also the first company to greatly expand
the varieties of dice stores offered to the hobby game customer as well as
related items such as Battlemats, tokens and markers. However, the thing I most remember about
Reents was sitting down with him at Ft. Wayne Pentecon back in the late
nineties and pelting him with questions about baseball and his thoughts about
various aspects of the sport and its fans which I incorporated into my
dissertation. So Don, happy retirement, thanks for the help and to paraphrase
Douglas Adams “So long and thanks for all the dice”.
Wizards of the Coast is making a big push to make sure its
first Gameplay Expansion for Dungeons and Dragons sell
successfully (See “Wizards
of the Coast Reveals Product Line Details for Dungeons and Dragons: World of Warcraft”) offering stores
incentives tied to the quantity of books purchased. For the first time, a
D&D book will release with three covers: Standard cover, Alternate/WPN Store cover and
a Collector Edition cover with an MSRP of $99.99. Ordering 6 copies of any cover gets a store a
metal display rack similar to the one given out with the release of the 2024
updates for the Dungeons and Dragons core rulebooks. Order 12 copies of
any cover in any combination and the store receives the metal display rack and
a free copy of the Standard cover book.
To encourage stores to really push their orders, a store ordering 24
copies of any combination of covers will receive a large display holding 12 to
15 books and a free copy of the Collector’s Edition cover.
We currently have Pitch Black, Chaos Rising, Perfect Order and destined Rivals booster packs in stock, as well as a limited quantity of Japanese Pokemon packs. We also have a few Destined Rivals ETKs left and expect to get in more First Partner Series 3 boxes later this week.
We do play Pokemon from 6 to 8, generally a tournament, on Wednesday night and 1 to 3 on Saturday afternoon.
Releaseing Sept 19th
Your descent into the new edition of Necromunda continues as House Escher and House Goliath get new characters and new rules in a series of Underhive Journals.
The Underhive Journals are new format, soft cover books that add new gang-specific content for campaign play, so players can fight over territories that reflect their gang, take appropriate side jobs for their skills, and draw from a whole new list of Gang Tactics.
These new gang characters are bringing backup in the form of the Goliath Forge Bosses & Sumpkrocs and Escher Gang Matriarchs & Phyrr Cats gang boxes, available separately for the first time.