Mark Smylie
LightNews LightNews
banner
marksmylie.bsky.social
Mark Smylie
@marksmylie.bsky.social
630 followers 440 following 420 posts
Occasional illustrator, writer, and TTRPG game designer, former comics publisher (founder of Archaia once upon a time) and editor. Feeder of cats, birds, deer, possums, raccoons, and foxes. Not necessarily in that order.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
marksmylie.bsky.social
Mark Smylie @marksmylie.bsky.social · Feb 24
Having to rewrite this pin for 2025 because I'm now off FB.

WIP on my Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/marksmylie

A dusty website that I swear I will update one day: swordandbarrow.com/wp/

Stuff for sale (some of it also on Amazon but I won't link there): www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher...

Thanks!
Get more from Mark Smylie on Patreon
creating books, roleplaying games, games, and (occasionally) com
www.patreon.com
marksmylie.bsky.social
Final 24 hours in @drivethrurpg.com's CYBER MONDAY sale (which apparently ran for an entire week!). 30% of select ARTESIA titles from Aegis & Gorgon until this time tomorrow:

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher...
December 8, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
martinhelsdon.bsky.social
Funeral procession in Rhigos.

Sketch by @marksmylie.bsky.social

#Glorantha
December 8, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
Tascha didn’t just build a volunteer team of more than 100,000 people, she built a community across our city.

And there’s no one better suited to tell you how she did it than her.

thedigradio.com/podcast/thre...
Three Million Doors w/ Tascha Van Auken
Featuring Tascha Van Auken on how Zohran’s campaign mobilized an army of 100,000 volunteers to knock three million doors. Van Auken has been an architect of NYC-DSA’s field operation and its general e...
thedigradio.com
December 7, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
decassette.bsky.social
also, ICYMI, the book is OUT-out at the PEOW2 shop. the lil preorder sign is gone. peow.studio/shop/na
another Garden of Spheres title page, this one featuring the main character (a woman with dark blonde hair & lizard skin) standing on a tree branch, holding another tree branch, more dragons in the background
December 5, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
osu16bit.bsky.social
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has died. Bummer news.

I mean, what do you even need to say about his performance as Shang Tsung? Iconic.
December 5, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
deadlyfredly.bsky.social
"Pop-up books? Pffff, seen 'em. Back in my day, before I got resurrected as a lich I mean, we had pop-UNDER books and they smoked pop-up books for breakfast."
globalmuseum.bsky.social Global Museum @globalmuseum.bsky.social · 6d
A book from the 19th century that depicts the Rhine Valley by creating an impression of three-dimensionality and spatial distance.
@MasayukiTsuda2 #globalmuseum #books #travel #19thcentury
December 3, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
mytholder.bsky.social
Huh.
Small town with magic monster-spewing gates opening everywhere.
Huge cast of characters of wildly different competence levels.
Lots of emphasis on tooling up and having random encounters.

Stranger Things is the Arkham Horror board game tv show.
December 2, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
cbldf.bsky.social
Alaska school district considering policy to classify graphic novels as legally obscene. This over-expansive redefinition of "seriously offensive material with no literary value" is a serious risk to comics media nationwide. www.alaskasnewssource.com/2025/12/02/f...
Fairbanks school board reviews district library policy amid community concerns
The Fairbanks School Board is scheduled to look at Article Six of its policy, including what materials are allowed in different school libraries across the district.
www.alaskasnewssource.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
mouseguard.bsky.social
Only 2 hours left to get 25% OFF using code SMALLBIZ mouseguard.bigcartel.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:03 AM
marksmylie.bsky.social
Final Aegis item in @drivethrurpg.com's Cyber Monday sale: THE LAST BARROW, an adventure/thought exercise, presenting write-ups and stats of a lost barrow and its treasures for three different systems (the ARTESIA RPG, 5E, and @chaosium.bsky.social's RuneQuest):

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/3...
Cover for the adventure supplement THE LAST BARROW, from Aegis for the Known World setting of the ARTESIA graphic novels and novel prequels. Double page spread from the adventured supplement THE LAST BARROW, outlining possible rumors about the barrow in question, and a historical text that might supply a party with details... A double page spread from THE LAST BARROW, describing one of the tombs found within the barrow and some of its artifacts. A double page spread from the "rules and stats" section, describing the elements of the barrow for the 5th Edition of the World's Most Popular Roleplaying Game. But descriptions and stats are also included for the ARTESIA RPG and for RUNEQUEST/BRP from Chaosium.
December 1, 2025 at 11:41 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
mouseguard.bsky.social
Tiny adventures on the grandest of scales—All #MouseGuard prints 25% OFF using code SMALLBIZ before midnight tonight

mouseguard.bigcartel.com
December 1, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
mouseguard.bsky.social
#MouseGuard Sketchbooks (including the digital collections that compile years worth of content) are 25% OFF using code SMALLBIZ until midnight (eastern)

mouseguard.bigcartel.com
December 1, 2025 at 8:42 PM
marksmylie.bsky.social
A closer look at another item in @drivethrurpg.com's Cyber Monday sale, HISTORIAE MUNDI: A HISTORY OF THE KNOWN WORLD. A sourcebook expanding on the history material in the ARTESIA RPG, along with the timeline info in ARTESIA ANNUAL #3, filled with info!

legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/3120...
Cover for HISTORIAE MUNDI: A HISTORY OF THE KNOWN WORLD, featuring the goddess Yhera as the Creatrix, defeating and binding the World Dragon at the start of Creation. The frontispiece intro to HISTORIAE MUNDI: A HISTORY OF THE KNOWN WORLD, originally used as the cover of ARTESIA ANNUAL #3, showing Artesia reading a book against a backdrop of figures from Known World history. A sample map from HISTORIAE MUNDI: A HISTORY OF THE KNOWN WORLD, showing the Known World during the hundred years prior to the events of the ARTESIA graphic novel series and its novel prequels (one of 11 such maps in the book). A sample page from HISTORIAE MUNDI: A HISTORY OF THE KNOWN WORLD, featuring an illustration of the Sorcerer-King Azharad, whose burial place is a focus of the prequel novel THE BARROW.
December 1, 2025 at 4:06 PM
marksmylie.bsky.social
Next up in @drivethrurpg.com's Black Friday-Cyber Monday sale: the ARTESIA: ADVENTURES IN THE KNOWN WORLD RPG. Written with the Fusion rules (the base system for Cyberpunk 2020); winner of the 2005 Origins Award for Best RPG and nominated for 6 ENnies.

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/3...
Front cover for the ARTESIA: ADVENTURES IN THE KNOWN WORLD RPG, published by Archaia in 2005 and still available via Aegis & Gorgon (a new revised edition is in the works!). An extensive history of the Known World, setting for the ARTESIA comics, is included in the ARTESIA RPG. Here is a sample page, with an illustration of the Dúréan heroine Hannath Hammergreia. In the ARTESIA RPG the Major Arcana of the Known World's Tarot provides links to powers and abilities but also is the basis of the experience system. The ARTESIA RPG also includes background details like info on the constellations of the Known World's Cosmos, and how they impact character creation and divination in the game.
November 30, 2025 at 3:28 PM
marksmylie.bsky.social
Next in @drivethrurpg.com's Black Friday sale: the 3rd graphic novel, ARTESIA AFIRE, wholly published by Archaia in 2003. The collected edition includes a story from ANNUAL #2 and a story that appeared in John Kovalic's DORK TOWER. 30% off through end of Monday!

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/2...
The cover of ARTESIA AFIRE, third collected edition in the series, originally published by Archaia and still available via Aegis & Gorgon. A prologue page from ARTESIA AFIRE, from a short story that originally appeared in DORK TOWER. A prologue page from the collected edition of ARTESIA FIRE (third volume in the series). A double-page spread from the collected edition of ARTESIA AFIRE, third volume in the series.
November 29, 2025 at 5:02 PM
marksmylie.bsky.social
Next item in the @drivethrurpg.com Black Friday sale: the 2nd graphic novel, ARTESIA FIELD, originally published in series format by Sirius in late 2000 and then as a graphic novel by Archaia in 2003 with a prologue taken from the first ARTESIA ANNUAL. 30% off!

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/1...
Cover of the collected edition of ARTESIA AFIELD (second in the series) from Archaia/Aegis & Gorgon. The cover for ARTESIA AFIELD #1, included in the graphic novel collection as the intro image for Chapter One. It was also included as a selection in SPECTRUM #8. A page from Chapter Two, in which Artesia and her officers find themselves at cross swords with nominal allies. A page from Chapter Four (ARTESIA AFIELD #4), in which Artesia tells the story of how she found an enchanted sword.
November 28, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
comixace.bsky.social
This is HUGE. Hard to overstate the importance to this event to the town and region. The international comics publishing will also take a hit but they have many other ways to promote and sell. The comics festival IS Angoulême.
comicsbeat.bsky.social Comicsbeat @comicsbeat.bsky.social · 12d
BREAKING: Organiser 9e Art+ puts ANGOULÊME FESTIVAL 2026 on hold

Embattled Angoulême Festival organiser 9e Art+ has officially put production of the 2026 event on indefinite hold. This news was broken this afternoon in an email circulated to publishers. While not an official cancellation, it is a…
BREAKING: Organiser 9e Art+ puts ANGOULÊME FESTIVAL 2026 on hold
Embattled Angoulême Festival organiser 9e Art+ has officially put production of the 2026 event on indefinite hold. This news was broken this afternoon in an email circulated to publishers. While not an official cancellation, it is a further sign that the event, scheduled for January 29 to February 1, 2026, will not go ahead. In the email, which was shared with most French news outlets, …
www.comicsbeat.com
November 27, 2025 at 5:17 PM
marksmylie.bsky.social
Here's a closer look at one of the items in @drivethrurpg.com's Black Friday sale, the first ARTESIA graphic novel. First published in 1999 by Sirius, then later by me via my first company, Archaia. Still available through DriveThru in pdf (on sale!) and POD formats under the Aegis & Gorgon banner.
The 2003 cover of the first hardcover edition of ARTESIA (previously published by Sirius in a 1999 softcover, with a limited edition hardback). A two-page battle spread from Chapter 2 (originally issue #2 in the comic book series). Artesia (eponymous heroine) is surprised by a Hathaz-Ghúl, a kind of ghoul, in Chapter 3 (issue #3 in the original series). A dream sequence in Chapter 5 (issue #5 in the original series), in which Artesia sees an allegory of the future.
November 26, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
mckelvie.bsky.social
Glad the one that is only hallucinating 48% of the time is gaining traction in healthcare, legal and financial services, where a single error costs millions
jonasbjarnstedt.bsky.social Jonas Bjärnstedt @jonasbjarnstedt.bsky.social · 13d
Found this absolute graph crime, where the dot that is lowest apparently has 48 % fail rate!?
#graphcrime #dataviz #ai
"Which AI models hallucinate the most" A graph with a bunch of dots, where "lower is better. Dots are just spread all over the place, on the two axises accuracy and hallucination (how are they even different things) where the lowest hallucination rate is 48 %, which is at the bottom of hallucination
November 26, 2025 at 2:29 PM
marksmylie.bsky.social
If you're in the UK at #Dragonmeet this coming weekend, you can find these WIP previews of @martinhelsdon.bsky.social's book on the Esrolian city of Rhigos in #Glorantha at the Jonstown Compendium table in the @chaosium.bsky.social booth. Supplies limited! And profits to a good cause. Enjoy!
November 25, 2025 at 6:29 PM
marksmylie.bsky.social
DriveThru's Black Friday-Cyber Monday sale runs from now to the end of Monday. The ARTESIA graphic novels, a comics bundle, the Artesia roleplaying game, the History of the Known World, and The Last Barrow adventure book are all 30% off. Happy Thanksgiving!

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher...
November 25, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
chaosium.bsky.social
Freed from the shackles of the Lunar Empire, the people of Sartar stand at the dawning of a new day.

Lands of RuneQuest: Sartar is coming in 2026!
November 24, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
nytpitchbot.bsky.social
We wanted to understand how regular Americans feel about the Trump administration. So we talked to three Russia-funded content farmers at a tea house in Islamabad.
November 24, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
raysidman.bsky.social
Couldn’t say it any better myself. R.I.P. Udo Kier.
crobertcargill.bsky.social C. Robert Cargill @crobertcargill.bsky.social · 15d
Udo Kier was one of the great character actors while also being a hell of a character offscreen, too. Truly one of God’s own prototypes. Rest in peace, you magnificent bastard.
November 24, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Reposted by Mark Smylie
premthakker.bsky.social
Laughing at Donald Trump saying he'd definitely feel comfortable living in Zohran Mamdani's New York on the same day that half the consultant brain-poisoned Democratic party voted to condemn socialism
November 21, 2025 at 9:08 PM