The Driver's Seat

HTMLized by Dennis Holmes.

Face Front, True Believers!

Car Wars is going to be a Marvel Comic.

Seriously.

It's going to be a four-issue mini-series called Car Warriors, and it will be out in comics stores everywhere next March from Marvel/Epic. It's written by ace action writer Chuck Dixon, illustrated by British artist Steve Dillon and edited by Marie Javins. Both artist and writer have plenty of experience with the "dark future" school of science fiction -- Dixon with series like Evangeline for First and Alien Legion for Marvel/Epic, Dillon with "Rogue Trooper" for Britain's 2000 A.D. I've had a chance to read the scripts for the first two issues of Car Warriors, and this book's going to be literally a blast.

The creative team at Epic is working closely with the SJG staff to ensure that the comic remains true to both the spirit and the rules of the Car Wars game, and each issue will contain a page of game-related information prepared by us here at SJG.

What's next? Hollywood?

New Features

If you look under the "Departments" section of this issue's contents page, you'll see two new sections, and if you look under "Advertisers" you'll find an old friend.

"Blasts from the Past" is simply a new name for "Newswatch." I changed the name because I was afraid new readers might confuse "Newswatch" and "AADA News," and also because I thought the new name sounded cool. Lots of people write in and ask me what sort of contributions I'm especially interested in. Well, right at the moment I'm experiencing an acute but severe shortage of "History of . . ." timelines for "Blasts from the Past." Would-be contributors take note. Also, if you happen to see an item suitable for "50 Years Ago Today" in a newspaper or magazine, you'll instantly become one of my favorite people if you clip or photocopy it and send it along to ADQ.

"Car Wars Classic," however, is something completely different. Each issue this space will be devoted to a short scenario or some vehicle designs which can be played using only the rules found in the new Car Wars small box game -- it's intended to ensure that there's something in ADQ for duellists of all stripes, from the very newest players to championship contenders. This first installment consists of designer's notes on the small box Car Wars from none other than Steve Jackson himself, making his first ADQ appearance in far too long.

Also this issue is the long-awaited return of Uncle Al to the pages of ADQ. Al has diversified since his last appearance here, and henceforth he'll be alternating ads for his new "Uncle Al's Military Surplus" company with ads from the good old "Auto Shop and Gunnery Stop."

Classified Information

Several people have asked me recently how much an ad in "ADQ Classified" costs. Classified ads are provided as a free service to ADQ readers; there's absolutely no charge. We only ask that your ad have something to do with the Car Wars game or the autoduelling hobby. We do reserve the right to edit your classified ad for content and space reasons.

We do not accept ads from businesses (except convention announcements) in "ADQ Classified," but individual duellists are welcome to place classified ads to sell or exchange Car Wars products.

All ads will rum in at least one issue, and an ad will continue to run as long as there's room for it. No one can have more than one ad in "ADQ Classified" at a time.

What's New

As this issue goes to print, Car Wars Tanks is shipping, and Aeroduel, Car Wars: The Card Game and Car Wars ("Car Wars Classic," in the small box) should all be available at your local games retailer.

The first major Car Wars release for 1991 will be The Complete Uncle Al (previously announced as Uncle Al's Military Surplus, commonly referred to around the office as Uncle Al's Catalog from Hell). This will be a big book in the Car Wars Compendium format -- approximately half of it will be devoted to listing of all the gadgets and accessories from previous catalogs, all in the inimitable Uncle Al style. The rest of the book will be devoted to completely new paths to better duelling through technology, including military hardware for planes and tanks. It' s being compiled and written by Craig Sheeley, the mastermind behind Aeroduel and Car Wars Tanks, and Craig needs your ideas. See the ad on p. 00 for information on how you can help us pro- duce The Complete Uncle Al's Catalog.

The rest of the schedule for next year is still up in the air. Right now it looks like the first boxed supplement for next year will be Dueltrack, Second Edition. This updated and expanded version of the long-out-of-print racing rules will not include Chassis and Crossbow, because that's still tagged to become a boxed supplement in its own right, a little further down the line.