Kickstarter and other such crowdfunding sites have become the great equalizer for a lot of people to get to make and present their dreams when they normally might not get to. It’s also 30 days of hell as the campaign inches closer to its goal, and the campaigners have to promote round the clock for a month, after which they might not even reach the minimum goal, rendering everything for naught. Luckily, this was not the fate that met the makers of the Hellboy indie board game; that thing raised almost 10 times its goal in five days!

The campaign was launched by British company Mantic Games who were hoping to raise £100,000 (or $137,799 in U.S. money) by May 25 for their beautiful four-player cooperative adventure game. Before the first week was even up, they’d raised a whopping £861,280 (or $1,186,841). The game features 110 character and monster miniatures (including heroes, evil minions, bosses, and more) which can all be hand-painted at your discretion and beautiful cards and dice based on the iconic Mike Mignola artwork. People who preorder even get a specially designed box cover from Mignola himself. They also handily reached all of their expansion goals, so basically a pledge now will get you everything, including the “Conqueror Worm” expansion and the BPRD Archive expansion.

The game will pit Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, and Johann Krauss against the likes of Rasputin, Herman Von Klempt, giant monster frog, Hecate, and more in several scenarios. According to their official About section: “You become a member of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD), ready to investigate occult threats that threaten our very existence. You will explore Gothic locations, hunt down clues, discover artifacts, fight horrific creatures and face off against terrifying bosses.” Sounds pretty good to us.

You still have 25 days to pledge for the game and its expansions for £95 (about $130), which seems like a pretty great deal considering the amount of game you’ll get. You can find out more information about the campaign here!

Images: Mike Mignola/Mantic Games

More for the Hellboy lover!

• The 7 essential Hellboy comics you need to read!
• A comics history of Hellboy’s the Blood Queen!
• Get a look at Vampyr, the upcoming horror game!

Warning: This article contains a major spoiler for Avengers: Infinity War. Don’t read any further unless you’re prepared to learn it.

Like the WWE Royal Rumble it sometimes resembles, Avengers: Infinity War had a few surprise entrants. And none, perhaps, was more surprising than the Red Skull, last seen being disintegrated (or so we thought?) by the Tesseract. Instead, as we learn in Infinity War, the mystical force transported him across space to become the guardian of the Soul Stone, which he himself is unable to possess due to having nothing left to love that he can sacrifice for it.

“But wait!” savvy Marvel fans will say. “Hugo Weaving said he wasn’t really interested in doing that again! How did Disney persuade him? Was it just big bags of money?” Indeed they did not. As Gizmodo reports, Red Skull was played by a Hugo Weaving impersonator. And here’s the tell: it’s a great impression of Hugo Weaving, but Weaving was himself doing an impression of Werner Herzog in the role. The new Red Skull doesn’t quite go that far. Don’t worry about his career prospects, though—the imitator in question is Ross Marquand, also known as Aaron on The Walking Dead, and a talented mimic, having previously been a celebrity impersonator on Conan, Robot Chicken, and Animation Domination Hi-Def. And hey, maybe that new Lord of the Rings TV series will need a new Elrond!

Did you know it was another actor, or did Marquand successfully fool you? Let us know in comments.

Images: Marvel Studios

More from the MCU and beyond!

• Where does Red Skull rank in the list of best Marvel villains?
• V for Vendetta is the movie for our times.
• Should Hugo Weaving have played young Dumbledore?

Women are often accused of lying or exaggerating about the abuse the have endured and singer Kehlani is tired of it. The Oakland native took to her Twitter to sound off, saying calling abuse victims liars is just as bad …

Throughout the Civil War of 1812, and the many years prior, as freedom seekers escaped slavery in the South through a network of secret routes and safe houses, their last stop, as they made their way to Canada, was often through the city of Niagara Falls. A museum dedicated to telling the authentic stories of the Underground Railroad freedom seekers and abolitionists in the City of Niagara Falls will open on May 4.

The Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center will open its doors to the public to “inspire visitors to recognize the modern injustices that stemmed from slavery and take action toward an equitable society.”

“We want to immerse people in the very real history of what actually happened right here in this neighborhood,” said Bill Bradberry, the chairman of the Underground Railroad Heritage Area Corp. “It’s emotional for a lot of us. This is, in a sense, the end of a long trail and in another sense the beginning of a long journey.”

An article published in the National Anti-Slavery Standard in 1847 described the accounts of the night of July 29, when the black staffers at Cataract Hotel unsuccessfully tried to rescue a girl from her slaveholder, who was lodging at the hotel.

A slaveholder and his slave, a girl of twenty-two years of age, arrived here and took lodgings at the Cataract Hotel, where there are a vast number of coloured waiters. The girl made known her situation to one of them, and stated that she was wretched beyond description because of the cruel treatment of her master and mistress. She wished him to convey her to the Canada side, where she should be protected by British laws. He was determined to free her if possible, but the master watched her so carefully, and kept her so closely confined at night, as to render escape impracticable. When ready to leave, her master contrived to detain the cars beyond the usual time. This was done to lull the suspicions of the coloured people. He placed the girl in the car, between himself and the window. She was heart-broken when she found she was going back into Slavery. The coloured people attempted to take her out, but were prevented by a mob, who beat them severely. The cars were startled in the midst of the scuffle. One of the coloured men jumped on the car, and followed it to Lockport, hoping to liberate the poor girl there. He was unsuccessful.

By 1850, more than 65% of African Americans working at the Cataract Hotel listed their birthplace as a southern state or unknown—a suggestion that many of them had escaped slavery. The waiters who assisted freedom seekers on their journey to freedom in Canada made Niagara Falls one of the most important locations of the powerful struggle between slavery and freedom.

One More Road to Cross, the museum’s permanent exhibition will feature the authentic stories of the Underground Railroad in Niagara Falls, the crucial role played by its location and geography, and the actions of its residents—particularly its African American residents. Visitors will be able to traverse the journey Harriet Tubman took with Joe Bailey to freedom with a walk over a bridge with the sounds of trains overhead and water rushing below. The museum will also showcase Cataract Hotel, one of the largest hotels in Niagara Falls at the time, with its 600-room luxury hotel that housed both slave-holding tourists and many black waiters born in the South.

The exhibition will have digital media, graphics, scenic built environments and facilitated dialogic programming as part of the visitor experience. A re-creation of the International Suspension Bridge, built in 1848, where Harriet Tubman and other freedom seekers crossed the imaginary line from slavery to freedom, will be on display. Award-winning illustrator and fine artist E.B. Lewis brought the stories to life with powerful images and Emmy Award winner Keith David did the voice-overs.

The post Underground Railroad Museum Preserves Memories of Freedom Seekers That Passed Through Niagara Falls appeared first on Black Enterprise.