Assassins

Assassins (from Arabic: أساسيون‎ Asasiyun) is the name used to refer to the medieval Nizari Ismailis. Often characterized as a secret order led by a mysterious "Old Man of the Mountain", the Nizari Ismailis were an Islamic sect that formed in the late 11th century from a split within Ismailism, itself a branch of Shia Islam. In time, the Nizaris began to pose a military threat to Sunni Seljuq authority within their territories by capturing and inhabiting many unconnected mountain fortresses throughout Persia (and later also Syria) under the leadership of Hassan-i Sabbah (who is typically regarded as the founder of the Assassins), therefore founding the so-called Nizari Ismaili state. While "Assassins" typically refers to the entire medieval Nizari sect, in fact only a class of acolytes known as the fida'i actually engaged in assassination work. Lacking their own army, the Nizari relied on these trained warriors to carry out espionage and assassinations of key enemy figures, and over the course of 300 years successfully killed two caliphs, and many viziers, sultans and Crusader leaders. Under leadership of Imam Rukn-ud-Din Khurshah, the Nizari state declined internally, and was eventually destroyed as the Imam surrendered the castles to the invading Mongols. Sources on the history and thought of the Ismailis in this period are therefore lacking and the majority extant are written by their detractors. Long after their near-eradication, mentions of Assassins were preserved within European sources such as the writings of Marco Polo, where they are depicted as trained killers, responsible for the systematic elimination of opposing figures. Ever since, the word "assassin" has been used to describe a hired or professional killer, paving the way for the related term "assassination", which denotes any action involving murder of a high-profile target for political reasons.

Into a Circle

Into a Circle (also as In Two A Circle and In2a0) were an English new wave duo, formed in April 1985 by Bee (Paul Hampshire) and Barry (Jepson), two former members of the band Getting the Fear.

Career

A second single from the album, "Evergreen" was released in March 1988, which like all previous releases entered the Top 20 of the UK Indie Chart, staying there for a number of weeks.

Bee and Barry carried on working together for a number of years following these releases, but none of the material produced ever reached the public.

A rumoured support slot with Erasure on their Innocents tour was quashed, when record label executives refused to financially back them.

The band broke up in October 1989.

Bee now resides in Thailand, where he is a member of electro-rock band Futon, alongside Simon Gilbert from Suede. Barry still lives in the UK, where he is a tour manager.

Discography

12" singles

List of Amalgam Comics publications

Near the end of the DC vs. Marvel crossover event in 1996, Amalgam Comics released a series of one-shot comic books combining characters from the Marvel Universe with characters from the DC Universe. The first twelve Amalgam titles were released in a single week, temporarily replacing both publishers' regular releases. Half the comics in the event were published by Marvel Comics and half by DC Comics. A year later, the stunt was repeated, but without the crossover as background. Later, both publishers collected their issues into trade paperback collections.

In the 24 Amalgam Comics titles printed, one-third of those printed included letter-columns by fictitious fans to give a larger background to the stories and to help give hints of what might happen in the next issue. The "fans'" hometowns were usually fusions of existing American cities.

1996 - DC Comics

Amazon

Amazon, written and drawn by John Byrne, featured Amazon aka Princess Ororo Munroe of Themiscyra.