Thursday, January 31, 2008

Pulp Thursday - inspirational photo dump


















Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Comics and Film



Dynamite Has been coming out with some decent releases. I'm really looking forward to the Superpowers book.
Here is a Blurb on it from the website:

From the dawn of the 20th Century came a new chapter in mankind's history, unleashed during a time of great war and destruction.
It was the beginning of the Age of the SUPERPOWERS, yet with the closing of the Second World War, this new spark seemingly flickered and died.

Until now...

Now the story can be told of the great lost SUPERPOWERS -- men and women with incredible abilities who changed the course of mankind forever...

and who had been thought lost ...

Until now...

Now, DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT and Alex Ross unleash PROJECT SUPERPOWERS! This explosive #0 issue features a story crafted by Justice collaborators Alex Ross and Jim Kruger, joined by artists Stephen Sadowksi, Doug Klauba and additional art by Alex Ross.

The story of PROJECT SUPERPOWERS begins here, in the present day with the Fighting Yank, coming to terms with the ghosts of his past and present! As our story unfolds, we journey to the heights and depths of the Second World War and come face-to-face with the great forgotten heroes of the ages, and solve the mystery of where these legends disappeared to after the great war.

This is THE event of 2007, and it leads directly into the PROJECT SUPERPOWERS series! Issue #0 is where it all begins and features 28 pages of story and art PLUS a full PROJECT SUPERPOWERS color sketchbook by Ross and original Ross interconnecting covers - all for just a buck!


check out the Flash presentation here.



Just a friendly reminder:



Blade Runner: The Final Cut.

If you haven’t seen this movie on the big screen, then you haven’t seen this movie.
Here’s where it will be playing for a lucky few.


2/1/08 - Columbus (Drexel Gateway, Columbus - 35mm)
2/15/08 - San Francisco (Castro, San Francisco - 35mm)
2/29/08 - Sacramento (Crest, Sacramento - 35mm)


And the Collage contest has concluded. Thanks to everyone who sent in an entry. I now have a ton of Emails to sort through and see who walks away with the Swag-bag. The winner will be anounced sometime next week!

Monday, January 28, 2008

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Saturday, January 26, 2008

"May all your dreams - but one - come true."




David Gemmell’s last novel Troy: Fall of Kings has been released. David passed away last summer, before finishing it so the story was completed by Stella Gemmell his wife.

Reading this book is going to be a bittersweet experience for me. I usually get an electric charge when I get my hands on a new Gemmell story, but knowing this is the last Gemmell story makes me hesitant to read it. If I read it then there will be no more, if I don’t read it then there will always be one left to read.

In any event, if there are any of you out there who have yet to read a story by David Gemmell, please do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of “Legend”. If you are a fan of heroic fiction or you just like a well told tale, Legend is a must read.





My thanks to The Cimmerian for a heads up on this great article about David Gemmell from the Wall Street Journal.

Friday, January 25, 2008

The Evil DM's collage contest


In celebration of having my computer fixed I figured I’d hold a contest. So here’s the deal:
At the top of the page is my Evil DM collage. The person who can identify the most pictures wins. The photos can be identified by either naming the source of the photo (i.e. Captain America #112 Marvel comics) or the Blog post it first appeared under (“Happy Wednesday” April 11, 2001). There may be one or more photos that don’t appear on the Blog or may have appeared on the Tripod Blog before the move over to Blogger, which is why the contest rewards the MOST number of pictures identified. If there is more than one entry with the most photos identified, then the winner will be determined by the date and time on their email, the first submitted will win. If there are entries with the same date and time then I will roll a D20, highest roll wins- The minions will serve as witnesses.

Win? Win what?
Well… I buy a lot of stuff, “She who must be obeyed” feels I buy too much stuff. Sometimes I buy stuff I’ve already bought, and then I have doubles. The prize will be a “Swag bag” of doubles. For instance: Ever heard of Harold Lamb? Well, I just found out I have two copies of his book Genghis Khan. Remember the Green Ronin sale? I have two copies of Testament-the D20 sourcebook of campaigning in the Biblical age. Stuff like that will be in the bag. It will be new, or collectible - Not junk.

Who can enter?
Anyone can enter. But being a one man operation, and on a budget I can’t afford to ship a swag bag out to Nepal or Germany. So if you win and live outside of the US you must have a US address for me to ship to, otherwise you forfeit.
Alaska and Hawaii- you guys are US (Don’t let anybody tell you different).

How do I enter?
1) Email me your answers before the deadline of 11:59PT on Monday January 28th.
Email address is: boojiesdad at hotmail dot com

2) On the side of my Blog is an advertisement. Click it. Visit it. Buy something if you want. This will help me pay for shipping. This part has to be on the honor system- so help a brother out huh (remember brain tumor…horrific car accident)?

So there you go. Good Luck!




Thursday, January 24, 2008

Pulp Thursday



Turok son of stone DVD
The classic Dell comic character who had a brief resurgence at the end of the 20th century is headed to DVD. The trailer looks cool. With all the dinosaurs chomping people in half , it’s probably safe to say this one ain’t for the kiddies.





Dark Kingdom
Image comics came out with the Death Dealer comic a few months ago. Now we have Dark Kingdom set to hit the shelves in April. So far, it looks like Image is gonna do the whole Molly Hatchet catalogue.




Red Nails
There may never be a Red Nails animated DVD, but by the Gods there will be a complete audio version available for download!






Italian pulp
The Acrobatic flea gave me the heads up on this one.
I have no idea what this site is saying, but I had a great time checking it out.
Here is the skinny on it:
La Domenica del Corriere (”Sunday Courier”) was Sunday insert for Corriere della Sera, an Italian newspaper that ran for 90 years, from 1899 to 1989. For most of that time the section featured a full-page illustration on its cover each week.
These were often dramatic gouache or watercolor illustrations, almost in a pulp-illustration vein, but they presumably illustrated actual news stories (think of all of the notable and dramatic events that occurred during that period of time).
There is a site devoted to them at www.illustrated-history.org/, containing an archive of the illustrations and a bit of the history.
There is a search function on the home page that allows you to search by region (Per luoghi), by artist (Per autore) or event (Ricerca avanzata), with attendant drop-down menus.
It appears that there is a concentration on two artists in particular, Walter Molino (above left) and Achillies Beltrame (above right), whose work is sought after by collectors. Searching for these two may be a good place to start. Once you are on a page with a featured illustration, clicking on that image provides a pop-up with a wonderfully large reproduction of the painting. (I’ve included a full-size crop from a small section of each illustration above.) You can also informally browse from an illustration page to other pages by incrementing or decrementing the database number at the end of the URL in your browser’s address field.
Some of the illustrations are less interesting than others and there is some repetition of subject as they looked for sensational topics to illustrate (lots of train wrecks and other disasters), but some of these images are just wonderful and make the trouble of searching and browsing worth your while.
This is intended to be more of an illustrated history than an appreciation of the artists, but it serves as both. You can take a fascinating stroll through the early to mid 20th Century and view some wonderful pulp-style illustrations in the process.
I also found a blog on a site devoted to the paper, Blog del Club Domenica del Corriere, also in Italian, that features the illustrations, but doesn’t dwell on them exclusively.





Gold Monkey
Now I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up…It’s just a rumor…But, “Tales of the Gold Monkey” could finally be headed for DVD!

And that is your Pulp Thursday Report!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Monday, January 21, 2008

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Saturday, January 19, 2008

The State of the Lair



Computer
I picked up another 160GB HD today. I also bought a 2GB pocket flash drive, some antivirus software, and spy ware protection. The new drive will hold all my system stuff and the old drive will be for files and such. I have lots of room now, but I’ll soon rectify that!
I’m hoping that “She who must be obeyed” will soon let me take my nuts down off the wall where she stapled them after the crash, but I’m not pushing it.
I’ll be looking into this thing they call “backing up” as well.

Star Frontiers PBEM
One guy left my PBEM, and he was integral to the story, so I’ll have to see how that goes. Between the holidays and the crash I’m sure the guys in my game feel a bit abandoned, hopefully we can salvage something from it.

Broadsword
Before the crash I was puttering along with the Broadsword expansion. The expansion itself is done, but James wanted three scenarios. I was halfway through completing the first when the crash happened. So I have to wrap my head around that again.

Legends of Steel
My work on Legends of Steel continues, the players section is done and the GM part is almost done. One of the artists I hired hasn’t responded to any emails since before Christmas. I paid her for a couple of pieces of art but haven’t seen or heard anything from her.

Mission Adventure
One of the guys looking over LoS is really pushing me to try writing “Mission: Adventure!” with the LoS rules-set rather than the FASERIP (Aka: four-color) system. He makes a good argument, since I have a system engine in place why use a different one? The LoS engine was primarily built around a low tech campaign, all I need to do is develop firearm, and vehicle rules, swap out magic for Psionics, and add some more contemporary skills.

ZeFRS
I’m really intrigued by this idea of using ZeFRS as the engine for an alternate earth campaign world set in the “Dark Ages”. I found a great deal on EBay for a run of Arak comics and found some more at the local comic store for 50% off. Thanks as well to those of you who wrote in with book tips and suggestions.


Gen Con
One of my favorite quotes is: “If you ever want give God a good laugh, tell him your plans”. Gen Con ain’t gonna happen this year.
After the car wreck I was out of work for almost three months. Not only out of work but out of car as well. Add in the holiday expenses and things were getting a little dicey here at the Lair. I’m back at work, and we are slowly climbing our way out of past due notices, but Gen Con is an extravagance that wont be realized this year. The medical bills are still being incurred and they are being paid, but we are a ways away from any talk of settlement, so for now we just tighten the belt and soldier on, as my littlest minion would say: “Suck it up like Conan daddy!”




Friday, January 18, 2008

Computer update


It looks like tomorrow I'll be getting a new HD for the computer. the Windows on my old HD locks up when it boots. My stuff is still there, I just need a new HD to access it. My Aptiva has stepped in to fill the void while my Dell is down. the Aptiva has given good service but she's old, really old. even stripped down to the bare bones, it takes a while to get anywhere. we can check email and pay bills but thats about it. Needless to say things like LoS, the Broadsword Adventure, and my PBEM have taken a major hit. This all just happens to come at the busiest time of the year at work, so even blog posts have to wait to get done on the lunch hour. I hope to be up again by Sunday. but you know what they say: Hope is a lying bitch.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Pulp Thursday!



Lobster Johnson
I almost missed this! I saw the issues in my comic store last week and picked up all but #2. I'm on the hunt for #2 now cause #1 was everything a pulp comic should be.
Huge hairy monsters, Nazis, subterranean hideouts, Chinatown, electro blasters, cannibals, .45's, this story has it all. Get thee to a comic shop before it's too late!


Need a pilot for your Pulp game? Call Jimmie Angel.
A real life Pilot and adventurer (with a name thats 100% Pulp hero). This guy's life would make a great movie.
More about Jimmie here.




Thanks to NJ Harman for the tip on Jimmie.


And lets say your team of adventurers hire Jimmie and you all somehow you find your way to that “Lost Plateau” who better to greet your players than:


Gotta thank Trollsmyth for that one.


You can never have too many pulp blogs:
And here's another good one:



And checking out Christopher's blog will lead you to Planet X



Does this cover just kick ass or what?



And while we are talking comics, lets wrap this week up with a freebie.



I love Tim Truman's art. I loved his Scout and Spider stories in the 80's and I love his work on Conan now.




And that is your Pulp Thursday report!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Make mine Marvel! Uh...on second thought, don't.




First they kill Captain America. Now they are having Spiderman sell his marriage to Mephisto to save Aunt May’s life? WTF is that about? Aunt May is like 300 years old. In what universe does this make sense? Spiderman’s code has been “with great power comes great responsibility”. Where is the responsibility in making a deal with the devil for your own selfish reasons? Whose Spiderman is that? I just don’t get it. Why is Marvel doing this? Shock value? To sell more comics?
Does the editor have a need to feel famous and edgy? “Yeah, I’m the guy that spun the Marvel universe on its ear. First I killed Captain America and then I ruined Spiderman’s whole world.”
Maybe the guy has issues and by doing shit like this it makes him feel all powerful. This just furthers my resolve to stop buying new comics from Marvel.
Enough of that crap, let’s jump in the "Wayback Machine" and check out some girls in tights.














Monday, January 14, 2008

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Finally an Action Figure post


Maynard over at Joe hobby pics posted it. Then I saw it on the Geek Parenting blog (which is an excellent Blog and a EDM daily read). Then tonight my buddy Charles sends it to me. So yes, this is officially a cool site.
I would buy these figures in a heartbeat if they would release them, somebody needs to give this guy a job at DC Direct or Marvel Legends. Theres plenty of other cool stuff on his site as well. Now I gotta go find the comics for this. More stuff to buy.