Fanart Friday: Cowboy Bebop

Since yesterday was Valentine's Day it's only fitting to feature Faye Valentine and her bounty hunting buddies! Actually it's been five years since I've seen an episode of Cowboy Bebop, so if anyone wants to send me the series on DVD they would be more than welcome. Now, one trouble with anime and manga fanart is that most of it is done in the anime style, without much in the way of personal style. Which is why I love this first picture so much, by borogove13. The next one is a colored version of diablo2003's always-amazing lines. Nick SpazerCo follows with some Popeye Bebop. Finally we have a great cosplay photo, which is fanart of a different kind, from Kuragiman's gallery.



Daimida brings us an oekaki of Faye Valentine- oekaki means drawn on a web browser, basically. Then a cool Spike from EndersTruth and a watercolor Jet by RedXII. There's this guy at work whose name is Spike and I always say "Eh Spike-u" in my best Jet voice. He has no idea why. Can't forget Ed, she's my favorite, and I like Reenigirl's version.



Eh Spike-u!

I have a sort of a tradition of writing a non-mushy love poem to my wife on Valentine's Day to share with all of you. The mushy ones are just for her. This year I was at work and a little busy, so the result is somewhat subpar but better than nothing:

On Valentine's I had to go to work
Where my foreman was being a jerk
I don't like to swear so I kept saying "Furk!"

But I went down into the hole
And got you some nice and shiny coal
It's Valentine's Day after all!

Though on December 25th
I gave you the same for a Christmas gift
And it sort of seemed that you were miffed!

So instead I'll give you this poem
Since I can't be there at home
Which is where I prefer to roam

There's a couple of examples of poetic licence in there- my formean is actually a great guy that I admire immensely, and I actually like to swear just fine. I'm a coal miner after all and am furking good at it. Giving my wife coal for presents, of course, is not an exaggeration at all.

For those of you who were wondering, I wasn't in the bus crash. But thanks for your concern. My shift started today so I missed being in it by exactly 24 hours. My good buddy Robin's dad was on it, but he was not hurt too bad- seperated shoulder. According to the news but not to any firsthand information, one guy had an ear severed. Pretty crazy. Amazing that no one was killed.
Bleh. Sometimes I wonder why we do it.

Awww look at the little guy! A tiny little pterosaur was announced today. Which sounds to me like the perfect opening line of a new paleo-poem!

Ode to Nemicolopterus crypticus

Tiny little pterosaur, hello!
You seem like a cute little fellow
Flying around on your tiny wings
Looking around for shiny things
How did you get so small and shrinked?
I would ask you but you're extinct!

The new CG Clone Wars series is going to debut on the big screen August 15th before becoming a half-hour weekly TV show in the fall. Anakin has a padawan, and we know she wasn't around in Episode III so I wonder how she dies? Hopefully not by getting shot in the back by some clone troopers. I hope Grievy gets her.

I ran into an old buddy I haven't seen in ten years or more- my good friend Peter. We met in kindergarten I think, grade 1 at the latest, so we go back a ways. It's funny- we're both married with mortgages, he has a son even, and it was just like we were back in elementary school. I laughed so hard I was practically crying as we reminisced about the good old days. He was the guy I forged detention slips with so we wouldn't have to go outside in the wintertime. He was the guy who laughed at me when our music teacher tied me to my chair to keep me in my seat. He was the guy I laughed at when the class bully offered a bag of candy to anyone who would fight him and Peter accepted the challenge and got his ass kicked. He was the guy who cofounded the diamond mine with me in the back woods of our schoolyard. He was the guy who pretended he was a woolly mammoth with me all throughout grade 2. He was the guy who was with me when I snmashed up my parents' car on the way to a death metal gig when we were in grade 11- Disciples of Power rock on!
He was the guy.

Fanart Friday: Aayla Secura
Of all the thousands of characters to appear in the Star Wars movies, Aayla Secura is unique in that she was a comic book import. Lucas saw the cover painting on an issue of Darkhorse's Star Wars series and decided to put her in the movie. She was in a few scenes in Episodes II and III and then was shot in the back by some clone troopers. It would have been waaaay cooler if she had had even a brief fight scene where she takes a few of them with her but oh well. She lives on in fanart. We'll start with a collaboration between penciller Rene Cordova and colors by Redeve, and then a chibi Aayla just by Redeve. Then another collab between penciller Wardog-Zero and colorist thisisanton:


This row features art by my pals FunkYeti, dpdagger and joefreakingrocks:



Here, themico shows her in action against some vikings or something, and the goblinqueeen gives her a retro look:

Have you ever seen that movie Fallen? "Let me tell you about the time I almost died . . . " Great movie with a great cast (Denzel Washington stars) that came out ten years ago to mostly middling reviews. You should watch it if you've never seen it. I bring it up because I've been telling some of the younger guys at work that they should watch it. A lot of my buddies are ten years younger than me, or more, and have missed out on some of these great-but-ignored movies. Another one is Diggstown, one of my favorite movies about boxing and gambling and conning. What else?

The Oilers aren't doing so well, are they? I know most people are only thinking football today but apparently my subconscious is more concerned about the Oil, since I once again dreamed I was on the team to help them get out of this current slump. Also on the team was a lithe figure skater from India, she scored a goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Only, in my dream they weren't Blue Jackets, they were Vikings. Literally vikings. Their goalie was using a shield and a war hammer, which you might think would make it harder to play goal but he did alright. We won in the end and everyone cheered. But then I woke up and realized I wasn't an Oiler, but at least I am still an oiler. At work.

Fanart Friday: The Ramones

Gabba gabba hey it's Friday! A great day to listen to some Ramones and look at some visual tributes to the greatest punk band ever. First up take a look at a mockup of what could have been a classic Hanna Barbera cartoon in the 70s, from Montygog:




After that the artwork is by Alex Novelli; Hitlersbrain; dynam0; ajonesa; adventurevisual.

I remember in grade 7 it was so cold outside that I would deliberately misbehave so I would get detention and not have to go outside for recess. Also we would forge detention slips. That trick doesn't really work at the coal mine, unfortunately. Or maybe it would but I my work ethic is a little better than my old school ethic. I'm not sure why- they docked us 2.5 hours pay for leaving early the last night before our Christmas break. A month ago they were like "Here's a hundred bucks for your Christmas bonus- enjoy!" and now they're "We have deducted 107.83 because you left a little early." Never mind that we were following orders in shutting the equipment down so early in the first place to
park them in maintenance bays or plug them in, and it was our foreman who let us go (he got in lotsa trouble too). What can you do?

Happy birthday to my wife!!!!!

I was kind of kidding when I said no one noticed that physicist's theory- I'm sure academics around the world are studying it and testing it and puzzling over it. Mostly I meant my coworkers, my crew of coal miners didn't really bring it up in casual conversation, and when I did I was met with surprising indifference. But that's alright, coal miners mine coal, they don't do physics so much. Just so long as your head of state is getting the latest science news from his National Science Advisor, right?
Wrong! PM Stephen Harper fired his science advisor. Or at least let him go, eliminating the office rather than firing the person in it. I'm not a political blogger and I have no desire to be (which is not to say I don't follow politics in real life) , but I kind of have to shake my head publicly on that one.
I will continue to advise you on science news- for example, no need to worry about the asteroid zooming by the Earth tomorrow; but really I just check National Geographic, ScienceBlogs and Quirks and Quarks. Stephen Harper probably doesn't.

Today is a two toque day. Normally I would have had to drive to Hinton tonight for work in the morning, but luckily I took tomorrow off on account of my wife's birthday. My beautiful wife who pushed LGJ out of the snow when we came back from her birthday dinner. But anyways, talking about the weather is boring enough who wants to blog about the weather? Still- two toques!
Far more interesting than blizzards is Unified Theories of Everything. At least, you would think so. Especially when said theory only needs three spatial dimensions and one temporal one, instead of 11 or 12 like in String Theory. Some surfer dude who has a PhD in physics came up with just such a UTE a few weeks ago, pretty much the Holiest Grail of physics,and hardly anyone noticed. Don't worry Surfer Physicist Dude! I noticed! Your UTE is a beaut! Although I have to admit I don't understand the physics at all, even the dumbed-down newspaper summary. That shape that has 248 dimensions is a little tough to visualize.

Fanart Friday: Lost

Lost by laFada.

For the first and probably last time I am all caught up with Lost, having watched Season 3 over the last couple of weeks. Season 4 premieres on Thursday night but I will be driving home from work that night so no spoilers after today okay? I wish someone would tell the newspapers that rule too since they often ruin things in a tricksy fashion, printing articles about actors who say offhandedly that since their character died on Lost they were ready to try new things.
Anyways, let's start the art with a great caricature set from yohan2 and Robcamp1000:



Then there's this lovely Season 1 onesheet from Nighttimesymphony. And a faux comic cover from Grantgoboom. Plus my favorite castaway, Kate, portrayed by fellow Albertan Evangeline Lilly and portraited by BillCorbett. Don't forget our other favorite castaways! (By jarrodceg.)



For no particular reason I feel like paying tribute to Charlie. It took Michelle and I a long time to stop referring to Charlie as Little Hobbit. The first Chobbit is from the late, great Mike Wieringo. Then a photo-quality painting (I guess of Dominic Monaghan rather than Charlie per se) by Silentautumnrain, and a fun pic of him and his buddy Hurley by fizzgig.



Finally, I leave you with a link to some funny and spoilerish Lost cartoons by Buuya. his descriptions are great too- "I love 'Lost.' Things always fall from the sky. Or are blown up by John Locke. Or both."

This is how much I loved China Mieville's Perdido Street Station:

I took the book to work. I get to do a lot of reading at work, but coal mines are hard on books, so I usually only bring tattered paperbacks dredged from the used bookstores. But the urge to read PSS overpowered the desire to keep it mint, so my copy is now slightly soiled. On the plus side, I made an absurd amount of money reading about the bizarre denizens of New Crobuzon!
What should I tell you about said denizens? The less, the better, I think. Part of Mieville's genius is his ability to continually startle you with new and outlandish imagery. I don't want to rob you of that pleasure. But I sure look forward to discussing the Council's avatar with you, for example!
Some books you read and you think, I could do better than this guy. Other books you read and you almost want to give up writing at all since you will never be worthy. There was a bit of that latter when I read PSS but I decided to channel that energy to a positive direction instead.
So there you go- read this book! Tell me what you thought of it. And see if you can guess what tomorrow's fanart feature will be. Hint- the pic a few posts below is the only Perdido fanart I know of so your first guess is wrong.

Heath Ledger just died??? How crazy is that?
Since I am currently living in the exile-like nocturnal world of nightshift I really don't have much else to say. Other than, you know, it's dark outside. And cold.
In a weird synthesis of these two topics, check out Teemunkle's Knightshift.

Special bonus fanart feature- since I'm off for another round of nightshifts* I figured I would leave you with one piece of art (actually a commissioned professional piece for the now-defunct Dragon Magazine) by nJoo based on China Mieville's novel I mentioned and which I am now 28 pages into and loving it up.


* That's assuming LGJ will start. I had some trouble this week, sounds like my battery corrections are corroded and not really connecting so much anymore. I sure hope it;s that and not my brand new $500 alternator. It may be time for the Jellybean to go to that great green bean heaven in the sky. Maybe when it does I'll do some fanart for it.

About a year ago my mom gave me a book- Nick Sagan's Idlewild. Other than noting the last name of the author and wondering if he is related to Carl (yes- Nick is his son) I didn't really pay too much attention. It went on the stack of unread books that keeps getting bigger no matter how many I read. But when I saw John Scalzi specifically thank Nick in the acknowledgments of Old Man's War I figured I should go take another look.
It started off as one of those "I have amnesia and I have to figure out what's going on before they kill me" books. What genre is that called? Luckily he brought in some Lovecraftian nightgaunts just as I was about to close the book for good. That's when you realize you're not reading a normal amnesiathriller. Without giving away too much I'll tell you it's descended from Ender's Game and the Matrix (which is in turn descended from everything from Neuromancer and Snow Crash to Hyperion and Terminator) and worth a read. It takes you a while to figure out what exactly is going on and just when you think you do you discover you really don't. There's actually a whole trilogy and Idlewild has just been released in paperback- in fact I saw it and the others facing out on the sci-fi shelf at Chapters today.
Yeah, I was buying more books today for the stack. Good ones too- Scalzi's Ghost Brigades and another Scalzi-recc, China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. About twenty pages into that one and already it's right up my alley.

Fanart Friday: Kaiju

Thanks to Cloverfield there is renewed interest in giant monsters, or kaiju as the Japanese say. The granddaddy of all kaiju is Gojira, the mighty Godzilla! And no one loves the Godzilla mythos more than GodzillaSamurai ! Check out a sampling of his kickass kaiju:


Then there's Kaijuverse!



Finally, here are some of VegasMike's kaijuesque horrors:

The rampaging kaiju bear you see there to your right was created for me by Marc Anderson in the few moments he had before being crushed underfoot! Well, he did it superfast because I only had the idea yesterday, and I'm pretty sure no artists were actually harmed in the creation of the artwork.
An interesting fact I learned just now about Odette Yustman, who stars in Cloverfield- she was in Kindergarten Cop! It's not a tumah! It's a giant monstah!

So we're having a safety slogan contest at work again this year. The prize is a stay at Jasper Park Lodge which is a pretty good motivator. Last year I submitted some good ones but unfortunately a plagiarized platitude won. The ones I submitted received plenty of votes but they were ultimately deemed too . . . macabre to win. For example, there was "Safety- because being dead sucks."
"Remember, in a coal mine the only soft and squishy parts are you."
"Leave the pancakes to Aunt Jemima- stay away from moving haultrucks."
This year I submitted some more, but I think they will receive the same criticism:
"Work safe- because your wife would make a hot widow. You don't want me hitting on your widow do you?"
"Work safe- or leave your truck to me in your will."
"Wear your PPE to protect your peepee, eh!" (PPE stands for Personal Protective Equipment.)

I make light mainly to drive home the point with something memorable, since safety is not a laughing matter. When accidents happen you feel terrible, even when no one is hurt. Remember that one incident I told you about- here's a contraband (and not very good) picture that you can't tell anyone I showed you:

Must have been a slow news day since the top story on CBC Radio 1 news for the last few hours while I drove home from work was this. Which is interesting and all, but when they kept repeating it over and over it really sounded to me like they were raising the alarm: "There's way more Indians than we thought!" The irony is everyone knows the CBC is actually a very pro-First Nations institution.
And CBC, if you're listening, breaking into programming every half hour to inform me that you are making changes on your antenna to serve me better does not serve me better.