Well, it's late, but...

Looks like everything is on track for the Steampunk Bizarre. I printed out those posters (an 11x17 version for framing, and 19 6x8 postcards for purchase) and they look fantastic. The only thing left is for me to edit a sort of "making of" video that will be eternally looping behind some of the props.

Originally, it was just going to be the story reel and some art sort of stuck together.

But as a test, I decided to make a three minute intro to everything with the fictitious producer, Herman Ivey Copperthwaite. He's something of an idiot.

I donned part of some costumes I had lying about, trimmed my facial hair into something ridonkulous and put on some makeup, then hopped in front of my camera for the better part of four hours. We shot everything I needed.

I imported all that footage, and by eleven Friday night had a pretty funny six minute piece, complete with dialogue cards (it is silent, after all)! I was down in San Diego seeing King Lear at the Old Globe on Saturday, but on my return I printed out the posters, framed `em and then got started on making keys and putting Herman into some old movie studio pictures I found.

I've done five in about four hours. And, they look pretty good. This was sort of the proving ground for Adventures in Science, and it's going to work. Hopefully my story is compelling enough.

I'll post the finished result once the Bizarre is over.

All aboard the Hypatia!

Well, it's finished, more or less. I am still debating about the leafy things going up the sides there, and I'm also thinking about moving the Glowerston coat of arms down where the GAS logo is at the bottom so the whole thing is balanced better.

Nevertheless, these will be for sale at the Steampunk Bizarre in larger scale. I'm actually quite happy with most of this; I haven't really done any printworthy art since I was in my early twenties (ironically, Joey helped me out there, too!).

The Hypatia looks great (IMHO!) and I think I've succeeded with the Victorian ad quality; the red white and blue coloring of the type is just patriotic enough. (Glowerston wears patriotism on his sleeve- think Halliburton and you know what I'm going for.)

Any opinions you have are, as always, most welcome!

Costumes are here!

I have just received four of the five main costumes. Still need hats. Now I have the costumes ready for Fanny, Mulvey, Grimmauld and Glowerston. The remaining costumes are for Farnsworth, Wu and everybody else. Must call the actor for Wu.

I would love to get my five major characters together for a costume fitting. I will be emailing everyone to see when a good day might be.

Mulvey's Lunar Oxygen Rebreather (or... The Tube)

One of the things that was suggested in early versions of the script was for Mulvey to be doing something (anything) while Grimmauld was arguing with him. I heard the same kind of comment from several people so I decided to introduce Mulvey's intent to go to the Moon here.

He's trying to build a device that will allow him to breathe on the lunar surface. Most of the Victorians had mixed ideas about what mysteries the Moon was hiding and a big one was whether there was an atmosphere or not. In Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, the French Adventurer Michel Ardan plans to travel aboard the projectile and, upon arrival, wants to hunt for whatever game might be found there. In  Around the Moon, one of the men aboard the capsule fancies seeing buildings of some kind on the dark side of the Moon. For my story, Mulvey and Grimmauld actually do land on the Moon, and they do need these tanks. I wanted something similar to the tanks in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

I drew an early storyboard that illustrated some kind of tube like device with a light on it, but of course I would have to build it. And what I discovered was that my initial drawing wasn't really detailed enough to look physically interesting.

So I did a better, bigger sketch of it but that still didn't really work out, as it still looked like a tube. In fact, Teresa frequently asked while I was building the damned thing "So how is your tube doing, honey?" which had implications I wasn't sure I wanted to answer.

What it came down to is improvisation while I was building. So under the tutelage of Dr. Grymm, I finished it up and while it still looks like a tube, it also looks like it does something.

Exciting News!

Hey guys. Sorry it's been like a month or two since the last update.

I've been sick as a dog for the last week and a half (since returning from Europe!) and despite that, have some interesting stuff that will be going up on the blog by the end of the week.


One of the most exciting things that's happening right now is that a good friend of mine who's pretty much embedded in the Steampunk movement is putting on an art show out in Connecticut. In addition to his day job, Joe builds props for movies, designs puppets for plays, illustrates graphically and somewhere in there has the time to curate the Steampunk Bizarre.

This year he asked me to be a part of it.

So despite being sick, I've been madly scrambling to get `er done. My biggest fear is disappointing my friend with substandard stuff (you should see some of the real artists who are contributing to the show! Amazing!) so I've been working my butt off to make some good art.

I'll be contributing some props and miniatures from AIS as well as putting together a DVD with the completed story reel, some tests I've been doing and I'll be selling a poster advertising the Glowerston Steamaeroship Hypatia.

It will be inspiring and fun and I'll be able to hang with some really cool people.

Come back on Friday. I should have some interesting things to post then!