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1800s Vampire Killing Kit Nabs $14,850 At Stevens Auction

Natchez, Miss.:A complete and authentic vampire killing kit — made around 1800 and complete with stakes, mirrors, a gun with silver bullets, crosses, a Bible, holy water, candles and even garlic, all housed in a American walnut case with a carved cross on top — attained $14,850 in the Jimmy Pippen estate sale by Stevens October 3–4 in the new Natchez Convention Center.

The sale comprised the contents of Pippen’s stores (Pippen Antiques and Pippen Interiors), items from his personal residence (which he considered a perfect creation and called “Paradise”), the contents of another home (a three-story, 1850s townhouse called “The Orchard” that he restored with fine appointments and rented out) and treasures from several warehouses…. [read more at Antiques and the Arts Online]

A complete and authentic vampire killing kit, circa 1800 and housed in a walnut case, achieved $14,850
A complete and authentic vampire killing kit, circa 1800 and housed in a walnut case, achieved $14,850

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Looking for Things to Review

I am looking for CDs from steampunk genre bands, and books/comic books from steampunk genre, and strange fiction authors to review.

I miss having things to write about – I need something more than forwarding on links and videos to steampunk things, or writing about my own artwork and my boring life.

I also need more content for the Miskatonic Archive, things to review, as well as strange-fiction stories and artwork to share with people.

If you are interested in submitting any of these things, contact me through this site for my mailing address.

For Music: I like CDs – I listen to them while I am doing my artwork. Please do not just give me links to sites and myspace pages.

For Books and Comics: Much of the same. I hate being chained to my computer when I do not have to be.

For Web Comics: Please just shoot me a link and a brief description. It would help you best if you gave me permission to feature one of your strips on the page about it, alse people will only see a link and a description.

For Short Stories: If they are of the strange fiction or steampunk genre, and you would like to share them with the world through the Miskatonic Archive, we would love to have your donation of content. All copyrights remain yours, you simply grant us permission to ‘reproduce’ it on our site, and can ask us to take it down at any time you please.

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Timelines for December 23rd Delivery

I thought it might be good to outline these here, in order to prevent people from getting gift items later than needed, and also to let you, who may be wondering if you can still get it in time, know whether or not you can.

On Craft Items – Those existing, and some more that Beth and I will be making specifically for the gift giving season: Orders placed before December 10th will ship by December 19th. All craft items are shipped insured by USPS priority mail, or UPS ground (whichever will get it there fastest).

On Limited Edition Prints: Time to ship can be much quicker on those items I have on-hand, but those items I have on hand do sell, so I like to allow time for possible re-stocking.  For these, I need time to receive, hand-sign, and hand embellish these – as well as the time to make and fill out the certificates, affix holograms, and for the giclees: I also need time to varnish them, and to make sturdy custom packaging to ensure their safe arrival. I would recommend ordering Giclees by the 11th of December, and Metallics by the 14th. All limited editions are shipped insured by USPS priority mail, or UPS ground (whichever will get it there fastest).

On  all other Prints: Most of which I have in stock all of the time, but I do not print any of these at home. To ensure the highest quality and the best archival rating, I go with the very best printer – meaning that if I find myself suddenly out of anything, I have to re-order it. Please, if you would like to receive any of my prints in time for gift-giving, please order them by December 12th.

On Comic Books: Please place orders for comic books before December 10th for prompt delivery.

On Original Paintings, Engravings, Drawings: These can be ordered all the way up until December 18th, as they are always on hand and in stock until sold.

Things that may soon be unavailable:

The 36×24 inch metallics of “the Rescue” are near gone. There are only 2 of 20 remaining, and 2 out of 2 artists copies. I am keeping the H.C. (damaged copy) for myself so that the artists copies can be sold, but this still only leaves 4 total to ever be sold, ever.

The 32×22 inch giclees on canvas are also running out, with only 25 remaining. 

All limited editions come with a Hanemuhle certificate of authenticity, with matching serialized holograms affixed to both the print and the certificate. All hand embellishments are noted, as well as the edition number and added features. To ensure their value, these limited editions will not be re-released as second editions or bonus editions – 32×22″ giclees on canvas and 36×24″ metallics are gone when they are gone.

Thank you for reading, thank you for visiting, and thank you ever so much for your orders.

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Rescue Sale Part 2

Where a need to help neglected animals, a need to help family (who rented to the hoarder), and a need to move to someplace more affordable intersect (thank you Bush) – is a spur of the moment shipping of all our things, and driving across many states… and an interesting adventure on the turnpikes of northeastern through middle America – one in which we almost ended up stranded on the New York Turnpike for lack of gas stations, and had to negotiate to the last dollar on a room in order for us, and several animals, to not freeze to death.

It was a lot of work getting here, but the work has only just begun.

There is a lot of work to do – so much that Beth has not yet managed to take down the sale on 16×20 prints and other things at ettadiem.etsy.com, and I have yet to take down the sale items here.

The space will not be livable for a long time – lots of money, lots of time, 3 of the 20-some cats still need homes (aside from those four we are keeping). 

Imagine being told that you need to go to Silent Hill and clean it… then imagine Silent Hill with smell, not just images. That is pretty much what the place is like, seriously… even if you tried to imagine, you would be unpleasantly surprised if you saw it.

There are feces piled feet thick on every spot of floor, every appliance, every furnishing – 500-some cigarette butts piled on a sink that was used as an ash tray and (until full), a litter box. In the mix are empty bottles and food containers, mattresses and couches soaked with urine and piled upon with crap. There have even been some more cats found over past weeks, living, possibly more to be found as we dig out and remove hiding spaces.

I can’t imagine what sort of excuse for a “man” could have let animals live this way, let alone lived amongst the filfth with them. It is utterly… I am at a loss for words for what to call it.

For now, we are staying outside the apartment, wrapping our mouths in rags and throwing on gloves and goggles whenever we venture in for another round of digging… the closest we can manage to hazmat suits on a shoestring.

We could really use some Grand Rapids Michigan pet adopters, we could also use some money for city trash bags, dumpster rentals, pet carriers, cat food, cat litter, drywall, flooring, new appliances, and possibly even for hiring help… however, we would rather simply seek assistance for the sake of the animals – that assistance coming in the form of purchases, or donations – either one would help greatly.

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Progress: Done

Available for presale now.

It is here in the store, at the Miskatonic Archive, and of course at SGWBM.com

There is a free 21-page preview here: SGWBM.com.

CAVEAT: It is not for everyone. It is very dark comedy, chaotic, and random – and potentially offensive to most anyone who has ever been offended before. There are adult themes and situations, harsh language, graphic violence, political incorrectness, and banality are just a few things that may be found within the pages (depending upon your own personal definitions and limits).

If you have read Chumble Spuzz, Arsenic Lullabye, Sandman, Death: the high cost of living, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Lenore, I Feel Sick, or Lackluster World – or if you have watched South Park, Frisky Dingo, or Metalocalypse without blinking an eye… this might be okay for you.

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Countdown

All pages are drawn. I have two pages remaining to shade. Then I have to draw the cover, put the ads sections together, figure out what sort of extras I want to squeeze in there, add my credits and thank yous, and will probably need to write up a lot of legal clauses about “please do not try this” as well as statements regarding various parodies within.

It is really a shame I can’t use the middle through last pages as my preview – the thing with this being my first comic book is that my comic style is improving with leaps and bounds for both coloring and lineart as I go – making the overall art a bit inconsistent – but in a neat”I can actually see him getting better” sort of way. And the pages that leave me laughing, are of course the very last – making me already wantto go back and rewrite the entire thing, for the fifth time – but no, I won’t.

In some ways, I really dislike releasing or selling anything. the reason being that within a week or so of doing one thing, it is already far worse that what I am presently capable of… and not only have people seen it, but people have it, and other people are seeing it… if I want those works to be un-seen, well, there are a lot of large black trash bags involved by that point and it is really too much work anymore.

As you can tell, I have been up for a while – working 36 to 48 hour shifts with 6 hours between, for about three weeks now. So, before I say too much – here is an invisible picture of Ted Kopple with a rabid cat for a forehead.

And… thank you for reading, but please forget you ever saw this.

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Sale continuing.

Beth and I, through work for clients, and a few sales here, managed to get together the money needed to get her out to Michigan – where she is taking care of a large number of animals which were hoarded and terribly in need of, well, everything.

Several weeks in, all but 7 of the cats are gone, and she is starting to see some headway on the rest of the project as well, but, I still need to do what I can to raise funds to get her back here.

On Sale, are a number of prints and even originals, drastically reduced for this purpose. There you will the remaining limited edition giclees and metallics for “the Rescue” (painted for Robert of Abney Park), as well as a number of other limited editions, and variations on “Conception” (featured just recently at Brass Goggles).

the Rescue

Also, I would like to direct you to my comic preview, now up. Some Ghouls Wander by Mistake (sgwbm.com) is an Art Noir comic book set between a fictitious Lovecraftian Town, Cincinnati Ohio, New Jersey, and Hell.

Some Ghouls Wander by Mistake

If you have ever been offended by anything, I would highly recommend never going to that site. However, if you have a terrible sense of humor, like me, you might find it worth checking out.

Some may call it gothic, or steampunk, or punk rock, or horror punk, or deathrock, or any number of things such as “terrible”, “hideous”, “uncalled for” or “just plain weird”, but mainly it is a dark horror comedy with a lot of characters from subcultural groups, set in a story which revolves around all sorts of pulp horror stories and cult classic movies.

Therein you will a lot of death and destruction bound together by bad ideas and general silliness,  but the overall primary purpose of the project is simply to make everyone in the world rather mad or otherwise imbalanced, through a sort of harmful sensation. If you have read the “King In Yellow”, the actual stage play, not the stories about it, you probably have no idea what I am talking about.

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24

Beth is away in Michigan taking care of some cats that needed her.

I’ve been working 24 hour shifts between the comic and for-pay work, napping out for 5 hours at a time, and planting myself back here again. I felt too tired to work today, BrassGoggles forum is still down, and everything else seems rather dead – I spent part of today putting together a preview over at Some Ghouls Wander by Mistake, otherwise I have refreshed pages and email all day.

There are better paths in life to take than being an artist type. It has been years since I have been a part of the real world, always hidden away with my face planted in a canvas, or this screen; ‘always something that must be done; ‘always one more project to go before I let myself rest.

This video, beautiful as it is, pretty much meshes with my current mood. I guess I am feeling a bit down and discouraged today; It will pass.

Taken from Porphyre’s LJ, a music video for Little Dragon’s “Twice”: