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Animal Rescue Sale

During Beth’s family visit in Michigan, she found that there was a pet-related emergency in need of attention. We went back there a few weeks later and brought two cats home with us, bringing us up to the legal limit of four cats.

The trip, and the vet visits, pet meds, tapped our resources to the last dollar.

This week, Beth needs to go back again, and take care of the remaining cats, of which there are many.

It is hard to address this situation fully. This post should not be about the caretaker, it is about animals in need, and about finding a solution.

If you live near Grand Rapids Michigan, and would like to adopt one of these cats, that would be best. You can write me to make arrangements; They will need to be fixed, dewormed, checked for common feline ailments, and given a lot of love, attention. Most of all, they would appreciate some good human companionship and they have a lot of love to give.

Otherwise, we are currently trying to raise money to get her back to Michigan, and have put together a sale. My part of the sale can be found in the sale items part of my site, there is also a new book from Bethalynne Bajema on presale at her site.

… not to say that other purchases will not go towards this purpose – just that these were items I could afford to reduce in price in order to add incentive.

The proceeds will go into getting her there, covering her stay, and regretably, towards getting these remaining animals into a shelter, if homes cannot be found for them during her stay. If donations to the shelters will ensure better chances for these animals, then we are also trying to get that together. Other parts of these proceeds will of course go into supplying and shipping whatever goods are offered. Any excess, if there is to be excess will of course go into replenishing our funds and making up for the lost work hours and resources – though that would be an incredibly optimistic expectation. If we reach that point I will post so, though the sale prices might remain until supplies are gone.

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SGWBM Comic Book ETA

Originally, I had planned to do this comic in straight black and white only (line art). It being primarily a comedy comic book, this seemed to be the going standard, and would make up for a lot of lost time.

I was also afraid that if I made the artwork too nice, it would distract from the comedic content of the comic; I’ve found that the books that I find the funniest, have plain black and white art, and it is all terribly drawn – I even tend to think that the horrible art contributes well to the comedy.

I would note that influence here, however, I do not think using the term “horrible art” with someone else’s name would be very wise in the legal sense.

Inversely, Roman Dirge’s Lenore, a fantastic piece of comedy is shaded and often colored, as is Eric Adams‘ Lackluster World – a wonderful comedic drama. 

So, I decided to shade a page or two, and after seeing them, I’ve decided to do the whole book. It makes one hell of a difference, too much of one for me to not do it or to only partially do it.

I am currently shading at a rate of about 2-3 pages per day, and currently just shy of page 14 (the end point for my preview). If I keep working at this rate taking one day per week to do other things, I should have the entire thing ready for the press by the 24th, just a week shy of my absolute latest acceptable date, meaning I can start shipping just before Halloween.

When the preview goes up, presale will be available, though my first focus is getting copies out to all those people who took a part in my last promotional offer.

Look for a preview to be available in the next two days, I will post details here, or you can bookmark someghoulswanderbymistake.com or (shorter) sgwbm.com (You can also add me on livejournal or on myspace).

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Preacherman

click for a larger view

This is a digital piece I have been using to pass the time waiting for my scanner to arrive (hopefully Tuesday).

Click the thumbnail, or click here, if you would like to see the full image.

I had several variants on this, but I opted for the washed-out less colorful one; with the rich vibrant colors it looked too much a video-game casing – which is not a bad thing, but I wanted this piece to look better as an art print, and less like a poster.

Of my favorite character architypes, most of which are the reluctant anti-hero, but I have always loved the gunslinging preachers of anime and spaghetti westerns. I chose to give this one more of a steampunk, cyberpunk, and horror spin of course – because that is primarily ‘my thing’. 

This started as a cover for someone else’s trade paperback, the project fell by the wayside, regretfully after I had put much work into it – one reason I will hardly ever do pro-bono work or work for credit/exposure, is not so much my desire to get paid, as it is that paying for things tends to make people actually commit to getting use out of them.

I cannot tell you how many times over these past centuries I have found myself doing work I loved, only to see it die an unknown death with bands, authors, and other entities who for good reasons and bad, just could not get their act together :/

I am going to make 50 of this one available on Hahnemule fine art rag paper, and 95 on metallic paper, both of which at 16×20 inches.

Please check my store here and there this week if you are interested in having one.

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Buy Your Place on the Silver Screen?

… in the credits at least – still, something well worth 2 dollars, or one pound… of… I suppose a pound of anything would do, as there are no specifications – but $2 is probably much, much cheaper to send than brass weights or stone wheels, and much more precise.

I saw Pirates of the Great Salt Lake do this the year before last – and had I the $500 right then, I would have bought myself one of the Executive Fan Club Producer Spots (where they also read your name aloud at some point during the movie).

Actually, this Pirate’s campaign is actually where I got the idea last month to put out that promotion for getting your name in the credits to my comic book (buy merchandise = get in credits).

Now, several kids from someplace that measures money in pounds, rather than monetary units, are planning on making a Jule’s Verne inspired movie based on Jule’s Verne’s “Clovis Dardentor”, a lesser-known work about travels, adventure, wealthy industrialists, and con artists.

You can buy a credit in this film here – proceeds going into the actual making of the movie. 

It seems they have managed a bit of work already (you can see their progress via their “News” page).

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Because ‘Popular Mechanics’ Should be More Popular

What do Nikola Tesla, Captain Nemo, Dr. Julius No, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, and Madame Marie Curie have in common?

Why, they are all on this list, wherein Daniel H. Wilson and Anna C. Long travel back in time (and into fiction) to psychoanalyze and rate their All-time Top 5 Mad Scientists, at Popular Mechanics Magazine. (found via Brassgoggles.co.uk)


Also at popular Mechanics:

Are Backyard Hot-Air Blimps the Future of Low-and-Slow Aviation?

“Two rival New England inventors have been launching a new breed of airship over New England’s Connecticut River Valley. But will recreational hot-air blimps go mainstream, or are they just a pleasant diversion for a summer morning?” … [more here]

4 New ‘Blimp’ Designs Bring Return of the Airship

“We already took you inside our floating future with hybrid airships. Can new tech put them on the fast track?”… [more at Popular Mechanics]

Just Don’t Call it a Blimp


Photograph by Phillip Toledano

“It’s a hybrid airship–part plane, part dirigible. Two Ohio inventors think production versions up to 990 feet long will launch a new era of aviation–one where low and slow is the way to go…” [more at Popular Mechanics]

Airship images are copyright © Popular Mechanics and/or by the phototographers listed. Madame Curie and Nikola Tesla photographs are public domain, and found at Wikipedia.org.

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Role Models

When I was little, Michael Meyers was my hero.

I felt some sort of real connection there; I had a great deal of empathy, saw common ties between my own personal manner and ideals.

His expressionless – “actions, not words” sort of demeanor was a way, a philosophy that I could really relate to, and I really admired him for his juggernautal fortitude and relentless determination.

I felt the same way about Jason Vorhees, come to think of it.

I suppose had their victims been a bit less on the dumb and utterly vapid side of things, I might have seen these ‘monsters’ for the villains they were supposed to be, rather than the heroes of darwinism I first perceived them to be; I might also have seen the movies for horror and suspenseful terror, rather than the comedic morality plays I thought them to be.

Instead, these figures were each an evolutionary catalysts, leaving but a handful of well-meaning and intelligent or otherwise gifted individuals standing in their wake. More than that, they were hard-working and determined individuals, for whom failure was not an option.

I think these two were the people in my life who shaped me the most.

They gave me the attitude that leads me to stand up and do things again and again, no matter how hard I get knocked down – to push on for hours, days, weeks with little to no rest or personal time… and just when I think I have had enough, the phone rings – another impossible or improbable task – and I find myself wanting more.

I’ve finished games with broken bones, climbed ladders with disjointed knees, gone into work with an unmended arm and the intention of having it fixed after the clock struck “5”, spent days and days awake and standing or sitting in one place – waiting to put that one final stroke to the canvas or the final touch on thousands of lines of code.

I’ve taken the hardest emotional and financial hits anyone could ever imagine – one after the other, after the other for years longer than I feel most people could, and have always stood up to the challenge of digging myself out – the thrill of adversity… “Is that all you’ve got?” has been my life-long motto.

It seems am never truly happy unless there is a problem to be solved, a war to be won, a mission impossible. If I am ever truly happy, then I have seriously failed myself and those around me.

Contentment is a death to purpose, and purpose, is breathing’s only worthy defense.

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Time Sinks for You

I wasted my time on these, I might as well waste yours too.

1. In the land of Sona-Nyl there is neither time nor space, neither suffering nor death… nor 404 (a mismosh randomizer of Dore 404 Macros, Lovecraftian/Engrish 404 titles, 404 flavor texts, and 404 subtexts I made to kill bandwidth on the Miskatonic Archive). There are (I think) 13 images, 13 titles, 13 subtexts, and 13 flavor texts – making for 28,561 different combinations, meaning chances are that you will see most every combination available if you refresh about 815,730,721 times.

2. Steampunk Adventure Mission Generator (meme) – Travel the world, or to the neighbor’s lawn, do all sorts of unspeakable things with random things and people, follow up in a random manner. *Note* outcome is based upon the name you give, so if you don’t like your results, substitute a screenname, nick name, add your middle name…

Your Secret Mission Adventure

Yearghhhhh :

Pole vault to the daemonic reaches of Indianapolis and violate lepers for grandma.

Secret Adventure Generator

3. Taken from the brassgoggles.co.uk forums (link posted by Mr. E), article written by Tim Ferguson at Solicon.com:

How the Victorians Did Gadgets

The British Library in London is playing host to an exhibition of gadgets and technology from the Victorian era and early 20th century. The collection belongs to collector and author Maurice Collins and is promoting the Business and Intellectual Property center at the library…

see the full piece here (external link)

Also – if this is the sort of thing that piques your interest, you may want to take a look at these two books:
(also note that if you buy them together, you save money)

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Details About the Limited Editions

The 36×24 limited edition metallics are near gone. There are 6 left: 3 here and 3 at The Miskatonic Archive, and that will put me at 20 – the limit for the series.

The 32×22 giclees are selling as quickly, though there were 50 of those, they will also be gone soon.

About the Metallics:

  • There are only 20 of this edition (1 through 20), and two artist’s proofs (I, and II). One HC (flawed version) exists, kept by the artist, and it is documented so and also tracked by certificate, and not for sale. Leaving a total of 22 between the 6,602,224,175 people on the planet – or 1 to be owned owned by 1 person in every 275,092,673 people.
  • They are printed on very heavy archival metallic photo stock, in Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks, with a calculated archival lifespan of 200+ years.
  • In metallic, they look utterly amazing… simply amazing.
  • They are hand-embellished and in silver archival ink,  with slight and subtle additions and effects.
  • They are signed, numbered, and dated in the margin with black archival ink.
  • They are packaged with care, rolled in paper and foam, and placed in huge 4 inch diameter tubes (less curling that way). They are shipped USPS Priority mail or better, with delivery confirmation.
  • There will not be a second edition, third edition, bonus edition with a different border color, or special extra-bonus edition with extra doodles, no first edition revisited, no special custom-framed edition, no printed upside-down on a blue moon edition.
  • There will be none released the same print size, larger print size, or close to the same print size on this support type (metallic paper), in order to keep these every bit as special in the future as the day they were purchased.
  • There will never be a metallic version of “The Rescue” more special, and more spectacular than these.

About the 32×22 inch giclees on canvas:

  • There are only 50 of this edition, and two artist’s proofs (I, and II). One HC (flawed print) exists, and is appropriately marked, and also tracked and documented by certificate, and not for sale.
  • They are printed on quality gloss canvas, in Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks, with a calculated archival lifespan of 200+ years.
  • Almost identical in size, and with all the appearance of a real painting, they are the truest to the original one could possibly get.
  • #1, and #3 (sold), are hand-embellished in paint with slight and subtle additions and effects.
  • #2 (sold) is practically completely repainted, almost a unique painting in its own, as the hand-embellishing got away from me. It is re-varnished in satin, and looks so spot-on the original they are hard to tell apart.
  • They are hand-signed, numbered, and dated on the back border of the canvas.
  • They are packaged with care, in hand-made cardboard crates, securely padded with paper or foam, and wrapped in an acid-free cellophane for protection from moisture. They are shipped USPS Priority mail or better, with delivery confirmation.
  • There will not be a second edition, third edition, bonus edition with a different varnish, or special extra-bonus edition with extra doodles, no first edition revisited, no special custom-framed edition, no printed by bhuddist monks in the Appelachian Mountains edition.
  • There will be none released the same print size, larger print size, or close to the same print size on this support type (canvas), in order to keep these every bit as special in the future as the day they were purchased.
  • There will never be giclee on canvas version of “The Rescue” more special, and more spectacular than these. Actually, there will never be a giclee of “the Rescue” more spectacular than these.

Assurances for these and All Current/Future Myke Amend Limited Editions:

  • Each have a unique serialized hologram on them, matching the serialed hologram on the certificate of authenticity, which is printed on very high-quality (and expensive) Hahnemule rag paper.
  • The certificates are registered, to further ensure the uniqueness of your print.
  • Myke Amend releases editions in three support types: Canvas, Photographic Paper, Fine Art Paper. There will never be more than one limited edition on any given support type. Each Artwork has but one limited edition, ever on each of these three.
  • As an added measure, to keep your purchases special, open editions for any given support type, will never be as large in print size as their limited counterparts. If there is a 36×24 limited metallic, there will not be a 32×22 metallic, a 30×19 metallic, and there will especially not be a 38×26 metallic or anything bigger. 
  • Once the limited editions for all three support types are done, the ‘fixed’ file for these, in other words – the retouched, dust and blemish-free, color and lighting adjusted version of the original scan is destroyed, and open editions from there on are made from a different and newly retouched file – making all limiteds as unique as possible from their open-edition counterparts.
  • I will typically release only one of these support types at a time, not two, as I did with this one. My favorites will typically be the most limited and the first released. In this case: 20 hand-embellished and hand-signed metallics, 50 hand-signed giclees on canvas with hand-embellished prints going to the first three buyers, and 75 hand-signed giclees on fine-art paper with no hand-embellishments available.
  • These are giclees and digital prints. As you can see, I have taken a lot of measures to make them as secure and as guaranteed as limited editions as they can possibly be, and will do everything I can to protect your investment.
  • Eventually I will do Lithographs – but of other artwork – not this one. I wanted to do art paper ones as lithographs, but realized that would make them more special then the already selling giclees on canvas and metallics, and would not be fair to the owners of those editions.
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Coming Soon

Here are some brief details about things to come, and a even a handful of things that were.

Artworks as Prints, Old and New:

Old: I have found some art I thought forever lost. I have also remastered some older works to print more boldly and brightly, and have taken to refining some of my older digital works. Some of these are things I’ve previously sold open edition prints of – about one to ten total for each of these, making those older versions incredibly unique – though their existence undocumented except for here in this entry and previous posts about them. For the newer remastered versions, I plan on making some limited editions out of them – on fine art paper, with signatures, and certificates.

Books:

In September, I am slated to share pages with Bethalynne Bajema, Brom (wow!), and other fantastic “gothic artists” who are not Brom (wow!), in an art compilation book. When published, I will have links to that book from this site. I am unsure what details I can disclose at this point, but cannot wait to talk about it.

My comic book, “Some Ghouls Wander by Mistake” is currently in the pre-press stages, and on its way to print. Release date is mid to late September, just in time for Halloween. I have worked on and dropped this project many times over the past years, beginning anew each and every time I picked it back up… meaning I have been talking about it forever, ad nauseum. Be relieved, very relieved, that I will soon be talking about its release in present and past-tense.

My spooky, crazy weird children’s book, which will probably plant a lot of bad ideas, and therefore should not be read by, to, or around children – that will be out by the end of 2008. At which time family-oriented groups will protest outside of somewhere, in celebration of this great work. Previews will be here when I go to press.

Also, I am working out the details on illustrations for two novels: one horror and one fantasy, which will likely be done under the same general agreement.

In October, Bethalynne will be gracing the pages in another wonderful art compilation by Goth Magazine, it is a Steampunk Compilation featuring over 100 amazing artists from this genre.

“Goth Magazine is producing a full-color oversized bound book of steampunk fashion, gadgetry and artwork.  Featuring the costuming of Enigma Fashions, Heavy Red Clothing, and editorials by Derek Caballero, actor Crispin Glover and more than 100 more artists, this will be the largest collection of steampunk imagery in one book…” 

“…It will be available via GOTH Magazine, Barnes and Boble, Walden Books, Borders Books and retailers worldwide.”

I am not quite sure yet whether I will be on time to catch this boat, but go Beth!

Music:

Bethalynne Bajema and I will be jointly creating a new piece of artwork for another great Steam Punk icon, their name to be disclosed at a later date. All I can say is that I am thrilled to be working on this new piece, and will be doubly thrilled to see it released in a few months. Available here will be fine art prints and limited editions (95 giclees on canvas, 195 metallics, and 395 giclees on art paper) .  “Branded versions” (versions with the band’s logo) will likely be available as poster prints, Cds, t-shirts, desktop graphics, screen savers and/or other things through the band’s site come October.

Pictographs: 

Long, long ago, my coming was told in a rather non-flattering series of images crudely carved into stone with poorly engineered tools. The perpetrator, being human, is by now surely dead, and it serves him right.

Movies:

“Quench” by Zack Parker, is soon to be released everywhere on DVD October 28th, 2008 by Vanguard Cinema.

My artwork makes a good number of cameos in this piece, as many of my paintings make a personal appearance set design and props in this renowned, dark spooky, Modern Gothic Tragedy. If you are interested in pre-ordering a DVD, you can do so at Amazon for only $17.99

“Diary of the Dead“ – I watched it last week, I didn’t like it, for many reasons. I disliked it so much, that I erased from my mind that I had even seen or rented it – and now I owe late fees, which I should bill to George Romero accompanied by a request for a refund on my $3.99 rental fee, and a bill for the time I spent hoping it would get better.

WikiPedia!

I am not on Wikipedia. In order to do so, I would probably have to do something incredibly important for humanity – like hitting myself in the balls on camera, being obese on camera, getting killed by a squirrel, stapling things to my butt, or begging the public to leave some famous celebrity alone. I will likely be doing all of the above soon, and in that order.

Stay Tuned!