Happy birthday.

( Click for Photos )

********************************

One is up for auction ON EBAY, and the other is available for immediate purchase in OUR ETSY SHOPPE!

********************************

This fantastical steampunk weapon will subdue any opponent with the power of lightning! The blue aether cell is charged with the press of a button to provide power for firing terrible bolts of electricity at whomever offends you! Let them know you mean business with this trusty weapon at your side.

********************************

This is a custom handmade prop gun by Outland Armour! This piece is one of a pair, both of which are for sale. If you are interested in purchasing both of these fine guns, just email us letting us know.

Otherwise, this listing is for only ONE of the pair.

Features:

Approximately 21" long.
Hand carved stock, fully finished and stained.
All steel and brass parts.
Pressable LED light up "aether cell" button with on, off, and blinking modes.
Custom paint job in several metallic colors.

Item will be shipped securely in bubble wrap and styrofoam pellets to ensure safe arrival. A tracking number will be provided at no extra charge.

More photos, video of light up action, and other information is available on request.

Returns accepted only in the case of broken or defective items. Buyer pays return shipping, and we will repair or replace item to your satisfaction.

Thank you for looking!

Outland Armour

I'm a long time lurker, but this is my first time posting.

Alright, before I get started, I'm going to apologize for not having any pics, as I am operating on Dial-up, and uploading pictures is a pain, especially since I lost my memory card 2 days ago.....

okay, without further ado,

I have a super old, hand-me-down suede-ish leather jacket, that doesn't fit right. Obviously it is now going to be part of a steampunk costume, but I currently have absolutely no ideas as to what to make it look like...
so this is where YOU guys come in ;) if anyone has any cool pics stockpiled of awesome leather steampunk jackets/vests/whatnot, share!

I also have an aviator hat, but the leather is much darker than that of the jacket. But I wanted to see if I could incorporate it into an outfit anyway, so for the jacket I'm looking on the side of the airship pirate/aviator scheme.

So just.. spam me with jacket ideas :D muchly appreciated.

I'm rooting super hard for my friends exploding bear shirt! Right now it's in the fog which means it's very high but please give it a vote! I really, really, want to wear this shirt! And it can only happen if the shirt gets enough votes to get higher then 4th. GO Extreme national park!



Since this is the second chance derby I only have one entry of mine in the running this week and I'm super glad that it's been included so I have something of mine to cheer on. Go, go, go, again rugrats!

You only have until noon Thursday to vote. This weeks derby on Shirt Woot is the special second chance/double take/honorable mention dearby where all of the best of the last few derbies show up to be voted on a again. This derby also has the distinction of being followed by 4 days, generally, of editor's choice picks as well as the top 3. So 7 shirts from this derby should get printed starting on Friday. =/

I picked a bunch of new favorites and old friends to showcase. I'll start from the least votes and go up to the most.

( Read more... )

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/half-lifetime.html

The editor at CBS Sunday Morning asked if I had any photos of my son Mike back at the period when I first had the idea for The Graveyard Book - late 1985. I looked. We really didn't have any. I wandered next door and asked Mary (his mum, my former wife and for these last five years my friend and next-door neighbour) if she had any photos from back then. "No," she said. Then, "Do you mean those transparencies? I have them in an envelope somewhere." She vanished and came back with a large manila envelope from a long time ago. "Here."

Half a lifetime ago -- literally -- I was nearly 25, and working for magazines. Henry Fikret, who photographed a lot of the interviews I did, volunteered to take some photos of me and my family, and he did.A week later the envelope arrived, and I realised that everything he shot was on colour transparencies -- like huge slides -- and I was never sure what do with them, other than being fairly sure I couldn't take them down to Boots the Chemist and have prints knocked out. So they stayed in their envelope, and they kept their secrets, and were forgotten.

Yesterday I had the transparencies scanned, and finally got to see lots of pictures I had never actually seen before of Holly as a baby, Mike at the time that I would have watched him riding his tricycle around the graveyard, and me... at exactly half my age: A young journalist who had sold a very small handful of short stories and two non-fiction books, with dreams of writing fiction and comics. At the time I was dressing in grey, but was getting tired of the way that you would buy something grey and take it home and discover that it was a blueish grey or a brownish grey, and wondering if I'd have the same problem if I just started to dress in black.

And half a lifetime on, it seemed like it might be good to put one up here. I checked, and Mary didn't mind. What odd clothes we wore back then. What big glasses. And look, my hair is practically normal.





So long ago, and it went like the blink of an eye.

• 11:46 Qotd from my mom: I bought you a poncho. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

People often ask me what comics scripts look like — or, at least, what my comics scripts look like, as there is no industry standard for comics scriptwriting. I have a few scripts up here on the site, and you’re welcome to download them. I write in OpenOffice and save in RTF. Beginning writers may find it instructive to compare the scripts with the published work.

(Please, don’t ask to be shown other scripts instead. These are the ones I have available. Okay?)

MINISTRY OF SPACE #1.

DESOLATION JONES #1.

DESOLATION JONES #7.

(Yes, JONES will be back one day.)

FELL #1.

(And so will FELL.)

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

At my shithole today:

* The MATT FRACTION Interrogation 2009 - comics writer Matt Fraction kindly taking questions from the proletariat

* REMAKE/REMODEL: Zero

* Whitechapel Radio Is On

* Warren’s Ancient Jukebox - fear

* Warren’s Work FAQ (Revised Nov 2009)

* Eliza Gauger’s SWEATSHOP

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

Picture A Day - November 10, 2009
Blue Bell Creameries Set in Bronze

Click here for a larger view

The iconic symbol of Blue Bell Ice Cream, the third-largest producer of ice cream in the United States, available in 17 states -- but for all intents and purposes, it's really the "unofficial" ice cream of Texas. In front of their main factory in Brenham, Texas stands the Cow and Bell Statue, which has been the symbol of Blue Bell for over thirty years - visible in silhouette on every half-gallon of frozen dairy goodness. Personally, I'm kinda partial to natural vanilla bean, pistachio almond, and white chocolate almond.

Recently unearthed: thirty year old Dave comics!



Undeniable proof of both my feverish desire to draw comic books AND my hunger for anything to occupy my brain that wasn't schoolwork. (I love that cover with Super Soldier holding onto the spaceship that's fleeing the destroyed space station. "If Death Be My Destiny!" Nothing says "10-year old reading too many Stan Lee comics" like this drawing.)



(SuperNova's little grin here is appealing for some strange reason.) I started off drawing comics with my brother, but he faded early in the game while I kept on going right into middle school and beyond. Me and friends started our own "manga circle" and drew our own super hero and adventure comics. Preferred media was pencil on blue-lined notebook paper folded over and stapled on the spine.



Apart from the barely legible artwork this could be the cover of any Marvel or DC comic from that time period. In fact since it doesn't star a gangster's brain that's been put into a giant ape, taken out and put into Batman, and used to rob Earth of colors, it probably makes more sense.



It's interesting to see how the characters progress from faceless blobs with barely distinguishable arms and legs to the more realized individuals with actual eyes and mouths and hair. Fingers became four little bumps instead of one little bump. An effort was made to portray backgrounds.



Fun fact; I actually dressed as this character for Halloween one year. No, not last year. When I was 10.

Had I been a little more ambitious I might have started, you know, drawing from life, or at least swiping poses and things from actual comics. But no, things like photo reference are cheating! Also there was the whole "lazy" thing. And up against that brick wall, I gave up on drawing for about a year when I entered high school. When I returned to comics, the quaint folded-over notebook paper comic book industry was gone forever, replaced with fumbling attempts at using real tools like bristol board and crow-quill pens. The obsession with super hero comics was gone, replaced by obsessions with Love & Rockets and those Japanese comics in a language nobody could read. The art was kept on the down-low because it's high school and a class of high school sophomores is not impressed with your homemade comics the same way a class of 6th graders is. Luckily, it turns out that if you wear a Black Flag T-shirt people leave you alone. Still true today, but for different reasons.

Anyway: ZERO FIGHTER. Some things haven't changed much in thirty years.

Compliment of Steampunk Family. 

It was pleasure to renew and make new acquaintances it that lovely setting.

www.flickr.com/photos/von_hedwig/sets/72157622650486759/
 

 

</lj-embed>

 

I was in an antique shop* in Antwerp (Belgium) last Friday, and saw this GORGEOUS Victoriana wedding gown.
So I HAD to get some pictures.

I don't know what it costs, I was afraid I'd fall over backwards from hearing the price.

* Don't ask me for the name of the shop, I totally forgot.

( photos be here )

http://feeds.reference.com/click.phdo?i=071566fb3483381ca11a0c3a7c88649c

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/11/10.html

soporific: causing sleep; also, something that causes sleep.

For doing a cartoon for ACT-I-VATE I need a comic title.
Lots of title ideas are coming in. I'm going to try to do a pole.
Here's a test panel strip to give an idea of what it will look like. I might, if I have time, color them.

Poll #1483310 cartoon title name
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 96

what's a good cartoon title name? (Most of these are actually real words - even the ones that don't seem like real words)

Why yes, that IS Sonic the Hedgehog's pal Tails menacing a Warhammer 40K Space Marine with a "chainsaw sword" while Frank Zappa saunters by in the background with a disapproving look on his face. What of it?



Bunches more, including one (1) image of two (2) David Byrnes, in the COMMISSIONS GALLERY. That place is getting to be the coolest gallery on my site, actually... If only my whole professional life could be nothing but Serenity Rose and peculiar commissions.

If you'd like to request your OWN rendering of Frank Zappa (or anything else) send your angry demands to SERENITY@HEARTSHAPEDSKULL.COM. The base price is $50, and $30 for each additional character on the same page. Shipping is all kinds of free within the U.S., and a mere $3 to parts beyond.

I probably won't be able to dig into any new commissions until around December 1st, so this is pretty much THE call for CHRISTMAS REQUESTS right here... And I already have a few folks in the queue, so if you were hoping for a sketch of mine to wad up in somebody's stocking this year, NOW IS YOUR TIME!

HERE ARE SUPERHEROES:



One of these guys is called "Wiccan." Not to be confused with Brendan "BAD ASS" Li's immortal character of the same name. (COMIX: Not just for kids anymore!)

http://www.codeamber.com/traynhamme/

Amber Alert Issued for 2 Year Old Maine Girl
Posted: Monday November 9, 2009 7:27 PM CT

The State of Maine issued the Amber Alert Monday afternoon after the girl was abducted in Sanford earlier in the day. The Girl's mother was assaulted by the suspect during the abduction. They may be in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire as of the afternoon.

Hailey Traynham a 2 year old White female, weighing 35 to 50 pounds with blond sholder length hair and blue eyes.

The suspect is Gary Traynham, a 38 year old White male, 5' 11", weghing 230 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes. Has a dark goatee.

The suspect vehicle is a green 1998 Dodge 1500 pickup truck with Maine license number 8629-NB.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sanford Police at 207-324-3644 or dial 911.

 Old Navy has several summer-weight blouses on the clearance racks that would make good Victorian or Edwardian blouses. I got this one for $10.




I wanted a more Earthy color, so I dyed my blouse with tea yesterday and now I'm changing the buttons.

If anyone is interested in tea dying, I posted the process on my blog. The vinegar in the dye bath is optional, but I didn't want to take any chances that the color might wash out.

overthecrescentmoon.blogspot.com/2009/11/tea-dying-cotton.html

Cat with wings in Chongqing, China by Alpha-Landov.

The Gallerie

I hope you like!
Phil
Those Who Mourn

Hello there
First time poster, long time stalker of steampunk fashion awesomeness.
So as the title says its never too early for... NEXT HALLOWEEN.
For some it may be too soon seeing as Halloween was 10 days ago.
But for me its never too early.
Last year early into the year I had decided that I was to be Blind Mag from Repo! the Genetic Opera this year.
And the costume was little more than a epic fail.
So on November 1st I had a brilliant idea to be a steampunk wind up doll for next year.
I'd like your input on what I can do to tweak Mag's costume.
Thanks.
xoxoxo
Jacey