Lovecraft TinTin Books -- Two Great Tastes, That Taste Great Together

In the early 1960s we were stationed in Europe and my father used to buy TinTin books for me. They were one of my best memories of being a child. My father read to me all the time – not just children’s books but books of all kinds. Over the years, I managed to acquire all the English edition TinTins, which was no mean feat in the pre-computer age. The great thing about kids is that you then get to read to them as well, passing along a love of reading and books. My collection of TinTin eventually went to my daughter along with my Edwin Gorey books.



The artist Murray Groat, aka Muzski, has made some apocryphal Herge TinTin book covers. His execution of Herge’s style is spot-on. Check out his website and see all of his quirky art. He has produced seven faux TinTin covers, each better than the next: TinTin in Innsmouth, TinTin From Beyond, TinTin and The Reanimator, The Dunwich Horror, TinTin in R’Lyeh, TinTin at the Mountains of Madness, and The Shadow Out of Time.

These books never existed, but in my imagination, I can just guess at the pratfalls of the Thompson Twins at the Mountains of Madness, Professor Calculus and The Reanimator, Captain Haddock’s reaction to the fishmen in Innsmouth (blistering barnacles). Snowy, of course, will save them all after getting into trouble. TinTin will muddle through with his automatic in his pocket. Somehow I see Castafiore singing to Azathoth there in the center of ultimate chaos.

Kids that are read to and see their parents read are more likely to want to read themselves. Read to your kids. Be seen reading … in public even!

Click for Murray Groat Herge-Cthulhu Link

A Nerdy Girl Anthem

Marian Call, a very talented women, did a song called, I’ll Still Be A Geek After Nobody Thinks It’s Chic, from her 2008 album, Got to Fly. Nerdy girls are underappreciated by society in general but fandom embraces them.

This slideshow video is made up of photos I took at a number of local SF & F conventions over the course of a few years, featuring a number of fan girls of all ages. Women are an integral part of fandom and SF authorship.



Be sure to visit Marian Call’s website to find out more about this talented woman. Nerdy girls make the world go ‘round.

A Plop From the Past

I visited Propnomicon’s blog today and saw the statue he posted (Saturday, February 12, 2011).

Immediately, an image from Plop Magazine flashed into my mind. Now I hadn’t thought of that publication in 30 years, so it’s rather surprising, that this exact image flashed into my mind when I saw Bruce Attley’s Shadows Over Innsmouth statue.

Plop Magazine dates to the mid 1970s and had a drawing style of underground comics and the very earliest of Mad Magazine issues (Sergio Aragones was involved BTW). It only ran 24 issues, ending their run in 1976. I was never much of a Plop reader, as I preferred Fat Freddy’s Cat, Vaugn Bode’s work and Zippy the Pinhead as far as undergrounds went.

Stennis Space Center Fires One Up

Stennis Space Center located in south east Mississippi near Bay St Louis, lit up an ex-Soviet era AJ26 rocket engine in a step towards commercial space flight.

It was fire off Monday at 4:30 a.m. but I didn’t feel a thing. Let me tell you, back in the old days, when they lit up a Saturn V rocket, it really rocked your world!

Check out this cool video


I am glad to see up moving towards space and not just turning NASA into a PR mouthpiece.

Neo-Victorians, Colonialists and Steampunks, Oh My

A page from the very popular Victorian children's books about the hapless Private Pooh and his superior, Captain Christopher Robin, written under the pseudonym “A Private Soldier”, rumored to be the works of Sir Harry Paget Flashman, VC KCB KCIE, 1822-1915, for his many illegitimate children, but never proven. These were believed to be political satire, lampooning Victorian personalities and wars. In any case, millions of children loved the books and the series had some later imitations.



Titles (not in order of publication)
Pooh and the Great Game
Pooh at the Charge
Royal Pooh
Pooh and the Tigger
Pooh at Islawanda
Pooh’s River War (Pooh’s Sticks)
Pooh with Gordon
Pooh at the Kyber Pass
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The original Winnie-the-Pooh drawings
Wikipedia Article Winnie-the-Pooh
Wikipedia Article on Pooh Sticks
YouTube Pooh with music by Rammstein

Nerd Anthem by Marian Call

I ran across this video with Marian Call lyrics on YouTube. This is a lovely video about something close to my heart -- convention girls. Although the ratio of females to males at conventions is about 15:100, those girls pack a wallop! Just give me a girl who knows a good Sax Rhomer, H.P. Lovercraft, Doc Smith, Larry Niven, Cordwainer Smith or Frank Frazetta reference when she hears it.



Now nerdiness is not all about dressing up steampunk or lusting after a functional gatling gun or having a life-sized Jurassic Park type velociraptor statue in your yard, but it really helps.