Great Snakes! More TinTin Covers

Just when I thought I had a handle on faux Tintin covers …

They keep turning up.  Fans still love Tintin pastiches and continue to grind out covers for nonexistent books with tantalizing titles that never were.  I have slowly accumulated a few more Tintin covers to put together another Tintin blog entry, only to find that there is a fellow on the web that has the most amazing accumulation of Tintin tribute covers as well as a number of political/satire covers all in one spot.

 

I actually haven’t been aggressively pursuing more Tintin covers, but when an interesting one turned up, I tossed into a pile for an additional entry.  In this blog post, I have scattered about a few “new” covers that I turned up earlier, rather than plug them in to the categories I had previously established in older blog entries.  But I have hit the mother lode.   

Dave Ahl (SwapMeetDave) contacted me recently to let me know he had a huge trove of Tintin covers the like of which I have never seen.  He was right!  Let me caution you, SwapMeetDave’s collection of ersatz and unauthorized Tintin covers number in the hundreds, so expect to be overwhelmed. 

I have to take my hat off to this diligent collector of Tintin covers as Dave Ahl has surpassed my expectation of just how many covers might be out there.  I invite you all to go to his website to view his amazing collection – just use the links provided below.             CoastConFan

Original Tintin cover variants and other language editions from SwapMeetDave

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Herge/Tintin-cvr-sm/index.htm

Ersatz Tintin covers from SwapmeetDave

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Herge/Tintin-cvr-sm/

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Herge/Tintin-cvr-sm-1/Tin-Cvr-Sim.htm

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Herge/Tintin-cvr-sm-2/Tin-Cvr-Diff.htm

SwapMeetDave also has a cover contest for faux Tintin covers created by fans and he’d like submissions.  http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Herge/Tintin-cvr-contest/Design-Cover.htm

Tintin Postal Items and Philately from SwapMeetDave

http://swapmeetdave.com/Herge/Philately/index.htm

Previous CoastConFan blog posts on Tintin covers that I have made over the years: 

TinTin Covers 1 – The Reality

Tintin Covers 2 -- Lovecraft Connection

Tintin Covers 3 – Weird Science  

Tintin Covers 4 – Politics, Parody, Pastiches, and Irony

Classic Animated Tintin – CoC Game Ideas and Shameless Escapism

Lovecraft Tintin Books – Two Great Tastes, That Taste Great Together

OK, this last cover is a cheat as it’s not Herge or Tintin inspired but a Lovecraft and Dr Seuss inspired mashup – so I cheat at lists, so what. 

Famous Fantasy Weapons That Would Be Great To Own

Short of pulling a sword from a stone, going to eBay, flea markets, and conventions are probably your best bet in acquiring one.  

Recently a fabulous weapon of great age and glamour appeared upon the dappled and misty shores of eBay:  A Winky’s halberd from the 1939 Wizard of Oz.  A more beautiful vestige of sheet metal, gesso and peeling paint I have never seen.  Few items from the movie have appeared such as some Ruby Slippers and a live Munchkin or two attending a convention.  But here was a chance to get a great movie prop and it was only listed at only ninety-nine cents with certificate of authenticity and FREE SHIPPING too!  How could I lose? 

Well the bidding jumped from .99 to $100, but I was still in the running.  Counting my pocket change and coins from the penny jar, I still might swing it.  All of a sudden it jumped to $3,512.26 and I was out of the running.  A few days later the auction ended and it sold for $6,766.66.  Ah, well we all can dream, can’t we? 

As long as we are talking about high dollar Wizard of Oz film items, Dorothy’s dress sold at auction for $480,0000 in a 2011 auction.  It may not be a weapon, but it costs as much as a modern piece of military equipment.   A complete Winkie halberd was up for auction previously back in 2008 for $20,000 to $30,000. 

This started me musing upon famous weapons in stories and movies and I came up with six real quick.  Some famous fantasy/SF weapons that jumped to mind are:  Excalibur, The Subtle Knife, Sting from Lord of the Rings, light sabers from Star Wars, Thor’s hammer, and Elric of Melnibone's Stormbringer.

I have purposely left out projectile weapons such as blasters, crossbows & etc and limited it to direct striking weapons.  I also omit completely magical weapons with no intrinsic weapon ability like a wand, ring or talisman, although I have seen a few talismans big (and gaudy) enough to hurt, if you wore them long enough at at convention.

What makes a good fantasy weapon?  Good presentation (looks cool), great back story (some are really old or made in a strange way), a curse or magic power (hey it lights up), easy to use and deadly powerful.  What didn’t come to my mind immediately were such things as axes, flails, and spears, although there are tons of them out there in stories and folklore.  Then again I’m getting lazy.  I could have wowed you with a cerebral reference to weapons in Wagner’s Ring Cycle, but then I would get me thinking of the Warner Brother’s cartoon What’s Opera, Doc? and start singing “Mit mine shpeere und magic helllll-muuut”.  So much for culture.

Previously sold movie props from major movies

The runners up for this list were the Red Ryder BB gun from A Christmas Story movie, but I won’t list it because, “You’ll put your eye out!”  Also the gun from the Blade Runner movie (book title Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), but then again I am cheating with projectile weapons.  Did mention that I cheat at lists?  Oh, yeah the last blog entry I said that.
                                                                                                                  CoastConFan

A list of fictional swords conveniently on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_swords

After I wrote this article, I cast about for other people’s list of fantasy weapons:

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/07/14_famous_fantasy_swords.php

http://getasword.com/blog/97-fantasy-swords-list-of-famous-swords-from-book-series/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/03/ten_fantasy_replica_bladed_weapons/

http://www.ripten.com/2007/11/14/top-ten-most-badass-weapons-in-gaming-history-8-clouds-sword/

http://www.mithrilwisdom.com/2012/05/top-five-best-fantasy-duelling-weapons.html 

http://www.orbitbooks.net/2013/02/21/use-of-weapons-the-armoury-of-epic-fantasy/

http://domainsofthechosen.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/mjolnir-excalibur-stormbringer-and-sting-the-role-of-the-magic-weapon-in-fantasy/

http://www.amazon.com/forum/fantasy?cdForum=FxRHP2KEWXI0H1&cdThread=Tx32I0MKC1BJKLU