Dan O'Bannon 1946-2009

There aren't many people whose death is notable for a blog like this, but Dan O'Bannon certainly qualifies. He passed away on Thursday.

Dan O'Bannon, the acclaimed science fiction/horror film screenwriter who was best known for writing the blockbuster hit "Alien" and who also directed and wrote the zombie fest "The Return of the Living Dead," has died. He was 63.

O'Bannon, whose credits include co-writing "Blue Thunder" and "Total Recall," died Thursday at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica after losing his 30-year battle with Crohn's disease, said his wife, Diane.

I've been a fan of Mr. O'Bannon's work since I first stumbled upon a showing of "Dark Star" on the Showtime cable network back in the late 70's. I and my friends would endlessly quote lines from the film, but it took a while for us to figure out that Sgt. Pinback was the same guy being interviewed in magazine's like "Starlog" and "Fantastic Films" for his work on "Star Wars" and "Alien".

At one point we ran a Traveller/Space Opera RPG campaign where we discovered the planetoid from "Alien", complete with the derelict space jockey ship from the film as well as the temple complex from the original script. Deep in the bowels of the temple complex we discovered this mural, which our referee had carefully cut out from a magazine:



In another chamber we found a second mural depicting the apex predator of the "Alien" ecology, a jellyfish like creature with dangling tentacles and an immense gasbag that allowed it to float through the air. Well, that was the adult form. The immature juvenile form looked like an inflated beach ball with feet. That's right, the one creature the ravenous, acid-blooded xenomorphs feared was the grown up version of the goofy alien from "Dark Star".

Good times, my friends. Good times.

As for his contributions to horror, Mr. O'Bannon was behind some of the most influential films of the genre, primarily "Alien" and "Return of the Living Dead". Others have said that "Alien" is probably the most successful Lovecraftian film in history, and it's probably the one he'll be remembered for years from now, but even O'Bannon's lesser efforts, like "Dead & Buried" and "The Resurrected", were worth watching. He will be missed.

Weekend Matinee

This is what it's going to be like when the Shoggoths rise up again.

Heavy Metal

I love a LARP with nice props as much as the next guy, but this is over the top. No, it's beyond that. It jumped over the top, landed on the other side, and ran towards the enemy bunker with all guns blazing.

From Lt. E. Watts comes this incredible collection of full scale Warhammer 40,000 LARP props and set pieces. I don't even like 40K, but after seeing the sheer scale of this project, in terms of both quantity and quality, I'm ready to sign up. This is the kind of full-blown, high immersion game that I'd love to play in. The costumes are impressive, but the dedication and craftsmanship that went into producing an entire ironmongery of heavy weapons from solid steel is far and above anything I've ever seen before.

Making A "Thing In A Bottle": Addendum II

This is a followup on the original post featuring the Making a "Thing In a Bottle" tutorial. Since then I've made about three dozen more bottled specimens, progressively refining the technique as issues impacting the long-term stability of the projects pop up. I've previously written about ways to insure an air-tight seal. This post will cover the long term viability of a variety of materials I've used.

First off, I have some serious doubts about the survivability of polymer clay. By itself it's a brittle material that is likely to crack as repeated impacts of the sculpted critter against the interior of the glass bottle create stress fractures. This can be alleviated somewhat by using a wire armature as reinforcement, but fine detail work is always going to be extremely delicate. The *only* way to prevent specimens breaking apart is to coat them with a soft, yielding material that can absorb and disperse the force of impacts. Both latex, in the form of rubber cement or liquid latex adhesive, and silicone are ideal for this.

Speaking of latex, I've been shocked by how tough it is. I have specimens coated with hardened liquid latex floating in distilled water, isopropyl alcohol, and glycerine and none of them have shown the slightest signs of deterioration. This probably shouldn't have been a surprise, since exposure to air and sunlight are what causes the latex in masks to deteriorate. The environment inside a specimen bottle is naturally free of ultraviolet light (it's blocked by the glass) and the limited amount of oxygen present probably isn't enough to trigger any significant oxidation.

Another Thing In A Jar

Sir Ninian Marsh has posted a very well done "thing in a jar" at the Brassgoggles forum.



His masterful work reminded me that I have some new notes and observations about making them that I should write up. Those should be up tomorrow.

The Mantle of Cthulhu

Artist Cadu Hoffmann created this wonderful Mantle of Cthulhu using real bones and resin. What I really like is the way it incorporates flowing organic shapes into something truly alien without falling into the trap of "Gigerism", an all too prevalent disease characterized by slavish imitation of H. R. Giger's biomechanical style without an appreciation for it's grace or beauty.





Browse through his gallery and you'll find more artifacts of note, including a fantastic battle helmet.

Vintage Tasmanian Postcard

Most of my paper props are pretty obscure, but this bit of ephemera is based on a single line from Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness":

As the newspapers told, we sailed from Boston Harbor on September 2nd, 1930, taking a leisurely course down the coast and through the Panama Canal, and stopping at Samoa and Hobart, Tasmania, at which latter place we took on final supplies.

Undoubtedly, the members of the Miskatonic expedition took advantage of the stop in Tasmania to post off their last letters and postcards home. This vintage postcard is exactly the kind of thing they would have found in the gift shops surrounding the port. Just click through for the full sized version, download to your computer, and print it out on cardstock.