Imperial Paper

Ross MacDonald has posted about the period accurate notebooks and photo album he created for HBO's "Boardwalk Empire". The level of detail and research that went into the props is stunning.

"Prop master Tom Allen came out to my studio for a couple of meetings - we pored over period books, albums, scrapbooks and notebooks and talked about things we liked and didn't like about each. We also looked through my paper samples and binding material swatchbooks, but very few modern binding book-cloths resemble the stuff they were using in the early 20th century. The modern stuff is thin and hard and shiny and saturated and a poor substitute for the rich thick warm materials that binders worked with back in the day. I've done a lot of roadwork on finding period-looking materials to use on props, and whenever I stumble upon anything likely-looking I snap up as much as I can. I've had some stuff custom made for certain movie projects, but the mills have 60 to 100-yard minimum orders - that can be over a quarter ton of material, enough to fill the back of a pickup."

Here's a look at some of his reproduction work for the series. I dearly wish some were waiting for me under the Christmas tree. It's so ironic that small paper items like this were produced by the millions in the classic era, but have to be painstakingly produced by hand today.

Mummified Vampire Heart, Part Three

In the early weeks of 1912 a monster stalked the bayous of southern Louisiana.

The first sign that something was wrong were the disappearances. Over the years more than a few people had gone for a walk outside of town, wandered off the road, and vanished into thin air. Tragic, yes, but not unexpected given the confusing and unpredictable nature of the swamps. The latest cases were different, people who had spent their whole lives in the backwoods making a living from hunting, fishing, and farming. Still, folks didn't think too much of it.

Then the first bodies were found, not in a ditch or floating in a stream, but in their homes. It took a while to even figure out how many people had been killed because the parts from so many bodies were jumbled up. Once everything was sorted out, and even hard men were brought low by that job, five people were dead. Someone had walked into the house, slaughtered everyone, and then dismembered their bodies with a very, very sharp axe.

A week later they did it again, this time in a town 26 miles down the road. Two weeks after that they walked in to a house over 40 miles away and did the exact same thing.

The monster's name was Auguste Delagrange, and the killing didn't stop until a priest and a voodoo man drove a stake through his heart.

Yeah, it's a terribly melodramatic way to start a post, but one of the reasons I'm so happy with this project is the back story built into it. That introduction? It's all absolutely true except for the last line.

Here's the final presentation for the mummified vampire heart. The box is solid oak, finger jointed, and probably dates back to the 1940's. When I bought it at an antique shop it had a ragged leather handle and was covered in paint stains, so I'm guessing it was originally a toolbox or artists supply box. The plaque is an antique oak picture frame. The entire box has been aged with the tinted wax treatment I discussed yesterday.



Inside we have the dessicated ticker of the unfortunate Mr. Delagrange and the stake that did him in, resting on a bed of period appropriate excelsior made from real wood shavings. I liked the contrast provided by the light colored excelsior so I didn't apply any distressing.

The stake is my idea of what a real vampire killer would use. Something with the slim profile and sharp point of a dagger designed to slip between the ribs of the chest cavity. Those big honking garden stakes you see in most vampire killing kits drive me crazy. You would have to expend way too much effort to crack through the ribs because the points are so shallow and broad. This stake is another antique- a pattern 1, World War 1 tent stake turned on a lathe from solid oak. The typewritten note on the inside of the lid explains the history of the heart.







If you've always wanted to own a little piece of vampiric history you'll be happy to learn that the mummified vampire heart and all it's accoutrements are available on Ebay, just in time for the holidays.

Mummified Vampire Heart, Part Deux

Since May I've been on a quest for a magic potion.

My search started because of this, a mummified vampire heart. It was made using techniques shamelessly stolen from some of the old time carny shows. The kind that would let you catch a glimpse of freakish anatomical wonders, or "gaffs", if you were willing to hand over a greenback. I was extremely happy with how the heart came out, but it was missing the deep, rich finish of those old school attractions. What did I need to do to get that tanned, leathery look?

I spent a few weeks trying to duplicate it with everything from wood stain to ink washes and came up empty. Stains could reproduce the rich colors, but once the gaff was varnished or shellacked the effect went flat. Liquid acrylic could build up depth, but after a few coats it looked like a shiny film of plastic. As my own experiments fizzled out I continued researching the history of gaffs looking for a clue. What was the secret behind those rich colors? These were guys that went from town to town putting on shows for most of the year, so it's not like they had a chemistry lab available to cook up some secret elixir. It had to be something cheap and readily available.

And it is.

The secret to getting that deep finish is something I noticed back in May, but I didn't make the connection until last month. You want the warm, buttery look of fine leather? Then you want to use the same compound that gives leather it's richness. The secret is wax. Plain old paste wax.

Ordinary shoe polish will do in a pinch, but basic powdered pigments mixed with paste wax gives you more control over the colors. Need a grungier, more aged finish? Add some powdered chalk to the wax and you get the perfect aging compound. It's opaque, it sticks in crevices and wipes off raised surfaces, and you can add twenty years of dirt and grime with a few minutes of buffing.

Here's what the mummified vampire heart looks like now. Just click through for the high resolution versions of all these pictures.



Isn't that awesome? The heart has a much richer palette of reds and browns, and the waxing really brings out the details and textures. The stake was waxed with a little burnt umber pigment and the results there are just as impressive.

Seriously, click through and look at the high res versions so you can see just how much of a difference it makes. The finish provided by the waxing technique takes a good prop and kicks it up into greatness. That's not me patting myself on the back, but an appreciation of just how useful an aging technique this is. Considering that it's been in use for centuries on gaffs like the Jenny Haniver I feel like an idiot for not trying it sooner.





The last shot is my favorite. This is what the black corrupted heart of an inhuman monster looks like.



Tomorrow I'll show off the rest of the project.

Miskatonic University Update

Despite the lack of updates about the Miskatonic University project I haven't been totally slacking off. The material for the actual prop package has been effectively done for weeks, but I wanted enough reference on hand that I would have prop documents and photographs to offer up during the fund raising process. Now that I have a goodly stash things should be ready to go by the end of this week.

Bureau of Investigation Paperwork

The very talented Michael Fanara has added some excellent Bureau of Investigation prop documents for the classic era over at Geedunk Props. Mind you, they're just the latest goodies. You'll find all kinds of printable material as you browse around.

Long Live the King

Elmo Iscariot sent me a note about the recent rediscovery of the original art for "The King in Yellow".

I don't know if you've heard but the crew of the Sci-Fi Channel's show Hollywood Treasure (a reality show about a movie memorabilia consignment house) visited a gentleman who inherited much of the science fiction and fantasy collection of Forrest J Ackerman.

While going through the items he was willing to sell, he offered what he claimed was the original poster-sized cover art for The King in Yellow, supposedly painted by Chambers himself. The appraiser was unimpressed, because he mostly moves items from mainstream properties and didn't think there would be much interest. He reluctantly took the art, and estimated it would bring $400-600. At the auction that ends the show, phone bidding finished at $7000.

The episode seems to either be called "Joe's Judgement Day" or "Spidey Cents" (the latter only on the SF Channel's website). It doesn't look like video is available legally yet.

The auction listing for the piece is still available at the Profiles in History website. Here's a look at the actual art:



It's a beautiful piece that draws on the traditional iconography of the greek god Thanatos as a cloaked, winged figure carrying an inverted torch. What it doesn't have is the inverted torch with swirling flames, a reversed interpretation of the Rod of Asclepius, that I used as the inspiration for my alternative interpretation of the Yellow Sign . Sadly, it appears that I, like so many before me, didn't appreciate the true nature of the King.

The Zosimus Documents

It's a shame the Hellraiser series has devolved into such a misbegotten crapfest. Much like Lovecraft's Mythos, Barker's mythology of Phillip LeMarchand and the servants of Leviathan has served as a rich source of inspiration for both professionals and amateurs. Sadly, the results vary just as wildly in quality.

"Steelghost" brings us one of the better examples built on Barker's foundations - the Zosimus Documents. I'm a sucker for faux documents to begin with, and this collection does a nice job of developing the history of the puzzle boxes.