A Whale of a Tale

I'm waiting for a bunch of packages to arrive from across the country for my next project, so I hope to have something interesting to post tomorrow. In the meantime, I've discovered that quite a few of the "At the Mountains of Madness" patches and decals I sold went to people that have little or no interest in the story or H. P. Lovecraft. What they really wanted was swag featuring the plane in the story- the Dornier Wal seaplane.

It turns out they're classic aviation buffs, many of them from Eastern Europe, that collect Wal memorabilia. Outside of a few model kits my little props are some of the only merchandise featuring the Wal. I'm hoping I can trade some of my stuff for photographs and documentation for the plane that isn't generally available in the west.

Boston Docks Pass

This is basically a "filler" prop for the "At the Mountains of Madness" project I'm working on. Click through for the full size version, print it out on light cardboard and you're good to go.

Little Steps

I know it doesn't look it, but it's been a busy week.

The patch and photo set sales have been going well despite an absolutely terrifying total disappearance of orders on Tuesday and Wednesday. Luckily, that was just a glitch with how I configured my PayPal cart. At the current rate I'll hit the sellout point over the weekend and mail out my final packages for the year on Monday. I'll still have some available, but I won't be taking any more general orders until I have a few days off to handle the shipping duties.

I also received my first commission! That's probably not very exciting news to any of you that are artists for a living, but to me it's a big deal. If nothing else it means I'll have some cool pictures to post over the next two weeks.

"At the Mountains of Madness" Prop Photo Set

The Miskatonic University Antarctic expedition of 1930 is one of the most enigmatic chapters in history. It was a collection of firsts- the first Antarctic expedition to use heavy air support, the first to use drilling gear to penetrate the ice, and the first to widely range across the interior of the continent. Despite it's record of achievements it's more often remembered today for the multiple fatalities that brought it to an end. More intriguingly, the circumstances surrounding those deaths have puzzled researchers for years because significant amounts of documentary evidence about what happened, including journals, reports, and photographs, have been locked away for close to a century.

Until now.

This is a collection of prop photos recreating events, people, and places from H. P. Lovecraft's classic story "At the Mountains of Madness". The thirteen 4" by 6" black and white photos in the set were produced as handouts for use during a "Call of Cthulhu" RPG session and were created using retouched historical pictures, original art, and studio photography with actual props.

(Click on photo to see full size)



Going clockwise from the 12 o'clock position the photos depict:

1. A picture taken from the aft camera mount of one of the expedition's Dornier Wal aircraft of low mountains.

2. Shot taken from the forward camera mount on a Wal of another aircraft flying in formation.

3. The young Mr. Danforth posing in front of a plane.

4. One of the expedition's teams of sled dogs transporting supplies.

5. Prof. Lake and an assistant taking solar fixes. The close proximity of the pole made regular solar and celestial readings a necessity for navigation.

6. One of the "Elder Things" outside the mouth of the underground chamber where it was discovered.

7. In the center, technicians check the engine of one of the expedition's Dornier Wal aircraft.



Again, starting from the 12 o'clock position:

1. A Wal undergoing tests in the open water off the Ross ice shelf.

2. An "Elder Thing" eye stalk being examined during Prof. Lake's dissection attempt.

3. Sled dogs pulling a sledge containing part of Pabodie's portable drilling rig. Portable, in this case, being relative.

4. Supplies being offloaded from the "Arkham" at the edge of the ice shelf.

5. A shot taken from one of the Wal camera mounts of the strangely regular shapes or structures seen clinging to some of the peaks in the Antarctic interior.

6. Center, Prof. William Dyer relaxing on deck during the journey south.

The photos are provided in pristine condition and were intentionally printed on photo paper lacking a watermark or any other printing that would identify them as modern. They can be used as-is as props or as part of a collection of "At the Mountains of Madness" memorabilia, but directions for realistically aging the prints are available here on the blog.

Miskatonic University Seal, Redux

I finally got around to re-doing my Miskatonic University seal. You can still find the original over here, but these new versions won't have any of the pixellation that one was prone to at larger sizes. Why did I make my own when there are so many other versions out there? Because most of the other seals incorporate elements that further the jokey "wink, wink...Medieval Metaphysics" vibe that I can only take in small doses. More importantly, they weren't freely available for use. These are, as long as you follow the Creative Commons license down at the bottom of the page.

Just click on the picture to get the full-sized version.

Large, 300 DPI



Medium, 150 DPI


Small, 72 DPI

Da Bidness

I want to thank everyone that's ordered items over the past couple of days. The "Secret Master" sale on Black Friday was a huge success and I think everyone that took advantage of it is really going to like their stuff. Between those sales and yesterday's patch orders I had over 60 packages to mail out this morning. If I can keep that sales tempo up I should be able to sell out of the new patches by next week.

In no particular order, here are a couple of things I've learned over the past couple of days:

- Chipboard mailers suck. I've been using gloss-finish white CD mailers for my patch orders with great success, but I decided to use brown chipboard mailers for the photo sets in order to save money. That was a big mistake. They're heavier, they're subject to casual water damage from rain and snow, and the thickness of the cardboard means they don't qualify for letter rates if more than a few sheets of paper are inside. If I have any left after this week I'm just going to toss them on Ebay and order gloss finish cardboard mailers as replacements.

- When an ordering clerk says "Oh yeah, these chipboard mailers can hold an 8 1/2" by 11" sheet of paper folded in half," he's lying. I went to pack up all the "Secret Master" packages at 3 o'clock this morning only to discover that I had to fold the Pabodie plans in quarters to get them inside the mailer. Have I mentioned how much I hate chipboard mailers?

- I'm genuinely surprised how much of my business comes from outside the United States. I expected a domestic/international ratio of, at best, 70/30, but it's actually roughly 50/50. Almost all my international buyers are European, and most of them hail from France and the United Kingdom.

I've Been Moto-ized!

Scott writes:

Since you've expressed an interest in seeing how the work you've released under the Creative Commons license is used, here's a quick shot of my phone (one of the ubiquitous RAZRs) with the flip opened. I had to modify the artwork a little to maximize readability on the tiny screen...

He also included these shots in a follow-up email:





I think that's just insanely cool.