Of Childhood Dreams And Rocketmen

Christmas was a nice quiet time for me. Food, family and no internet all combined for a most excellent time. Christmas day was especially memorable as well lost electricity for a few hours, thankfully just as dinner was all cooked. So turkey and ham was enjoyed in candlelight, and the following few hours were spend chatting, relaxing, napping and generally having a lovely day, uninterrupted by TV or computer games.

Best yet, Christmas kinda lasted several weeks for me. Claire had informed me that my present wouldn't arrive until some time in January. But when it did... Oh boy!

This story all starts when I was 11 years old and Disney released a movie that would go on to influence much of who I am today. While not making me into a hero, daring adventurer or hood ornament, it did start my love of all things pulp and 1920's. The style, clothing and retro technology sung to my core, and it quickly became my favourite movie of my childhood. But as time passed, I discovered that it remained a favourite, and when I managed to get my hands on a copy of the DVD, I was delighted to find that the movie held up under repeated viewings.

The Rocketeer, based on a comic by the late, great Dave Stevens, is easily my favourite movie of all time. I can watch and rewatch it, and have. I happily watched it twice over two consecutive days on two separate occasions. I love all that action, adventure, heroism, effects and, of course, that costume. The helmet and rocket pack are iconic, stylish, clean and simple. But it's the jacket I love the most.

Ever since I was eleven years old, I have wanted that jacket. Ever since I was 27 years old, I've stared longingly at the UK website that makes a beautiful, high quality leather replica of the jacket. Stared. Dreamed. Wished. But ultimately, I never could really afford it. There was always something more important to spent my money on. Like food. And rent. And Claire.

But in early January, my wife arrived home from work and for the third time that week, the 17th time that month, the millionth time in a year, she proved yet again that she was the best, most beautiful, most amazing wife in the world. She handed me a big package and I opened it to find this:

I now have the coolest leather jacket in all of Cork city, possibly Ireland. Based on the fact that, as previously mentioned, Wested Leather is a UK based company, I don't think I can honestly claim "Coolest Jacket Owner in Ireland, the UK and Europe". Someone in the UK must also own this too. I'm not the only Rocketeer fan.

The first time I got to really show the jacket off to a lot of people was at WarpCon at the end of January. The response was phenomenal. I've never had so many people stop me and compliment me on what I was wearing. Everyone wanted to know where I had gotten it from, and I was only too happy to point them to the website. I even got to wear it to a steampunk LARP! I played the character of the captain of the city guard, and although it wasn't mentioned on my character sheet, I managed to get a Rocketeer Squadron added to my forces! Sweet. I 'd have to say that the jacket really helped me play the role, and went some way to getting me awarded the prize for that LARP! According to the people at the awards ceremony, when they announced I had won that, it got one of the biggest cheers of the evening. Unfortunately, I was getting food with friends, as I hadn't played to win anything, just to have fun and make sure others enjoyed the game as well. I must have done something right.

Since then, I've been wearing this jacket a lot around Cork. Any opportunity I can get, really. It's super comfy, warm, stylish, and gets a lot of approving looks. Any time anyone asks me were I got it, I tell them I have a very special, and understanding wife, and then point them to Wested.com.

Next I need the helmet to complete the hood ornament look! The jet pack will come some time later.

Achievement Unlocked!

In case any of my readers missed it, in my last post I included a link to a nifty, fun toy I found online, but put it on an image, so not everyone might catch it.

Technology Ninja's Achievement Unlocked Generator provides hours of entertainment as you create hilarious Xbox Gamerscore styled images to send to friends and family.

What Achievements would you unlock?

Get Your Comics

As anyone that knows me will attest, I like comics. A lot. I have a substantial collection, though nothing on the scale of serious comic collectors. Currently, my collection stands at 12 standard comic boxes, sorted and labelled to an almost OCD degree. It's impressive, and has stuff from Marvel, DC, Devils Due, Top Cow, and loads of independent publishers. The box I find myself most proud of is a single box full of G.I. Joe, though within the other boxes, I have some amazing treasures and collections, as well as all of my paperback graphic novels. One box holds my bagged and boarded collection of signed or otherwise special comics, as well as a tonne of various Marvel Handbooks that I intend to use some day for a Marvel Universe based super hero RPG.

But this mighty collection was not a thing of ease to accumulate. Many random issues here and there were retrieved from ebay after a certain comic supplier randomly never got it an issue, or stopped halfway through a series, or got issue one and two, and then stopped. I've ended up moving most of my collecting to graphic novel format, particularly for Marvel comics, as Marvel are excellent at publishing almost everything in collections.

For a while, I availed of the short lived and long missed GetYourComics.com, a site owned and run by a good friend of mine. Conveniently, while the site was based on a postal delivery system for most, the fact that both of us lived in Cork meant that my comics were delivered direct to me. It also meant that I could just ring my friend and get him to order a single issue, or know that he'd hold special covers or limited editions of issues from series I liked. I was even able to order clothing through his service, a feat I couldn't manage even while I worked in my afore mentioned local comic store!! It's a pity the business never took off, and more of a pity that it eventually folded, but it was great while it lasted.

It was fantastic, then, when the owner of GetYourComics pointed me toward a U.K based site that was doing similar, and succeeding. He had been using it, and thought I might like to give them a go. Even factoring in the cost of shipping that has to be included, getting comics through this supplier works out cheaper than my LCS.

Economic Comics has been serving me well since before Christmas now, and I've received, quickly and without error, three orders through them to date, the most recent of which only arrived today, prompting me to write this blog.

It's a simple system; you send them the comics you want, and the issue number to start from, then they hold them for you. Every week you get an email updating you of what is now on hold, and depending on how often you like to get your comics, you'll get a regular order email with a PayPal link. Hit that, and the comics are posted within a day or two, arriving shortly afterwords. I get my orders on a monthly basis, as I only have one or two comics a week to collect. However, during a quiet month, the site kindly allows me to wait a week or two before taking my comics together, helping spread the cost of shipping over more issues. Because of this, I actually only receive comics every six to eight weeks, which suits me fine.

If you're living far from any comic stores, or even if you have one nearby but they charge a bit too much, give Economic Comics a look. Good service, friendly staff, prompt response time. You won't regret it.

No Fanboy?

While signing up for some DRM free classic point-and-click games to download, I was filling in the required information into the website for registration when I hit "Gender", and was offered this longer-than-usual choice!!
What would you choose?

Painting With Pixels

While writing my post about Spirit of the Century I googled around for some interesting art of pulp-era, or pulp styled characters. I spotted a number that looked interesting, in particular one of The Shadow, one of my favourite actual pulp era characters. There was also one of Doc Savage and Tarzan that looked nice, and when I started to open them in larger sizes, I noticed they all held a similar style.

That was when I discovered Paper, Pencil, Pixels; a blog showcasing the art of Scottish digital artist Euan Mactavish. Euan's work has a beautifully painted look to it, despite being entirely digital. In one post he mentions how he started out using paper sketches which he scanned in, but now works entirely on the computer. He has a broad range of material, from comic book characters to real life celebrities. He is equally comfortable drawing non-human characters, as in the most recent update with Mighty Mouse, as he is with the colourful cast of humans he has on display!

My personal favourite is used as the image for this post, with kind permission from the artist himself! Those of you who know me know of my love for all things Rocketeer related. Those of you who don't, now do!

The site is well worth a visit, and he updates regularly. As well as the Rocketeer, have a look at The Shadow, Doc Savage, Midnighter, some Bonds, a female Hellboy... in fact, just go through the archives! There is something eye-poppingly good every month! Oh, and check out July '07. Only one image, but it's incredible!