RIP Neil Armstrong

On Saturday a personal hero of mine passed away; Neil Armstrong, space explorer, self pronounced nerd. My connection with Armstrong is my birthday, I was born the day he landed on moon. That small coincidence has always made me feel special. I've always been interested in the stars and adventure. Neil Armstrong accomplished something that less than a handful of human beings ever have, he walked on the moon. Someday, I'm sure it will happen again, but I'm doubtful it will be in my lifetime. The slowdown in manned space exploration has kept humans landlocked ever since the 60's. Now robots probe nearby planets, the need to send humans seems to be unnecessary.

Armstrong's death is very sad to me. It dates me. It's like part of me is gone also. This weekend was sad overall, lots of things changing, lots of things ending and passing on.

Anyway, I wish Neil the best. Hopefully he's exploring another kind of space now.

Reaper Minis Kickstarter

Since Jim alerted me to this kickstarter, I've been paying close attention to what they are offering. They had a goal of raising $30K, they CRUSHED that and have close to $930,000, nearing the million dollar mark. Pretty cool. Especially seeing how they are giving supporters a screaming deal and each time a level is reached, they add on to the package. At this point, the vampire level, $100, gets you this:

I believe that its around 178 minis for $100. TONS of stuff, and possibly adding more if they raise a few more bucks in the next 5 days. You can also add on, upgrading your level and get some other cool figures; giants, dragons, orc hordes, and even Cthulhu and friends.

I am tempted, extremely tempted. I've been thinking about starting an RPG club at school, this would be an instant help. I may hold out for a few days and see if the package bumps up.

The Massive

Whew, ok, I'm finally getting a new routine and finding time for things. School starting, football, classes full of actual human beings, all have disrupted my recent cubicle life. No worries though, slowly I will get back into it.

I have a stack, a stack, of comics that I haven't been able to read. I've fallen out of the loop on a few storylines. Slowly, I try to read one or two when I have a few minutes. One book that I picked up on a whim has become an underground favorite in my stack; The Massive.

The Massive is a different kind of book. I liken it to a 60's spy thriller / Johnny Quest sort of style. The art is clean, very stylish. The characters are strong and recognizable. The story is mysterious, leading, going forward and backwards at the same time. The basic premise is that not far in the future, a series of catastrophic ecological events causes a "crash" in the world, effectively creating an apocalyptic setting. The Massive is a ship, one of two vessels that cruised the pre-crash oceans defending the earth's resources from commercial destruction. The Massive is now lost. It's sister ship, the Kapital, and it's small crew, are on a mission to re-locate the Massive; at the same time avoiding pirates and environmental changes.

I really like the style and feel of the book. This is not a superhero book, it is more like a mystery set in a slightly recognizable world, all the while you have this feeling of dread looming in the background. The art in this book is new. It feels like a combination of clean pencils and inks and some computer/photo generated images. The colors are what really set the stage for the story; many of the layouts and arcs are done in monochromatic tones which really help with the flow of the story. Flashbacks and scene cuts are easily followed because of the shift in colors.

One thing that is REALLY amazing about this book: NO ADS!!! When you read The Massive you will notice that you are flipping page after page of comic book, not advertisements. It's weird, but in a great way. I'm not sure how Dark Horse is doing it, but every publisher should figure it out.

The Massive is a three part introduction. No questions were answered, no Massive was ever sighted. Hopefully interest was good enough that it becomes a regular series. I could see a lot of possibilities with the Kapital chasing the Massive's signal, always just over the next horizon, criss crossing the Earth's oceans, exploring a new world.

Happy Coincidence

One good thing about living in the desert, stars. Almost every night I can go out and see thousands of stars, satellites, and a few meteors. Its a bright point in an otherwise hellish heat.

Last night, by chance, I was just hanging out, looking up. Not just one, but several streaked across the sky. They weren't the small flashes, caught out of the corner of your eye, these were globs of sparks, slowly falling out of the sky. This morning I read that last night was the Perseid meteor shower, one of the best of the year. Pretty cool.

To add to the "cool" factor, I spotted a tarantula crossing the road, a snake, and a scorpion running for cover under my fridge. Who says the desert isn't cool?