Artist: Justin Gerard

Steampunk Wizard of Oz

Illustrations by Justin Gerard

[ BlogSpot ]

Artist: Daniel Lieske

"The Journey Begins"

Illustrations by Germany-based Daniel Lieske

[ DeviantArt | Prints ]

"My journey begins on an old and dusty attic. A little boy unveiled a passage to another world and prepared his backpack. The moment is there – the moment of gathering courage and doing the first step."

The Wormworld Saga is a web comic and app that successfully raised $23,729 on Kickstarter.  It's an amazing comic featuring dream-like landscapes in vivid pallets.  Creator Daniel Lieske recently wrote on his blog about how the project helped generate interest from a private investor who offered to fund the whole project, however, he's chosen to post the entire series online for free.

Parents across the web are raving about how much their children love the series, but I admit, I'm a huge fan myself

Comic Round-Up: July 1, 2014

"Girl of Steel" by Indonesia-based Sedhayu Ardian

Interview: John Romita Jr. is one of the today's top artists in the comics world having drawn nearly every major superhero for Marvel. Romita is finally taking on the original superhero joining DC Comics and Geoff Johns for a brand new Superman comic.

Interview: The Walking Dead Creator Robert Kirkman Talks New Series Outcast

News: A U.S. college just made video gaming a varsity sport.

9 awesome Dark Horse comics to enjoy before Star Wars goes back to Marvel

Dan Roth of Blastr speculates on Why licensed comics aren't taken seriously (and how to fix it)

DC Entertainment starts to realize the Nu52 is a failure, plans to have their current characters fight their old universe counterparts. Unfortunately, they don't seem to realize they drove away all their old fans, so no one is left to care

Flavorwire reminds us of The Foreign Graphic Novels Behind 10 Films.

Liam Burke, editor of the essay collection Fan Phenomena: Batman, discusses the enduring appeal of the Dark Knight, who of course turns 75 this year.

Gaming Round-Up: July 1, 2014

"Atari Cartel" by Arturo Liceaga

The Appendix  traces how the word "mana" went from a word with a specific meaning in many Polynesian languages to be adopted as the default term for magical energy in fantasy games and novels.

Cara Ellison of Paste pens a letter to dear ol’ mum on the palatability of mainstream, and why Google’s Star Trek doodle may prove an excellent example of how to make games ready and accessible.

Critical Damages shares some thoughts on the underrated Final Fantasy XII.

Forein Policy jokes that The Navy's latest destroyer is basically a floating Xbox.

Link Round-Up: July 1, 2014

"Tyrion Lannister for Tss" by Moscow-based Evgeny Parfenov

An Open Letter to the Guy Reading A Game of Thrones While Driving

The Awl reflects on the color of the Internet.  Shockingly, it's not vomit-colored.

Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes ring a bell?) made a stealth return to comics, fulfilling the childhood dreams of one cartoonist and making the rest of us run to the attic to unearth our copies of Something Under the Bed is Drooling.

Building a plausible world: a step-by-step tutorial for a Planet in 12 Photoshop Layers from plate tectonics to trade winds using G.Projector, the free NASA software to project their rectilinear map onto a globe. [More]  There's a free program called AutoREALM which will handle the measurement part. You set the underlying scale and draw a route. It will derive the travel time by foot, horse, cart, and ship, for a variety of loads, paces, and conditions. Fractal World Explorer can generate very basic climates and apply erosion to landmasses accordingly.

Download your own Oblivion Drone Papercraft Model

Featured Site: Pixel Trek

Pixel Trek is a simulation featuring a pixel art version of the Enterprise D from Star Trek: The Next Generation that you can explore as a little pixellated Lieutenant Commander Data. The results are surprisingly cool, wandering through tiny rooms of the ship and seeing familiar sights like the Battle Bridge or Data's quarters.  I’m not sure how canonical it is, but it does seek to answer some important questions, such as "How does a ship with a crew of two thousand and magical replicators in every room not have any toilets?"

According to an interview with the creator Daniel Saaba, PixelTrek is based on the original blueprints, although it's not to scale. He also added more bathrooms, and included a lot of Easter Eggs like E.T. and Lt. Arex from the animated series. He's creating the whole thing in his spare time, which is impressive by itself.

Announcement: Summer Hiatus Over!

Dear Valued Readers,

I'm all settled into the new place and back online!  "Danger Cave 1" is fully operational!  I'll start posting on July 1st, barring unforeseen complications.  I'd like to thank everyone who commented, e-mailed, and Tweeted their support during my absence.

Unfortunately, my internet connection's not quite as fast as it was back at my old place.  My last house was in walking distance of a community college, so I had a lightning fast internet connection.  My new place is so far out into the boonies that it's a ten minute drive to Store.  That's not a typo.  The nearest place of commerce is a small, windowless building labeled "Store."

There's a huge handmade sign hanging just outside Store's one windowless door promising crawlers. When I asked if the sign referred to doughnuts or bait, a man wearing overalls and a flannel shirt in ninety degree heat treated me to ten minute rant about how Store stocks BOTH as part of fiendishly clever marketing ploy designed to draw traffic both on the way to AND from the local fishing hole.

In case you were wondering, I bought the bait.  Upon examination, it was the more sanitary option.

I would have been back online last week, but hijinks ensued when the AT&T guy who came to install the DSL modem I ordered pointed out that the old lady who lived here before me never bothered installing actual phone jacks.  The two sockets I stupidly mistook for phone jacks were both itty bitty wall safes with absolutely no internet inside.  My brother spent the entire week tormenting me by folding up little pictures of cats and stuffing them into said wall safes to simulate internet reception.

Until I adjust to the slower speed, my daily posts may be a little less frequent than prior to my hiatus.  I sincerely hope that you'll stick with me through the coming adjustment period, because I'm creeping up on the poverty line and the ad revenue from this blog is only about three years of growth from pushing me over the threshold.  Come on, dollar a day!

Yours Truly,

Pipedreamergrey

Admin, The Geek Art Gallery