Sci-fi @ MindSay 
voltesv
Digging further back into my past, I uncovered my earliest paintings of Melusine. During the spring and summer of 1991, I discovered a little book of French fairy tales and thus my obsession with Melusine began. I even attempted to write a new detailed view of the Melusine myth, one that I firmly believed would appeal to a brand new audience and then everyone I knew would love me for it, but I wasn't yet mature enough to tackle such a daunting task and the story I worked so hard on for a whole summer was lost. Later I turned to roleplaying games for inspiration. I would "play" Melusine as a superhero code named "Vipress" and not just write about her. I was in love with a group of guys I used to game with and they all treated me like a tag along girlfriend -- you know, someone else's woman whom they had to include in their reindeer games so they wouldn't piss off their friend, Tom, my boyfriend. I knew I wasn't as liked by them as I liked them. So I was the odd one out in our GURPs Supers game. Clueless about the rules, yet beaming with creativity and the joy of taking an active part in a game that seemed reserved only for the boys, my heart would soon break when the boys would get into heated discussions over rules and thus ending the "play" to the roleplaying game.
Frustrated with roleplaying, I went back to my apartment and, still new to the art making world, I bought some cheap poster board and acrylic paint and created the first two paintings you see above. I first drew the figures in pencil, then darkened my lines with a bold sharpie marker, and painted the figures up with the paints. For working with the cheapest materials possible, my imagination and concentration yielded some great results. I remember when I hung up the finished paintings in my room, my roleplaying buddies were quick to remark that "I was showing improvement" in my work. They didn't need to be so hypercritical, or so patronizing, but at age 19, and coming from a family who put me down and never supported me for choosing art as a career, I was willing to take ANY compliment as a sign of approval.
Looking back at these paintings, I can clearly see the comic book and roleplaying game influence on my style. But the world I sought to join, that of the science-fiction/fantasy gaming community, would continue to test my patience. Late summer 1991 would see me travelling to every sci-fi convention I could get to -- I bummed rides from friends, suffered endless bus rides, and even went to my first comic book convention in Chicago carrying a substantial load of paintings taller than my hieght (I'm five feet tall). I didn't know back then that I wouldn't have to carry so much, that I should've just took photographs, but I was so enthusiastic that my heavy, awkward load didn't matter. I was determined to get a job.
Gen-con 1991 (when it was still held in my hometown, Milwaukee) I discovered a new roleplaying game company that seemed to accept me: Whitewolf. They seemed as excited as I was about my artwork. There was an exchange of phone numbers. I met their staff. We had dinner. It was cozy, friendly, and everyone I met was anxious about their Vampire: The Masquerade game. A game that would later become incredibly popular and it would seem like my style of art would be made for (see the third painting for reference) . A game I almost got hired to illustrate (they really liked my witch with the bloody offering painting above). Except I made a big mistake: the group of gamers I went to the convention with, the boys I loved so dearly and would've done anything for, were arrogant sons-of-bitches and didn't get along with the art director. Maybe they were over protective of me. Whitewolf, in its infancy as a company, wasn't offering any pay for publishing art and yet I would not be able to own my art after it was published -- basically I would've been giving it away. This gaming company would later on be very popular and once they were making money, of course they finally offered to pay illustrators for their work. No matter, I wasn't bound to get my "break" with them and seven years later I'd further sour my chances to get into the company when I got into a fight with the same art director. But that's another story.
We want to talk more about Melusine and why she's made such an impact on me.
There's a lot of me in the figure of Melusine. I began to dream about fairies, especially about Melusine. I saw her as a very real, very tangible character. The more I learned about her, the more I felt like her.
Melusine wouldn't be the only fairy queen kind of character I would dream of. The summer of 1991 was one of those times of my life where the other world seemed to surround me. I was so open to everything new, I was even going out to the woods in the middle of the night hoping to spy me some real fairies. The last image is a close up of a very large ink and pastel crayon painting of a fairy queen named Jhana (GAH-nah). I still have the dream journal I kept during that year and Jhana was my primary "spirit guide" who, through riddle and poetry told me a lot about myself. In my painting of her, I can clearly see aspects of myself, as if this was more of a vision about who I was to become in the future.
I still want to wear the headdress she's got on. Isn't it gorgeous?
Well, no matter what my misadventures in the realm of roleplaying games and science-fiction, I still have the joy these characters bring -- that was never lost and remains safely guarded, stored in my loft, waiting to be rediscovered. Today I uncover them and share them here... images from a time when I was more innocent. Just look at the last two self-portraits. I appear child-like and medieval, not yet prepared or mature to emerge into the big world.
I like myself much better now and wouldn't go back in time to relive the past, but it is nice to appreciate where I'm coming from. I'm much closer now than I ever was to getting published. Good to peek back and pat myself on the back. It's time to go back to the drawing board and concentrate on the present again. There are exciting things to come... just wait and see.
I think, all these years, I've thought it was the text I used for a public speaking engagement back in Arizona. Before Cartoon Ranger came into being, anyway. Long time ago. So here it is, just as I found it, Colonials, (c) 1999? by yours truly.
~*~*~
The arrow came from over the ridge, striking him in the upper chest, and he fell. I ran to him, calling out for a knife, bandaging, anything!, to try to save him. He couldn't die! He couldn't!
Jake had been the leader as long as I could remember; as long as any of us could remember. He'd been thirteen years old when we'd landed here on Cirulus Prime. A colonial project from Earth, we'd flown in hyper, expending every resource just to get here and get away from the disaster of our Mother Planet.
"Jake," I called softly as I bent over him. He was sprawled on the earth, his hand clutched, but not quite touching the feathered shaft of the arrow. "C'mon, don't let them get you now! Not after we've survived so long." I bit my lip and probed the entrance of the arrow. It must have hit bone, I decided, since it hadn't gone in too deeply. The others with us knelt around us, holding their breath. Even the avians were silenced.
Jake stirred, his eyes flickering open to focus on my face. "Savannah? Is that you?"
I shook my head in feigned exasperation, hoping to keep him with us – with me – as long as possible. My curls got stuck on themselves and I had to push them out of my eyes. "No, it's her twin sister, now hush and let me get this thing out of your chest." I never had a twin sister, but it was an old joke between us. None of us had even seen a twin in real life; only on old vids.
He grimaced, his fingers unclenching enough to cover my own, so that blood smeared our skin. "Don't pull, okay? It'll hurt worse. You know what to do. You always have."
I snorted. "Sure, when I was three years old, I was your top advisor. Shut up and let me work," I insisted.
"Never could argue with you," he rasped, relaxing his face and shoulders. "Send someone after the archer," he whispered after a moment.
I cursed under my breath. Stupid of me. Impatiently, I pointed at Rick, and wordlessly told him to go. His dark eyes narrowed and he took off at a run, over the rise from which the deadly arrow had come.
"I didn't plan for our day to be like this," Jake informed me, his inevitable humor shining faintly in his voice. "I didn't, honest."
"Yeah, I know," I assured him, ripping my sleeves from my shirt to use as a bandage pad. "Actually, I hired the guy."
He laughed – a short sound followed immediately by an almost airless scream and then – then he passed out.
Tears streamed from my eyes onto the bandages I was fashioning. I blinked them away. I had an arrow to remove.
~ ~ ~
Landing Year
Jake didn't get it, at first. His dad got sick, but that was normal. All the adults got sick after Landing. The journey vids had warned them of that. Adjusting to a new world was harsh on the mature, adult biological systems.
Mom got sick, too. Well, sure. They all got sick. Jake and the other kids talked about it, making jokes at their parents' expense, around the night time campfires. It wasn't as if their parents wouldn't get better; of course they would. Why not enjoy this time while they could, right?
They wound up babysitting, though, which reeked. Big time. They'd drawn straws, and he was stuck watching three-year old Savannah, who came toddling out at that moment. No last names; the adults had decided to get rid of them when they'd landed. "No clannish ties," they'd said in their first official proclamation. "Marriage, yes, but families are judged by more than names here on our new world!"
Savannah was sucking her thumb and playing with her hair. It was long and red in the light of the fire, with thick curls that felt heavy to Jake. She took her thumb from her mouth. "Mama won't wake up."
"She's not feeling good," Jake reminded her. "We all have to be quiet and let them sleep."
"She's not hot, I checked," Savannah said. She hit Jake on the shoulder. "You check."
Jake pulled her onto his lap and pointed to all the other kids over the age of twelve who had babies and toddlers on their laps. "See? We're all waiting, Savannah. All of us. Don't worry. They'll get up in the morning."
She struggled – a strong girl, even at age three – and freed herself from the young man's arms. "Lemme go! Go see Mama!" Angry tears welled up in eyes that Jake knew were a dark chocolate brown. "Go see her now!" She hit him again.
"Fine," he said, sighing hugely. "Let's go. I'll show you."
Blaine, an infant boy in his arms, chuckled. "You haven't yet won with her, you know." From the vantage of having fifteen years to his credit, he had been nominated as unofficial leader for the younger set. He had a good hand with babies, though, and cradled Baby Rick in his lap very securely.
Jake tossed him a slanted smile. "You don't get arguments because you always make sure they're too young to argue with you."
The older children laughed, and then the little ones followed. They didn't understand the humor, but they laughed to be doing with the Big Kids did. Mimicry, Jake had learned, was an instinctive survival mechanism. The journey vids had told them that, before they'd gone into hyper.
"Go see Mama, now!" Savannah cried, her voice strident in the night air. "Now!"
"I'm going, I'm going," Jake said, trying to be soothing.
He took her by the hand and walked her to the geodesic dome that her family had set up for their dwelling. Twenty-by-twenty, in purely cubic terms, there was plenty of room for a small family and storage for their possessions and food. A low glow illuminated the partition...
Godzilla Raids Again
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gojira no Gyakushū (ゴジラの逆襲, Gojira no Gyakushū?, lit. "Godzilla's Counterattack"), also known in the United States as Gigantis, The Fire Monster, and on TV in the 1990s as Godzilla Raids Again, is a 1955, black and white, Japanese tokusatsu kaiju film produced by Toho Company Ltd. in 1955. It was a sequel to the previous year's successful Godzilla and became second in the long-running Godzilla series. It is the first film in the series (and in kaiju eiga) to feature a battle between two monsters. Raids Again features newcomer director Motoyoshi Oda but retained the special effects talent of Eiji Tsuburaya. The film never bore the onscreen title "Godzilla Raids Again", which appears to have been invented by Toho before the U.S. releasers decided to change the name. The U.S. title of the film, in 1959, was Gigantis the Fire Monster. The film suffered heavy editing in the United States, and its tragic hero Kobayashi, played by Minoru Chiaki in his only science fiction role, was dubbed as a bumbling oaf.
Plot
Two pilots named Tsukioka and Kobayashi are hunting for schools of fish for a tuna cannery company in Osaka. Kobayashi's plane malfunctions and is forced to land near Iwato Island, an uninhabited strip of rocks formed by volcanic eruptions. Tsukioka then looks for Kobayashi and finds him safe, with only a wrist sprain. While talking, the two men hear some strange sounds and find two monsters fighting. Tsukioka immediately recognizes one of the monsters to be Godzilla. The two monsters then fall off a cliff, into the ocean.
Tsukioka and Kobayashi report to the authorities in Osaka, and find out that the other creature Godzilla was fighting was called "Anguirus." A group of scientists with the two pilots researched Anguirus in a book written by a Polish scientist. Anguirus and Godzilla lived around the same time millions of years ago. Anguirus hated hostile creatures, which explains the intense rivalry between Anguirus and Godzilla.
Dr. Yamane, who experienced Godzilla's first attack, was also present at the meeting, and shows a film of Godzilla attacking Tokyo just one year before. He then explains that the Godzilla Tsukioka and Kobayashi saw is another Godzilla. Yamane states that there is no way to kill Godzilla, and that Dr. Serizawa, the inventor of the weapon used to kill the previous Godzilla, the Oxygen Destroyer, had died and burned the formula. Yamane, though, suggests that the military should use flares on Godzilla to attract the monster away from the shore. Godzilla becomes angry when he sees lights because the hydrogen bomb's bright explosion had awakened him.
One day unexpectedly, Godzilla shows up on the shore of Osaka. Jets are sent to shoot flares from their planes to lead Godzilla away from the shore. Godzilla sees the flames, and, as Yamane predicted, starts to walk away.
Meanwhile, a prison truck transports dangerous criminals to another part of the country. All of the criminals, using body language, decided that this would be a great opportunity to escape from prison. The prisoners beat up the two policemen guarding the back door of the truck, and run away. A few of them use a gasoline truck. The truck crashes into an industrial building and starts a massive fire.
The fire attracts Godzilla to the shore of Osaka again. A few minutes later, Anguirus swims to shore and attacks Godzilla. The two creatures fight an intense battle, while destroying several buildings, including the tuna cannery that Tsukioka and Kobayashi work for. Godzilla finally bites Anguirus's neck, and throws him on a moat near Osaka Castle. Godzilla then fires his atomic ray, and burns Anguirus to death.
Tsukioka and Kobayashi are transferred to a Hokkaido plant. During a company party, Tsukioka and Kobayashi are notified that Godzilla destroyed one of the company fishing boats. The military, and Tsukioka begin a massive search for Godzilla. Tsukioka spots Godzilla swimming to the shore of a small, icy island. He notifies the cannery, and Kobayashi takes off in his plane to switch shifts with Tsukioka.
Kobayashi dives his plane towards Godzilla to distract him from walking back into the ocean. Tsukioka then transferred to the air force, travels on a jet with an old college friend. They drop bombs on Godzilla but are unsuccessful. Godzilla then wades towards shore. Koboyashi dives towards Godzilla again but Godzilla fires his atomic ray on Kobayashi's plane. The plane then crashes on an icy mountain, killing Kobayashi.
Tsukioka grieves but then notices that the military can shoot missiles at the mountain, and bury Godzilla in an avalanche. The jets fire the missiles, and bury Godzilla in snow to his waist.
The jets return to base to reload, and Tsukioka is authorized to fly in his own jet. The jets return to the icy island, and shoot missiles at the mountain, burying Godzilla to his neck. Tsukioka then shoots his missiles burying Godzilla completely. Tsukioka looks to the sky, and says, "Kobayashi, we buried Godzilla for you."
Box Office
The film sold approximately 8,340,000 tickets in Japan. It is the third most-attended Godzilla film in Japan, even though the film was poorly received by fans and critics, and Godzilla would not re-appear until 1962 in King Kong vs. Godzilla.
U.S. release
A project called The Volcano Monsters was planned for 1957 after Henry Rybnick and Edward Barrison acquired the rights to Godzilla Raids Again. The film was to be altered and the monsters reduced to dinosaurs. In addition, all scenes with Japanese actors and Godzilla breathing fire were to be cut. Toho, however, was willing to peddle their films in the United States and sent the suits for Godzilla and Anguirus to be used in new footage. Ultimately, the modified film was never produced, and the monster suits disappeared.
In 1959 Warner Brothers theatrically released a heavily edited version of the film, under the title Gigantis the Fire Monster. For a long time, this change in name was thought to be because Warner did not have the rights to "Godzilla". However, Edward L. Schreibman, the producer of the American version, said that he changed Godzilla's name to "Gigantis" to give the audience the impression that they were seeing a new monster. He has since regretted that decision.
George Takei, better known as Lt. Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek series, was one of the many voice actors employed for this film. The only other Kaiju film he performed voice work for was in the movie, "Rodan."
Remastered
On November 7, 2006, Classic Media, after releasing both the Japanese and American version of Gojira in a 2-disc DVD two months previous, released both the Japanese and American versions of Godzilla Raids Again. Prior to this release, the film had been unavailable on North American home video since Video Treasures' VHS release in the early 1990s. A notable difference between the original Gigantis and the U.S. version featured on this DVD, is the fact the Gigantis title card has been replaced with a newer Godzilla Raids Again one, by request of Toho.
One edit is blocking the Hindu swastika to not be confused with nazism.
This article came from Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_Raids_Again
This is what I came up with:
Five or More Times
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by JD Salinger
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Four times
1984 by George Orwell
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
ULYSSES by James Joyce
Three Times
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickins
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
BELOVED by Toni Morrison
Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Native Son by Richard Wright
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen
Tess Of The D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
THE MAGUS by John Fowles
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
For those of you like myself who like to read Science/Speculative Fiction, here is another list I made:
5 or more times
Dune by Frank Herbert, 1966
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, 1986
Gateway by Frederik Pohl, 1978
Neuromancer by William Gibson, 1985
Four times
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, 1974
Ringworld by Larry Niven, 1971
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, 1960
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein, 1962
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, 1976
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1970
Timescape Written by Gregory Benford
Three times
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr., 1961
American Gods by Neil Gaiman, 2002
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, 1993 (tie)
Fahrenheit 451 Written by Ray Bradbury
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman, 1998
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Written by Douglas Adams
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, 1968
Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, 1963
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner, 1969
Startide Rising by David Brin, 1984
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester, 1953
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov, 1973
To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer, 1972
Two times
1984 by George Orwell
A Case of Conscience by James Blish, 1959
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge, 2000
Alice in Wonderland Written by Lewis Carroll
Boy's Life, Robert R. McCammon
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Cat’s Cradle Written by Kurt Vonnegut
Childhood's End Written by Arthur C. Clarke
Deathbird Stories Written by Harlan Ellison
Dhalgren Written by Samuel Delany
Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein, 1956
Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh, 1982
Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Dragonflight Written by Anne McCaffrey
Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre, 1979
Fairyland, Paul J. McAuley
Flowers for Algernon Written by Daniel Keyes
Gloriana, Michael Moorcock
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling, 2001
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
Hyperion by Dan Simmons, 1990
I Am Legend Written by Richard Matheson
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, 2005
Little, Big, John Crowley
Mission of Gravity Written by Hal Clement
More Than Human Written by Theodore Sturgeon
ON THE BEACH by Nevil Shute
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold, 2004
Perfume, Patrick Süskind
Red Mars Written by Kim Stanley Robinson
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash Written by Neal Stephenson
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, 1987
The Child Garden Geoff Ryman
The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1975
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke, 1980
THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein, 1967
The Postman Written by David Brin
The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge, 1981
The Stars My Destination Written by Alfred Bester
The Time Machine by HG Wells
The Time Ships, Stephen Baxter
The War of the Worlds by HG Wells
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak, 1964
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