text:
Yanks offense explodes again, down Tigers 9-5

Warren steals the show in action-packed night
With Pettitte out until Sept., a pitching problem

The games are always more fun when the offense comes alive. Last night’s game wasn’t perfect, but every time the Tigers even tried to make it interesting the offense came back and put it further out of reach. Chad Gaudin, in what is probably his last appearance for the Yankees, tried to make things interesting, but Robertson bailed him out. After the dust settled and the bullpen was emptied, the Yanks had secured their second win of the series.

Biggest Hit: Don’t give Teixeira a pitch like that…

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

…He might just crush it. Jeremy Bonderman didn’t look so hot at the start of this one. His first pitch caught Brett Gardner on the calf, though that might have been retaliation for Gardner’s slide on Monday night, which put Carlos Guillen in a bodybag on the DL. Bonderman then got Jeter to strike out swinging, though the two called strikes were pretty borderline and Jeter took a poor swing at ball two. That brought up Teixeira, who took two pitches that looked out of the zone, though the first was called a strike. I dunno, maybe that angered him or something.

Or maybe Bonderman just threw a horrible pitch. It was a changeup that didn’t get down far enough. Tex clobbered it, sending it into the second deck for his 27th home run of the year. That’s not a bad total for a guy who is hitting far below his normal level on the season. Robinson Cano wasted little time in extending the lead, hitting an inside fastball over the right field wall for his second home run in as many games. Offense? Game on.

Honorable Mention: Pena triples

If Ramiro Pena triples, chances are it’s going to feature prominently in the recap. It helps that it was the second-largest WPA swing of the game, giving the chances a 13 percent better chance of winning the game. That came in the fourth, after the Tigers, on the power of two Miguel Cabrera home runs, had cut the lead to 3-2. Pena came up with Austin Kearns on first base and hit the ball with precision. It landed and rolled in a way that prevented both Ryan Raburn and Austin Jackson from fielding it before it rolled to the wall. Combine that with them rightfully playing Pena shallow and it was an easy triple and RBI.

The very next batter, Brett Gardner, did something similar, splitting the center and left fielders for a double of his own. This is one reason I like the Yankees offense so much: precision and power. They can manufacture runs and they cudgel a team. Either way they score more runs than any other team in the league.

That Miguel Cabrera

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Thankfully, neither of Miguel Cabrera’s home runs hurt the Yankees tonight. Which is perfect. Before the season I did a FanGraphs podcast with Dave Cameron where we exchanged predictions. He had Josh Hamilton as AL MVP, I had Miguel Cabrera. His pick was more of a reach at the time, and he’s probably winning. I just thought Cabrera was going to have a monster comeback year, creating an excellent story following his drunken antics at the end of last season.

After his 2 for 3, two-homer night Cabrera sits at .340/.433/.644, which trails Hamilton only in BA. He also now leads the AL in RBI with 98; A-Rod has 97. In many years a .340 BA with 30 HR and 98 RBI might start a Triple Crown watch, but Cabrera is seven homers behind Jose Bautista and is 16 points behind in BA. He could still take the triple crown of, I dunno, RBI, walks, and OBP. In any case, it’s always nice to watch a player like that at work when he’s not causing your team to lose.

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Gaudin again brought into question why he’s on this team. Aceves could be back tomorrow. Roster move? I’m not sure, only because of the depth issue.

Could Ivan Nova, who had another excellent game in AAA, take Moseley’s next turn in the rotation? They’d line up.

Another game, another homer for Curtis Granderson. That’s three now since the Kansas City series. That’s now 9 for 26 (.346) with three walks (.414 OBP), two doubles, and three homers (.769 SLG).

Two more walks gives Cano 44 on the season. He’s already five up on his previous career high, and in 160 fewer PA. That puts him on pace for 58 walks, which would be more than his last two seasons combined.

Austin Kearns and Kerry Wood: good deadline pickups.

Graph and box

A couple of dents, sure, but man is that line moving in the right direction.

More at FanGraphs. And here’s the box score.

Up Next

Getaway day, which only happens when the Yanks are home. Phil Hughes could use a good start after the Yanks emptied the bullpen. He’ll face Rick Porcello at 1 tomorrow afternoon.

Warren steals the show in action-packed night
With Pettitte out until Sept., a pitching problem
  • pat

    At least Gaudin was courteous enough to drill Miggy in the ribs. That’ll learn em to hit so many home runs.

  • Pat D

    Why do we think this was the end for Gaudin already? Is Aceves ready now? I thought he’d need one more rehab appearance.

    • Pat D

      Oops, posted this before I read the whole story. Saw the tweet. I’m good now.

  • Total Dominication

    They one 9-5.

    • Mike

      /nit-pick’d yet again

    • Tom Zig

      Use the submit a tip feature on the right

      /nit-pick’d again

  • Carlosologist

    Gardner absolutely wrecked Guillen on a clean play. Same with Tex that one time in Anaheim.

    Anyway, Miguel Cabrera is good at baseball. Nine of his Comerica doubles and his one triple would be homers in the Bronx.

    • Pat D

      This is why the Red Sox have to trade for him. He would be a monster in Fenway Park. After they acquire Cabrera for a package that will equate to roughly $.30 on the dollar, they will turn their sites to landing both Adrian Gonzalez and Prince Fielder.

      • Pete

        I would love watching that team play defense

    • Tom Zig

      What’s that website where you can line that up

  • Pete

    Ah, yes, the ML affiliate

  • China Joe

    Not a bad start by Moseley, all things considered. If they’re gonna call up Ivan Nova, I’d actually prefer they sat Vazquez for a while, just to get his arm right. He’s not helping them much now and they need him going forward. Let Moseley give up his 4 runs in 5-or-6 innings.

    • Carlosologist

      I agree with this. DL Javy, call up Nova.

  • http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside the Elder

    I’m surprised that Eric Cooper’s utter inability to do what umpires are supposed to do (not make himself part of the story of the game) wasn’t part of your miscellany recap.

    • Pat D

      He had no comment, it’s all in his report.

    • Tank Foster

      What is the rule, if any, on warnings?

      If you issue a warning, must the warning be that pitchers will be ejected if there’s another beaning, no exceptions? Is that some sort of MLB rule?

      Can they issue a “qualified” warning?

      Is the umpire allowed to interpret beanings?

      Nobody wants to see players get hit in the head.

      But come on, this is a sport, a game. These are athletes. It’s supposed to be confrontational, edgy, even a little rough. Let the friggin’ pitchers throw at the batters. Punish the guys who go too far, but stop the nanny/school principal sh!t. If you don’t want to endure the risk of getting yourself really messed up by a beanball to the coconut, then don’t become a Major League Baseball player.

      In my job, I have to risk alot of things; I don’t go running around asking to be insulated from risk. Even big risk. Comes with the territory.

      • Tim

        The rule is that after a warning is issued, it is still in the umpire’s discretion for any subsequent HBP or close pitches as to the intent of the pitcher, and if the umpire believes intent, he can (and should) eject the pitcher and the manager. Umpires are not obligated to eject anyone after giving a warning if they deem that there was no intent (like if Moseley had choked on a curve ball and hit Jhonny Peralta in the butt or something – clearly no intent, pitcher should not be ejected). Of course, most umpires are idiots and therefore always assume intent (or that they are obligated to eject the pitcher after issuing a warning).

        That being said, it is hard to not see intent in either the Cabrera HBP or the Jeter throw-behind late in last night’s game, and both pitchers should have been ejected. In fact, by not ejecting Gaudin, Cooper perhaps led to the Jeter throw-behind as retaliation. Maybe Detroit doesn’t retaliate (for the retaliation of a retaliation of a clean, hard play) if Gaudin is tossed. What if Jeter had been hit by that pitch in the knee and seriously injured? That one would be on Cooper for losing control of the game.

  • http://thechuckknoblog.com ChuckKnoblog

    I am liking this whole hitting thing, it feels good to score runs. We win even when Mosley serves up big meatballs to Miggy.

  • Mike

    Good win..

    Linked removed per the RAB Commenting Guidelines.

    • whozat

      is that your own site you’re posting links to?

      • http://www.richardiurilli.com Richard Iurilli

        And did you really say that the Yankees were complacent and couldn’t put the Tigers away?

        “Avoid Complacency: This game had the feel of a blowout, but the Yankees just couldn’t seem to put the Tigers away. The Yanks scored six runs off of Tigers’ starter, Jeremy Bonderman, but were not able to just pour it on against the Tiger pen. Don’t let the Tigers stay around.”

        • Steve O.

          The Yankees clearly let the Tigers off the hook by not scoring 30 runs. They got complacent after they were only up four runs. Maybe, just maybe, the Yankees will show some heart and determination and win a game played the right way.

    • Steve O.
  • Hughesus Christo

    It’s cool that Kerry has become a fan favorite already, but I can’t help but assume he’ll implode in October. Prove me wrong, K.

    Any chance we re-sign?

    • http://youcantpredictbaseball.wordpress.com/ bexarama

      There’s a tiny chance but isn’t his option like $11M? Unless he’s Mariano Rivera, no thank you with that price tag. And he isn’t exactly the healthiest of pitchers.

      Though I agree – he’s been fantastic.

      • Steve O.

        Yes, he has an 11MM option that will surely be declined. I’d imagine he’ll close for a mid-tier team for more than we’ll offer.

      • Carlosologist

        The plan is to not exercise the option and let Wood hit FA. I wonder if the chance to play on a perennial contender for the first time ever would make him think about taking a paycut.

        • Steve O.

          I wonder if the chance to play on a perennial contender for the first time ever would make him think about taking a paycut.

          I thought about this, but I can’t see Cashman offering more than 1.5MM guaranteed. I can see a club hurting for a closer pony up 5-8MM, especially after Wood’s impressive playoff streak en route to his first World Series championship.

          • Wil Nieves #1 Fan

            Kerry Wood and his 1.00 ERA and 13 Ks in 9 IP has been absolutely terrible and unreliable. He makes me sick to my stomach.

            Kerry <3

    • http://www.twitter.com/brandonholley B-Rando

      Sadly, during the broadcast yesterday Paul O Neill and Michael Kay brought up a good point. When is the last time Kerry Wood has pitched in meaningful games? (Spoiler alert: not for a while). Yes injuries have completely plagued his career, but maybe the bright lights of New York in a pennant race are motivating him to flash his best stuff.

      Keep it up Kerry!

  • Salty Buggah

    Good game all-around. Can’t expect much more from Moseley, who’s been solid in every start. Also, I won’t blame him for the 2 Jesus Montero Sr. HRs. He’s just that good. More games like these please, especially when Tampa keeps winning.

    • jsbrendog (returns)

      the bat speed he had to turn on that first hr was crazy. ball was in on his hands and he just flicked it over the lf wall. he is so good.

  • JobaTheHeat62

    not sure how you guys felt, but the Kerry Wood strikeouts to end the 7th was awesome. I love when a pitcher gets pumped up after delivering in a big jam. good shit, don’t like that 11mm option, but I would be all for bringing him back next season. If Aceves replaces the joke that is Chad Gaudin, our bullpen is nasty. Hard to believe you CHOP a few guys and the bullpen becomes legit. get it?

    • jsbrendog (returns)

    • Klemy

      Hard to miss when you capitalize it. lol

  • Mariano’s Pimp Hand

    Back in April if someone had said that AJ and Javy were going to be a combined 18-19, Pettitte would miss more than a month and Jeter, Arod and Tex were all more than 30 points off their career averages would you have believed the Yanks would have a share of the AL East lead?

  • Wil Nieves #1 Fan

    This game had passion.

  • Wil Nieves #1 Fan

    Oh and also, yesterday’s HOPE week story was phenomenal.

  • jsbrendog (returns)

    dustin hoffman didnt pitch great but he put the team in a position to win again and has been everything you couldve hoped for from a 5th starter/fill in and maybe even a little more. keep on trucking dusty.

  • Rose

    Yanks offense explodes again, down Tigers 9-5

    “We’re better off without Arod”

    /Forgot Who Said It’d

    • Andrew


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John Byrne Archives - Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources

Celebrating ’75 Years’ of Batman and The Joker

batman 75Batman is celebrating his 75th birthday this year, which may come as a surprise. I mean, look at that smooth, handsome face, or what little of it is visible beneath his cowl. Look at those ripped muscles, or the way he runs across rooftops and beats up criminals — why, Batman doesn’t look a day over 35!

Now just as it did recently for Superman, DC Comics is releasing a pair of hefty, 400-page hardcover collections that serve as a sort of survey for how the character has been portrayed and functioned in the publisher’s comics line during since his first appearance. Batman: A Celebration of 75 Years and The Joker: A Celebration of 75 Years aren’t exactly the comics equivalents of greatest-hits albums, but they are nice starting points for newcomers and/or casual fans, offering quick, compelling overviews of the title characters through the decades.

The Batman volume, featuring Jim Lee’s rendition of the character from the 2003 storyline “Hush” on the dust jacket, must have been particularly challenging to assemble, given the thousands and thousands of pages of Batman comics, featuring dozens of different takes by scores of creators.

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Ming & Rachel explain the ‘Rachel & Miles X-Plain the X-Men’ pinup

Earlier this week many of us delighted at the reveal of Ming Doyle‘s homage to John Byrne’s classic X-Men #137 (Phoenix Must Die!). The commission was done for Rachel Edidin in anticipation of the first episode of Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Edidin’s new podcast with Miles Stokes that debuts this weekend.

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Best of 7 | The best in comics from the last seven days

Welcome to Best of 7, our new weekly wrap-up post here at Robot 6. Each Sunday we’ll talk about, as it says above, “The best in comics from the last seven days” — which could be anything from an exciting piece of news to a cool publisher’s announcement to an awesome comic that came out on Wednesday.

So without further ado, let’s get to it …

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Comic covers of ‘Future Past': homages to ‘Uncanny X-Men’ #141 [Updated]

The release of the time-travel arc “Days of Future Past” in 1980’s Uncanny X-Men #141-142 opened a broad door for comic stories of heroes from the future traveling to prevent the wrongs of their past — and our future. And artists have, time and time again, paid tribute to John Byrne and Terry Austin’s cover for Issue 141 showing a gray-haired Wolverine and an older Kitty Pryde — Kate Pryde, in this instance — with their back against a wall of wanted posters.

Here’s a look at the origin and some homages to that classic image from sources ranging from superhero titles to manga to webcomics.

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Grumpy Old Fan | In 1993, the Superman books made it ‘Reign’

Which one has the Toni perm?

Which one has the Toni perm?

Summer is officially over, so this is a little late, but I’ve been meaning to talk about a certain arc from the summer of 1993. It was the height of the speculator bubble, when everything came with cover enhancements, trading cards, unfortunate hairstyles and/or superfluous pouches.

For many DC Comics readers, 20 years ago was also the summer of “Reign of the Supermen!” That’s not necessarily enthusiasm — the exclamation point was part of the title, which in turn was inspired by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s early proto-supervillain story, “The Reign of the Superman.” The third (and by far the longest) chapter of the “Death of Superman” saga began with teasers at the back of Adventures of Superman #500, published around April 15,* and ended with Superman Vol. 2 #82, published around Aug. 26.** Those four and a half months may not seem like much, but they saw 20 issues of the four regular Superman books (including Action Comics and Superman: The Man of Steel) spread over 20 weeks. In fact, “Reign” was front-loaded, with all four titles marking the official start of the arc on April 29 or so, two weeks after Adventures #500. That meant there were some weeks without a new installment, and those were sometimes hard to take.

“Reign of the Supermen!” is not the greatest Superman story ever memorialized in print. On one level it is very much a product of its era. However, for the Superman books, that era was energized not just by the efforts of their creative teams, but by the overarching framework the books had developed. While “Reign” wasn’t the only big DC event of the summer — for one thing, the debut of DC’s imprint Milestone Media has much more historical significance — it’s a reminder of the ebbs and flows of serial superhero storytelling, and it remains instructive today.

Warning: This is a very long post, because I think there’s a lot of background to be explored.

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Grumpy Old Fan | Sustainable content farming

"...That name again is Super-Plow"

Sadly, this power set later caused the Legion to reject Plow King

I talked about it last week, but there’s a lot to unpack in the recent Williams-and-Blackman-leave-Batwoman imbroglio. Part of it is DC Comics’ apparent need to keep characters relatively unchanged, which these days includes being young and unmarried. Co-Publisher Dan DiDio has already explained this in terms of heroic sacrifice, so I suppose that’s as close as we may get to official company policy on the matter.

However, before DiDio made his comments, I was wondering whether DC didn’t want the non-costumed half of Batwoman’s main couple to remain single and uncomplicated. After all, Maggie Sawyer goes back further than Kate Kane, and has appeared in both the animated Superman series and in Smallville. Thus, a certain part of the TV-watching public probably associates Maggie Sawyer more with Superman than with Batwoman; and DC might not want to have her tied permanently to the Bat-office.

This, in turn, brings up the issue of DC as a “content farm,” providing material for future adaptations. Obviously the publisher has almost 80 years’ worth of characters and stories ready to provide inspiration. Indeed, over the decades, that inspiration has gone both ways. However, more recently it seems like the adaptations have been influencing the comics to a greater degree than the comics have been influencing the adaptations, and in the long run that’s not good for either side.

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Silicon Valley Shelf Porn from a Young Adult author

Welcome once again to the column we’re proud to call Shelf Porn, where fans share their collections for the world to see. Today’s collection comes from Kevin Sharp, an English teacher and author from Palo Alto, California. Kevin shows us his graphic novels, statues and some commissions from Steve Rude and John Byrne.

If you’d like to see your collection featured here on Shelf Porn, check out the submission instructions for complete details.

Take it away, Kevin …

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Grumpy Old Fan | Don’t blink! Sizing up the short runs

With the end of Geoff Johns’ tenure on Green Lantern and Grant Morrison’s upcoming farewell to Batman, a fan’s thoughts turn naturally to other extended runs. Marv Wolfman wrote almost every issue of New (Teen) Titans from the title’s 1980 preview through its final issue in 1995. Cary Bates wrote The Flash fairly steadily from May 1971’s Issue 206 through October 1985’s first farewell to Barry Allen (Issue 350). Gerry Conway was Justice League of America’s regular writer for over seven years, taking only a few breaks from February 1978’s Issue 151 through October 1986’s Issue 255.

However, in these days of shorter stays, I wanted to examine some of the runs that, despite their abbreviated nature, left lasting impressions. At first this might sound rather simple. After all, there are plenty of influential miniseries-within-series, like “Batman: Year One” or “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?,” where a special creative team comes in to tell a particular story. Instead, sometimes a series’ regular creative team will burn brightly, but just too quickly, leaving behind a longing for what might have been.

A good example of this is found in Detective Comics #469-76, written by Steve Englehart, penciled by Marshall Rogers and inked by Terry Austin (after Walt Simonson penciled and Al Milgrom inked issues 469-70). Reprinted in the out-of-print Batman: Strange Apparitions paperback, and more recently (sans Simonson/Milgrom) in the hardcover Legends of the Dark Knight: Marshall Rogers, these issues introduced Silver St. Cloud, Rupert Thorne, Dr. Phosphorus and the “Laughing Fish,” featured classic interpretations of Hugo Strange, the Penguin and the Joker, and revamped Deadshot into the high-tech assassin he remains today. Tying all these threads together is Bruce Wayne’s romance with Silver, which for my money is the Bat-books’ version of Casablanca. It’s the kind of much-discussed run that seems like it should have been longer. Indeed, I suspect it’s one of the shorter runs in CSBG’s Top 100 list.
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What Are You Reading? with Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder

Hello everyone, Happy Memorial Day weekend to America, and welcome one and all to What Are You Reading? This week we are joined by special guests Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder, the creative team behind Halloween Eve and the upcoming Rocket Girl. I spoke to them earlier this month about Rocket Girl, which surpassed its Kickstarter goal but you still have some time to get in on the action and rewards.

To see what Brandon, Amy and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.

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Cheat Sheet | From Phoenix Comicon to ‘Half Past Danger’

may20-cheat copy

Welcome to “Cheat Sheet,” ROBOT 6′s guide to the week ahead. While some of you will be taking full advantage of the three-day Memorial Day Weekend by enjoying a summer blockbuster, a barbecue or the first dip of the year in the outdoor pool, others will be heading to the Phoenix Convention Center for the 13th annual Phoenix Comicon.

But while everyone else is packing their bags, and stocking up on sunscreen, ROBOT 6’s contributors are busy spotlighting some of the best books going on sale Wednesday.

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Grumpy Old Fan | Filling out Wonder Woman’s backlist

"... And isn't it about time you reprinted this storyline?"

“… And isn’t it about time you reprinted this storyline?”

Last month DC Comics announced it had put together a new list of “essential” graphic novels and collections, designed to help casual readers and completists alike. This week I picked up a copy of the 121-page catalog (Issue 1, of course) along with my regular Wednesday haul.

Now, we all love lists, and this looks to be more comprehensive than the 30-item Jeph Loeb-heavy suggestions DC had previously offered.  Could the new DC Entertainment Essential Graphic Novels and Chronology 2013 actually represent the depth and breadth of DC’s vast publishing history, and at least try to give each major character the attention he or she deserved?

Well …

I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but judging from the two pages devoted to “Women of DC Comics,” the answer doesn’t look promising for said women. As Sue (of DC Women Kicking Ass) and Bleeding Cool have already pointed out, Green Arrow and the Flash both get two-page spreads (each, to be fair, split between a one-page portrait and a one-page checklist), while Wonder Woman has to share two pages with Batgirl, Batwoman, Catwoman and the Huntress. Although the DC Entertainment Essential Graphic Novels and Chronology 2013 could use more female-centric titles (no Power Girl, Manhunter, Stephanie Brown or Cass Cain Batgirl, or Stars and STRIPE, and not a lot of Supergirl), today it may be enough just to focus on Wonder Woman.

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Attacking ‘Mars Attacks IDW’

mars attacks idw coverIDW may be one of the Big Five publishers in the direct market — that is, one of the five publishers whose titles are listed separately from those of the hoi polloi in Diamond Comic Distributors’ Previews catalog. But unlike the Biggest Two, IDW’s line consists mainly of comics based on a variety of licensed  concepts*, and therefore do not  feature shared settings like the DC Universe or the Marvel Universe.

You’d think that would prohibit the company from doing the sorts of line-wide crossover stories that DC and Marvel have been pumping out with regularity, but IDW has found a pretty clever way to have its licensed comics cake and eat its intra-company crossovers as well, by dreaming up a fairly generic threat, and then having that threat appear in a bunch of unrelated comics whose characters never really meet.

Rather than all the characters teaming up to fight the same threat on the same battlefield at the same time, as in your Crisis on Infinite Earths or Civil War or whatnot, IDW’s crossovers are a bit more like individual battles in large-scale wars taking place in different dimensions.

So, for example, 2011’s Infestation crossover pitted zombies from the publisher’s Zombies Vs. Robots comics against characters from G.I. Joe, Transformers, The Ghostbusters and Star Trek, in two-issue miniseries set in different universes. That was followed by Infestation 2, in which Lovecraftian space-god-monster-things invaded the home universes of G.I. Joe, Transformers, Dungeons & Dragons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and 30 Days of Night.

More recently, IDW published a much smaller-scale, simpler crossover story of sorts in Mars Attacks …, in which the little green skull-faced men of the 1960s Topps collectible cards (and 1996 Tim Burton movie) “invaded” comics featuring a comically diverse group of licensed characters. For the more patient among us, it arrived in trade format this month, in a collection titled Mars Attacks IDW.

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Grumpy Old Fan | Jerry Ordway, Pandora and the future

This issue is in the Smithsonian

This issue is in the Smithsonian

In news that will surprise no one, I enthusiastically add my voice to the chorus advising comics companies to give Jerry Ordway work. Mr. Ordway represents, for better or worse, a particular style of superhero storytelling. His detailed, textured work is both realistic and stylized. He’s also become associated with a traditional approach to superheroes, mostly by drawing the Golden Age characters and their descendants. Similarly, his modern-day Superman and Marvel Family work gave those books a pretty “classic” look.

In fact, for a long while Jerry Ordway helped define Superman. He was an original contributor to the 1986 John Byrne-led revamp, penciling Adventures of Superman first for writer Marv Wolfman and then for Byrne. When Byrne left, he took over writing Adventures before moving over to the main Superman book. In one way or another, he was involved with the Superman titles from 1986 through 1993, when he started working on Captain Marvel in the Power of Shazam! graphic novel.

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A Galactus-sized collection of art, comics and more

Hello and welcome once again to Shelf Porn, where fans share their shelves and we show them off. Today’s collection comes from Bill Roberge, who show sus his originla art, comics, statues and more. “My collection is mainly Galactus figures/Art, John Byrne art (with some Jack Kirby) oh, and lots of graphic novels!” he said.

Check out his collection below, and scroll to the end to see how you can submit your own collection.

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What Are You Reading? with James Asmus

Welcome to What Are You Reading? Today’s special guest is writer and comedian James Asmus, who you know from Gambit, Thief of Thieves and the just-released The End Times of Bram & Ben.

To see what James and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …

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Browse the Robot 6 Archives

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

SEMA part four: the Blastolene Bros' ROCKIN' Odyssey

(above) owner and fabricator Randy Grubb and the Blastolene B702
at SEMA Show, Las Vegas, 2007
(above and below) an eyeopener, for sure, even among eyeopeners

(above) yrs truly (middle), reflected in Blastolene
(above and below) the V-12 GMC engine that beats within the B702

(above) an example of the size truck the V-12 engine powered
(above) the B702's engine was pulled from an airport rescue truck
(above) ready for install: 650 lbs of torque
(above and two below) fabrication by Randy at his Oregon shop

(above and below) the B702 was an unusual centerpiece
at Gordon McCall's annual high-rollin' Monterey Airport event

(above) sittin' pretty at The Quail event which followed
(above and two below) Blastolene's earlier Big Bertha, rockin' around the seacoast

(above) Bertha, powered by a Seagrave fire truck engine
(980 cu. in. OHV V-12, now fed by propane; she takes 25 quarts of oil)
The engine was build to sit running at a fire scene 24 hrs a day,
days on end, when needed.
(above and two below) Bertha, during fabrication

(above) what was Bertha originally, a 1941 Seagrave fire truck similar to this one;
note that the tractor's grill, hood, and cowl were retained.
(above and two below) The Blastolene Special, at Jay Leno's 'garage'

(above and below) The Special made its debut
at the 2002 Goodguys show in Pleasanton, CA

(above and below) The Special, during fabrication.
It started with a M47 Patton Tank V12 engine (1950-1955),
1800 cu. in, all aluminum, air cooled, overhead cam.
The engine alone cost the U.S. gov't $100,000 to produce in 1955.
She takes 17 gallons of oil, 1000 hp w. 1500 ft. lbs of torque

(above) Blastolene Bro. Rodney Rucker's Sneaky Pete,
which completed the 4,600 mile "Great Race" across America
(consuming $8,000 worth of gasoline);
you saw this in my earlier blogs from the Goodguys Pleasanton event
Once again I came across the Blastolene B702, this time outdoors at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. I introduced myself to owner and fabricator Randy Grubb, and later asked him to e-mail me some information about this very rock & roll sexy thang, which he was kind to do:
"The inspiration for the car comes from a lifetime of loving cars. My fellow Blastolene Bro. Michael Leeds and I studied, built, and hot rodded cars our whole lives. When we met ten years ago, we had so much in common. Michael is the designer of the three Blastolene cars I've built. The B702 is our 1930's euro-style roadster. We conceived it to be an elegant, refined french-curve car.
"This one was built in my one-man shop in Oregon. I have 6,000 hours in building this 20 ft. long and 2 in. shy of 8 ft. wide, approx. 4,800 lp car. Yes, the name comes from "B" as in Blastolene and "702" from the GMC V-12's 702 cu. in. The engine came out of an airport rescue truck that was rebuilt by the U.S. gov't in 1981, and has very low hours. I looked for a year to find this motor. It's solid sounding but not loud. It's got a nice V-12 smoothness but growls when you step on it. It made its debut at McCall's, then went to Quail, then Goodguys, and there it was at SEMA, where we met. Now it's gone to the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles before it's auctioned off at Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale, AZ in January."
As noted at (and paraphrased from) http://www.etrucker.com/apps/news/article.asp?id=43123, "Michael Leeds and Randy Grubb are remembered from one of the classic filmed episodes of the television show Monster Garage. They turned a 158-in. long Peterbilt truck chassis into a two-wheeled motorcycle patterned after the famous choppers Jesse James churns out at his West Coast Choppers shop. However, the two convinced James that a tricycle, or trike, would be more likely to hold the weight of the Cummins engine and still stand upright.
"Leeds and Grubb are successful artists in their own right, but their first biggest brush with notoriety initially came from a car they built called the Blastolene Special. That car started liife as a weapon of war--the V-12 engine came from a M47 Patton Tank--and was designed to attract the attention of one person, that being Jay Leno, car aficionado, collector, and talk show host.
""Randy had it in his mind: 'I'm going to sell this car to Jay Leno.'" Leeds remembers. Grubb did just that, after arranging a contact through Leno's chief mechanic. Leno was intrigued by the project and called Leeds' cell phone. The deal was eventually consummated, the car was delivered (note: see photos above), and that led to their appearance on Monster Garage."
You can read some very insightful writing about the Blastolene experience at http://www.blastolene.com/blastolene_story.htm. Here's one small excerpt (again, paraphrased) about their building the Blastolene Special, using the tank engine referenced above:
"The following week, I (Michael Leeds) received a phone call, it was Randy, "guess what I got??" came this smug voice over the line, "AN M47 PATTON TANK ENGINE!!" he screamed, talking so fast I could barely understand him. "It's so BITCHIN' you're not going to believe it." Actually, it was two engines procured from an ex-marine military vehicle collector in Coos Bay, OR who shortly after this transaction ran himself over with a half-track. These were extra engines that went to a tank that he'd sold and the new owner didn't want.
"Shortly thereafter, I was up at Randy's priming the two huge four-barrel carburetors. STAND BACK! The magnetos were out of time and we over-primed the motor. A gut-shaking roar and thirty-foot flames shot up into the cool calm of a Grants Pass twilight. The motor ran beautifully, and neighbors from a mile radius around showed up cringing and holding their ears. Randy stood there with the biggest ear-to-ear shit-eating grin I think I ever saw.
"We sat around Randy's garage late into the night brainstorming and sketching ideas of what his car might look like (using this great big engine). What we do is FUN, building in massive scale. It's about building hot rods, but out of ten-ton semi-truck parts and such. What we were doing was entering a whole new world, un-charted territory, creating a whole new category of street rods. It was on this night that the Blastolene Brotherhood was born. The idea was of a brotherhood of autonomous individual artists and craftsmen who would encourage each other's creativity. Our projects would embody an essence and spirit of free creative exchange, and help each other along the paths we would take."
For more in-depth information about the GMC 702 V-12 engine, I commend you to the discussion at http://www.6066gmcguy.org/TwinSix.htm. A sample: "this is the KING of GMC's gasoline engine family, the power-laden 702 "Twin-Six." It makes words like durability, performance, and operating economy take on a whole new meaning. It's true truck horsepower, giving tremendous torque at low r.p.m., and it takes on the biggest jobs with an easy-stroking effort. The V-12 digs into grades and requires far less gear shifting to keep in step." This goes on for many intriguing pages.
there are some cautionary words to be spoken about this particular powerplant, so Blastolene Bros. . . . beware: "The 702 V-12." noted one of the resident experts, "was a factory-built truck engine, actually built with a lot of V-6 parts. But the block, crankshaft, and camshaft were one-piece V-12 units, exclusive to the V-12, with four V-6 351 heads and exhaust manifolds. It had an odd distributor at the rear of the block with the dual points under a metal cover, and two 6-cylinder distributor heads, rotors, caps to fire all twelve cylinders. The downfall of the 702 V-12 was that loooooooong, spindly crankshaft. Most of these engines died from a broken crankshaft."
And one trucker completed the story with this reminiscence. "Yeah, I remember lying in bed at night as a kid, hearing the old Wilson Freight trucks leaving their terminal late at night. Wilson had a fleet of trucks with that motor. They had their own unique sound. I kind of miss hearing them."
But, all is not lost, good sir, just head on down to the Petersen, or Scottsdale in January for Barrett-Jackson, and there she'll be . . . the glorious 702 V-12, merely encased this time in a supremely well done grand illusion of ROCKIN' sensibility, thanks to the Blastolene Boys.

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text:
Guest Column: Concerns over proposed Ogle County jail

July 1, 1993

Guest Column: Concerns over proposed Ogle County jail

By Jerry Daws

There have been numerous concerns over the proposed location of a federal detention facility in Ogle County and the process that has been used to research the project.

As a result, some very good discussion has taken place. Unfortunately, some misinformation has been dispersed, as well. I would like to take this opportunity to clear up some of the misconceptions regarding what has taken place so far.

There has been some criticism that much of the work on this proposal has taken place behind closed doors. In fact, in the last year, there have been just six meetings that I or any other county board member attended with regard to this project: Each meeting was informational, only; at no time were any votes taken. None of these meetings was, in my view, an official meeting of the county board or one of its committees. (Often, there was just one or two county board members present.)

Regardless, I see now that we should have been more open and should have invited public participation earlier. For that, I accept full responsibility.

As to the suggestion that agreements have been reached, let me briefly explain. A non-binding agreement has been signed by the U.S. Marshals Office. Department of Immigration and Naturalization Service, Ogle County Sheriff Mel Messer and myself. That non-binding agreement states that the federal government will give Ogle County $9.1 million, and a yet-to-be-determined per diem IF the Ogle County Board agrees to build the facility. This document is merely an agreement to consider the project. It clearly states that either side may terminate the agreement at any time and for any reason.

Numerous banks have expressed interest in financing the project, should it become a reality. One of the banks requested an independent financial analysis. An auditing firm agreed to conduct the study for $140,000. It was determined that the proposal was too costlytherefore, county funding was not requested.

Various architects for the proposed project were considered. HDR Architectural Firm began supplying drawings for the proposed facility. HDR has not submitted bills nor been paid for drawings, and no contract has been signed.

To date, the only expenditures have been a $15,000 option to purchase land south of Oregon, should the project become a reality. The vote to take an option on the land was approved overwhelmingly by the Ogle County Board.

No one from the county board or from the Sheriffs Department has committed the taxpayers of Ogle County to anything other than the land option. Without a full vote by the county board to proceed, this project remains a mere proposal.

While I believe this project is in the best interests of the taxpayers in the long run, I remain open to the varying opinions being expressed in the community. I am also open to considering alternative locations should the Oregon site be determined unsuitable.

I am in the process of forming an INS Research Committee comprised of county board members and private citizens to further explore this proposal. I will ask three things of this committee: Determine if the INS facility would financially benefit the taxpayers of Ogle County; determine if the current proposed site is the best location; make written recommendations to the full board.

I will not argue that this project has been handled perfectly. I also will not argue that we have all the information we need. Indeed, we do notI am hoping the Research Committee will help get answers to some important questions.

I will say this: I believe the people of Ogle County can come to a consensus on this issue. As your county board chairman, I remain open to your views.

Jerry Daws is the chairman of the Ogle County Board.

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text:
Gov. Pat Quinn signs gay marriage bill into law

November 20, 2013

By Jim Hagerty
Staff Writer

Gov. Pat Quinn (D) made Illinois the 16th state to allow gay marriage Wednesday, Nov. 20, as he signed the legislation at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

After a 61-54 House vote Nov. 6, the measure was sent to the Senate for minor changes. From there, it made its way to Quinn, who had been urging lawmakers to legalize same-sex marriage for several years.

“We understand in our state that part of our unfinished business is to help other states in the United States of America achieve marriage equality,” Quinn said before signing the bill on the same desk President Abraham Lincoln used to write his 1861 inaugural address.

The legislation was sponsored by openly gay Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago. Harris was expected to bring it to the floor in May, but later announced he lacked support. That all changed after a massive lobbying campaign by both Republicans and Democrats.

“To treat all our citizens equally in the eyes of the law, we must change this,” Harris said in an earlier report. “Families have been kept apart.”

The law goes into effect June 1, 2014.

Illinois was slated to become the 15th state to recognize same-sex marriage until Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) signed the state’s bill into law Nov. 13. Other states that recognize gay marriage include California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, New York, Washington and the District of Columbia.

Posted Nov. 20, 2014

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My name is Oleg Kozhushnyan and I'm a software engineer at heart. My core interests lie in graphics, optimization and systems programming. Coincidentally these are very useful in game(engine) development :). I've been programming since middle school and have no desire to stop any time soon. If you have an interesting project and are in need of some programming muscle, contact me at the email below and perhaps we can collaborate!

Things I am currently working on:

Legend of the Knightwasher [external] [3/21/2015] - A tactical, Medieval, adventure in the world of washing machines.

Kuiper 2 [external] [7/10/2014] - Sequel to Kuiper with improved graphics, more gameplay and a compelling story line!

Things that I've worked on:

Ludum Dare 32: Mein Sheep [external] - An entry, by Detocroix and I, to Ludum Dare 32 Jam with the topic "An Unconventional Weapon." You take the role of an experimenter working on a method to use sheep as weapons. Your only ability in the game is to fire two darts: a relaxation(blue) dart that slows sheep down and a rage(red) dart that angers the sheep and makes them attack others. You have to complete daily goals which involve eliminating different groups of sheep from the flock. To succeed you need to have good aim, a strategy, and just a bit of luck.

Infinite Maze [external] - A game where your goal is to solve mazes as quickly as possible while collecting treasure. It is currently stuck at the prototype stage.

Tetrahedron Engine - I wrote a library that abstracts some system details in order to make it easier to write cross platform games. Right now it abstracts the graphics and the filesystem and provides a bunch of useful utilities including a content management system. The library supports Windows, Linux, Android and iOS so far with OS X support coming soon. It's currently used by Modulator, Infinite Maze and Kuiper along with a few other unreleased projects. (Screenshots inside! :D)

Kuiper [3/25/2014] - An action arcade game that is a mix of Asteroids and Snake. It uses the Tetrahedron engine and is available on Android and iOS. This project was done in collaboration with Matthew Weekes.

Miscellaneous Projects - I've worked on many things over the years. Some get left behind while others are small and don't justify a page of their own. This is where quite a few of those things go. (There are videos and screenshots inside!)

Bloaty Fish [external] [2/17/2014] - After hearing about Flappy Bird I was inspired to create my own interpretation. The goal is exactly the same, get through as many gates as you can, but the physics are upside down. You are a fish that constantly floats upwards and tapping forces you to dive. This game(written in Java) and all the art were completed over the course of a couple of days. I used this as a chance to check out AdMob and Google Play game services.

Modulator [external] - Puzzle game based on modular arithmetic. My wife designed the gameplay and I wrote it up. Currently it runs on Android and Windows. The Windows version can be downloaded here.

mmgorogue [external] - A multiplayer game inspired by the Rogue genre. I wouldn't say that it is a roguelike just yet as the only thing it has in common is the ASCII graphics. The most recent development version was running at until 10/10/2014.

Cloudberry Kingdom Vita, Linux and Mac [external] - The Vita, Linux and Mac ports of the smash procedural platforming hit, Cloudberry Kingdom!

Cloudberry Kingdom WiiU and PS3 [external] - At Pwnee I ported Cloudberry Kingdom from C# to C++ and developed a set of core libraries that allowed the code to remain nearly identical between all the platforms.

Shader Tool - A shader tool that allows you to live code graphical effects. It was written in a few days in 2011.

Rabbit's Revenge - Inspired by Rodent's Revenge my friend did the art and the design for this game while I handled the programming. This happened over the course of a month in 2010.

FPGABoy [external] - An FPGA implementation of a Nintendo Game Boy written in 2009 as a final project for MIT's 6.111 (Introductory Digital Systems Laboratory) course with my friend Trevor Rundell. We played a ROM image of the original Tetris cart on it! Other games that we tested usually had glitches since our implementation lacked some of the advanced system features.


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Romine, Pettitte lead Thunder to win
Lefty allows two runs over five frames, catcher plays hero
09/14/2010 11:40 PM ET
Andy Pettitte throws against Altoona in his second rehab start.
Andy Pettitte throws against Altoona in his second rehab start. (Jim McGregor/
Andy Pettitte is done with his Minor League rehab, no doubt welcome news for the Altoona Curve.

Austin Romine hit a go-ahead RBI single and Pettitte pitched five strong innings in a rehab start as Double-A Trenton beat Altoona, 3-2, in 10 innings in Game 1 of the Eastern League Championship Series on Tuesday at Blair County Stadium.

Pettitte, the Yankees' All-Star working his way back from a groin strain, allowed two runs on six hits in his second Minor League start for the Thunder. He struck out four and walked one.

Romine, one of the Yankees' top catching prospects, came through in the 10th when he singled home Austin Krum with two outs for the go-ahead run.

"I was glad I pitched well enough for Trenton to have a possibility of pulling the game out," Pettitte told

Pettitte didn't factor into the decision, but was the storyline heading into the series. He got off to a rough start, though, when Altoona second baseman Chase d'Arnaud began the game with a leadoff homer. The Curve tagged Pettitte for another run in the third on a pair of hits, a wild pitch and a passed ball.

The 38-year-old, who faced 22 batters, finished strong and said he's ready to return to New York.

"I felt good after throwing 67 pitches (49 strikes) and 10 more in the bullpen," Pettitte said. "I was able to get my pitch count up and I'm ready to start in Baltimore Sunday."

Pettitte pitched out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fifth. The Curve's Yung Chi Chen reached on a fielding error by Trenton's Justin Snyder, followed by d'Arnaud's single to left and Josh Harrison's bunt single.

The five-time World Series champion left-hander induced Jordy Mercer to ground into a double play before striking out Matt Hague.

"It was good to get into some trouble, then be able to get out of it," said Pettitte. "It doesn't matter what level it was at. You face those kinds of situations all the time."

Former Yankees first-round pick Andrew Brackman (1-0) shined in Pettitte's shadow, holding Altoona to one hit over five frames for the win. He struck out four and walked one.

"I didn't think my mechanics were as sharp early," Pettitte said. "The home run was a result of a cutter I left up. When you do that, at any level, that's what happens. I was ahead in the count and didn't bury it. After that, I thought I picked it up pretty good."

Trenton's Dan Brewer singled home Matt Cusick in the third to tie the game up. Altoona retook the lead in the bottom of the frame when Harrison singled home Chen with one out. Austin Krum's RBI double in the fifth for Trenton retied the game.

Curve starter Rudy Owens bounced back from a rough semifinals start, holding Trenton to a pair of runs on seven hits and two walks over five innings. Bryan Morris (0-1) allowed the go-ahead run in the 10th for the loss.

Danny Wild is an editor for This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs. Comments
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text:
Inazuma Eleven!
Inazuma Eleven!
Founded Aug 22, 2011
9 members

Inazuma Eleven!

Hello and welcome to the Inazuma Eleven group! For those of you totally lost, Inazuma Eleven was originally a game developed and published by Level-5 (Yes, the creators of the amazing Professor Layton series) in 2008! Since then, there have been two sequels on the DS and a spin-off game for the Wii.

There's also an anime for it, complete with 127 episodes in the original series, and Inazuma Eleven GO, which takes place 10 years after the original series. All current subbed episodes can be found here if you're interested!

Also, sometime after we take over the world hopefully get more members, we'll try and host fun events and contests and other cool stuff!

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+ Raicool
Holy Emperor-- I mean, Captain
+ Poffincool
Commander 8^)
+ Xetajaadm
U.S.F.B.-G.G.-D. Coach
+ Creamsiclecool
Team Manager

July 25, 2012 at 2:26pm

Ahem. The title says it all. The utterly-stunning-fabulously-beautiful coach has been keeping this place nice and updating it whereas I suck and don't do very much at all. OTL

That aside, as I said, there are things to be done, so we had better get started.

FIRSTLY, if you're participating in the Inazuma Chorus for the singing of Mata Kisetsu, you should check the discussion board for the Inazuma Chorus. I've pinned it and updated it a little, and hopefully I'll keep updating it as we go. Hopefully. I make no promises, but we'll see. I don't think I can really sing atm but I'll practice when there's no one around. :U The Commander is completely unwilling to sing in the presence of my relatives so I suppose we'll have to wait until we get back home to the rainy north before we can really start recording.
Also, I guess I'll just post the lyrics Xeta sent me last night so you kids can go practice it if you'd like?'s difficult to load Skype history on an itouch. Or do anything involving typing and whatnot, really. But oh well. :I Also, um. Could someone tell me the code for the hide/show thingamajig? The lyrics are kinda long.
<Well, Holy Emperor, sir, did you ever try [hide][/hide]? It seems pretty straightforward.>

Anyways, secondly...

...Actually, I'm not sure that I had anything else to say in the first place. But I suppose if you haven't already, you could make a fan character and join us ('us' almost certainly meaning Xeta and I orz orz) in doing silly things and having strange dreams..? e__e It's up to you to decide if you really want to do that, lolol.

And that is all I have to say for now! I get to spend some quality time with my homework now, so I will update this if I think of anything else I need to mention. Yay.

Some Things to Update May 5, 2012 at 8:59pm Completely Irrelevant, but Relevant to Your Interest March 13, 2012 at 12:14pm Belated News, but News Nonetheless December 5, 2011 at 9:24pm Join the soccer club! щ(ﾟДﾟщ) DO ITTTTT August 22, 2011 at 6:38pm

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text:
Margaret Daly, and “Fun with Cats!”

By guest blogger Margaret Daley

We have three cats in our home that found us over the years. Each one is unique and different from the others.  My male, Ringo, rules the house and tries to keep the two females in line. He doesn’t always succeed. Peppers is my neurotic cat but is so loving. Her favorite place is to wrap herself around my neck, which can make it difficult to write at the computer. My third cat is the one that has made me laugh more than any animal I’ve had. She is so curious and gets herself into trouble. Once she snooped inside a plastic bag and got it caught around her. She ran through the house scared as though something was chasing her. I still laugh when I think back to that. She is also the one that growls when she hears someone coming to the house. She thinks she is a dog. I often know when someone is coming before they ring the doorbell because she growls–then goes and hides.

One picture is Peppers being Catzilla through my Christmas village. The other picture is Ringo in his usual position.

What are some funny things your pet does?

Saving Hope by Margaret Daley is out this month from Abingdon Press. It is the first in The Men of the Texas Rangers Series.

When a teenager goes missing from the Beacon of Hope School, Texas Ranger Wyatt Sheridan and school director Kate Winslow are forced into a dangerous struggle against a human trafficking organization. But the battle brings dire consequences as Wyatt’s daughter is terrorized and Kate is kidnapped.

Now it’s personal, and Wyatt finds both his faith and investigative skills challenged as he fights to discover the mastermind behind the ring before evil destroys everyone he loves.

Thanks so much for visiting the All Creatures Great and Small blog, Margaret! What a stunning cover for your new book.  I can’t wait to read it!  Let us know where it is available, so we can find a copy!

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5 Responses to Margaret Daly, and “Fun with Cats!”

  1. Krysti says:

    Waving hi, Roxanne and Margaret! I love your cat photos! Cats can be so funny, can’t they? We have two. Shelah-the-holy-terror and Bootsie, who’s getting to be quite elderly, but is experiencing a second childhood thanks to Shelah’s efforts to make him young again. She goes on the attack, and if he doesn’t stand up to her, she runs right over him and rolls him over and over. Aside from defending his dignity, Bootsie’s second childhood consists of him forgetting his earlier training regarding staying off the kitchen table. (Bad kitty!)

    Shelah loves my floor-length white cotton curtains! She attacks them and plays hide and seek in them, and TALKS to them…It’s a hoot! Bootsie is my little love-bug. He comes and curls up on my footrest (draped over my ankles) most days, and also comes and cuddles with me, sometimes on my lap.

    Yesterday, I found him sleeping on the bed, and the covers mussed. I went to straighten them out, and discovered that Shelah had burrowed under the comforter and was napping in the sheets! She was NOT happy with me for messing with her little nest! Silly cat.

    Just about anytime I leave them down here alone, when I return, they’ll be sitting at the french doors waiting for me. Anytime they think it will bring me back faster, one or the other will engage in the most heartrending performance of “Sad, SAD Lonely Kitty; Mama Please Come HOME!” that you’ve ever heard! (They take turns at this, and it keeps us all in stitches, though I try not to encourage it). Mostly when I’m here, though, they both ignore me.

  2. Krysti, I love your stories about your cats. They are so fun and funny. Each one is different with bad and good traits–at least mine.

  3. Jennifer Tipton says:

    Hi Margaret! Love the pictures you have of your cats! Very funny! I like your stories too, Krysti. I’ve always grew up with cats around. Right now I have two female cats; one orange cat named Punkin and one gray cat named Sprinkles. Punkin is whom I call wacky cat because she’ll get to running around in the kitchen, is always in the bathroom playing in the sink whenever you’re trying to get ready in the morning and likes to sleep in her cat carrier. Sprinkles is our odd kitty; she sleeps on our direct tv box all the time, kitty treats are her life and she squeaks instead of meows. I love them dearly. Jenny

  4. Jane Squires says:

    Love it – your white cat is as big as my Bathsheba which is like your cat Pepper that is sitting in Christmas Village. My cat Precious who is all gray sits in my Christmas village. Sugar is my curious cat and we actually went through the paper bag thing with her just like you did.
    I love your books. May God continue to annoint you and use you in your writing. Please enter me.

  5. I love hearing from all these cat lovers.


text:
Wednesday, October 22, 2008

omg i fucking love love love love this girl. i especially love her since she's signed to the elmer olsen agency. the agency that discovered daria werbowy, jessica stam, alana zimmer, sofi berelidze, taryn davidson, kori richardson, and amanda laine to name a few. and also the agency that i intern for once a week and filled with some of the nicest people in the planet. when i went there for my interview they lead me to the wall filled with comp cards of all the models and they asked me to pick the girls that i liked. i didn't bother picking the big girls because they're obvious choices so i picked the ones i wasn't familiar with and it just so happened that elise was one of them. i love red heads, they're instant crushes. anyways she's since been signed to viva in paris and for her first round of the paris shows she walked for margiela, ann demeulemeester, veronique branquinho, a.f. vandervost, tara jarmon, sonia rykiel and issey miyake. i really really hope this girl blows hella up. but if all the talks about the industry looking for classic beauties in these dark economic times, which explains why new girls like sigrid agren are doing extremely well, then this red head is going to be massive.

AM said...

Hey, I'm enjoying your blog (and Elise-- I like her as a red head but I bet she could do an Evangelista and handle all sorts of colors)! I added you to my blogroll, and I thank you for adding me! One stupid thing: would you mind listing me simply as Comb? I'm just trying to keep the name consistent in all links. (:

roybot said...

thanks a lot comb. i'll fix your name on my list right now.

mond said...

something about the length of her face makes me think 90s, or cindy crawford


text:
Friday, April 25

Whirl Wind Trip

Yesterday at 4:30 I popped out of bed in a flush of excitement all hyped up for the trip to  Paducah for the 30th AQS quilt show. I met my friend Pam at 6:00 and we were off! It's about a 2.5 hour drive from Nashville (of course we had to stop and eat/stretch etc.) and we were there a bit before 10 and standing in line to get it. As always the quilt show is inspiring. To see all those amazing quilts is somewhat mind blowing. I stand before them wondering just how many hours went into these great creations.

The show seemed more crowed than I've seen before so we had to do the quilt show shuffle the whole time - baby step - "Oh excuse me" - baby step. I didn't take my camera so please excuse my phone photo quality. But here are a few of the ones that really made me smile. I'll start with my favorite.

This is all thread painting. The front of the blocks were white with all the "drawing" done with thread. The back blocks were black fabric painted with thread. Just amazing!

The moderns I really liked.

Art Quilts

I did purchase a few items at the show and will share those
with you on my next post.
For now - may your bobbin always be full.

Gene Black said...

B J Elder said...

Amazing quilts. So glad you were able to go see them in person! The first one had to have taken many many many hours. It is fabulous!


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An Incomplete History of Oerth – Part 1

Now that I’ve read through every OD&D product, and taken copious notes, a basic outline of the history of my campaign world-to-be is emerging. Certainly none of this stuff was ever intended to fit together, and a good portion of it is conjecture on my part. But all of it has some basis in the official rulebooks and magazines, and I’ll try to explain how I came to …

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An Incomplete History of Oerth – Part 1

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Role-playing Games Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for gamemasters and players of tabletop, paper-and-pencil role-playing games. It's 100% free, no registration required.

I'm a Dungeon Master in D&D 4e. We've played since the first adventure. Now my players are level 21 and plots are very deep. A character started with a Vriloka paladin, his father killed his mother and our paladin drank her blood to become a Vriloka. Now he seeks vengeance against all undead.

He found the sword Nightbringer, an evil artifact that want to depose Orcus (he doesn't know it wants to become the new Orcus) so now we have a good paladin with a bad sword and he is in constant trouble: to make good, and living together with the sword and his plans.

The paladin is falling to the dark side.

Now I want to give him the "suggestion" made by Nightbringer to create his own army... of undead. 8) I want to see his reaction (and the reaction of the sword) but I need something to create those undead - a ritual, a power; something that a paladin, multiclass vampire can use to gather an undead army from fallen enemies.

Can you help me?

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Hi, and welcome to the site! I've edited your email address out of your question - answers on this site take place in public and not private, and for good reason. Of course, once you have enough rep, you can come join us in chat to discuss anything RPG-related that wouldn't fit in Q&A. Take a look at the about page to get a feel for how this system works; and help if that doesn't answer all your questions. –  doppelgreener Jul 24 '13 at 12:47
Why not just have the sword lead him to an army of undead, either one that's been waiting or that's susceptible to its control? –  okeefe Jul 24 '13 at 14:36

5 Answers 5

Do it with skill checks and keep it out of combat, there is no combat mechanic for controlling an army because 4e is dependent heavily on the action economy that would break hard by giving a PC multiple undead allies with their own actions.

Basically, the tactical combat play in 4e is reliant on balance, and what your proposing will break the balance, hard.

However, let's talk about the skill check option here. What your opening up is the potential for a couple of sessions of largely narrative play. It will primarily involve skill checks and challenges and is a huge opportunity for your players to embrace the role playing aspects that 4e does actually do quite well.

However, for this, you're going to have to throw the combat aspects of the rule book out the window and go with your imagination and story telling aspects. There are explicit not rules for this (intentionally so), instead there is the skill system, which you can use to support the narrative play that is called for here. So develop some skill challenges that fit and have a good idea of a couple of different plot threads that you could take and then see where your players and rolls take you.

If you want the actual mechanical guts of this: the sword provides the location of the ritual (make it up) and a short skill challenge with religion checks (easy DCs) should get him a decent army depending on his checks, after that, what he does with it should be a series of narrative cut scenes, your end goal should be to advance the character, but if you want to continue the game as a traditional 4e exercise you've got to get him back to just being him.

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I'm sure you have something specific in mind that resolves the paradox, but you refer to "the role playing aspects that 4e does actually do quite well" and then say "you're going to have to throw the rule book out the window [...] There are not rules for this" – how does 4e "do this well" if it doesn't do it at all and the DM is left to figure it out himself? –  KRyan Jul 24 '13 at 13:17
@KRyan let me see if I can clarify this a bit. My vision isn't quite throwing the book out, just the book how it's typically used. The combat aspects must fade away and the skill system must take over. –  wax eagle Jul 24 '13 at 13:20
@Kryan in the great gamist vs. simulationist design debate 4e it does it well from a gamist perspective because it leaves it up to DM discretion and this sort of thing would be handled by skill checks vs. a set mechanical sub-system. –  Joshua Aslan Smith Jul 24 '13 at 13:20
@mastermicio What I'm saying is that there isn't one because it breaks the game design :). Action economy is god in this game, note how wizards' summons work. closest thing I can offer is a L20 daily power from the Enigmatic Mage PP. This gives you a daily that summons 5 undead minions, they still don't break action economy though. You can keep them all day though, which is kind of cool. –  wax eagle Jul 24 '13 at 13:46
@mastermicio in that case, just write whatever you need into your adventure. 4e gives DMs huge latitude by staying rules light with narrative stuff. The fact that there really aren't rules governing this is by design. So it's up to you, the player and your collective creatitivies :) –  wax eagle Jul 24 '13 at 14:05

I like this story line, so let's see what we can do:

The first decision is how you want the undead army to potentially behave. Do you want them to be able to carry (some) of their undead army into combat with them? If so then I suggest "Nulathoe's Undead Army" as suggested in this answer: How can a character create a skeleton (or any other undead)

There are also some other existing spells/abilities that fit this general purpose: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-269010.html (Wizard, Invoker, Mage, Nethermancer abilities) There's also the item "The Girdle of Skulls", a waist-slot item that is said to summon undead for the wearer to command.

In general, the Nulathoe's Undead Army seems to be the most interesting, as written it gives 5 undead in a balanced way - you have to use a minor action to give just one a movement, but if one attacks then all the others will attack automatically if in range.

Of course, this is not usable by a Paladin directly as a skill. RAW, Paladins don't do this kind of thing, Mages/Wizards (Necromancers) do, so I suggest using these items/spells as a guideline/suggestion; you'll likely have to roll your own item or permit some special skill/feat of your own design if you want to go that direct route.

Build vs Acquire

Sure, you can build an army, but you could also just steal one someone else went to the trouble of building.

To build, you might be using artifacts/scrolls/rituals to build up a cache of servants, or it could be as simple as a single relic or even alteration of the Nightbringer itself that permits something like Undead Army to be used; ostensibly the army is to serve your paladin, but perhaps Nightbringer needs a Plan B if his servant doesn't stay dark enough for its tastes?

If you go the item path, I suggest a "down side" - perhaps a relic that can do the job, but it needs something to fuel it, perhaps something that pushes your player's willingness to truly have his own army? Fueled by the agony of innocents, or screams of terror, tears of virgin priestesses, or just good old fashioned blood rituals that will have to attain a ghastly level of volume to build a suitable army. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and nobody goes straight into being a sadistic monster - give him a little power, but make each additional act of army building test his desire. He can choose to give up the potential power, or be lured into a never-ending path straight into the heart of darkness. Maybe he changes his mind at some point? Lots of possibilities!

Mechanically, each encounter could be standard encounters/battles/RP scenarios, something you could potentially work into a regular crawl (hold on guys, don't finish off that wizard just yet, I need a little something before he dies...or hey, why free that prisoner to probably just get killed on the way out of here, when their life could serve a grander purpose?).

If that doesn't suit your fancy, you can follow the lessons of army-builders throughout history - just steal it! Perhaps a depraved would-be-conqueror was buried along with his army and you need to destroy his source of power to disable the threat, or he could find a way to get the army to follow him as their new true master (undead are generally dumb, so maybe that's not so hard - maybe its harder than it looks). The common tropes are amulets, stave with some special insert, book/tome, secret words/incantations, etc.

Perhaps you can do it piecemeal, representing the army building as individual domination of "undead captains", and each one seeks to be spared of eternal damnation by joining "the cause"?

With each option you can decide to let things go badly, like a captain who can't be convinced and must be killed, or a ritual that fails and leaves him or the party beset by demons or zombies, or a dark intent being revealed by a prisoner who escapes the torture of his dark machinations. Relics can break, lies can be told that cause an undesired outcome if believed (Nightbringer I'm sure would be happy to throw in some bad advice or self-serving 'help'), and there can be consequences that force reconsideration.

If there is a (set?) of dark relics that give command of an army, people are going to want to take it for themselves, and perhaps to send a message and avoid constant harassment the time comes for the paladin to make a grim, excessive example of what happens when they get in his way. Perhaps it all becomes too much, the cost is too great, and he wants to destroy this evil before its too late.

Maybe the army is too much, and he risks madness, delusions, domination, or releasing an evil far greater than anticipated. Or maybe the cost of maintaining the grim magic outstrips his urge to build his army, and he must chose to commit a growing atrocity or face losing control completely.

The other thing you must consider is the implications to your normal play. If he really does go full dark side and gets even a small army, is there any RP-reason he can't send them off willy-nilly to invade a dungeon? Nulathoe's UA provides a relatively balanced mechanic of trading a powerful spell (healing surge) to cast, 1 HP undead allies, and the action restrictions. If you go that route, make him pay something similar, perhaps from a Paladin ability equally useful to healing surge to power it.

Its reasonable that, not being a super Archlich himself, his ability to usefully manage undead is limited, and so he could even potentially have an army of thousands of lumbering undead, but anything more than "lumber that direction and eat anything that gets in your way!" could be just too much, and is thus utterly unsuitable for smaller scale encounters.

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As long as the player is alright with the fact that these minions will never be directly involved in a fight (Action economy problems etc) but will be useful (say, 100 of them is needed to keep the big bad's army off the party while they deal with the BB himself) then here is my suggestion-

The sword can raise the dead. Or, perhaps, the sword can raise the dead once the Gem Of Dark And Spooky Night is slotted into its hilt, if you want a dungeon crawl out of it. However, it can only raise the recently dead- within a few days. It can also only raise humanoids* that it has slain itself.

Now, give a pressure to have more of these guys. While they aren't directly all partaking in battle (due to balance concerns) there should be a solid mechanical reason to have more of them. Say, for every one you have, the bad guys have one less minion in a fight, as those minions are busy fending off the zeds. Though enough zombies and you'd have to rebalance those fights... Or, you're protecting a village from hordes who attack around the clock. You lot kill the bad guys while you're awake, but eventually you needs sleep- and the more minions you have, the fewer enemies get through and the fewer villagers wake up with their throats slit. Point is, give a solid, good reason that more undead minions is better.

Now, bait the trap. Your paladin already wants to kill more foes, because then he gets more XP and more loot, but now he wants to kill them himself, because that means more undead minions. What if the foe surrenders? That's a win for XP and loot, but not minions- does he kill them anyway? He sees a criminal attempt to mug someone in town- if he can give them the death sentence, then their body could be used to protect others. The sword, by the way, is strongly encouraging this behavior.

If the undead minions are not directly participating in combat or other mechanical situations, then their creation and presence does not need to be mechanically accounted for. Though I would make sure the other players are having narritively a similar amount of control of the story.

*By humanoids, I mean creatures which have a moral standing in your world. If goblins are monsters to be mown down by all who are good and righteous, then they don't count. If goblins live in town, and one runs the inn, then they do. You'll see why in a minute.

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You could use this as a jumping off point for a quest. I would say the best way to raise an army of the undead would be an artifact (necronomicon anybody?). An artifact such as this would probably need to be tracked down. It could be securely locked in a vault by an order of paladins to prevent it's power from being used, or perhaps in the private collection of some lord who has an interest in powerful magical artifacts. Then it's just a matter of retrieving the artifact, either through force or wit.

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Hirelings (MME pg. 138) + Moilian Dead Theme(BoVD pg. 53) = Undead Army

1) Use the hireling rules to determine the stats for the undead (defenses, speed, attacks)

2) Add the Moilian Dead theme, which also comes from Orcus, to give your hirelings the undead subtype.

3) Lastly, IMO. You should treat the army as a swarm minion and each addition to the army gives it +1 HP. This lessens the burden on the DM and player to keep track of a giant number of characters, HP, etc.

Note: I left out the cost because I don't know the economy of your game, whether it relies on money, or something else. You should find something to make gathering the army taxing on the player or else you through at him will be thrown back at you.

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Is this a 4e answer? –  wax eagle Jul 24 '13 at 17:58
It's not, BoVD is 3.x –  Zachiel Jul 24 '13 at 20:20
4e does have a Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium, but neither Hirelings nor a Moilian Dead theme appear in the D&D 4e compendium. The only appearance of Moilian Dead is a monster released in Dragon Magazine 371. @Caden If this is a 4e-sourced answer, could you clarify what you're referring to and the full names of the books you're referencing? –  doppelgreener Jul 25 '13 at 0:25

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Raising Seed Capital

Steve Schlafman Feb 07, 2014 Back to blog

Several years ago I started teaching a class on raising seed capital at General Assembly and Skillshare.   I initially created the class because friends and founders were coming to me for fundraising advice and I was answering generally the same questions over and over.

A few months ago, I realized the initial slideshare that I used for dozens of classes was good as long as there was a voiceover but not great as a standalone guide. I decided to speak with a handful of my students and founders to see what they would want in a v2 fundraising resource.

After many conversations and too many nights and weekends in Powerpoint, I’m excited to share with you the next version of my guide to raising seed capital  In this slideshare, I answer the follow questions in an easy to digest format:

  • What is seed capital?
  • Why should I raise?
  • What is the current state of the seed market.
  • Who invets in startups?
  • How do I prepare?
  • What is the close process?
  • What are some useful resources?

I sincerely hope you find this resource valuable and educational. I plan to update the deck on a regular basis so any feedback is encouraged and appreciated. Finally, if you’re a founder and about to go through the process, be a little patient and stay optimistic. Fundraising is often a long and stressful but very rewarding journey.  Good luck.

Raising Seed Capital from Steve Schlafman


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