A heads up to all you Goth Steampunk fanatics out there, I’ll be at the PEERS Le Bal des Vampires on Saturday, November 3rd. I hope to see you there!

Still in the process of unpacking… just a few boxes left.

Last night, while sorting through my comics, I found a “Free Comic Book Day” offering from Aspen Comics called Lady Mechanika written and illustrated by Joe Benitez. It’s a Steampunk detective story whose central character has forgotten her past and is trying to piece together how she came to be part mechanical.

The story is immediately captivating and the art… oh good lord the art. It’s like being in a confectionery – too much to take in all at once. I want to savour each panel and drink it down slowly. I’ve already read through the series twice.

Lady Mechanika has the high quality that I dream of my own graphic novel possessing. But that doesn’t come on one’s first attempt. It takes a lot of work to get to that point.

Sadly, Mr. Benitez seems to be suffering from distribution problems. I am not sure the exact problem, but he’s been having a bit of trouble getting issue four to market. However, when it finally arrives there’s a small and growing number of fans who will be quite happy. The comic has already picked up a decent following – it reminds me of the enthusiasm from the fan base for Firefly.

You can friend Lady Mechanika on Facebook.

Here’s a sample of the art.

I am neither the creator nor the owner of this image. All right reside with its proper copyright holder.

The boys over at Penny Arcade are ‘selling out’; they’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund their site / projects. Their first goal of $250,000 to remove their leaderboard on their homepage has already been reached. But what has me excited is this: The $325,000 goal is less than $10k away from being funded. That goal brings a new six-page Automata story! I am so bloody excited about this.

Gabe has already started on some preliminary artwork. Also, there’s talk of an Automata movie!

I wish the Gabe and Tycho the best of luck with their Kickstarter campaign and all things Automata related.

Update: Yesterday (or early this morning), Penny Arcade hit the $325,000 mark, thus reaching the Automata goal!

Today I stumbled across a recently launched site called Zen Pencils.

On his site, Gavin Aung Than illustrates inspirational quotes from famous people (he illustrated the “Make Good Art” comic I recently posted). I spent an hour today looking at his amazingly well done pieces of sequential art.

Here are five of my favourites:

• SHAOLIN MONK: Always be prepared
• GEORGE PATTON: A man must know his destiny
• CARL SAGAN: Make the most of this life
• EDGAR MITCHELL: A global consciousness
• BRUCE LEE: Be water, my friend

Come payday, I’ll be purchasing a few of his prints.

Speaking of prints, I’ve moved the Steampunk / Dieselpunk We Can Do It posters to a new store. I’ve also moved the F-bomb cancer shirts there as well. I think that store is a bit sharper looking than the Cafepress site we had running.