Autographs: Authors

November 20th, 2023

When I was a child I had an autograph book. I believe I may have had a single autograph in it, and it was a football player I had no interest in but got the autograph of when he made an appearance at a mall. I remember I used to glue photos of famous people in the book and keep the opposite page empty for the autographs I would (of course) never obtain. I was an optimistic stripling!

Autograph collecting dates to a time before photos and the autographs were proof you met someone. Of course these days they’re more often purchased and signers can make a lot of money providing them. But even an impersonal autograph purchased from a shop is still a bit of a special item when it’s of someone you are a fan of, and I don’t judge anyone for wanting or buying them.

Recently I started thinking about all the autographed items we own now, and one thing led to another and then ultimately – as it often does – to this blog! This week therefore I’ll be showcasing most of the autographs Kristin and I have obtained over the years, in five different categories. We’ll start today with authors!

The above I’ve shown here before. I’m a big fan and collector of Fighting Fantasy books, and I treasure this pair of autographs of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, the two guys that created the series. These were sent to me by an Australian company in response to me tweeting out photos of my collection!

In a similar vein, I have Joe Dever’s autograph. He was the author of the Lone Wolf gamebook series, and some years ago special (expensive!) autographed editions of some of the books were released. To my great surprise Bernard sent me two of them, which means I have his autograph twice. Joe Dever passed away a few years ago, so this is a somewhat special mark to own.

Keeping in the RPG sphere, a decade or so ago I purchased a used copy of this Forgotten Realms AD&D box set and when it arrived I was astonished to see that it had been autographed. The two shown are Jeff Grubb and Ed Greenwood (who also wrote ‘Good gaming’), and it was also autographed by the editor. These may not be names you recognize, but each contributed enormously to Dungeons & Dragons and are well known to fans from that era.

Lastly I have Kim Newman’s autograph. He’s one of my favourite authors, and even though I already owned four imprints of Anno Dracula I naturally had to buy this fifth one when I saw it was autographed. I’d love to meet him in person and get a book autographed, but this is the next best thing!

I know I have at least one more hiding somewhere in this house, that being the author Tanith Lee who sent me a signed letter response to a letter I wrote her in my teens. Try as I could though I was unable to find it.

These are just the tip of the autograph iceberg. There’s many more to see this week, so stay tuned 🙂

Fake Steak

November 18th, 2023

We bought this at a Japanese shop in NYC when we were there back in October:

It’s a candy food kit that looks like a ‘hamburger steak’ (ie. hamburger patty) and egg lunch when made. We’ve made various candy food items in the past, but this one was so unusual we had to get it. It even includes green beans!

The instructions were daunting, since no English version exists. This was a job for the translator! Unlike similar kits they didn’t provide all the necessary equipment (such as measuring spoons) and I was very surprised to see preparation required milk and microwaving and even over an hour of waiting!

This first piece made was the egg, which is peach and orange flavoured. The yolk and white were made separately, and then the entire thing had to set in the fridge for an entire hour. I was only 75% sure I had followed the instructions correctly, so this was a long wait.

While the egg was setting I made the (melon flavoured) beans, which required a special mold. You can see here that the liquid appeared to spread between the molds to make a film, but when we removed them (much later) the beans separated immediately from the flash. They wiggled around like fishing lures, but on the plate (see below) looked just like actual beans.

The steak was the most in-depth portion, requiring milk and mixing and microwaving and a duration of resting before adding the liquid demi-glacé. Once completed it was astonishingly realistic, and looked much more like a meat patty than a chocolate cake.

It was time to assemble the entire dish:

Look at it! It’s amazing. Even in person it looked incredibly realistic, and not just a microwave chocolate cake with gummy egg and beans. Here’s a close up:

It was very sweet, but the cake was chewy and delicious and the fruit tastes were pleasant. Eating the egg was surreal because it looked so much like a real egg – and even felt like one when you cut it with a spoon – but just tasted of fruit jelly 🙂

This was an incredible kit. It worked perfectly and looked even better than we expected. It’s no wonder my reaction so closely mirrored the guy on the box:

Lost Lands

November 14th, 2023

We all know about Atlantis and Avalon, those mythical lands where elden (and future) kings lie. As a child I was fascinated by both (particular Avalon) and used to wonder where they were. But they’re far from the only mythical lands, and while the others that have been documented through history may not be as well known, they are equally exotic and mysterious. Here’s a few of them…

Lemuria was proposed as a ‘lost continent’ in a paper written by a zoologist in 1864. It was suggested to have been a (now sunken) land bridge, and was used as an explanation for why similar animals were found in geologically separated continents. Within 30 years the idea had been appropriated by occultists who claimed that it was the true source of humanity, and their ideas became even more crackpot to the point where some claimed Lemuria still existed in locations as diverse as inside the Earth (a common belief for lost lands) or underneath the USA. The history of Lemurian writing is interesting in and of itself, with some examples being claims that Lemuria may now be Australia (or perhaps Westralia), or that the capital of the land was called Telos (class Who fans take note) and was somehow linked with another planet.

As a mythological land, Lemuria is richly used in pulp sword and sorcery as well, with notable additions to the myth being added by John Jakes (the Brak writings) and Lin Carter (Thongor). Indeed it may be the case that Lemuria is the most popular ‘lost continent’ in fantasy literature, perhaps because it’s less developed that Atlantis in most readers minds.

The idea of a North Polar civilization goes all the way back to the ancient Greeks, who dubbed men from this mythical land Hyperboreans. The name of the land – Hyperborea – dates to 450 BC, and probably referred to the most northern parts of Europe. Legends compiled by Greek scholars referred Hyperborea as a civilized paradise, with men taller and stronger than other men, unusually healthy and living to a thousand years or more. Some specific descriptions of the inhabitants described them as white with blond hair, which would in time be latched on to by the Nazis (as well as another mythical northern Greek land, Thule) as an inspiration for the Aryan ideal. During the mid 20th century the occultists (probably trying to wash their hands of Nazi links) invented fanciful tales of hyperevolved (or in some cases, devolved) humans once living in Hyperborea, but as with all of the trash uttered by Blavatsky and her ilk, this was no doubt nonsense crafted to solicit donations from fools.

In modern literature Hyperborea was famously used in Robert E Howard’s Conan books and the countless pastiche’s that followed, where it was assumed to be exactly what was suggested in Greek myth. It’s also the namesake for a tabletop RPG, and (probably due to the Conan link) often included in the worlds of other games.

Mu – and this is a familiar origin by now – was suggested (in the mid 1800s) to have been a lost continent in the Pacific, that has long since sunk and become lost to time. Obvious connections to Atlantis and Lemuria were suggested (the Victorians loved their lost continent myths!) but Mu developed it’s own identity when professional prevaricator James Churchward made a career out of writing books about the place, which included a wealth of alleged evidence that roped in everything from ancient Indian fables to the Bible. These books were extremely popular, and for a time Mu was ‘bigger’ than Atlantis in the public psyche. I think those days, much like Mu itself, are behind us now. Had you heard of Mu before this entry?

H.P. Lovecraft mentioned Mu in many of his tales, and indeed the sunken cities inhabited by creatures of his Mythos are reminiscent more of Mu than Atlantis. Unsurprisingly, many of those followed in his footsteps and added stories to his mythos have also mentioned the mythical continent.

Ys was a mythic utopian city in northwest France (Brittany) that was said to have been built (over 2000 years ago) at the very edge of the land and surrounded by a great wall to protect it from the sea. Due to misadventure and deception, the wall was breached and the city was submerged, never to be seen again. The tale is romantic and fantastical, and various interpretations include powerful magic (a sorceress and even the Devil) and monsters (mermaids and sea dragons). Much like Avalon, it has been suggested that Ys is not gone for good, and evocatively ‘when Paris falls, Ys will rise again’. While Ys was been often described in books and art and even an opera during the 19th century, it seems to now faded from historical romanticism.

As a city and not a land, Ys doesn’t play any notable role in pulp literature, but the name was appropriated for a long-running series of Japanese role-playing video games (which are almost all very good). While they mostly have nothing at all to do with the actual myth, it’s worth noting that the cover of the first game is a literal interpretation, showing a city being swallowed by the sea.

Quintessential Papercraft

November 9th, 2023

I bought this when I was back in Japan last June:

It’s a craft kit of the five main characters from the manga/anime Quintessential Quintuplets, a recent favourite of mine. The image is created via layers of paper, a technique called ‘paper tole’ or ‘3D decoupage’.

The kit is assemble by cutting out the pieces and gluing them together (using household paper glue). The laser-cut pieces are made from a type of cardboard so strong it almost feels like plastic. And yet the manufacturing is absolute, and the pieces separate from the flash with only a tiny cut from a craft knife. The fact you don’t need to actually cut out the pieces yourself elevates this above almost every other papercraft I’ve ever done.

Each part of the image is assembled independently in layers, and above you can see how one of the characters – Yotsuba – was created. It’s meticulous but not difficult, although the extremely tiny size of some parts (sub millimeter) led to a couple of tense moments!

Once completed the portraits were fairly thick: each had five or six layers of card. The detail is astonishing: the blue layer under the black was only there to add minute highlights to the weird hair accessories Nino wears. Some of the eyes – which are only a couple of millimeters wide – have two or three colours behind them!

Here’s the six panels prior to final assembly. They look great don’t they?

And here’s a side view of the finished predict once complete. This was actually the most difficult step, especially adding the first two ‘bridges’. I may have muttered a curse or two during this phase…

And here’s the finished product in a dedicated frame I bought at the same time! Isn’t it cute, and doesn’t it look fantastic?

And here’s another two Kristin made.

These kits are wonderful! They’re easy to make and they look fantastic. When we’re next in Japan, I’m sure we’ll be picking up more 🙂

Ramen Sidetrip

November 4th, 2023

A little over ten months ago we visited the Cup Noodle museum in Yokohama and made our own Cup Noodles. Here they are:

Since they had a one-year expiration, it was time to try them. So we popped the tops, added water, and gave them each a taste.

Mine is on the left, and contained shrimp, onions, egg, chicken naruto and ‘original’ flavored noodles. As soon as the water was added an indescribably foul smell filled the room. And when I say ‘indescribable’, I mean perfidiously sulfurous like an evil boiled egg. As awful as the stench was it didn’t deter me and I bravely tried a forkful. It was absolutely terrible. It was perhaps the worst instant ramen I’ve ever tasted and almost immediately raised the gorge in my throat. Kristin tried it as well, and her disgust equaled my own. An easy 0 (or lower) out of 10!

Kristin’s was cheese, kimchi, onion and corn on a chili noodle base. To our surprise the cheese just melted and the noodles swum in a thick, creamy broth. She ate more than a few forkfuls, said the chili and cheese were a good match, and the remainder was ‘inoffensive’! She scored it 6/10.

Regardless of the taste, it was fun to try our own creations, and once again I’ll say that the Cup Noodle museum was a great place to visit.

But I’m not done with ramen news today… check this out:

What’s this madness? Cup Noodles / Godzilla socks? I found this at Walmart of all places, and naturally had to purchase it. Here’s some of the art on the packaging:

And here’s the socks themselves:

This is an insane product. To think this collaboration happened in the first place is wild (and as far as I can tell, no actual Godzilla Cup Noodles have been released) but why did they make socks based on it and why are they marketed in the USA!?! They seem like good socks though, so I’m happy with my purchase 🙂

And then there’s this:

It’s a mini ramen for dollhouses! Kristin bought this on Etsy a while ago, and it’s just the sort of weird item a chicken ramenologist such as myself would be attracted to. She actually got a few of them:

But it gets even more bonkers, since a different seller makes even smaller scale cup versions. Like this one:

Look at this thing: smaller than a single kernel of corn. And it’s a chicken ramen too! It’s almost LEGO minifig scale, and the cup is even removable from the outer packaging:

I can’t tell how it’s made. I assumed 3D printed but it seems too good, and the graphics on the cup appear to be printed on. A mystery!

I’ll leave you with this shot of a chicken ramen decoration in our tree and remind you that while it’s been a while since I found a new chicken ramen I now know enough to assume I never will. Let’s hope in 2024 we’ll see some more chicken ramen reviews on this blog 🙂