Once again, it has been another busy month for me, with much accomplished and much to chat about. First up, I present the first of a series of illustrations featuring Vampirella and Batman together. The artist is Bo Hampton and he has depicted Vampirella as she appeared in the 1970's during the Warren Publishing era. Seeing as they both tend to hunt their prey during the night, it might seem an obvious team up but in fact, they have not met before. However, Vampirella did once appear in a crossover comic with Catwoman, so she does have some connection with DC Comics' Gotham City. Somehow, I just can't see Vampi and Batman getting along together very well.
As you will have noted from my recent posts, I have been painting a lot of figures from Warlord Games'
Doctor Who: Into the Time Vortex range; in particular, Cybermen and Daleks. There is more
Doctor Who goodness still to come real soon. "Cough," Missy, "Cough!" Speaking of
Doctor Who, I know that the TV series has a lot of fans from amongst my followers, but no one has said anything about the casting of the new Doctor - Jodie Whittaker. So I'm going to be the first to stick my head above the parapet, so to speak, and offer my opinion.
Personally, I think it is an excellent choice and I am very excited about the new series. I have absolutely no problems with the Doctor regenerating into a woman. After all, a precedent was set when the Master regenerated into Missy, and she was superb. I am also delighted that Jodie was chosen as I have a lot of respect for her and I've enjoyed all of her previous performances that I've seen. I am also glad that the fan speculation that the Thirteenth Doctor might be Kris Marshall or Tilda Swinton was so wide of the mark. Neither of them would have been good choices in my opinion. I am also glad to have seen the last of Bill Potts and Nardole (or Nardull as I often called him), neither of whom I liked. I rated them amongst the worst of the Doctor's companions. I will, however, miss Peter Capaldi, who was, I thought, one of the better Doctors to have appeared in the series. Still, exciting times ahead and I am so very much looking forward to this year's Christmas Day special.
At the start of this month I ran a review of the three Scavengers figures produced by Wargames Terrain Workshop (see
here ). I mentioned that I was going to repaint the skin of the very tall female and that I would take another photo, which showed the the three figures alongside a standard 28mm scale figure, so that you could judge just how tall Dave Stone's sculpts are. Here is that photo.
I much prefer the tall female (alien or mutant?) with her blue skin now. My figure of Vampifan (at the far right) by Copplestone Castings is exactly 28mm tall and provides a handy reference point for you to compare sizes with. I did add this photo to the original post but I very much doubt if anyone noticed it.
My big news for this month is that I have started a new blog, called
Vampifan's WOIN Blog. Here is the link to it -
https://vampifanwoin.blogspot.co.uk/ I won't go into much detail about it here as I'd only be repeating what I've already said in my introductory post. Suffice to say, the blog is dedicated to the
What's Old Is New RPG systems by EN Publishing. I have put a lot of work into this new blog and I already have ten posts ready to publish. I'll be alternating my posts between my two blogs, which means that
Vampifan's World of the Undead will most likely only be appearing once per week instead of twice. However, I have so much material for both blogs that I may increase my blogging frequency to three times per week. We'll see if I can spare the extra time. I doff my hat to Clint Burnett and Phil Curran, who were eagle-eyed enough to note that I've been advertising my new blog in the sidebar of this blog for over a week now and both are my first two followers.
Here's a teaser photo showing my figures of the crew of
The Ace of Spades, who'll be featuring in a truly epic space opera-type campaign I'll be running on the new blog, using the
N.E.W. sci-fi RPG rules. Check it out if you're at all interested or feel free to ignore it if it's not your cup of tea.
Love the crew of The Ace of Spades. Always loved the idea that you can roll play with more than one character. Looking forward to the new campaign.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Tim. I totally agree about being able to play more than one character in a game. Although as a games master and player, I get to play everyone in my campaign. such is the way with solo gamers.
DeleteI will put my head above the parapet! Nothing against the actress at all but I would like the BBC to balance it by having a Male action hero who does not resort to violence to sole the issues.
ReplyDeleteOther than Dr Who I can think of none on the BBC (or any other channel) It is almost as if they are saying that Males HVAE to use violence to solve problems.
This may not be their intention of course and we can all think of Men in real life that do not but surely they are pushing it that way.
Or maybe the Actress will START having a violent Dr ad always resorting to a violent/confrontational out come.
Climbing off of my soap box now.
Nothing against you, Nothing against the Actress but I am disaponted in the BBC>
I guess we can't all like the same things, can we? Still, I respect your opinion, even if I don't agree with you. By the way, I can think of many male heroes who have never resorted to violence to solve problems. "Death in Paradise" is one of my favourite TV series and the three male lead characters who have appeared so far have never resorted to violence to solve a crime. Theirs is a more cerebral approach.
DeleteI agree there is a tradition of Detectives not using violence... Sherlock Holmes for example, Morse as another.
DeleteBut I am referring ONLY to
" Male action hero who does not resort to violence to sole the issues."
Which is the second line of my post.
But you are correct we are all allowed to like and dislike different things. "Death in Paradise" is a very good series and one I enjoy very much as well. However it is not an action series. I cannot recall there every being much gunplay, fist-fighting or even swordplay.
But as you say we can all have very different opinios on the same subject and we can all be right without the others being wrong.
Fair comment, Clint. Yes, it is hard to think of a male "action hero" who doesn't resort to violence. It would seem that action equates to violence. I take your point.
DeleteAnother interesting musings Bryan, great art pic of vampirella, like your blue mutant an interesting take. Shall go and check out your other blog. As for the new Doctor will wait and see what she'slike in the series before making judgement, but have no problem with it being a woman
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dave. I was wondering what you'd make of the blue skinned female and I'm glad you like her. I agree it is too early to say what the new Doctor will be like but for me, the signs are promising. :-)
DeleteThat's a great picture of Vampirella and Batman Bryan, and real "food for thought" about a possible gaming hook-up in the future??
ReplyDeleteAs for the new blog, it looks VERY promising :-) I tried to post a comment when it first appeared (but it was obviously still a WIP), just to say for anyone interested, that the WOIN rules are available at a discounted price on DriveThrough until the end of the month (tomorrow!)
Totally agree with your comments about The Doctor (though I thought Bill Potts played the "Cyber transformation" really well in the season finale).
It would be great if Warlord Games can be quick off the mark and release a Jodie Whittaker version of The Doctor - fancy a "handbags at noon" encounter with Missy?!
Many thanks for such warm comments. Actually, whilst I obviously disliked Bill Potts's character, she did have a good send off and her transformation to a Cyberman and back to a... whatever? was her most noteworthy performance in the whole series. I suspect it may be a while before Warlord Games produces a Jodie Whittaker Doctor, but we'll see. Yes, I too, would love to see her go up against Missy, or will it be a new Missy as well?
DeleteNice illustration. Well, the Bat does have that dour cynical image to protect. Now, if it was Adam West 60s era it might be a different story.
ReplyDeleteThe Ace of Spades crew are looking good. Looking forward to seeing them in action.
The blue skin colour does make a big difference. I had been keeping a eye out for the repaint and comparison. It really works.
As for the Doctor I will always be a Tom Baker man. I do think the BBC missed the opportunity to add the likes of Romana and the the Rani. It would be nice to have another Gallifreyan companion/opponent.
Only time will tell if the new Doctor can pull it off. I hope so as a failure will be blamed on the gender swap rather that poor writing or characterisation.
Much appreciated, Jason. Vampirella team up with Adam West's Batman conjures up a totally different image to her and the modern Dark Knight working together.
DeleteYou'll be seeing a lot more of The Ace of Spades crew and learning all about them real soon.
I thought you'd appreciate the size comparison shot of the WTW Scavengers.
Indeed, we must wait and see if the writing alleviates the negative comments about the new Doctor. With a clean slate, anything is possible.
I'm happy that the doctor is going to regenerate as a woman, but agree they need the writing to be impeccable so as not to provide ammunition to the naysayers. Heading over to the new blog now...
ReplyDeleteI'm happy about Jodie's appointment, Andy, but you're spot on about the writing for the new show. There is a lot riding on how well it delivers.
DeleteInteresting stuff Bryan, yes she does look better blue! (there that's that out of the way). Will check out (and probably follow), your new blog, "Ace of Spades" maybe the "Good ship Cleavage", might be a more apt name, at least they'll always have somewhere to store any extra guns they might pick up along the way ;-)
ReplyDeleteNice to see the old Grenadier not "ABC warrior Morrigun" figure amongst the crew.
As for the female Doctor, I don't think it's the worst decision the BBC has made of late (but then they have made some stinkers IMHO). It's the writing that turned me off of the series as much as the actors they have chosen. So it doesn't really matter to me as I wont be watching anyway.
Cheers Roger.
Lovely to hear from you as always, Roger. I think "The Good Ship Cleavage" is a very apt alternative name for "The Ace of Spades!" I dunno why I never thought of it first, LOL! :-)
DeleteI know you are very much old school Doctor Who and I respect your decision to adhere to your principles. Good for you, mate.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for that heads up, Phil. :-)
Delete