Click to make big

Here’s the newest (rough) colour sketch for the nefarious and wholly nasty villain Death Wattle

Earlier Version

He will be featured in the World Wildlife Federation of Justice

supplement for Mutants & Masterminds published by Atomic Overmind Press, which means you can read his secret origin, and compare his stats and power level against other WWFJ characters. And if you’re a player of Mutants & Masterminds the roleplaying game you can pit him against your superhero group. Sure…why not?

He is the arch-nemesis of Astromandrill, in case you were wondering, which makes him a fearsome foe indeed! He is also the leader of the Flock of Evil.

See more drawings of WWFJ characters by visiting

http://www.thickets.net/toren/category/wwfj/ and view the ‘official page at:

http://www.thickets.net/toren/world-wildlife-federation-of-justice/ for a preview of the cover of the book (which will be a pdf to start).

Though it doesn’t look it now, there will be clothes on everyone. Probably something punkapocalyptic. Big army boots, converse shoes, raggedy blood-stained tanktops, choker collars, metal wristbands, that sort of thing. Hardcore big-busted gore-soaked butch lesbians kickin’ ass.

I’ve blocked it out with a lot of heavy blacks and color-coded the various figures for clarity. I like some more than others. My fave is the girl on the far right which is supposed to be pink but my scanner sucks hoof. I like the idea of the chainsaw but it’s actually a bit distracting shoved down in the bottom corner.

Another direction would be to give Jesus (yes that’s right) his sweaty crown of thorns and instead of the chainsaw he’d be wielding a huge wooden cross. I feel as though that would be some degree of awesome, and that feeling of awesome grows even as I finish typing this sentence.

Click the pic to make big:

I’m having professional comic letterer Ed Brisson redo all of my unprofessional lettering from the first 4 pages.

It’s dead at work so I’m browsing gaming mini websites.

There are some good ones on armorcast like this steam-powered buddha.

They also have lots of cool steampunk robots and post-apocalyptic terrain. One of my favourites is the ingenius ’soda can topper’:

Upside down soda/soft drink cans look cool as storage tanks, but what do you do about the depression in the top of the can? Armorcast has solved the problem for you with Soda Can Storage Tank kits. You supply the cans and Armorcast provides a base with recesses for two or three upside down soft drink cans and detail pieces that fit into the tops of the cans. Drink a soda, build gaming terrain and recycle at the same time!

Torie’s tags science fiction, fantasy, games, video games, lighting design, Latin, geeks, art history, human computer interaction, technology, 1KBWC, MoCCA, star trek

about me 

http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&user=225

Editor of the blog, community manager, experienced cat herder, and professional geek enthusiast. I’m also Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s assistant with regard to the short fiction.

“Forming a strong union between the directness of boogie metal with intimations towards ’70s fuzz, à la Thin Lizzy, yet updated and with vocal sensibilities that recall Vancouver’s Darkest Of The Hillside Thickets, Montreal’s Barn Burner accomplish much with the wonky and wanky, yet wonderful, Bangers.” Exclaim! Magazine

Every podcast should be weekly, but everyone knows I don’t have time to set aside an evening every week so I’d probably do a long recording once every 3 weeks and edit it into 3 separate downloads over the course of 3 weeks. I also don’t have time to set up the recording, edit the recording, upload the episode and nurture the associated web site/facebook group/forum/whathaveyou. So what I’m saying is, I need help.

Plus every podcast is best with at least minimum 2 people (maximum 3). I occasionally listen to WFMU’s The Best Show and the first quarter is useless because the host just talks to himself and it’s just not entertaining. So optimally whoever handles the technical aspects would also be a bitchin’ co-host. I don’t want it to be The Toren Atkinson Podcast.

Speaking of which, I find introductions and theme songs a real drag. More wasted time and bandwidth. Expecially when I’ve got 20 pods on my mp3 player and I’m trying to figure out which ones I’ve already listened to, I have to fast forward through a minute of “this podcast is brought to you by” and bad music and “welcome to episode 45 my name is Jonny Dull and I’m here with Sammy O’Predictable JUST LIKE EVERY TIME!” One thing I like about the Speedway Squad podcast is they don’t introduce themselves until well into the episode.

On my podcast we’d shoot the shit, talk about current events (especially in science), criticize people on the bus who eat tuna, interview guests, and have lots of wacky segments. Even a little music maybe, but again – NOT at the beginning of the show. I’d been toying with the idea of having a setting, as if the podcast was recorded in a post-apocalyptic future and somehow sent backwards to the present, but that would kind of preclude having guests that want to promo their own real-life stuff, or talking about current events.

What would I call our podcast? The Secret Underground E-Bunker? Signal to Noise? Claw Claw Bite? Congeries Quisquiliarum (latin for pile of crap)?

BLOG ENTRY PART 2: What existing podcasts are the good ones?

ASTRONOMY CAST – I love science and space! But the downside of this is it can be dry, especially if you’re not well versed in astronomy. I usually tune out when they talk about theoretical quantum mechanical-type stuff. I just want to know cool facts about stars and planets.
COMEDY DEATH RAY – This podcast is almost flawless. Great comedian guests.
DISCOVERY NEWS ‘FRIDAY NEWS FEEDBAG’ – Three guys from the Discovery Channel compete with science news stories. Besides the science angle which as I said, I like, the hosts do not take their podcast seriously - as well they should not!
NEVER NOT FUNNY – another comedy podcast. Always entertaining, but this is one of those podcasts with an annoying theme song and only the first half of the show is free.
NPR SCIENCE FRIDAY – Ira Flatow is one of those interviewers who does his job well enough, but like Bob McDonald from Quirks & Quarks, his jokes are never funny. Great science though!
QUIRKS & QUARKS – See notes on Bob McDonald above. I usually only listen to the episodes that have topics that interest me, and there are some doozies, like the Aug 19 2006 show on happiness & evolution.
SCIENCE WEEKLY (UK’S THE GUARDIAN) – Another science news podcast that is actually entertaining, no small thanks to the youthful glibness of Alok Jha.
SKEPTICALITY – content is hit and miss, and more dry than Astronomy Cast as the hosts just read off of paper. Not sure why this is still on my list.
SKEPTICS GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE/SGU 5X5 – Fascinating, nice and long, and again mixing science with hosts that are entertaining to listen to.
SPEEDWAY SQUAD – Drunken ramblings and not of it politically correct.
STOP PODCASTING YOURSELF – local comedians – get to know them!
TEDTALKS – arguably the most enlightening seminars you’ll ever hear. Also on youtube and tedtalks.org or some such.
THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE – Sciencey, sometimes entertaining, always stilted & awkward.
WFMU’S THE BEST SHOW WITH TOM SHARPLING – Worth listening to when there are good guests like Paul F Tompkins or John Hodgman.
YOG-SOTHOTH.COM CTHULHU PODCAST – sketchy production values but content of interest for the true Lovecraft fan.

It does make me want to draw an illustration however….