Charles Stross has announced that Cubicle 7 Entertainment is going to to publish a role-playing game based on his Laundry Files series (which I’ve mentioned previously).
The Laundry is a branch of the British secret service, tasked to prevent hideous alien gods from wiping out all life on Earth. Players take the part of Laundry agents, cleaning up the mess after things go wrong or, sometimes, even managing to prevent the manifestation of ultimate evil. Agents have access to the best equipment they can get their superiors to approve, from Basilisk Guns to portable containment grids to a PDA loaded up with Category A countermeasure invocations.
The game will use the Basic Roleplaying System (Call Of Cthulhu) by Chaosium Inc., which makes sense, as the Laundry stuff is kind of Cthulhoid in character. Since Stross has explored online RPG-type games in books such as Halting State, I’m curious how much of a hand he might have had in designing the gameplay as well.
The press release describes the Laundry as a “Lovecraftian spy thriller,” so if you’re a fan of either genre this might be a fun game system to pick up.
Deadline is reporting that Tim Burton is planning to do a 3-D stop-motion animated film based on Charles Addams’ original cartoons of The Addams Family. It will be unrelated to the TV series and movies (other than being based on the same source material), and they say that, “His intention is to go back to the litany of Addams illustrations that displayed a sharper wit than could be place into a 60s family TV series.”
I should be utterly, hopelessly thrilled by this news, and I would be, if his last couple of films didn’t make this College Humor video seem uncomfortably accurate:
(This is a rare Saturday post because I don’t like to flog my own site during your regularly-scheduled weekday darkness.)
I blogged a while back about MrX Designs and mentioned that he was going to create some Book of Shadows-style guest books for the store.
They have arrived, and they are wonderful. He also created some lovely quill pens with hand-cast skull detailing, and we’ve even got some ink bottles with pentacles on the tops.
I can’t express how thrilled I am with the quality of the work. I’m all a-flutter.
Articulate Matter – A sort of Webcomic, except the “drawings” are actually little sculptures. Wonderfully cephalopod-heavy.
You Deserve This – Selection of “award” buttons from The Bloggess. I particularly like the first one.
Kellandra the Spider Gremlin – I think I’ve mentioned Etsy seller Undead Ed in the past. I happen to be particularly taken with this demonic little plush creature.
Gingerbread Mayan – This Para Abnormal cartoon made me giggle, and actually might not be too hard to replicate with real cookies.
Mary Downing Hahn – Author of ghost stories for ages 9-12. Her work might be the perfect gift for any mildly-creepy kid of your acquaintance.
Here’s a fantastic source of design inspiration. Vintage Blog is a treasure trove of vintage fashion and artwork, with photos and illustrations from the late 1800s through 1930 or so. There are lots of corsets, gorgeous Art Nouveau detailing, and enough unique fashion ideas–like this completely awesome “creature of the night” moth cape–to keep even the most ambitious seamstress busy for a while.
The site is in French (which doesn’t really matter, since the posts are mostly images rather than commentary), but Blogspot’s intrusive “translate this page” dropdown appears to be fouling up the navigation: The archive dropdown tends to display the same posts no matter which week you choose, and the “older/newer post” links don’t show up properly. I finally wound up viewing the site through my feed reader to see the older posts.
It’s worth the trouble to see the images, though. There are all kinds of ideas for hairstyles, jewelry, accessories, bridal, evening wear, et cetera, et cetera, and of course et cetera. I’ve already found half a dozen dresses that I’m going to have to try and replicate.
Alert reader pdq sent along this link to a neat tutorial on making wall decals using ConTact paper, along with the comment, “The instructable itself is straitforward & easy, but the tentacled bit pictured is MARVELOUSLY Cthulhu-oid.” Right on both counts. (The author calls it “Tim Burton-esque / Tokyo Plastic vision of swirls,” which also works.)
The tutorial is nicely detailed, including instructions on sketching the design in advance and tips for ensuring that the paper won’t ruin your walls (note to non-US readers: ConTact is a brand rather than a description, so double-check to make sure you’re using similar stuff). There are also bonus instructions for using the scraps for bamboo and creepy tree silhouettes.
I really love the wiggly “tentacles are invading from another dimension” look of the finished decal, and since it isn’t permanent you could update it whenever you wanted a change. The paper comes in a variety of colors (including “chalkboard”), so there are all kinds of decorating possibilities without the long-term commitment of paint or stencils. Neat!
I am completely in love with this ouija-themed wedding invitation by Corndog Industries. The envelope even turns into a planchette when opened.
Erin Blankley, who is apparently the Chief Corndog, creates all kinds of offbeat custom invitations and announcements. I also really like this medieval scroll and this cute little skeleton. Her ideas are wonderfully quirky and original.
The site is relatively sparse, but the “more invite info” link includes some pricing and contact information. If you’re in the market for custom invitations or just want to admire her creativity, go take a look!
(via Oddee – Other interesting wedding invitations at the link)
Animation Dailies – James Lopez is an animator for Disney and is going to start posting short animated clips. The storyline for “Sweating Bullets” sounds entertaining.
Metropolis Graphics – A couple of years ago graphic designer Jon Heilman created a high-quality replica of the time portal map from Time Bandits. He’s now selling copies, plus the map from Lord of the Rings, Professor Marvel’s banner from The Wizard of Oz, and more.
iMaxi – Taking the “Apple’s iPad sounds like a feminine hygiene product” joke to its logical conclusion, this Etsy seller makes iPad cases with wings.
If Murdered – Sort of like FML and/or MLIA, but with more murder. Also this one made me choke on my coffee.
The Super Punch Tarot – To celebrate its third anniversary, the Super Punch blog has asked a bunch of Web artists to create individual cards in a tarot deck. The results are…eclectic.
Alice in Wonderland Roundup – The aforementioned Super Punch also has loads of posts about Alice, including some great artwork.
UK-based PaperBoy specializes in wallpaper for children, specifically boys, which seems unnecessarily niche but that’s another story.* One of their designs is Animal Magic, featuring attractive animal sillhouettes with their skeletons screen-printed on top. I love the clean lines and the fact that they offer a range of tones, from just-barely-glimpsing-the-bones to more obvious skeletal overlays. They’ve also got a fabric in the same pattern, with the same more-or-less-obvious skeletons.
Unfortunately for those of us who are not very rich goths indeed, the hand-printing involved in producing these puts them way the heck out of our price range: £105 per meter for the cloth and £120 for a 10-meter roll of wallpaper. Eeyouch.
However, a similar look might be possible to DIY using purchased stencils, screen printing, or hand-painting. I doubt you’d want to hand-stencil your entire living room, but a frieze near the ceiling or one wall of a bathroom would probably be do-able. You could also paint enough fabric for a simple dress, or just use the skeleton-inside-the-bunny idea as one-off illustrations on throw pillows or tote bags. If you like needlework, a set of these animals would be fun to embroider along the edge of a skirt or as a sampler.
Charles Stross has announced that Cubicle 7 Entertainment is going to to publish a role-playing game based on his Laundry Files series (which I’ve mentioned previously).
(This is a rare Saturday post because I don’t like to flog my own site during your regularly-scheduled weekday darkness.)
Here’s a fantastic source of design inspiration. 
Alert reader pdq sent along 
I am completely in love with 
UK-based 
