Hello,

Well we have said goodbye to the Pioneer Zephyr, but someone pointed me to this youtube video of the Zephyr from 1934. Thanks Metroknight.  Here is the footage…

I’m also thinking of turning this design into a shirt, any thoughts?

Hello again, getting close to the end of this chapter! And that puts us close at the halfway point in our overall story.

I found this article about the Pioneer Zephyr, it had this great picture of the train pulling into Oakland on a promotional tour.

I was looking for some kind of vintage advertising for the Zephyr but ran out of time!  I’m sure it’s out there though.

Hello….

Here is an interesting fictional story I saw over at Io9 about Zeppelin travel.

In a few weeks is a small gaming convention called Strategicon in Los Angeles. I’m thinking of taking my board game there to test, if I can get it ready in time!

UPDATE: Fixed the link, sorry about that!

Hello!

Busy days ahead!  A lot of conventions and what not coming up.

I can’t make it to Comic-Con Int. in San Diego

this year  but I do hope to make it to strategicon in LA in a few weeks with a demo of the board game I am working on.

I finally glued all the engines back onto USS Macon model I recently received.  And so here is a picture… that is a little game piece from monopoly under it for an idea of scale.

I also found this pretty neat infographic about WWII planes and armaments.  It’s a little old but it’s new to me, and very interesting….via http://flyingfortress.wordpress.com/

New Poster!!

Hello!
First of all, these two pages took me way too long. I almost hate looking at them. Almost.

Got a new watch this week. The Tauchmeister T0196 XXL Military Worldtimer Watch.  I ordered it from Long Island Watch, they have a lot of other cool vintage style watches.  I wish I could have bought more!

I also got a scale replica of the USS Macon Airship, but I have to glue all the engines back on since they came off in shipping.  Bummer.

Meanwhile I have been very busy this last week.  I posted what I’ve been up to over at my business blog www.kopetkai.com/blog.  I haven’t been updating it much since I moved but I will from now on. . .

Found this picture on flickr via Gizmodo.  An awesome picture of a New York police officer in New York-1931 testing bulletproof glass.  I’m assuming the test went well.

Thanks to the editor over at the http://belfrycomics.net/ last week for the really nice review of my comic.  I hope All the new visitor’s stick around!

I was asked this week about who my characters are based on.  Good question! The physical look of each character is based on someone, but those people are still alive, so I don’t know if I will be saying who they are just yet! Each character is also based on someone from the period.  Part of what got me to do this comic was how amazing individual people were in the 1930’s.  One such person was Ahmed Hassanein from Egypt. He was the real deal! All the things that my character Ahmed Hassan is supposed to be.  I just changed the last name to Hassan because I have a friend who’s middle name is Hassan, and I changed his country of origin to Algeria because I liked their uniforms.  I also liked the stories I read about Algerian sharpshooters during World War One.

This Sunday!  I am hopefully going to see “Flying Down to Rio” at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

From the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles:

“In the 1930s, in the age of Art Deco streamline design, people were traveling farther and faster than any humans had ever traveled before. Fast cars, streamlined trains, luxury steamships, swift airliners, giant seaplanes and majestic Zeppelins opened up new horizons to those with the money to spend.

Walter Nelson will present a program of film, poster art, photographs and music that will bring to life the experience and romance of travel in the years just before the Second World War. This will be followed by the classic musical Flying Down to Rio, with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Dolores Del Rio and a host of other stars and marvelous music.

This is a Co-Presentation with the American Cinematheque.

Lecture: 4 PM

Screening of Flying Down to Rio at 5 PM

Tickets are $7 for members of ADSLA and American Cinematheque. Regular American Cinematheque prices apply for the general public ($11) and students/seniors ($9) and are available via Fandango, or can be purchased on the day of the event at the door. Please bring your ADSLA membership card with you to the box office.

Parking: $2 per hour metered parking available near the theatre. $2 for four hours validated parking available at Hollywood and Highland. There are also pay parking lots on Las Palmas and Cherokee that cost approximately $10. Why not take the metro? The Egyptian is a very short walk east from the Hollywood and Highland METRO station.”

Apparently in 1931 there was a staged aerial combat above new york.  I would love to see that in action, although something tells me they wouldn’t let them do that these days.  Click the image for more pictures at popular mechanics, thanks to io9.com for the link.

Last week I got to go to a car show here in Ventura.  I took a couple pictures with my phone of some interesting cars. On the way back home we stopped at a small gallery that used to be a bank in the early nineteen hundreds.  So I took some pictures from inside the vault.  Here is a closeup of the time lock system and the emergency ventilator in case you got trapped inside.

This week after that crazy volcano blew up, of course everyone knows the planes in Europe  were grounded.  But some planes got through!  They had to bring out the old guns, here’s a picture of some old biplanes flying over modern grounded jets.

I also tested my board game this last week.  It’s still in a very rough early stage, but the testing definitely went well!  Maybe I will post some pictures of the next play through.