Face it, your blog is toast...

So this is maddening. Google Reader (which I use to follow the bajillion blogs I read) is being shut down in a few months--July 1, 2013. Word has been circulating since last fall that Blogger may not be long for this world either.

As I think about it, it seems like Reader would be the natural, first-strike takedown before Blogger gets the axe. I was worried about losing the blog as early as 2011 so I took steps to purchase the domain for Exonauts (which has been live since last summer). I'm thinking it might be time to work on full site with a blog (a task which I've actually little time for, especially come this summer).

In any case, you fellas ought to look out for your blogs. And readers, now is the time to start looking at other reader apps. I use NewsRob on my Android phone, which works great. I'm a bigger fan of Google Reader for organizing though since it lets me categorize and tag blogs with ease. If you're looking for a place to start your quest, Boing Boing has a post/thread going on other services (some paid, some not).

More info:

• ABC News - Google shuts down Reader
• USA Today - Suggested replacements
• Google instructions for downloading Reader data

Update: This guy knows exactly what I'm talking 'bout.

Happy New Year!

Here's wishing all you far-out space cats a fantastic New Year in 2013. It was a banner year on the blog, reaching 122 of you signing on as official Exonauts! May you have exciting adventures in the year to come. Expiscor Eternus!

Gamma World Mega Event in the Twin Cities

My Friendly Local Gaming Store, Source Comics and Games, is holding a Gamma World shindig the first week in June. It will of course be the latest rendition of the rules based on the 4E D&D system. Given how much fun I had last time I played, I plan on attending.

It's not often that GW gets love here in St. Paul / Minneapolis, so I'm glad to spread the word.

Character creation has been set:

Saturday, June 4th from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM
In the Source's gaming room

Here's a link to the event page with more info soon:

2011 Source Mega Summer RPG Event: GAMMA WORLD!

More Players Wanted / Welcome / GM's Needed!

Click the image to see official event page

More info posted by the Source:

• http://sourcesummerrpg.forumsland.com (has the most updated info)
• Email coordinators Amy and Tabor

UPDATE: Just got an email from one of the organizers saying there's a sign up sheet at The Source to play every night of the first week of June (except Wednesday and the following Saturday). A WEEK OF GAMMA WORLD!!!


Note: This is a re-post from the Gamma World War blog.

Exonauts no more--now it's ENDOnauts!

I've grown weary of the outer-space genre. This blog will now focus inward--that is, on the microscopic and nano-metric.

Here's what's in mind:

Just try enlarging this minuscule image!

Check out the Corpus Science Museum in the Netherlands where you get to tour and learn about the human body as if you were a teeny, tiny visitor. Pretend you're an invading germ and scoping out your host's anatomy for a cushy place to crash! From Spot Cool Stuff's travel blog:

Your Fantastic Voyage through the museum starts with an escalator ride into an open sore on your giant victim’s leg and ends among the pulsing neurons in his brain. Between those two points, you will watch cheese being digested in the intestines and explore the ventricles of the heart. Your kids can bounce up and down on the rubber tongue (they’ll love the background burping noises) while you take in various scents wafting through the giant nose. Perhaps the most unusual display is the hologram of sperm fertilizing an egg, viewed via 3D glasses.

Sounds like the makings of a great game don't it? I can see the box set promo copy now:

Take a fantastic journey through a living labyrinth, kill cancer cells--and take their stuff!

I suppose spaceships are still okay, but they must be TINY. Watch out for Zoidbergs.

Get started with some Microsurgeon skill training for your PCs:



Mix in some source material to flesh out your MINI-campaign:

• Fantastic Voyage (book and film--FYI, they're making a new on for 2013)
• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (film, TV show, Rick Moranis FTW!)
• Innerspace (film)
• Grays Anatomy (the reference, not the soap)
• The Atom (Comics; Ray Palmer fits the bill, Henry Pym and Janet van Dyne aren't quite small enough)
• Micronauts (comic book and toys)
• Osmosis Jones (buddy-cop, animated film starring a white blood cell and a Tylenol gel-cap!)
• Giant-sized microbes (plush germs!)

Let's kick off the new blog with a little theme music!




Archived April 1

Exonauts Joins the X-plorers!

IT'S HAPPENING! If you haven't heard by now, X-plorers 2.0 is in the works and yours truly has signed on to help Star Admiral Adams at Brave Halfling Publishing get it to the launch pad. I'm currently cleaning up the players guide and readying it for layout.
I'm absolutely STOKED about working on the new edition, which will include a saddle-stitched manual, featuring some brand new, fantastic artwork from Peter Mullen. The book will provide Dave Bezio's original rules as a base "kit" for users to really make it their own.

Following that, Brave Halfling has several other goodies in the pipeline:

• "Wreack Tech", an original adventure module by Bill De Franza (who is also lending a hand with the editing for the manual)
• Upcoming supplements and settings material
• "Galactic Troubleshooters", a sci-fi RPG fanzine, that will accept submitted material (kinda' like Fight On!)

For my part, I'm also helping with the Referee Section of the book and I'm working on my own "flavors" of the game. I've already begun one, with much more material on the way. For those of you who already own the first edition, help yourselves to the downloads at right: the compiled Random Space Finds posts and the sci-fi skill conversion PDFs.

I have to say that in getting to know John--he's an all-around, stellar guy and it's great to work with someone with so much enthusiasm. The game itself has a ton of potential and we're just hoping to do it justice and give gamers the ability to dive in and warpspeed into adventure!

The countdown has begun!

January is Flash Gordon Month on Exonauts!

Image: Wikipedia

According to Wikipedia, January 8th is the 77th anniversary of the first appearance of Alex Raymond's much-beloved, space swashbuckler, Flash Gordon. Flash has long been a favorite of mine (as you might imagine) and with the loss of erstwhile Flash artist Al Williamson last year, I'd wanted to do a series of posts the character. Henceforth, I declare January 2011 to be Flash Gordon Month! At least once a week I will feature an FG post, some art, and maybe a surprise or two.

Stay tuned space cadets!

A slight interruption

So, at the beginning of the month I was all psyched about getting back to the blogosphere after some reoccurring computer virus nastiness. Well fate intervened and took one look at my eagerness and promptly blasted it into atoms by snapping the hinge on my laptop, thus rendering it a flop-top.

While the computer itself still works, the monitor is shot. Factor in the holiday, an uptick in real-life work, and a new RPG side project, and it's no wonder the lot of blogs lain fallow for a few weeks. This past weekend I remedied the situation by picking up a new little netbook to get me by and I'm quite pleased with it. I finally finished transferring my project files to it last night, so blogging will resume shortly. Thanks for hangin' in there.

As a consolation, I offer this sweet collection of retro-space art. Enjoy!

New Series debuting Sunday: FAR-OUT FINDS!

With the release of the first 30 posts of Random Space Finds via PDF (see box at right), I thought it would be nice to flesh out some other items I've had on the back burner for a while.

I've been meaning to amp up the "Far Out-ness" of the blog's motto, and so I'm calling these new items "Far-Out Finds". One of the many things I learned while working on the space junk posts was that a few ideas seemed to necessitate (deserve?) some expanded description.

What are "Far-out Finds"?
The new series will focus on rare and unique artifacts that might be treasure or trap in nature (or both!). They may be found floating out in the black or hidden on some lost, lonely planet (hence the lack of "space" in the title). Whatever their nature, they're meant to provide a MacGuffin for your adventures.

I cheated a few weeks ago and gave you a sneak peak. While that post might appear more randomized, I can tell you that the items I've got in mind are more descriptive and may or may not come with stats.

I'm not great with statting, but when I do, I make them as generic as possible by using X-plorers and D&D specs when applicable. I try to keep it light so you can still imagine the hell out of it!

Fans of Random Space Finds shouldn't fret though, I'll still sprinkle in a few RSF posts. In any case, we'll get started tomorrow with the first in the series...

Expiscor Eternus!

Random Space Finds: The First 30 Posts now compiled!

Well kids it's been 30 some-odd posts of random space junk cluttering up your info scanners, and to make things easy--and to commemorate how long I've been frying my brain coming up with stuff--I thought I'd do a "collected works" for you to download (see the box at right).

My dream was to have a flashier version with some artwork and a nice layout, but that will have to wait until I can get some artists on board. I didn't want to wait to get it online so consider this version 1.0, the very much no-frills edition.

I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to let me know if you ever use them.

P.S. Congrats to ze bullete for guessing correct. ;)

An apology post where I bribe readers with news and interwebs finds

Greetings Exonauts!

Your captain is still alive, if only somehow stranded on a savage planet, battling, well...the random, tragic banality of life. Most recently, my mother was quite ill and hospitalized. Fortunately, she's out of the woods now and I've diverted all power back to main thrusters.

As a result of blasting out of the time-sucking vortex that included the previously mentioned, plus a convoy of visiting friends and relatives, and still adjusting to my new role at work--the blogs have gone hungry. Never fear, they will rebound soon.

Please accept the following offerings as I adjust trajectory back to this sector....

Exhibit A: Monster Island News has begun a lovely feature entitled 100 Greatest Monsters from Movies and Television. The first 10 are highlighted and include the 50 foot woman, Reptilicus, various kaiju, and my personal favorites from Night of the Lepus:

...it's like a wacky Monsters Manual waiting for stats (have at it!).

Exhibit B:

...a wonderful space battle by Don Newton for a 70s sci-fi comic, found over a Fantasy Ink, a blog you should all be following.

Exhibit C: Rad, new sci-fi webzine FLURB, filled with fiction by well-knowns and not-so's, as well as art.

Exhibit D:  Trey's most excellent post over at From the Sorcerer's Skull on Dan Brereton, reminded me of one of my fav ever pieces of weird sci-fantasy art (yes, it's watermarked, it's from Mr. B's Deviant Art page):

  ...which reminds me I need to pick up some of the Nocturnals TPBs.

More soon!

Why is June 8, 2012 important to you?

Because that's the day John Carter arrives on f#cking Mars!!!!!!!

Hardcover Flash Gordon Anthologies Coming in August and December!

Dark Horse Comics is releasing its first FULL COLOR hardcover anthology of vintage Flash Gordon comics, Flash Gordon Comic Book Archive 1, on August 11! That's less than a month away people!! This is great news for pulp and sci-fi fans as these editions include art by classic writers/artists like Jack Lehti, Paul Norris, Frank Thorne, and more. (Thorne also worked on Mighty Samson which is getting it's own anthology in September.)

Here's the cover and some details:

• Release date: August 11, 2010 
• Vintage Flash Gordon from 1947 through 1953
• Full color,
• 312 pages
• Hardcover
• 6 5/8" x 10 3/16"

You can can also pre-order the book from Amazon.

The second installment is scheduled at the tail-end of December (really, after Christmas?!). Book two is the one that's probably going to ring familiar with people--it sports quite the creator pedigree: Al Williamson, Archie Goodwin, Gil Kane, and Mac Raboy. The look of these hearkens back to Flash's roots in the 1930s and Williamson's broad appeal instigated a bit of a resurgence of interest in the character.

Here's the cover and lowdown on Volume 2:

• Release date: December 29, 2010
• King Comics issues from 1966+
• Full color
• 312 pages
• Hardcover
• 7" x 10" 

Both books retail for $50, which is steep for any book, so pre-order if you can and get them for around $30.

I've collected several original comics, mainly from the King series over the years and I have to say they are a real treat. We've put them in heavy-duty slip cases and propped them up around our kitchen (which has kind of a retro sci-fi/space theme) along with some of Al's later work with Marvel.

I'm missing several issues, so these new anthologies will be a great way to see the whole series in one book and with a consistent presentation. These babies are going straight to the TOP of my wishlist!

Beam Me Up...to Canada!

Through the wonder and power of modern blogging/wormhole technology I've scheduled a few posts while I'm in Toronto for work next week. Random space finds has resumed it's regular Sunday schedule and will be followed by a few other posts throughout the week. I've programed Eddie here to keep an eye on things so no funny business.

While I doubt I'll get a chance to hit any comics or games shops when I'm in Toronto, I did a little homework anyway and dug up a few near my hotel should the occasion present itself. If you've got suggestions feel free to comment below. Also, please continue to drop in and comment on posts--I'll do my best to check-in and respond back!

Oh Canada, here I come!