Cowboy Bar Brawl

Lets guess what game I've been playing? That's right! Pokemo- no. Clearly. Red Dead Redemption 2. And its magnificent. I'm as happy as a pig in poop just ambling down Big Valley or along the precarious trails in the Grizzlies.

I've always loved a good western. The idea of a wild and unexplored world is hugely appealing, if somewhat romanticised.

As well as Red Dead, I've also been working my way through Cormac Mcarthy's border trilogy, and listening to Serious Sam Barrett's music.

So I'm somewhat infatuated with the whole mythology of westerns right now.

Yee-haw.

Watch this!

Catching up and keeping pace with the late Terry Pratchett's Discworld books since the early nineties resulted in this world has being a constant source of inspiration for well over 20 years.

Aware that Narrativia were casting a watchful eye over the future of the Discworld franchise, I've been cautiously confident that any further instalments will be curated as well as any adaption can be. Which is why I was excited when the long gestating The Watch series was finally greenlit.

With casting yet to be announced I thought I'd have a quick stab at some character concepts using actors I would like to see in the roles.

Vimes could be played by a number of people who are working right now. Sean Pertwee or Bean would be great but something about Hugh Laurie's recent, more sinister turns made me think he would suit the role.

Agnua. I think Dormer is probably too busy these days but she has a sort of feline look that I think could translate perfectly to a werewolf.

Mckenzie Crook's turn in the Pirates movies felt very much like Nobbs, working along side a character not dissimilar to Colon,who I think could be played perfectly by John Thompson.

Carrot could have easily be Damion Lewis but felt he was too suave whereas Russel Tovey could bring a more naive charm to the role.

Either Rowan Atkinson playing the Patrician as a stoic sadist, or Mark Strong who seems to exude that dynamic in almost all of his roles.

I went too deep into this rabbit hole and after discussions with numerous friends and colleagues, produced a long cast list for almost all existing Discworld characters, so I may revisit this.

Regardless, I hope so hard the BBC nail this project and deliver the definitive Cinematic Discworld Universe.

Christmas, the coldest place to hide

Once again the might Last Exit To Nowhere had me back to produce their Christmas (or other seasonal excuse for a holiday) cards.

This year it was time for collective favourite, The Thing, to inspire a set of Little MacReady cards.

As always, the cards are beautifully printed and well worth sending to your favourite lover of scuttly-head, meat creatures.

And if your significant other has already been consumed by an alien meat beast, then there's always the other sets to chose from.

Hop to it!

Not aliens... yet.

Today NASA announced that they've found organic matter under an ancient lake bed on Mars, a strong indicator that the red planet was once home to life. Not bad for a 6yr old little* robot.

That is awesome!

Bloopy deep boop!

I think this picture went a little closer to Pixar's Wall E. than I initially intended, but I guess its unavoidable when dealing with a wheeled worker bot on a barren orange planet.

Curiosity's sister older sister, Opportunity, has been scouring the red planet for 14 years!

With further unmanned expeditions to Mars already in production, it looks like these two bots will have a little sister arriving soon, and it will continue to be a world populated only by robots until Elon Musk and his cronies invade in 2022.

We're slowly but surely colonising our neighbouring planet. 

'Baby steps Ellie, baby steps.'

*Surprisingly huge. Curiosity is 2.9M long, 2.7M wide and 2.2 meters high. I've lived in smaller rooms!

The return of F3-T7

Many, many moons ago I produced an image of an R2 unit painted in the colours of Boba Fett, and named him F3-7T.

Recently I was contacted by Simon Battel of the UK R2D2 builders club.

Hi Nick. I found a picture you did of a FETT R2D2 a couple of years ago and I liked it so much that I have made a full size remote version, I just thought I'd send you a picture for your approval.

He included the following pictures.

Simon goes on to say;

'There are a couple of minor differences to you drawing the main one being the name. I call this droid F3T7 and not F37T.'

Clearly Simon pays more attention to naming conventions than I do.

Regardless, it's a fantastic piece of work and I'm hoping somebody can sneak him into the forthcoming Fett movie.

May the 4th

When I saw pictures of the new Millennium Falcon from Solo, I was taken aback by how shiny and new she looked. Reluctantly I decided I liked her. Yet admitting to this feels like I'm cheating on the 'real' Falcon.

So here she is in one of her finest moments, about to erupt from the exploding Death Star.

May the 4th be with you.

Hypo full of Love

I was fortunate to see the mighty Alabama 3 again last weekend. Definitely one of the best nights out I've had in some time. They sit in the sweet spot that bridges my love of Dance, hiphop and folk. See.

Rev. D. Wayne and Larry Love front the band. Pretty sure the latter is the bastard offspring of Howard Marks, Keith Richards and the Devil.

Make it a priority to see them live.

Maced

Everyone is knocking about ideas for new Star wars films, including everything from Kenobi to Max Rebo (I genuinely heard a great idea for the latter...) but one character I've not heard much about is that bad motherhubbard Mace Windu.

Dead you say? Poppycock! Jedi literally jump thousands of feet for fun, so being tossed out of a window in battle is hardly a death sentence. I'm pretty sure he disappeared into the Coruscant underworld laying low until he can resurface at the coolest possible moment.

Last Jedi? Don't make me laugh.

X periment

**Edit: (Spoiler Alert) Well that was spectacular! Well played Space X!

Today will hopefully go down in history with the successful launch of Space X's Falcon Heavy Rocket. If it goes without a hitch, it will pretty much see us on the path to becoming a multi-planetary civilisation. That said, Elon Musk has stated there's a 'real good chance it won't make it to orbit'. (But it did! Yay!)

Regardless, this Falcon Heavy will pave the way for the BFR (Big F**king Rocket (actual Space X Terminology)) which will carry a manned missions to mars. Elon Musk has stated that he intends to send four of these beasts to Mars. With 100 people. On each. In 2024.

That boggles my tiny mind.

Its incredible to think we could be living on another world in my lifetime.

Best of luck today to all at Space X, its going to be one hell of achievement!

Or fireworks show.