The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo is less than two weeks away and I’m starting to get pretty excited! But not excited enough that I will end up missing my weekly blog. Now you may wonder why I would end up opening my blog with that statement. It’ll be clear enough once you’ve read further.

As is always the case I will open this week’s meanderings with an update on my various projects. I have been very busy this week and quite pleased with how my projects are turning out!

The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo is less than two weeks away and I’m starting to get pretty excited! But not excited enough that I will end up missing my weekly blog. Now you may wonder why I would end up opening my blog with that statement. It’ll be clear enough once you’ve read further.

As is always the case I will open this week’s meanderings with an update on my various projects. I have been very busy this week and quite pleased with how my projects are turning out!

I started writing a zombie short story called ‘100’ on Monday. Even though I haven’t written a single word this weekend, when I left off on Friday the story was sitting at 10,620 words. In all honesty I do not know how long the story will end up being, but I’m guessing at this point it time probably around 15,000 words.

I just hope that my brother-in-law will like it! I doubt his kids will though, as they are not depicted as heroic or anything. Just kids.

That wasn’t the only thing I worked on though. I currently have only three issues left with my editor Greg for upcoming Wisdom from the Wastelands. They are Alternate Types of Radiation New Races 2, and artifact quality.

I’ve mentioned the Alternate radiation types before, and as for the New Races, it contains 5 more races to be used in the Mutant Future campaign. Lastly artifact quality is very much like the old + system for Dungeons and Dragons. Think of magical weapons and armor. The higher quality the item, the better it is.

So on Friday I took a quick look at the material that I had in various states of completion. I already knew that my Optional Combat Rules 2 was all but finished, so I quickly cut some material from it and did some last minute edits. After that I had to write up a few new entries for the Underwater Rules issue. I sent both of those off to my editor so that he could administer his tender touch.

And much to my surprise and delight, I wrote my third (well technically fourth) High Tech weapons issue in one sitting yesterday.

So now my editor has a total of six issues in his hands for editing. But wait! That’s not all. Today I got bit by the creative bug and wrote about 75% of yet another issue from scratch. This one deals with alternate rules covering going up a level in Mutant Future. I modified the bonus table from the core book slightly and then came up with tables for all the core races, and I even wrote up the basic rules to cover ‘paths’, essentially basic classes - and I do mean basic classes. The funny thing is, this particular issue has the potential to grow into two or three. I will have to wait and see though. 

There is also another issue that is kind of floating around in my head about harvesting toxins and other such items from monsters presented in the core book. I have a feeling that I just might start writing this one up next weekend.

We shall see. My mood is rather fickle at times and as such one thing that catches my fancy and wants to be worked on one day could suddenly be shunted to the background and I begin work on something else. A perfect example is doing the re-write on that Alien’s novella that I have mentioned on and off the past few weeks.

One last thing covering my work before I get to my usual observations. I know that many of my readers follow the conversions that I put up on the D-Infinity site every day. I did a very quick count the other day and I’ve now posted approximately 140 free conversions. Some have been very useful and could easily be incorporated into an existing game, while others – well maybe not so easily. And I’m currently only on letter ‘L’.

By the time I’m finished with the reposting, I should be over 200 free monsters.

Hey, you’re welcome! =)

Alright, I already mentioned the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. Every year I have managed to attend this expo. I have been there from the very first expo, which at that time had been a single day long and attracted approximately 3500 visitors.

This year the expo has grown to encompass 4 days and we will have over 70,000 attendees, literally 20 times the amount of people who came for the very first expo. I’ve been fortunate enough to have obtained a VIP pass for the past four years and that has really made one hell of a difference in my experience - although it really has caused some considerable damage to my wallet!

This year is going to be extra special to me because nearly all the actors from my all-time favorite movie ‘Aliens’ will be in attendance, including Sigorney Weaver.   There is even going to be a special event called ‘Alien’s EXPOSed’ which I will be attending. I can finally get my photos with pretty much the whole cast. Actually if someone is willing to (which I am not) you can do just that, but it’ll cost you $460!  I’d much rather pick and choose the actors I get my picture with, and besides that way it’s more intimate.

And hopefully the gentleman at Spatcave Productions will have my Colonial Marine armor ready in time for the expo, but I won’t lie, I’m not holding my breath when it comes to that, but I hope he can.

Now for the main reason I bring this up. Many years ago in the infancy of many of these kinds of events, the actors who appeared rarely ever charged for autographs or photos. It’s a sad state of affairs that today that is no longer the case. To me that is greedy. To me, these actors seemed to have lost touch with the fact that if it was not for the fans, they would not be where they are today. Sometimes the rates – no, let’s be totally honest here, most of the time the rates that are charged are only reasonable. Typically the actors will charge $30 for the photo and $10-30 for an autograph.

Most of the time the artists and lesser known actors, as well as the voice actors, will autograph items for free of charge.

But that is not always the case. Some charge absolutely outrageous amounts. A perfect example is Ian McDiarmid. He is best known for his role as Emperor Palatine in the Star Wars movies. This actor was charging $105 (or $125) for his photo and god only knows how much for his autograph last year.

And this year Sigorney Weaver is charging a whopping $175 for her photo! I don’t even want to know how much she is going to charge for her autograph.

Ok, Mrs. Weaver, you’re already rich, do you really have to charge your fans that much?!?

On the flip side I sort of see why she is doing this. She is hugely popular and there are going to be thousands that will want to have their photo with her. By charging so much, essentially only the hardcore fans or those with more money than sense will bother. This will greatly reduce the number of people she has to deal with.

You may ask if I’m one of those idiots?  Well, my son did offer to pay for half of it… so we shall see in exactly two weeks’ time.

Still I would really like to see that these actors would go back to their roots and stop being so damn greedy! Yes I’m sure there are other reasons that they do this and probably quite legitimate reasons as well but frankly to me it’s disgraceful.

Yet… and yet I still fork out the cash for this.

Does that make me an idiot? Does it make me part of the problem? I’d say yes on both accounts.

One thing I will try to do when it comes to the upcoming expo is a nightly blog, describing the expo and my personal experiences. I have considered doing this the past two years but by the time I got home each night, I was usually too wiped to bother. I shall see this year, and maybe I will be able to do so.

However I won’t make any promises.

I realize that my usual blog is running just a bit longer than usual, so I’ll only touch on one last topic. Last week I had a chance to watch the trailer for the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action flick.

Okay, straight up folks, sometimes I can handle minor changes taking place in the background or the characters themselves. For example, when the first Spider-Man movies came out I was sort of fine with the organic web-shooters. Then with the X-men movies I was ok with the way they altered Mystique.

But even if it is cheesy as hell, having the TMNT becoming mutant’s due to toxic goo was one thing. But I GREW UP with them! The comics and then the cartoons. I am seriously unimpressed with the fact that they are now being touted as having been created!  Also there was something about the whole trailer that just did not stick well with me.

Some of the buzz on the net is that people are upset with the way they look, how their physical appearance has changed. You know, that’s pretty much just cosmetic and even that does not bother me. But radically changing their background? I bet they even did away with Splinter! There was no sign of him that I saw in the trailer.

And don’t get me started on how they changed Superman in the latest big screen version. Come on now, that body count?!?

Sometimes changing little bits and pieces are okay, other times certain things should be left well enough alone. IF it’s not broken, DON’T FIX IT!!

Anyhow, that’s about it for this week. As always I would like to invite you to like my author page on Facebook. Sitting at 77 as of this week, so it’s growing, albeit very slowly. I hope that will change in the future.

Until next Sunday, peace!

Chris Van Deelen is the author of the Skirmisher Publishing LLC sourcebook Creatures of the Tropical Wastes sourcebook, co-author of its Wisdom from the Wastelands game supplement and contributor to the 'Sword of Kos: Hekaton' Anthology.