If Red has a superpower it would be fearlessness! Nothing frightens her at all! Be it fast moving steam powered contraptions, cog driven mechanical monsters or just plain dark allies with thugs. Red’s backstory will eliminate why she became such a daredevil. Only a few things that really holds her back and that is she forward thinking in a backwards world when it comes to gender equality and her loyalty to Alexander.

I got the inspiration from my wife’s driving. It’s amazing she never gets a ticket. From there Red has formed to be a larger then life version of my wife in many ways. In fact my wife has started helping me write the comic and her own side project a novel about Red that will parallel the comic in many ways. We hope to use the novel to shed some light in to the inner workings of the character. (Novel is still in infancy stages and will not be out for some time …. lets finish the webcomic first)

We do have a love interest planned for Red .. but we are going to let that out some time in the second book

Tales of the Brass Griffin . In a time that Might-Have-Been but Never Was, steam power and clockwork mechanisms commanded the might of science and harnessed nature. Fantastic creatures were common, myths were truth and airships crossed the skies. This is the story of one of those airships.

Tales of the Brass Griffin » About the Tales

So feedback is always important and fun .. I would like to see is the Star of Steampunk Adventures.!

Please feel free to download copy and distribute this comic as long as it is for free  Bittorrent, File share.. Not only do I not care if you pirate this PDF I am begging you to!! Please help spread the word about my comic.

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Alexander Townsend was my name in the SCA during my early twenties. The whole womanizing scoundrel yah that was accurately me. Though I worked very hard not to be “the other man”. Alex has no problems being a home wrecker (he would rather not get caught for safety reasons)

Alex tends to only be brave when there is a woman present to awe of his feats of bravery! I was such a coward as a kid. So many fears so many things I was afraid of movie theaters , heights ,talk to more then two people at a time, wolves, dark (when I was 15). Alex is my way of poking fun at myself.

Later on Alex’s issues are going to become a major plot line. This is something that is going to be similar to events that happened in my life. I am of corse going to change the plot change events to make the story more fun. You will have to read the comic to get the full story.

Alex like any hero in steampunk is not without his good points. He is an accomplished fencer (he is not aware of how good he is. That would require courage. ) he is very loyal to Red and his crew and sometimes this loyalty will actually override his overall fear. As much as he is a womanizer he does not feel women are inferior this has a large part to do with the various bumps and bruises he has received over the years working alongside Red. Alex is also the master of most social situations as long as it involves charm.

Like most steampunk adventurers Alex likes gadgets. Alex had Reginald install a revolver into hilt of is sword to eliminate anyone who might be able to best Alex in a sword duel. Alex has actually won more fights with the revolver then the blade (this is more due to lack of bravery then skill in fencing)

I have always been a fan of George Lucas. I remember as most geeks growing up Star Wars. Was my obsession so much so my father would not allow me to own the toys because I would “Daydream in school”. Ha! I day dreamed in school because I was 9 (shows what he knows)

With that said I took a long time thinking of why I liked the first three movies so much (as in Star Wars ,Empire strikes back and Return of the Jedi) and even with my obsession felt the last three were almost unworthy of the ticket price. So I have collected my thoughts and compiled a list of things I learned.

- creating for the love to create Always makes a better product then creating something for the money.

- Some mysteries should never be answered (metacolians !!?!?!?) keep the veil on. The mystery is so much better. Allow the audience to draw their own conclusions it will at least make sense to them

-with special effects being a dime a dozen and story and original ideas on the endangered species list in Hollywood. go for the story when was the last time you went to the zoo to discover only house cats and mutts??

- special effects and pretty pictures will amaze people but witty banter will create catch phrases that will live for generations (“laugh it up fuzzball” ” I have a bad feeling about this ” “who you calling scruffy” “use the force luke” “Stay on target …. Stay on target…. They came… from behind!!….. Boom!! ) Having a hard time remembering anything from the last three films there is a reason for that!

-Take the time to have your audience invest into your characters after all it’s all about them.

-If the Wookies are going to defeat the empire on a forest planet stick with that. Do not replace them with ewoks because you can sell teddybears.

-let your antiheroes be antiheros Han shot first!

- if you make a bad ass villain like Boba fett don’t have him go out like a bitch come on jetpack malfunction? Because the blind guy bumped into him. Darth maul died while fighting two Jedi at the same time, and he even killed one! Now that is badass!

-comedy relief does not required to be annoying. Jar Jar

-Keep the rights to the merchandizing. One word “Legos”

-Hero need not get the girl… Granted it was his sister

-billions can ruin a good thing

-Women can kick ass too. Or at least strangle a hut with chain while wearing the worlds most famous slave girl outfit. (Jabba obviously did not know the safe word)

- taking the time to have a back story even if it’s not in that film can really flesh out the characters . Obi
Wan is my Fav charter ever. I actually liked him in both films. Because he was the most developed charature.

- don’t stretch to tie connections. Anican Building C3PO really?

-Make awesome villains Darth Vader & Darth Maul. Count Duku was only frightening in a creepy uncle kind of way. A villain should strike fear into the audience at the thought of their fav hero meeting them.

-Take the time with all the details. As everything in the films looked used. Like they did not just out of the prop makers workshop. This wad groundbreaking for the time.

-action is the space between two points of character development. (first three films)

-awesome music is a must. A new example is “Game of Thrones” the music is amazing. Good music will set the mood for everything else.

-spreading the story into all your other products and leaving gaping holes in the plot line does make it so people do want to purchase those products. But it alienates other preventing them from becoming die hard fans.

Muppets. No amount of computer animation will ever replace Jim Hensions/ Frank Oz version of Yoda. Muppets there is just so much heart and craftsmanship put into every puppet.

So I find myself getting to parts of the story where things can get graphically sexy. Let’s face it Alexander is a “man slut”. His pursuit of the latest steampunk bimbo would surely raise an eyebrow. The polyamorous air pirates and their non-monogamous ways and a touch of BDSM would also make it so readers under the age of 18 should never read my comic.

Here is my question. How much is too much? How much skin turns my story into comic porn? I am writing a story not providing excuses for nudity and sex. I have seen a few online comics that have some plot but it almost seems that somebody is getting laid every other page.

Looking at other great stories like Game of thrones , true blood, and Australia’s Underbelly (just to be clear i have a lot of writing before i could get that good at story telling) the sex and the nudity seem to fit the story. I have noted that there is more nudity towards the early part of the season. I really can’t think of a time where the sex was purely gratuitous. Sure there could have been a way to suggest what happened but let’s face it it’s fun to watch. (you know you love it) the point is that the nudity is such a part of the story it does not seem to be a boobie flick. Unless you are one of those people who find anything other then the missionary position offensive.

So here are my options
Option one : Go all out!! All kinds of nudity!! No fig leafing just draw the story as I see it.
Pros : readership will surely go up! Look nakid people!!!
Cons: alienate those who are more moderate in their thinking

Option two : Make two versions. Everything that I am doing is going to be story based so nudity need not be needed to tell the overall story. Then sell both the edited and adult versions making the adult version available only through paid subscription or print version (also keeps kids from reading it)
Pros : more revenue options
Cons: holes in story & extra work

Option three : do best to still tell the story but try to keep it clean.
Pros : wider audience
Cons : is it really what story I am trying to tell.

So tell me what you think! Email me artofpaint@gmail.com

So steampunk adventures was always intended to be a print book. I use the web media to promote and offer something for free. I have been a fan of lulu Self publishing. Why not start now. I could publish chapter one and see what happens.

So I had chapter one exported to PDF and started a horrendous upload to lulu . Took several hours to finally get everything uploaded (by the way I am in Australia so Internet is metered.. So it used up a portion of my bandwidth ) and guess what ???? Not enough pages!!

I am not the kind of guy to get upset for no reason. Ok I wanted to upload . Ok not enough pages . Let’s think about this for a second. This is the same stuff that is loaded on the website. Why would someone want to buy it? Then I started thinking. Let’s reward those folks who buy the printed version with something extra!!!

So here is where your feedback is going to shape how I do this! What do you want to see in extra content.

I don’t know the price of the book will be yet. But I want to make it worth it!

I have made a list of a few things we talked about and a few things I thought of after I got on the train.

• 30 min of Facebook a day! No more then that. You are not going to miss anything if you wait till tomorrow to check out status messages. Facebook can be a real time waster!
• Get a small sketchbook and put it in your bag. I was doing this for some time till I got a really big one that does not fit in my bag. I need to get another one
• Set at least one night a week devoted to your creative outlet. Tell your family that you are going to be working on this and to respect that.
• Clean house the day before your night to be creative. Get all the little stuff out of the way. Try to remove distractions
• Find somewhere else to draw. Say like a coffee shop. I am now taking my computer into the studio to have a place to paint and work on the steampunk comic.
• Create an alarm that reminds you to draw. I also have a key word (not associated with drawing) that media uses often, and when I hear that word it reminds me that I should be drawing. Example “extreme”
• Get feedback!! Post your images on a blog or a webcomic (hint hint) see that people are actually looking at your comic/sketches/writing and get hate mail if you stop!
• Get someone to be your pest! Someone who will pester you when you are not producing something.
• Have a night where other creative people come over to work on their projects.
• Draw something new.
  Don’t draw the same think you have been drawing since you were 14. All that is just going to do is add to your rut! Try some still life. Draw your lover , your cat . Your cat napping on the lap of your lover while they are looking at still life paintings . You get the idea.

So the point is to get motivated and to do so for longer then a week. Get feedback get going!! DOOOO IT !!! So do you have a buddy who is also creative that they never seem to produce any work? THAT is the person you want to be your creative buddy! This could go for anything really. Making steampunk Jewelery , Music , Writing books , Making films, anything that is creative. Who knows you might even do a collaboration

So last night I had a bodypainting gig here in Sydney. It was for a screening party for Kino Kabaret Sydney 2011. I have to tell you I was impressed. There was not a lot of bodypainting to be done because everyone was glued to the screen. I’m not complaining because I got the chance to watch as well , having clients to paint on would have resulted in me missing all the creativity. The idea is to to create short films over a 32 hour period! 32 HOURS !!! Most people cant even make plans to leave town in that little amount of time. No experience , No budget just get out there and create. So watching these films when you put that into consideration were very good. These amateur film makers basically got an idea and did it!!! Key word “DID” not talked about , Not dreamed about .. DID!! To top that all off they got to show their hard work to a room full of other creative people (You know a few of them were very nervous)

“Participation fee is just $30 which gives you access to editing labs, cameras, lighting and anything else we can put together for you! “

So basically the whole festival is about getting off your ass and getting something done! The way I look at it .. with only 36 hours to put together a film and actually completing it at some point the creator may think “Hey I did this with only 36 hours no time to write a script or really think about the project . what would happen if I actually too the time to create something? I bet you they would pick up the camera and start working on it.

“This festival can be a great tool for people wanting to meet others within the industry, build on your showreel without the stress of budgets and have an amazing experience along the way.

Applications forms can be found here – just fill it in, let us know which session(s) you would like to be a part of and send it off to kino@kinosydney.com.”

http://www.kinosydney.com/kino-kabaret-2011/

Just to be clear I was just a bystander who just happen to be there with my brushes. Kino kabaret is not paying me or even knows I exist. I’m writing this because they impressed me so much that I had to give a shout out! So here is to those creative people who stick their necks out to create! Who take ideas and do something about it ! And here is to those who help motivate us lazy creative folks into action! Kino Kabaret my hats off to you!

I think I’m going to sign up for the next one!

Here is some Links to help you get find out more about Kino

http://www.kinosydney.com/kino-kabaret-2011/ Sydney

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kino_%28movement%29 Wikipidia

http://twitter.com/#!/kinosydney Sydney’s Twitter Page