The vampire makes a grand entrance

He's late ... but he always arrived fashionably late, especially when the best vampire hunters in the business are after him.

He's magnificently arrogant. Rock stars don't know the half of it. And he's as outrageously dangerous as he's disturbingly intelligent. He's drop-dead gorgeous, and he knows he is. He's immortal, and close to indestructible...

Call him Vlad.

Because he full name is Vladislav Nikoleyevitch Stolychniev ... and that's too hard to get your tongue around in the wee small hours of the morning, when you're hunting vampires in creepy old buildings, and you came out ... fashionably dressed.

Horace and Hortense Herschey have been poised in the creepy old cloisters for the last hour, waiting for Vladislav Nikoleyevitch Stolychniev, vampire, who is currently over an hour late, and we're not currently sure which of these siblings Vlad fancies. Dressed the way these two are, they're apt to find out, nudge, wink...

Jade, 13 August (Friday 13th, in fact!)

The vampire approaches ... I think

"When did you say he'd be here?"

"Well, Willie the Weasel said he'd be showing up here about 2:00am."

"He's late."

"I know he's late, damnit! You think vampires keep to a schedule? He's not going to be johnny-on-the-spot and get killed bang on time for you, just because you're in a hurry!

"And another thing, why couldn't you wear something decent?" Dressed like that, he's going to think you fancy him!"

"Fancy me? I should be so lucky. You know he fancies you! And anyway, what's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

"You mean, what you're almost wearing."

"Same difference. You have a problem with my clothes?"

"Not when I can actually see them. It's a good thing your mother didn't live to see the way you dress to go out hunting vampires!"

"She was your mother too, damnit!"

"I know. I was there, remember?"

"You're no fun at all."

"It's not supposed to be 'fun.' It's supposed to be -- well whatever it is hunting vampires is supposed to be!"

"Yeah, well, we've been standing here so long, I'm freezing."

"It shows."

"It -- what?"

"Shows. Figure it out, dummy. I told you, you should have put something decent on. Warmer."

"What was that?!"

"I said, you should have put something warmer on!"

"No, you moron, that! Did you hear that?"

"What?

"I don't know ... but I heard something. I think he's going to show up at last. The next time you see Weasel Willie, tell him to get a watch."

"Well, if he's going to show up at last -- stop striking poses, will you? You look like an idiot."

"So do you. Look at you, standing there like a pair of scissors!"

"Scissors? And what are you supposed to be?"

"Vampire bait, dummy. I'm going to distract him, and while he's busy looking at me, you can hammer the stake through his giblets."

"And what makes you think he's going to be looking at you?"

"Because I'm the one striking the pose."

"And almost wearing something that looks like a small explosion in a potting shed."

"Say -- what?"

"Say -- next time you could try actually wearing something!"

And then --

The Vampire Makes a Grand Entrance...

*** *** ***

Horace and Hortense Herschey have been poised in the creepy old cloisters for the last hour, waiting for Vladislav Nikoleyevitch Stolychniev, vampire, who is currently over an hour late, and we're not actually sure which of these siblings Vlad fancies. Dressed the way these two are, they're ... apt to find out. Ahem.

Then again, this is what you wear to hunt vampires in the twenty-third century.

Except in the dead of winter, course ... ouch.

Jade, 12 August

***Posted by MK: my connection is intermittent, too slow for this. Seriously, guys, I've got dialup speeds. How are you expected to do anything these days, at 1990 dialup speeds?!!!

Vampire hunter in the twenty-third century -- again

Vampire hunting in the twenty-third century again ... we saw the babe the other day, so it only stands to reason that the hunk can't be far away, right? Right.

So, what does one wear to hunt vampires a couple of centuries from now? Turns out, not much. So long as you've got a gorgeous bod, why not flaunt it? What's good enough for Hollywood...

I guess in the twenty-third century we'll all have been genetically engineered so that the love handles and knock knees and bald heads and buck teeth just don't happen -- of course, the downside to this is that when everyone on the planet is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous, no one will notice the beautiful people anymore, because there aren't any people who're not beautiful!

Anyway -- so here's Michael 4 hunting vampires in a tiny scrap of iridescent silk and a very nice pair of boots. At least he had the common sense to put his knee pads on, which is more than you can say for Hortense the Vampire Slayer the other day, who seems to have gone out to hunt the undead in her lingerie, most of which you can see through. Hmm.

Here's another interesting snipped of trivia about the twenty-third century: names like Hortense and Horace are the height of chic. This here hunk --

This is Horace Herschey, and Hortense is his twin sister. Horace and Hortense Hershey, brother and sister, second generation in a grand clan of vampire hunters. Their parents were Hector and Harriet Hershey, who clocked up 2,487 vampires before they were, themselves, clocked up by an ace human hunter called Vladislav Nikoleyevitch Stolychniev. Try saying that three times fast after a couple of margaritas.

Join me tomorrow, and I'll see if I can persuade Horace and Hortense to appear in the same shot ... and then I might just see if I can conjure Vlad into being.


Jade, 11 August

Welcome to Halfway ... welcome *back* to Mel Keegan's HELLGATE!

"Welcome to halfway ... it's a pile of scrap iron "halfway to nowhere" ... but we like it. My name is Ramon, and I'll be your guide."

Yes, you guessed -- I'm inspired by the segment of Hellgate I just received from Mel Keegan. This is the opening segment of the fifth book of a six book series, and I'm all a-tingle with anticipation!

Ramon was introduced in the last book. He's a "shooter" from the free port of Ulrand, working for Fernando Wang, on the Krait. But as we all know, the Krait is no place to be -- and if you recall from the scene where Vaurien and Jazinsky went into Ulrand city bottom recruiting for a mission, Ramon has the hots for Sergei van Donne, this one here, with the shades and gloves...

That's Sergei on the left: the original six-foot-six blond bombshell. That's Richard Vaurien on the right, reading Sergei the riot act as they walk aboard the Wastrel, Richard's ship. Sergei's Mako is docked alongside the Krait, way down on the bottom of the Halfway docking rink -- and Sergei is flanked by the two hot young guys we met in Ulrand citybottom. His copilot, Rafe Byrne (I'll be modeling him very, very soon ... can't resist), and this one, Ramon. (See more of Richard and Sergei in the full series of renders from which this one was drawn.

2024 edit: Vaurien renders up soooo nicely. Here he is again, in a render from March 20, 2012, on a new computer that allowed for faaaar better picture integrity (and that's Neil Travers behind him) --

Boy, did that new computer make a difference in how I rendered! Here's what I was doing six months later, in September 2012 -- Richard Vaurien and Sergei van Donne again, but looks at the difference in quality. We've now left the realms of comic book style art ... these renders now have something of the look out outtakes from CG movie:

 

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Being inspired, I wanted to model a new character, and this is the result. Ramon is something like Hispanic-Eurasian, one of the exotics, sensual and soooo dangerous.

Damn, I love these books! It's going to be a genuine privilege to publish the last two volumes in this series, and then collect the whole shebang together and reissue them in monster hardcovers. Very excited to be back in this universe. If you want to know more about Hellgate, this is a good place to start, with just one caveat: be aware of GLBT content.

Jade, 9 August

***Posted by MK: my connection is intermittent, too slow for this. Seriously, guys, I've got dialup speeds. How are you expected to do anything these days, at 1990 dialup speeds?!!!