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The slogan was written first by Banksy and then the pictures were painted round it by another graffiti artist.
Shrapnel 2 (1983 - 1985) - p. 227
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Ramon Llull ; c. 1232 – c. 1315; Anglicised Raymond Lully, Raymond Lull; in Latin Raimundus or Raymundus Lullus or Lullius) was a philosopher, logician, Franciscan tertiary and Majorcan writer. He is credited with writing the first major work of Catalan literature. Recently surfaced manuscripts show his work to have predated by several centuries prominent work on elections theory. He is also considered a pioneer of computation theory, especially given his influence on Leibniz.
Within the Franciscan Order he is honored as a martyr. He was beatified in 1847 by Pope Pius IX. His feast day was assigned to 30 June and is celebrated by the Third Order of St. Francis.
Llull was born into a wealthy family in Palma, the capital of the newly formed Kingdom of Majorca. James I of Aragon founded Majorca to integrate the recently conquered territories of the Balearic Islands (now part of Spain) into the Crown of Aragon. Llull's parents had come from Catalonia as part of the effort to colonize the formerly Almohad ruled island. As the island had been conquered militarily, all the Muslim population who had not been able to flee the conquering Christians had been enslaved, even though they still constituted a significant portion of the island's population.
In 1257 he married Blanca Picany, with whom he had two children, Domènec and Magdalena. Although he formed a family, he lived what he would later call the licentious and wasteful life of a troubadour.
Llull served as tutor to James II of Aragon and later became Seneschal (the administrative head of the royal household) to the future King James II of Majorca, a relative of his wife.
Conversion
In 1263 Llull experienced a religious epiphany in the form of a series of visions. He narrates the event in his autobiography Vita coaetanea ("Daily Life"):
Ramon, while still a young man and Seneschal to the King of Majorca, was very given to composing worthless songs and poems and to doing other licentious things. One night he was sitting beside his bed, about to compose and write in his vulgar tongue a song to a lady whom he loved with a foolish love; and as he began to write this song, he looked to his right and saw our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross, as if suspended in mid-air.
The vision came to him six times in all, leading him to leave his family, position, and belongings in order to pursue a life in the service of God. Specifically, he realized three intentions: to die in the service of God while converting Muslims to Christianity, to see to the founding of religious institutions that would teach foreign languages, and to write a book on how to overcome someone's objections to being converted.
Nine years of solitude and early work
Following his epiphany Llull became a Franciscan tertiary (a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis), taking inspiration from Saint Francis of Assisi. After a short pilgrimage he returned to Majorca, where he purchased a Muslim slave from whom he wanted to learn Arabic. For the next nine years, until 1274, he engaged in study and contemplation in relative solitude. He read extensively in both Latin and Arabic, learning both Christian and Muslim theological and philosophical thought.
Between 1271 and 1274 he wrote his first works, a compendium of the Muslim thinker Al-Ghazali's logic and the Llibre de contemplació en Déu (Book on the Contemplation of God), a lengthy guide to finding truth through contemplation.
In 1274, while staying at a hermitage on Puig de Randa, the form of the great book he was to write was finally given to him through divine revelation: a complex system that he named his Art, which would become the motivation behind most of his life's efforts.
Llull's Art
His first elucidation of the Art was in Art Abreujada d'Atrobar Veritat (The Abbreviated Art of Finding Truth), in 1290.
After spending some time teaching in France and being disappointed by the poor reception of his Art among students, he decided to revise it. It is this revised version that he became known for. It is most clearly presented in his Ars generalis ultima or Ars magna ("The Ultimate General Art" or "The Great Art", published in 1305).
The Art operated by combining religious and philosophical attributes selected from a number of lists. It is believed that Llull's inspiration for the Ars magna came from observing Arab astrologers use a device called a zairja.
The Art was intended as a debating tool for winning Muslims to the Christian faith through logic and reason. Through his detailed analytical efforts, Llull built an in-depth theosophic reference by which a reader could enter any argument or question (necessarily reduced to Christian beliefs, which Llull identified as being held in common with other monotheistic religions). The reader then used visual aids and a book of charts to combine various ideas, generating statements which came together to form an answer.
Mechanical aspect
One of the most significant changes between the original and the second version of the Art was in the visuals used. The early version used 16 figures presented as complex, complementary trees, while the system of the Ars Magna featured only four, including one which combined the other three. This figure, a "Lullian Circle," took the form of a paper machine operated by rotating concentrically arranged circles to combine his symbolic alphabet, which was repeated on each level. These combinations were said to show all possible truth about the subject of inquiry. Llull based this notion on the idea that there were a limited number of basic, undeniable truths in all fields of knowledge, and that everything about these fields of knowledge could be understood by studying combinations of these elemental truths.
The method was an early attempt to use logical means to produce knowledge. Llull hoped to show that Christian doctrines could be obtained artificially from a fixed set of preliminary ideas. For example, the most essential table listed the attributes of God: goodness, greatness, eternity, power, wisdom, will, virtue, truth and glory. Llull knew that all believers in the monotheistic religions—whether Jews, Muslims or Christians—would agree with these attributes, giving him a firm platform from which to argue.
The idea was developed further for more Esoteric purposes by Giordano Bruno in the 16th century, and in the 17th century by the "Great Rationalist" Gottfried Leibniz, who wrote his dissertation about Llull's Art and integrated it into his metaphysics and philosophy of science. Leibniz gave Llull's idea the name "ars combinatoria", by which it is now often known.
Some computer scientists have adopted Llull as a sort of founding father, claiming that his system of logic was the beginning of information science.
Llull and the Immaculate Conception
Following the favourable attitude of some Franciscan theologians to this truth, Llull's position on this subject was of great importance because it paved the way for the doctrine of Duns Scotus, whom he met in 1297, after which he was given the nickname Doctor Illuminatus, even if it seems that he had not direct influence on him. In any case Llull is the first author to use the expression "Immaculate Conception" to designate the Virgin's exemption from original sin. He appears to have been the first to teach this doctrine publicly at the University of Paris.
To explain this Marian privilege, he resorts to three arguments:
1. The Son of God could not become incarnate in a mother who was stained by sin in any way:
God and sin cannot be united in the one and same object... Thus the Blessed Virgin Mary did not contract original sin; rather she was sanctified in the instant in which the seed from which she was formed was detached from her parents.
2. There had to be a certain likeness between the Son's generation without sin and the generation of his Mother:
The Blessed Virgin Mary should have been conceived without sin, so that her conception and that of her Son might have a like nature.
3. The second creation, that is the Redemption, which began with Christ and Mary, had to happen under the sign of the most total purity, as was the case with the first creation:
Just as Adam and Eve remained in innocence until the original sin, so at the beginning of the new creation, when the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Son came into existence, it was fitting that the man and the Woman should be found in a state of innocence simpliciter, in an absolute way, without interruption, from the beginning until the end. Should the opposite have been the case, the new creation could not have begun. It is clear, however, that it did have a beginning, and therefore the Blessed Virgin was conceived without original sin.
In a sermon entitled The Fruit of Mary's Womb, Llull states that,
The blessed fruit of our Lady's womb is Jesus Christ, who is true God and true man. He is God the Son, and he is man, the Son of our Lady. The man, her Son, is the blessed fruit because he is God the Son; for it is true that the goodness of the Son who is God and the goodness of the Son who is man are joined together and united in one person, who is Jesus Christ. And the goodness of the man, Mary's Son, is an instrument of the Son, who is God.
Missionary work and education
Llull urged the study of Arabic and other then-insufficiently studied languages in Europe for the purpose of converting Muslims to Christianity[citation needed]. He travelled through Europe to meet with popes, kings, and princes, trying to establish special colleges to prepare future missionaries.
In 1285, he embarked on his first mission to North Africa but was expelled from Tunis[citation needed]. Llull travelled to Tunis a second time in about 1304, and wrote numerous letters to the king of Tunis, but little else is known about this part of his life.
In the early 14th century, Llull again visited North Africa. He returned in 1308, reporting that the conversion of Muslims should be achieved through prayer, not through military force. He finally achieved his goal of linguistic education at major universities in 1311 when the Council of Vienne ordered the creation of chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean (Aramaic) at the universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris, and Salamanca as well as at the Papal Court.
In 1314, at the age of 82, Llull traveled again to North Africa where he was stoned by an angry crowd of Muslims in the city of Bougie[citation needed]. Genoese merchants took him back to Mallorca, where he died at home in Palma the following year. Though the traditional date of his death has been 29 June 1315, his last documents, which date from December 1315, and recent research point to the first quarter of 1316 as the most probable death date.
It can be documented that Llull was buried at the Church of Saint Francis in Mallorca by March 1316. Riber states that the circumstances of his death remain a mystery[citation needed]. Zwemer, a Protestant missionary and academic, accepted the story of martyrdom, as did an article in the Catholic Encyclopedia published in 1911 (see links in the References section). Bonner gives as a reason for Llull's journey to Tunis the information that its ruler was interested in Christianity—false information given to the Kings of Sicily and Aragon and relayed to Llull.
Literature and other works
Llull was extremely prolific, writing a total of more than 250 works in Catalan, Latin, and Arabic, and often translating from one language to the others. While almost all of his writings after the revelation on Mt. Randa connect to his Art in some way, he wrote on diverse subjects in a variety of styles and genres.
The romantic novel Blanquerna is widely considered the first major work of literature written in Catalan, and possibly the first European novel.
Reputation and posthumous reception
The Roman Catholic inquisitor Nicholas Eymerich condemned 100 theories or ideas of Llull as errors in 1376. Pope Gregory XI also formally condemned 20 of his books in 1376 and the condemnation was renewed by Pope Paul IV, although Pope Martin V reversed the condemnation of Pope Gregory XI in 1416. Despite these condemnations, Llull himself remained in good standing with the Church.
Chairs for the propagation of the theories of Llull were established at the University of Barcelona and the University of Valencia. He is regarded as one of the most influential authors in Catalan; the language is sometimes referred to as la llengua de Llull, as other languages might be referred to as "Shakespeare's language" (English), la langue de Molière (French), la lengua de Cervantes (Spanish) or die Sprache Goethes (German).
The logo of the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas ("Higher Council of Scientific Research") is Llull's Tree of Science. Ramon Llull University, a private university established in Barcelona in 1990, is named after the philosopher.
Mathematics, statistics, and classification
With the discovery in 2001 of his lost manuscripts, Ars notandi, Ars eleccionis, and Alia ars eleccionis, Llull is given credit for discovering the Borda count and Condorcet criterion, which Jean-Charles de Borda and Nicolas de Condorcet independently proposed centuries later. The terms Llull winner and Llull loser are ideas in contemporary voting systems studies that are named in honor of Llull.[citation needed] Also, Llull is recognized as a pioneer of computation theory, especially due to his great influence on Gottfried Leibniz. Llull's systems of organizing concepts using devices such as trees, ladders, and wheels, have been analyzed as classification systems.
Art and architecture
The inspiration of Llull's mnemonic graphic cartwheels, reaching into contemporary art and culture, is demonstrated by Daniel Libeskind's architectural construction of the 2003 completed Studio Weil in Port d'Andratx, Majorca. "Studio Weil, a development of the virtuality of these mnemonic wheels which ever center and de-center the universal and the personal, is built to open these circular islands which float like all artwork in the oceans of memory."
Modern fiction
Paul Auster refers to Llull (as Raymond Lull) in his memoir The Invention of Solitude in the second part, The Book of Memory. Llull, now going under the name 'Cole Hawlings' and revealed to be immortal, is a major character in The Box of Delights, the celebrated children's novel by poet John Masefield. He is also a major influence on the fictional character Zermano in Thomas Salazar's The Day of the Bees, and his name, philosophies, and quotes from his writings appear throughout the novel. In Roberto Bolaño's novel 2666, Amalfitano, a Chilean professor, thinks about "Ramon Llull and his fantastic machine. Fantastic in its uselessness." Adán, Leopoldo Marechal's protagonist of the novel Adán Buenosayres (1948), mentions Ramon Lulio when he walks past a curtiembre (a leather-tanning shop): He says: "Ramon Lulio, que aconsejaba no rehuir del olor de las letrinas a fin de recordar a menudo lo que da el cuerpo de si mismo en su tan frecuentemente olvidada miseria" (Edición Crítica, Colección Archivos, 1997. Page 312) ("Ramon Llull advised not to shy away from the smell of outhouses, in order not to forget that which the body gives out in its often forgotten misery.") In William Gaddis' first novel, The Recognitions, the final paragraph of Chapter II alludes to "Raymond Lully", as a "scholar, a poet, a missionary, a mystic, and one of the foremost figures in the history of alchemy." Llull is also mentioned in passing in Neil Gaiman's comic-book Calliope, an issue of the DC/Vertigo series The Sandman. In The Commodore, the 17th book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series, Stephen Maturin remarks that his daughter "...will learn Spanish, too, Castellano. I am sorry it will not be Catalan, a much finer, older, purer, more mellifluous language, with far greater writers — think of En Ramon Llull — but as Captain Aubrey often says, 'You cannot both have a stitch in time and eat it.'"
Harry Harrison, in Deathworld 2, has his protagonist, Jason dinAlt, use the Book of the Order of Chivalry, along with others, to disable the engines of the spaceship on which he is being held. As the ship starts to blow up, he remarks "I should not have thrown in the Lull book, it is more than even the ship could stomach." This comes at the end of an argument with his kidnapper, in which dinAlt attacks the idea that there are universal laws which apply to all humans for all time.
W. B. Yeats refers to Llull twice in Rosa Alchemica, first published in 1897 ("I turned to my last purchase, a set of alchemical apparatus which, the dealer in the Rue le Peletier had assured me, once belonged to Raymond Lully"; and "There were the works [...] of Lully, who transformed himself into the likeness of a red cock". It is also interesting to note that his "first eight poems in The Green Helmet and Other Poems were published under the general title 'Raymond Lully and his wife Pernella'; an erratum-slip corrected this: 'AN ERROR By a slip of the pen when I was writing out the heading for the first group of poems, I put Raymond Lully's name in the room of the later Alchemist, Nicolas Flamel'".
Gordon R. Dickson has the protagonist, Hal Mayne, in the book The Final Encyclopedia, (1984) refer to Lull and his combination-of-wheels device, which Hal states is ″nothing less than a sort of primitive computer.″
Disposition toward Judaism
Llull's mission to convert the Jews of Europe was zealous; his goal was to utterly relieve Christendom of any Jews or Jewish religious influence. Some scholars regard Llull's as the first comprehensive articulation, in the Christian West, of an expulsionist policy regarding Jews who refused conversion. To acquire converts, he worked for amicable public debate to foster an intellectual appreciation of a rational Christianity among the Jews of his time. His rabbinic opponents included Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet of Barcelona and Moshe ben Shlomo of Salerno.
Works
Misattributions
A considerable body of work on esoteric subjects was misattributed to Llull in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The oeuvre of the pseudo-Llull and then, by extension, his true works, were influential among Hermeticists, Gnostics, and other Esoterics. Llull himself explicitly condemned many of the subjects, such as alchemy, that he is purported to have written about.
Llull is known to have written at least 265 works, including:
The Book of the Lover and the Beloved
Blanquerna (a novel; 1283)
Desconhort (on the superiority of reason)
L'arbre de ciència, Arbor scientiae ("Tree of Science") (1295)
Tractatus novus de astronomia
Ars Magna (The Great Art) (1305) or Ars Generalis Ultima (The Ultimate General Art)
Ars Brevis (The Short Art; an abbreviated version of the Ars Magna)
Llibre de meravelles
Practica compendiosa
Liber de Lumine (The Book of Light)
Ars Infusa (The Inspired Art)
Book of Propositions
Liber Chaos (The Book of Chaos)
Book of the Seven Planets
Liber Proverbiorum (Book of Proverbs)
Book on the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Ars electionis (on voting)
Artifitium electionis personarum[34] (on voting)
Ars notatoria
Introductoria Artis demonstrativae
Book of the Gentile and the Three Wise Men
Llibre qui es de l'ordre de cavalleria (The Book of the Order of Chivalry written between 1279 and 1283)
Translations
Le Livre des mille proverbes (2008), ISBN 9782953191707, Éditions de la Merci, editions@orange.fr
Ramon Llull's New Rhetoric, text and translation of Llull's 'Rethorica Nova', edited and translated by Mark D. Johnston, Davis, California: Hermagoras Press, 1994
Selected Works of Ramon Llull (1232‑1316), edited and translated by Anthony Bonner, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press 1985, two volumes XXXI + 1330 pp. (Contents: vol. 1: The Book of the Gentile and the Three Wise Men, pp. 93–305; Ars Demonstrativa, pp. 317–567; Ars Brevis, pp. 579–646; vol. 2: Felix: or the Book of Wonders, pp. 659–1107; Principles of Medicine pp. 1119–1215; Flowers of Love and Flowers of Intelligence, pp. 1223–1256)
Doctor Illuminatus: A Ramon Llull Reader, edited and translated by Anthony Bonner, with a new translation of The Book of the Lover and the Beloved by Eve Bonner, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press 1994 (Wikipedia).
for this figure i used citadel iron breaker , leadbelcher, deathworld forest and ugrax earth shade .
Contents for Analog March 1965
4 • Brass Tacks (Analog, March 1965) • [Brass Tacks] • essay by uncredited
7 • Time for America • [Editorial (Analog)] • essay by John W. Campbell, Jr. [as by John W. Campbell ]
8 • The Twenty Lost Years of Solid-State Physics • [Science Fact (Analog)] • essay by Theodore L. Thomas
14 • The Case of the Paradoxical Invention • [Science Fact (Analog)] • essay by Richard P. McKenna
17 • The Iceman Goeth • novelette by J. T. McIntosh
17 • The Iceman Goeth • interior artwork by Leo Summers
18 • The Iceman Goeth [2] • interior artwork by Leo Summers
20 • The Iceman Goeth [3] • interior artwork by Leo Summers
28 • The Iceman Goeth [4] • interior artwork by Leo Summers
30 • In Times to Come (Analog, March 1965) • [In Times to Come (Analog)] • essay by The Editor
31 • Balanced Ecology • shortstory by James H. Schmitz
31 • Balanced Ecology • interior artwork by Dean West
39 • The Wrong House • shortstory by Max Gunther
39 • The Wrong House • interior artwork by Adolph Brotman
44 • The Analytical Laboratory: December 1964 (Analog, March 1965) • [The Analytical Laboratory] • essay by The Editor
45 • The Prophet of Dune (Part 3 of 5) • [Dune] • serial by Frank Herbert
45 • The Prophet of Dune (Part 3 of 5) • interior artwork by John Schoenherr
47 • The Prophet of Dune (Part 3 of 5) [2] • interior artwork by John Schoenherr
54 • The Prophet of Dune (Part 3 of 5) [3] • interior artwork by John Schoenherr
73 • Desidirata • essay by Anonymous
74 • The Legend of Ernie Deacon • shortstory by William F. Temple
75 • The Legend of Ernie Deacon • interior artwork by Dean West
84 • The Reference Library (Analog, March 1965) • [The Reference Library] • essay by P. Schuyler Miller
84 • Review: A Requiem for Astounding by Alva Rogers • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
85 • Review: The Rest of the Robots by Isaac Asimov • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
85 • Review: Ancient Ruins and Archaeology by L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine C. de Camp • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
85 • Review: The Rim of Morning by William Sloane • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
86 • Review: Of Worlds Beyond by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
86 • Review: The Science Fiction Novel: Imagination and Social Criticism by Robert A. Heinlein and Basil Davenport and C. M. Kornbluth and Alfred Bester and Robert Bloch • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
86 • Review: The Lost Comet by Stanton A. Coblentz • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
86 • Review: The Abominable Earthman by Frederik Pohl • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
87 • Review: Deathworld 2 by Harry Harrison • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
87 • Review: The Planet Buyer by Cordwainer Smith • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
87 • Review: The Twisted Men / One of Our Asteroids is Missing by A. E. van Vogt and Calvin M. Knox • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
88 • Review: Quest of the Dawn Man by J. H. Rosny aîné • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
88 • Review: The Gods Hate Kansas by Joseph Millard • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
88 • Review: The Mile-Long Spaceship by Kate Wilhelm • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
89 • Review: Escape Across the Cosmos by Gardner F. Fox • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
89 • Review: The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
89 • Review: The Seedling Stars by James Blish • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
89 • Review: 13 Great Stories of Science Fiction by Groff Conklin • book review by P. Schuyler Miller
Painted with an airbrush layering deathworld forest, camo green, and rotting flesh. Then weathered using forge world weathering powders.
Painted with an airbrush layering deathworld forest, camo green, and rotting flesh. Then weathered using forge world weathering powders.
Harry Harrison, born Henry Maxwell Dempsey, March 12, 1925, Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A
Died August 15, 2012, age 87, Brighton, England.
Harry Harrison was an American science fiction author, editor and illlustrator.
He was one of my favorite genre authors, whose satirical wit and arch sense of the absurd graced what were already solidly crafted science fiction stories.
I only met Mr Harrison once, briefly, at a convention in Melbourne several decades ago, so don't have any personal anecdotes to share, beyond my admiration for his wonderfully entertaining and vastly amusing body of work.
A stint in the U.S Army Air Service during World War Two happily soured Harrison on all things military. Happily for us, that is, as it later inspired him to create a blackly comic masterpiece that is one of the best anti-war novels in the Science Fiction genre. Back in the civilian world he initially began work in the 1940s as a commercial artist and comic book illustrator for titles like "Weird Fantasy", "Galaxy Science Fiction" and "Weird Science" as well as writing for syndicated newspaper comic strips, including "Rick Random" and "Flash Gordon".
Generally though, fans will be more familiar with his work as both an editor of genre magazines, anthologies and as an author in his own right.
His entertaining 12 volume "Stainless Steel Rat" series (some editions of which he also provided the cover artwork for) is justly famous. It features iconic characters Slippery Jim and Angelina DiGriz, two interstellar adventurer-thieves who, once captured by the powers-that-be, turn their larcenous talents to public service instead of freelance crime. Indeed, the phrase "Stainless Steel Rat" has become something of a touchstone for all sorts of anti-establishment behaviour in the modern world.
The "Deathworld" books similarly involve a multi-skilled main character, one Jason dinAlt, a former professional gambler who ends up befriending a race of indomitably tough survivalists from the environmentally lethal heavy gravity world, Pyrrus.
Harrison's "Eden" series from the 1980s remains one of the jewels in the crown of alternate history fiction, set on an Earth where the dinosaurs survived various mass extinctions, evolved sentience and are the dominant species, though lately they've started to have problems with those pesky, talking apes....
More modern alternate history 'counter-factuals' saw Harrison pit an expanded Viking empire against Christianity in "The Hammer & The Cross" series, and explore an opportunistic invasion of the United States by the British during the American Civil War in "The Stars & Stripes" saga.
He wrote a classic novel about overpopulation, "Make Room! Make Room!" in 1966 that was later adapted into a better than average Science Fiction film, "Soylent Green".
His anthology, "War With The Robots," contains some of the finest and most concisely written stories you're likely to encounter concerning the implications of advanced robotics. The hilarious short story "Arm Of The Law", for example, tells of the sweeping changes made to a small town's corrupt police force when a new robo-cop arrives for field testing. There's also a brilliant story where an interstellar beacon repairman has to resort to the 'God Gambit' in order to gain access to a nuclear powered navigation beacon whose radioactive cooling pond has become the center of worship for an alien lizard priesthood!
Along with a firmly anti-militaristic tone, Harry Harrison's stories frequently featured heroes who were atheists and atheist themes, along with other recurring elements, such as the artificial language, Esperanto. I'm sure that his witty observations of the absurdities inherent in religion reinforced my own natural atheism.
It's a toss up for me, though, to choose which of three particular books he wrote is my favourite, so why not just choose...to collectively marvel at them!
"Bill, The Galactic Hero", is Harrison's "Catch-22", offering an insightful satire upon his own military service and own career as a space opera writer, cleverly filtered through a cunning spoof of Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" (a MUCH more worthier send up than the woeful movie ever was) with a couple of good natured digs along the way at Issac Asimov's "Foundation" series. I've read this more than a dozen times over the years since I discovered it and expect to read it a good few more times for the sheer pleasure of it. Beware the further adventures of Bill though, as there are several sadly inferior spin-off sequels done as collaborations.
In a similar 'silly soldiering' vein is the lavishly illustrated (by no less a genre artist than the great Jim Burns) "Planet Story", a crackingly crazed yarn about off-world robotic railroading and the poor squaddie who gets posted to help build it.
1972's "A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!" would surely be automatically deemed 'steampunk' today, It's a ripping yarn of an alternate history novel where North America still remains a British colony and the story revolves around the eponymous ruddy great engineering work of the title. Sly in-jokes about the genre abound, including a cameo by Arthur C. Clarke as a young rocketry boffin. Compare and contrast with Harrison's other sub genre romps. "Queen Victoria's Revenge" and "Montezuma's Revenge" are workmanlike takes on the James Bond spy novel, while "The Q.E 2 Is Missing" cruises into the international thriller category,
There are dozens of other examples of Harry Harrison's notable literary legacy, many of which have the good fortune to carry entirely splendid titles, including: "The Technicolor Time Machine", and "Star Smashers Of The Galaxy Rangers".
As an Editor and Science Fiction commentator Harry Harrison was equally prolific, often collaborating with the formidable Brian Aldiss who wrote fondly of him in his history of Science Fiction, "Billion Year Spree". Harrison and Aldiss co-edited an informative volume of personal histories of Science Fiction writers titled "Hell's Cartographers" in which they both narrated their own eclectic tales. Harry Harrison was a habitual nomad, by the way, living on several different continents during a peripatetic life that informed his writing with many well travelled observations.
The artistic and editorial connections also led to him editing several excellent coffee table books of genre artwork. "Great Balls Of Fire" is a cheerfully naughty collection of much that is lewd, laviscous and lecherous in the field of S.F illustration. "Mechismo" similarly focuses upon Science Fiction hardware, whilst "Spacecraft In Fact And Fiction" is a glorious celebration of iconic space vehicles.
Harry Harrison's consistently humorous take on Science Fiction injected much needed anti-gravity into a genre that at some extremes can be guilty of taking itself weigh too seriously.
He left us laughing.
Here's the audio tribute to Harry Harrison I aired on my radio show, Zero-G:
Pictured above are Poto and Platter Puss from my comic strip, Holiday Out.
Suspended Animation Classic #89
Originally published Sept. 9, 1990 (#36)
Christmas Comics as Gifts
By Michael Vance
More people read comics than any other form of the written world. If you are in search of gifts for Christmas, turn to the incredible variety available in the most popular artform in the world.
For children, try an issue of “Super Mario Brothers”, “Transformers”, “Richie Rich”, “Casper”, or “New Kids”. “Pogo Comics”, “Robotech”, “Uncle Scrooge” and “Disney’s Holiday Parade” are nice choices. You might prefer “Roger Rabbit”, “Tiny Toon Adventures”, “Archie” or the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”.
If you like sousi with your comics, “2001 Nights” and “Lone Wolf and Cub” are Japanese books. We send them “The Wild, Wild West”, “Owlhoots”, and Roy Rogers Western Classics”.
Add a shudder under your tree with “From Hell”, “Vault of Horror”, “Jack the Ripper”, “Tapping the Vein” “fringe” or “Angel of Death”. Shudders of another sort come from television or movie related titles like “Real Ghostbusters”, “Married With Children”, “Green Hornet”, “Twilight Zone” or “I Love Lucy”.
This is only a small sampling?
For comic strip fans, excellent reprint books include: “Buck Rogers”, “Comic Relief” (magazine), “Wash Tubbs”, “Terry and the Pirates”, “Lil’ Abner”, “Alley Oop”, “Dick Tracy”, “Little Nemo”, “Popeye”, “Orphan Annie” and “Bullseye” (magazine).
There’s more?
“Sgt. Rock” and “Vietnam Journal” for war buffs. “Superman”, “Spider-man”, “X-Men”, “Captain America”, “Grimjack”, “Flash”, “Sandman”, and “The Shadow” for the cape and tights crowd. And even “Wittyworld” and “The Comics Journal” for magazines about comics!
Now we’re into the home stretch! “Rat Fink”, “Rock and Roll Comics”, “The Spirit”, “Cerebus”, “The Invisible Man”, “A Christmas Carol”, “Love and Rockets” and “The Complete Crum Comics” (pause; take a breath). “Kurtzman’s Strange Adventures”, “Ms. Tree”, “Herbie”, “Merlin”, “Wordsmith”, “Judge Dredd”, “Son of Mutant World”, “Tom Corbett”, “Wild Cards”, “Zot”, “Deathworld”, “A.R.M.”, “Planet of the Apes” and “Alien Nation”.
You get the idea. For all ages, tastes and budgets, turn to comics this Christmas. And Happy Holidays from Michael Vance and R. A. Jones.
Painted with an airbrush layering deathworld forest, camo green, and rotting flesh. Then weathered using forge world weathering powders.
UTOPIA Grossband / Heftreihe
Harry Harrison / Planet des falschen Zaubers
Originaltitel: Deathworld (1960)
Übersetzer: Heinz Zwack
cover: ?
Erich Pabel Verlag
(Rastatt/Deutschland; 1961)
ex libris MTP
Painted with an airbrush layering deathworld forest, camo green, and rotting flesh. Then weathered using forge world weathering powders.
Finished up, mossed and varnished. Also I painted the big flower which should probably be called Death Blossom :)
I tried to add quite a lot of additional colour to the wraithbone runes, the blue comes out really well in the photos, the green tinge less so.
An undercover shot of the largest door closing as Star Destroyers depart (three of the huge ships 1,600 mtrs long, can be seen bottom right - indicating just how big this facility is).
Thought to be an advanced Death Star design - probably a Death World.
Many lives were lost to get this hazy image, sneaked out via 4 Worlds to reach the rebel alliance.
(The facility appears in the new story Star Wars Rogue 1).
Painted with an airbrush layering deathworld forest, camo green, and rotting flesh. Then weathered using forge world weathering powders.
From a woodcut (1515). THOMPSON, C.J.S. (1932). The Lure and Romance of Alchemy. George G. Harrap & Comp., London.
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Ramon Llull, (c. 1232 – c. 1315; Anglicised Raymond Lully, Raymond Lull; in Latin Raimundus or Raymundus Lullus or Lullius) was a philosopher, logician, Franciscan tertiary and Majorcan writer. He is credited with writing the first major work of Catalan literature. Recently surfaced manuscripts show his work to have predated by several centuries prominent work on elections theory. He is also considered a pioneer of computation theory, especially given his influence on Gottfried Leibniz. Within the Franciscan Order he is honored as a martyr. He was beatified in 1857 by Pope Pius IX. His feast day was assigned to 30 June and is celebrated by the Third Order of St. Francis.
Llull was born into a wealthy family in Palma, the capital of the newly formed Kingdom of Majorca. James I of Aragon founded Majorca to integrate the recently conquered territories of the Balearic Islands (now part of Spain) into the Crown of Aragon. Llull's parents had come from Catalonia as part of the colonizing efforts for the formerly Almohad island. As the island had been conquered militarily, all the Muslim population who had not been able to flee the conquering Europeans had been enslaved, even though they still constituted a significant portion of the island's population.
In 1257 he had married Blanca Picany, with whom he would have two children, Domènec and Magdalena. Although he formed a family, he lived what he would later call a licentious and wasteful life of a troubadour. Llull served as tutor to James II of Aragon and later became Seneschal (the administrative head of the royal household) to the future King James II of Majorca, a relative of his wife.
In 1263 Llull experienced a religious epiphany in the form of a series of visions. He narrates the event in his autobiography Vita coaetanea ("Daily Life"):
Ramon, while still a young man and Seneschal to the King of Majorca, was very given to composing worthless songs and poems and to doing other licentious things. One night he was sitting beside his bed, about to compose and write in his vulgar tongue a song to a lady whom he loved with a foolish love; and as he began to write this song, he looked to his right and saw our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross, as if suspended in mid-air.
The vision came to him six times in all, leading him to leave his family, position, and belongings in order to pursue a life in the service of God. Specifically, he realized three intentions: to die in the service of God while converting Muslims to Christianity, to see to the founding of religious institutions that would teach foreign languages, and to write a book capable of overcoming any objection when using it to convert someone.
Following his epiphany Llull became a Franciscan tertiary (a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis), taking inspiration from Saint Francis of Assisi, and, after a short pilgrimage, returned to Majorca where he purchased a Muslim slave from whom to learn Arabic. For the next nine years, until 1274, he engaged in study and contemplation in relative solitude. He read extensively in both Latin and Arabic, learning both Christian and Muslim theological and philosophical thought.
Between 1271 and 1274 he wrote his first works, a compendium of the Muslim thinker Al-Ghazali's logic and the Llibre de contemplació en Déu (Book on the Contemplation of God), a lengthy guide to finding truth through contemplation.
In 1274, while staying at a hermitage on Puig de Randa, the form of the great book he was to write was finally given to him through divine revelation: a complex system that he named his 'Art', which would become the motivation of most of his life's efforts.
His first elucidation of the Art was in 'Art Abreujada d'Atrobar Veritat' (The Abbreviated Art of Finding Truth), in 1290.
After spending some time teaching in France and being disappointed by the poor reception of his Art among students, he decided to reform it. It is this version that he became known for, most clearly presented in his Ars generalis ultima or Ars magna ("The Ultimate General Art", published in 1305).
The Art operated by combining religious and philosophical attributes selected from a number of lists. It is believed that Llull's inspiration for the 'Ars magna' came from observing Arab astrologers use a device called a zairja.
The Art was intended as a debating tool for winning Muslims to the Christian faith through logic and reason. Through his detailed analytical efforts, Llull built an in-depth theosophic reference by which a reader could enter any argument or question (necessarily reduced to Christian beliefs which Llull identified as held in common with other monotheistic religions). The reader would then use visual aids and a book of charts to combine various ideas, generating statements which come together to form an answer.
In 1297 Llull met Duns Scotus, after which he was given the nickname Doctor Illuminatus. This is possibly in reference to the manner of his conversion.
One of the most significant changes from the original to the second version of the Art was in the visuals used. The early version used 16 figures presented as complex, complementary trees while the system of the 'Ars Magna' featured only 4, including one which combined the other three. This figure, a "Lullian Circle," took the form of a paper machine operated by rotating concentrically arranged circles to combine his symbolic alphabet which was repeated on each level. These combinations were said to show all possible truth about the subject of inquiry. Llull based this on the notion that there were a limited number of basic, undeniable truths in all fields of knowledge, and that we could understand everything about these fields of knowledge by studying combinations of these elemental truths.
The method was an early attempt to use logical means to produce knowledge. Llull hoped to show that Christian doctrines could be obtained artificially from a fixed set of preliminary ideas. For example, the most essential table listed the attributes of God: goodness, greatness, eternity, power, wisdom, will, virtue, truth and glory. Llull knew that all believers in the monotheistic religions — whether Jews, Muslims or Christians — would agree with these attributes, giving him a firm platform from which to argue.
The idea was developed further for more Esoteric purposes by Giordano Bruno in the 16th century, and in the 17th century by the "Great Rationalist" Gottfried Leibniz, who wrote his dissertation about Llull's Art and integrated it into his metaphysics and philosophy of science. Leibniz gave Llull's idea the name "ars combinatoria", by which it is now often known.
Some computer scientists have adopted Llull as a sort of founding father, claiming that his system of logic was the beginning of information science.
Llull was extremely prolific, writing a total of more than 250 works in his lifetime, written in Catalan, Latin, and Arabic, and often translated from one to others. While almost all of his writings after the revelation on Mt. Randa connect to his Art in some way, he wrote on diverse subjects in diverse styles and genres. The romantic novel Blanquerna is widely considered the first major work of literature written in Catalan, and possibly the first European novel.
Llull pressed for the study of Arabic and other then-insufficiently studied languages in Europe for the purpose of converting Muslims to Christianity. He traveled through Europe to meet with popes, kings, and princes, trying to establish special colleges to prepare future missionaries.
In 1285, he embarked on his first mission to North Africa but was expelled from Tunis. Llull travelled to Tunis a second time in about 1304, and wrote numerous letters to the king of Tunis, but little else is known about this part of his life.
In the early 14th century, Llull again visited North Africa. He returned in 1308, reporting that the conversion of Muslims should be achieved through prayer, not through military force. He finally achieved his goal of linguistic education at major universities in 1311 when the Council of Vienne ordered the creation of chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean (Aramaic) at the universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris, and Salamanca as well as at the Papal Court.
At the age of 82, in 1314, Llull traveled again to North Africa and an angry crowd of Muslims stoned him in the city of Bougie. Genoese merchants took him back to Mallorca, where he died at home in Palma the next year. Though the traditional date of his death has been 29 June 1315, documents have been found from him which date from December 1315.
It can be documented that Llull was buried at the Church of Saint Francis in Mallorca by March 1316. Riber states that the circumstances of his death remain a mystery. Zwemer, a Protestant missionary and academic, accepted the story of martyrdom, as did the article in the Catholic Encyclopedia published in 1911. Bonner gives as a reason for Llull's journey to Tunis being the information that its ruler was interested in Christianity—falsely given to the Kings of Sicily and Aragon.
The Roman Catholic inquisitor Nicholas Eymerich condemned 100 theories or ideas of Llull as errors in 1376. Pope Gregory XI also formally condemned 20 of his books in 1376 and the condemnation was renewed by Pope Paul IV, although Pope Martin V reversed the condemnation of Pope Gregory XI in 1416. Despite these condemnations, Llull himself remained in good standing with the Church.
Chairs for the propagation of the theories of Llull were established at the University of Barcelona and the University of Valencia. He is regarded as one of the most influential authors in Catalan; the language is sometimes referred to as la llengua de Llull, as other languages might be referred to as "Shakespeare's language" (English), la langue de Molière (French), la lengua de Cervantes (Spanish) or die Sprache Goethes (German).
The logo of the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas ("Higher Council of Scientific Research") is Llull's Tree of Science. Ramon Llull University, a private university established in Barcelona in 1990, is named after the philosopher.
Mathematics, statistics, and classification
With the discovery in 2001 of his lost manuscripts, 'Ars notandi', 'Ars eleccionis', and 'Alia ars eleccionis', Llull is given credit for discovering the Borda count and Condorcet criterion, which Jean-Charles de Borda and Nicolas de Condorcet independently discovered centuries later. The terms Llull winner and Llull loser are ideas in contemporary voting systems studies that are named in honor of Llull. Also, Llull is recognized as pioneer of computation theory, especially due to his great influence on Gottfried Leibniz. Llull's systems of organizing concepts using devices such as trees, ladders, and wheels, have been analyzed as classification systems.
The inspiration of Llull's mnemonic graphic cartwheels, reaching into contemporary art and culture, is demonstrated by Daniel Libeskind's architectural construction of the 2003 completed Studio Weil in Port d'Andratx, Majorca. „Studio Weil, a development of the virtuality of these mnemonic wheels which ever center and de-center the universal and the personal, is built to open these circular islands which float like all artwork in the oceans of memory."
Paul Auster refers to Llull (as Raymond Lull) in his memoir 'The Invention of Solitude' in the second part, 'The Book of Memory'. Llull, now going under the name 'Cole Hawlings' and revealed to be immortal, is a major character in The Box of Delights, the celebrated children's novel by poet John Masefield. He is also a major influence on the fictional character Zermano in Thomas Salazar's The Day of the Bees, and his name, philosophies, and quotes from his writings appear throughout the novel. In Roberto Bolaño's novel 2666, Amalfitano, a Chilean professor, thinks about "Ramon Llull and his fantastic machine. Fantastic in its uselessness." Adán, Leopoldo Marechal's protagonist of the novel Adán Buenosayres (1948), mentions Ramon Lulio when he walks by the "curtiembre" (leather-tanning shop): He says: "Ramon Lulio, que aconsejaba no rehuir del olor de las letrinas a fin de recordar a menudo lo que da el cuerpo de si mismo en su tan frecuentemente olvidada miseria" (Edición Crítica, Colección Archivos, 1997. Page 312) ("Ramon Llull advised not to shy away from the smell of outhouses, in order not to forget that which the body gives out in its often forgotten misery.") In William Gaddis' first novel, The Recognitions, the final paragraph of Chapter II alludes to "Raymond Lully", as a "scholar, a poet, a missionary, a mystic, and one of the foremost figures in the history of alchemy." Llull is also mentioned in passing in Neil Gaiman's comic-book Calliope, an issue of the DC/Vertigo series The Sandman. In The Commodore, the 17th book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, Stephen Maturin remarks that his daughter "...will learn Spanish, too, Castellano. I am sorry it will not be Catalan, a much finer, older, purer, more mellifluous language, with far greater writers — think of En Ramon Llull — but as Captain Aubrey often says, 'You cannot both have a stitch in time and eat it.'"
Harry Harrison, in Deathworld 2, has his protagonist, Jason Din Alt, use the 'Book of the Order of Chivalry', along with others, to disable the engines of the spaceship on which he is being held. As the ship starts to blow up, he remarks "I should not have thrown in the Lull book, it is more than even the ship could stomach." This comes at the end of an argument with his kidnapper, in which Din Alt attacks the idea that there are universal laws which apply to all humans for all time.
W. B. Yeats refers to Llull twice in 'Rosa Alchemica', first published in 1897 ("I turned to my last purchase, a set of alchemical apparatus which, the dealer in the Rue le Peletier had assured me, once belonged to Raymond Lully"; and "There were the works [...] of Lully, who transformed himself into the likeness of a red cock"). It is also interesting to note that his "first eight poems in The Green Helmet and Other Poems were published under the general title 'Raymond Lully and his wife Pernella'; an erratum-slip corrected this: 'AN ERROR By a slip of the pen when I was writing out the heading for the first group of poems, I put Raymond Lully's name in the room of the later Alchemist, Nicolas Flamel'".
Gordon R. Dickson has the protagonist, Hal Mayne, in the book The Final Encyclopedia, (1984) refer to Lull and his combination-of-wheels device, which Hal states is ″nothing less than a sort of primitive computer.″
Llull's mission to convert the Jews of Europe was zealous, his goal was to utterly relieve Christendom of any Jews or Jewish religious influence. Some scholars regard Llull's as the first comprehensive articulation, in the Christian West, of an expulsionist policy regarding Jews who refused conversion. To acquire converts, he worked for amicable public debate to foster an intellectual appreciation of a rational Christianity among the Jews of his time. His rabbinic opponents included Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet of Barcelona and Moshe ben Shlomo of Salerno.
A considerable body of work on esoteric subjects was misattributed to Llull in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The oeuvre of the pseudo-Llull and then, by extension, his true works, were influential among Hermeticists, Gnostics, and other Esoterics. Llull himself explicitly condemned many of the subjects, such as alchemy, that he is purported to have written about (Wikipedia).
Heyne Bücher / Taschenbuch-Reihe
Harry Harrison / Die Sklavenwelt
(Deathworld II)
Cover: Atelier Heinrichs
Wilhelm Heyne Verlag / Deutschland 1966
ex libris MTP
(22/34) I basecoated her leggings with ‘Deathworld Forest’ (Base) and then gave them a wash of ‘Biel-Tan Green’ (shade).
I started her skirt by basecoating it with ‘Skull White’, I then gave it a wash with ‘Nuln Oil’ (Shade). You can’t see her skirt in any of the photo’s of this model on Raging Heroes’ website, so I wasn’t sure how they painted theirs. I decided to paint it like a cheerleader’s skirt in brighter colours to break up all of the green of her shirt and leggings.
I painted each pleat in alternating colours of white and blue. The problem is that there are an odd number of pleats in the skirt, so I ended up with two adjacent pleats the same colour. But you can’t see that when it’s hidden behind her weapon.
The white pleats are pure ‘Skull White’ and the blue pleats are ‘Enchanted Blue’ with a ‘Lightning Blue’ edge highlight.
Finished up, mossed and varnished. Also I painted the big flower which should probably be called Death Blossom :)
I tried to add quite a lot of additional colour to the wraithbone runes, the blue comes out really well in the photos, the green tinge less so.
“First of Three Parts: Some planet in the galaxy must – by definition – be the toughest, meanest, nastiest of all. If Pyrrus wasn’t it . . . it was an awfully good approximation!” [Prologue]
"Deathworld" by Harry Harrison was serialized in "Astounding Science Fiction" from January to March 1960. The story centers on the character Jason din Alt, a professional gambler with erratic psionic abilities. While on the planet Cassylia, Jason is challenged by Kerk Pyrrus, an ambassador from the planet Pyrrus, to turn a large sum of money into an even larger amount through gambling at a government casino. Jason succeeds, but this draws the ire of the planetary government, which attempts to reclaim the winnings.
Intrigued by Kerk and the challenge of Pyrrus, described as the deadliest planet ever colonized by humans, Jason decides to accompany Kerk back to his home world. Pyrrus presents extreme conditions: a gravity twice that of Earth, severe weather due to its axial tilt, frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and intense radiation levels. The native flora and fauna are incredibly hostile, with large creatures capable of destroying vehicles and smaller ones possessing deadly neurotoxic venom. Even the planet's microorganisms are voracious, consuming unprotected tissue rapidly.
The settlers of Pyrrus are in a constant battle for survival, one that they are gradually losing despite their rigorous training and adaptation. The money Jason won is crucial for purchasing weapons needed for the colony's defense. As Jason adapts to the harsh environment, he seeks to unravel the mysteries of Pyrrus and find a way to help the struggling colony. Historical records hint that the planet was not always so hostile, and Jason learns of the existence of "grubbers," humans living outside the city who trade food for hardware.
The story unfolds as Jason uses his unique abilities and ingenuity to confront the challenges of Pyrrus, aiming to uncover the reasons behind the planet’s hostility and find a path to coexistence. [Source: Wikipedia}
Finished up, mossed and varnished. Also I painted the big flower which should probably be called Death Blossom :)
I tried to add quite a lot of additional colour to the wraithbone runes, the blue comes out really well in the photos, the green tinge less so.
Finished up, mossed and varnished. Also I painted the big flower which should probably be called Death Blossom :)
I tried to add quite a lot of additional colour to the wraithbone runes, the blue comes out really well in the photos, the green tinge less so.
'Deathworld' by Harry Harrison, 1960; Penguin 1st UK edition, 1963. Cover by Pavel Tchelitchev.
'Deathworld 2', 1964; Orbit 1971 reprint, cover by Ian Miller (?).
Finished up, mossed and varnished. Also I painted the big flower which should probably be called Death Blossom :)
I tried to add quite a lot of additional colour to the wraithbone runes, the blue comes out really well in the photos, the green tinge less so.
Finished up, mossed and varnished. Also I painted the big flower which should probably be called Death Blossom :)
I tried to add quite a lot of additional colour to the wraithbone runes, the blue comes out really well in the photos, the green tinge less so.
A long afternoon's work. Mostly contrast with some normal paints.
I wanted to avoid having any green on there as it's so tempting but it detracts from the alien-ness. On this (desert?) planet whatever stuff plants like instead of chlorophyll is red.
There are a couple of unfinished fungi lurking in there, and it all needs a final drybrush and varnish. Plus I need to do the other half, which is about 1/3 complete.
Finished up, mossed and varnished. Also I painted the big flower which should probably be called Death Blossom :)
I tried to add quite a lot of additional colour to the wraithbone runes, the blue comes out really well in the photos, the green tinge less so.
Finished up, mossed and varnished. Also I painted the big flower which should probably be called Death Blossom :)
I tried to add quite a lot of additional colour to the wraithbone runes, the blue comes out really well in the photos, the green tinge less so.
Finished up, mossed and varnished. Also I painted the big flower which should probably be called Death Blossom :)
I tried to add quite a lot of additional colour to the wraithbone runes, the blue comes out really well in the photos, the green tinge less so.
I was a bit underwhelmed when I originally opened the bag of bits but after finding them in a box a year later I thought I should put them together. And now I rather like them. Results are pretty good, they fit OK although the join between the triangular rune and the branch needed some fettling and filler.
The foliage parts are also a *lot* of work to clean up nicely, and quite sharp...
Finished up, mossed and varnished. Also I painted the big flower which should probably be called Death Blossom :)
I tried to add quite a lot of additional colour to the wraithbone runes, the blue comes out really well in the photos, the green tinge less so.
I was a bit underwhelmed when I originally opened the bag of bits but after finding them in a box a year later I thought I should put them together. And now I rather like them. Results are pretty good, they fit OK although the join between the triangular rune and the branch needed some fettling and filler.
The foliage parts are also a *lot* of work to clean up nicely, and quite sharp...
I was a bit underwhelmed when I originally opened the bag of bits but after finding them in a box a year later I thought I should put them together. And now I rather like them. Results are pretty good, they fit OK although the join between the triangular rune and the branch needed some fettling and filler.
The foliage parts are also a *lot* of work to clean up nicely, and quite sharp...