SDCC 2010: Magic the Gathering

The only other panel I went to at Comic-Con was the one for Magic the Gathering. I have been playing this card game for over ten years. I even met my boyfriend, who I have been with for eleven years this September, at a Magic tournament. We just went to the pre-release of M11, the latest set of this game, and we are already excited for the next set, Scars of Mirrodin. According to Mark Rosewater, head designer of Magic, he wanted to revisit Mirrodin, the set from 2003, with an unknown twist. This set is very artifact heavy and featured some interesting (and annoying) concepts. He wasn't able to say a lot about it, but he did show us this new card.

There is also going to be an all new planeswalker (shown here with Elspeth) AND a new version of Elspeth. Plus there will be some new angels, zombies, and vampires. Yay!

Here is some art from the new set as well. There were no names or abilities attached to them, but they look spectacular!

Plus the new art for the planeswalkers Tezzeret and Elspeth were shown, along with two unnamed reprinted cards (speculated to be Honor of the Pure and Thirst for Knowledge).

Still more Comic-Con to come!

SDCC 2010: Danny Elfman

This past Thursday was the long awaited one day that I can go to Comic Con in San Diego. I had been saving for months and I was so excited when the day finally came!

My boyfriend and I took the train early in the morning and arrived in San Diego around 9am. We only waited in line for 20 minutes for our badges, which was a great improvement over last years wait of 3 hours. We immediately headed over to one of the ballrooms to see the Danny Elfman panel. I have been trying to even see this man in person for many years. He is my favorite film composer and his music inspired me to learn and teach music. I absolutely loved this event. He was very honest and up front, but also kind of shy. He had never been to a convention before and was a little overwhelmed with the crowd's enthusiastic responses to just about everything he said. He was first interviewed about his 25 year relationship scoring films with Tim Burton. There is going to be a ginormous box set of music being released just before Christmas commemorating this with 14 CDs and a DVD. (I so want this! If you're interested, head over here and sign up for the newsletter.) He answered all the audience's questions that time allowed from "Do you hear music in your head?" (yes; all the time) and "Is Oingo Boingo ever going to get back together?" (no because of the creepy old band looking like zombies factor and the damage to his hearing). I wanted to ask a question, but there wasn't enough time for me. I heard from Amanda Palmer's twitter that Danny Elfman was at the Evelyn Evelyn show I went to a little while ago. I wanted to know what he thought of the show and their music. When I heard that he had been there, I was sad that I hadn't seen him, but very happy that he likes some of the same music as me. Anyway, here are some pictures from the panel.

I thought the people in front of me were adorable in their Alice costumes! More Comic-Con posts later. Stuff to come includes the Magic the Gathering panel, stuff I scored, and crazy random happenstances.

Steampunk Art: Spotlight on Scott Fischer

I was first exposed to this artist because my nerdy boyfriend and I play Magic the Gathering, an awesome fantasy card game. (The new set comes out tomorrow. Yay!) Anyway, this was the first piece of art I had ever seen by Scott Fischer. Its title is Serra Avenger.

I was amazed by it. This one is not particularly steampunky, but I think there are definitely elements of steampunk. I really like this particular artist's textured style and earth tone colors that he typically uses. He takes this industrial science fiction style and merges it with fantasy in his art. I love it. Without further ado, here are some of his other wonderful and much more steampunk works:

If you'd like to learn more about Scott Fischer or see more of his works, you can visit his website or his Myspace.

** This post was made for Velvet's Steamboyz week. Check it out here! **