Schlock Mercenary

I watched the theatrical version of 1982’s Blade Runner on Friday morning to prep for a 12:30pm showing of Blade Runner 2049. I did this on a whim, but I’m very glad I did, because it made the parallels between the two films stand out, and not in a bad way. It also meant I spent 5 hours in the Blade Runner universe, and that place weighs pretty heavily on the soul. Even the shiny parts of that future are unsettling, like blood on chrome, and the non-shiny parts are deeply bleak, like broken bones in sand. But the parallels? Wow. Sure, there were plenty of obvious callbacks, like eyeball imagery, constant rain, and telling the computer to enhance images, but there were also thematic links in the camera angles, color palettes, and the pacing. Even the soundtrack, which was not the work of Vangelis, sounded to me like music which, under decades of environmental pressure, was driven to evolve from Vangelis¹. It’s different, but Vangelis is still there, like mitochondrial DNA. I was amazed by the film, and I liked it, but Blade Runner 2049 still doesn’t clear my personal Threshold of Awesome. Mostly because I prefer to have a bit more fun at the movies. Setting that aside, however, it is an awesome film². ¹ My library contains several albums of Vangelis music, including at least one version of the original Blade Runner soundtrack. I suspect that Zimmer and Wallfisch spent many hours with a similar library before laying down anything in the studio.

The Random Access Memorabilia Kickstarter closes on Friday, October 13th. As of this writing there are about 200 sketch editions left, and we’ve cleared all but one of our stretch goals. We’re doing the final layout work now, and the book is looking SO NICE. You can expect an updated cover reveal on Monday or Tuesday of next week. We’re also designing the Bristlecone ship coin, per the stretch goal which we cleared early this week. We’ll reveal that design soon, but it’s not quite ready. Do you want Schlock Mercenary t-shirts? Consider buying a book! This may sound a bit counter-intuitive, but in order to make the right shirts, in order to make really nice ones, we need to spend some money up front. We need to do R&D. If the Random Access Memorabilia Kickstarter reaches its next stretch goal, we will spend a portion of this project’s proceeds (probably between $1,000 and $5,000) developing and prototyping t-shirts. We will then Kickstart a proper t-shirt project in February of 2018. This is the final week of the Random Access Memorabilia Kickstarter. We know there are a lot of demands on your discretionary income right now, and we’re very grateful for those portions of it you choose to spend with us.

Random Access Memorabilia, Schlock Mercenary Book 13, has launched on Kickstarter. That link has all the details, but here are some bullet points:

On Tuesday, September 19th, we will launch a Kickstarter for the printing of Random Access Memorabilia, Schlock Mercenary Book 13. The book itself is complete, the bonus story is currently being illustrated, and our layout architect says the cover blueprint is almost ready for elements that have color in them. Watch this space for links early next week!