Hand drawn Ipsissimus

Just like in the last post, I decided to add another digital collage, Ipsissimus, to The Picture of Everything. Since everything in TPOE is drawn by hand, this piece had to be as well. Here's the result:

Here's the separate layers of drawings I made to compose the final piece:

Hand-Drawn Meme Mandala

When I completed the Meme Mandala Digital Collage in April, I thought it would be a great addition to The Picture of Everything. Unfortunately, everything in TPOE needs to be hand drawn, which is why I ended up drawing the 198 memes, as seen in a previous post. That was only part of the story. I then had to draw and modify the background elements and arrange them in Photoshop.

Here's the Mandala level:

 

Here's the various frames for each of the memes:

 

Borders and border elements:

 

Background: A fiery sun!

 

And finally... The completed image!

Meme illustrations

The Picture of Everything 2012 Detail

A scan of the work so far

The Picture of Everything 2012

Polybius!

I had heard about the Polybius urban legend for years: The video game that caused you to go insane if you played it and was some sort of government mind control experiment in the early 80's. (Here's the Snopes dismissal of the game as a hoax, and pretty good summations of the conspiracy theory surrounding the thing via Cracked.com and Know Your Meme)  It was even referenced on an episode of The Simpsons.

Well, there's some amazing (and consistent) hoax(?) emulations of Polybius that have surfaced on You Tube within the last few years:

The first one I encountered takes you through all the levels of gameplay in about 9 minutes. The next one slows down all the subliminal messages so you can clearly see them. I watched them both and this is my opinion:

If it is a hoax, obvious love and care was attached with making it seem as realistic (and trippy) as possible. (DON'T WATCH THESE THINGS IF YOU'RE EPILEPTIC!)

The other fascinating videos I found are ones that take you through the "Higher Functions Option" menus of the game! (Here's another one and Another one)

By entering code 35, 34, 31, 54, 12, 24, 45, 43, you get to see the various series of hypnotic suggestions that could be put into the minds of anyone who played the game and modified accordingly. Here's some samples:

Great stuff!

Update

Going through a temporary internet blackout at the moment. More blog postings to come in the future.

Thoughts

In 1994 I had a nightmare in Paris, France.

I was in a hallway with one-way glass mirrors as walls on either side. I could see two rooms on either side of me through these glass mirrors and each was filled with people in a line. Some of the people were lining up to go on an up escalator, and some of the people were lining up to go on a down escalator.

Then I realized all of them were dead.

A hooded figure with glowing eyes was next to me. It said:
"Life is dangerous. Life is swell. Life is good if you fit it well."

Then I woke up.

Thoughts

Can't remember any of my dreams after I wake up. Been that way for the last few months. Is that bad?

Thoughts

I was thinking that my ideal job would be to work on The Picture of Everything professionally for the rest of my life. Just expand it year by year until I go blind, can't draw, or die. The trick would be to find someone out there to hire me to do that with a good salary, health benefits, and paid vacation time.

Thoughts

In honor of Donna Summer, click here to listen to one of the greatest disco songs of all time...

Thoughts

Not every day is a struggle, but most of them are.

Thoughts

Would empty space without form or matter be dark, light, or grey?

I used to think that before The Big Bang all there was outside of the hyper-compressed universe was static.

Then I realized that static is really electromagnetic noise, so that would have fallen within the realm of all the other stuff within the tiny explosionball to come.

My favorite songs

1. Joy Division - No Love Lost
2. Love and Rockets - Haunted When The Minutes Drag
3. Syd Barrett - Terrapin
4. The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows
5. John Coltrane - Ascension
6. Dead Can Dance - Rakim
7. David Bowie - Quicksand
8. Radiohead - How To Disappear Completely
9. Jimi Hendrix - 1983
10. Charles Mingus - Hearts Beat and Shades in Physical Embraces
11. Cocteau Twins - Pearly Dew Drops Drop
12. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - O Children
13. Stevie Wonder - As
14. Joy Division - Atmosphere
15. Pink Floyd - Astronomy Domine
16. The Doors - Celebration Of The Lizard
17. Ladytron - Ninety Degrees
18. Jane's Addiction - Three Days
19. Tom Waits - After You Die
20. Leonard Cohen - Anthem
21. Rolling Stones - In Another Land
22. Velvet Underground - What Goes On
23. Legendary Pink Dots - Hanging Gardens

Thoughts

Been listening to a lot of Joy Division lately.

Thoughts

When the Singularity occurs, and we can transfer human consciousness to a computer data stream, how would people be able to end their lives if they wanted to? Suicide would involve deleting all your consciousness files as well as any backup files. There would probably be an entire squad of digital resurrection experts set up to rescue anyone who decides to do this.

Various thoughts

I've been waking up before my alarm goes off at 6am for the last 2 months.
Don't feel there's enough time in the day or that I'm making enough money.
Have matching bruises on each arm from horseplaying with my students.
Very sad about the passing of MCA from The Beastie Boys.
The Avengers was much better in 3D IMAX and anyone who leaves before all of the credits is missing one of the best scenes in the film.
No time anymore for much of a social life or for making any artwork.

My new nickname

The kids at my school are calling me Mr. H.

Thoughts

HP Lovecraft was inspired by bubbles.

Today is May 1, 2012

• It's Beltane.
• Avengers Movie out in 3 days in America.
• Giant Full Moon expected Saturday night.
• The Illuminati Order founded in Bavaria on this day in 1776.

New Dr. Strange & Dormammu!

The Doctor Strange Marvel Classic Character #5 sculpture from Dark Horse meets the Heroclix Galactic Guardians Dormammu from Wiz Kids...

Another Angry Birds Triumph

Thoughts

Axl Rose calling his current band Guns N Roses is like Paul McCartney calling Wings The Beatles.

Thoughts

Did you know they have Lego Robot-Building kits that enable a 10 year old kid to make a functioning robot within an hour?

Thoughts

My basketball skills are improving exponentially each day at work.

Thoughts

My pet peeves: Open toed shoes, people who look at The Picture of Everything and say "Where's Waldo?", stupidity, ignorance, hatred, greed, selfishness, fundamentalism, and people who don't like The Beatles.

Thoughts

My students are obsessed with The Illuminati. A few references in some rap songs and some celebrities making the sign of the triangle have worked better than any conspiracy theory book has ever done in the past in perpetuating the secret society's infamy to the youth of today.

Thoughts

No matter how famous or important someone thinks they are, you can always find at least one person out there who has never heard of you.

Thoughts

Monday has always been the longest day of the week.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Been really getting into this anime and watching all the cartoons on You Tube. A global phenomenon loved by millions of obsessive fans, it's about a girl who doesn't know she's God and the club she forms at her school called The SOS Brigade.

In Japan, the series has spawned a religion.

Things to look forward to in 2012

1. The Avengers Movie
2. A new Dead Can Dance album
3. A new Kane Chronicles book by Rick Riordan
4. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
5. Ground Control 2.0

My Hulk #50 variant cover

Hulk #50, the latest issue of the series, has Dr. Strange as a major guest star playing (yet again) a spiritual guru. This time it's for The Red Hulk (aka General "Thunderbolt" Ross). It's the first part in the "Haunted" story arc and has 5 expensive variant covers out there, none of which feature Dr. Strange so I'm adding my own design to the mix...

Feel free to print these out on adhesive paper and stick them on the front and back of one of those blank cover convention variants. That's what I did.

The front cover here uses Carlo Pagulayan and Jason Paz's interior artwork while the back features Dr. Strange (new costume) and Red Hulk Minimates...

Thoughts

My one real hope for my new job is that I'll still look forward to waking up on Monday mornings.

Thanks internet!

My Meme Mandala made the first page of the "Know Your Meme" website yesterday!

Also got a shout out on Richard Metzger's Dangerous Minds site yesterday as well.

Meme Mandala

A digital collage composed of internet memes over a Tibetan Tangka (Four Mandalas of the Vajravali Series)

 

To see a large version of this image (8MB), click here.

I'm also making this into a 22x28 3D lenticular. To see what it would look like in 3D, click here.

XL download (2080 pixels by 7920 pixels (22 inches by 28 inches, 360 dpi) poster sized PDF) available through Hallis.biz for $1.00. Click here to order!

Thoughts

I think I like every song Ladytron has ever made.

Scary stuff

Don't know if it's because I saw this really late at night or what, but it really freaked me out. Click here or below and see what I mean...

Angry Birds Space Total Destruction

Conquered space in 6 days...

Thoughts

How many baby girls will be named Katniss or Renesmee in the next 10 years?

The Buyer's Guide For Comic Fandom #35

I love tracking down Dr. Strange stuff from the 60's and 70's I never knew existed...

This one is from the adzine that would later become The Comics Buyers Guide.

Artwork is by David Hunt. I made color corrections on the faded newsprint

My wife Jesse on Conan O'Brien

The sketch she was in aired last Monday (episode with Ewan McGregor). She played Conan's mom in a flashback...

Happy birthday to my Mom

Fran Hallis... sixty something today.

I love you and hope it's going to be a great year ahead!

THINGS I WILL PROBABLY NEVER HAVE IN THE DOCTOR STRANGE COLLECTION

Some of you out there may know that I have the distinction of having one of the two largest collections of Doctor Strange comics and collectibles on the planet. The other collection is owned by my friend P'Tor over at The Sanctum Sanctorum Comics blog, and he shares my pain.

Both of us go out of our way to collect every tiny little piece of merchandise that features Dr. Strange or some of his compatriots such as Dormammu, Clea, Wong and the Ancient One. You'd be surprised how much useless crap there is out there that must be consumed to feed the hunger. Although Dr. Strange isn't Spider-Man or Batman, there is a consistent barrage of items made available from the Mighty Marvel Merchandising Machine...

That being said, both P'Tor and I do pretty well in collecting the major stuff. But there are a few items that Dr. Strange has been featured in that are just too cost prohibitive or rare for me to obtain. Below is a list of my personal top 10 unobtainable grails:

10. 2012 MARVEL'S GREATEST HEROES CARD BOX

Doc is on the box and appears on a card within. I have the card and can't justify spending $70-$100 for the box art alone. (Amazon link)

9. MARVEL OMNIBUSES AND MASTERWORKS TITLES WITH DR. STRANGE ON THE COVER BUT NOT PROMINENTLY FEATURED WITHIN


Sure... I'll get the Dr. Strange and Defenders titles, but the $60 Thor Marvel Masterworks that has a Doc floating head on the cover and features him in one issue? No way. The $100 Fantastic Four John Byrne Omnibus that has him in a Marvel group shot cover? Forget it.

8. ULTIMATE MARVEL VS. CAPCOM ARCADE STICK BY HORI

Available in different colors too. $150? AAA! Dammit! No way in hell. (Amazon link)

7. THIRD EYE MARVEL DISPLAY POSTERS

Two super rare display posters for the 1971 series of Marvel psychedelic blacklight posters and postcards put out by Third Eye. You won't find either one for under $500.

6. STUSSY DR. STRANGE & ETERNITY SHIRTS

Almost got one of these but it was in the wrong size. (All my t-shirts are XL in the collection and I like to be consistent.) For the complete Stussy shirt saga, click here. These are extremely rare and had very limited press runs. Too bad. Nice shirts.

5. VISIONS #4

I used to own this comic. Only 3000 were made for the 1982 Atlanta Comic Convention and it featured the fifth appearance of Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot. I sold mine with my Flaming Carrot collection a few years ago and never expect to find another one. Sadly, it did feature a full page Dr. Strange and Clea drawing by June Brigman and Roy Richardson inside.

4. THE BOWEN ETERNITY BUST

Last year Bowen put out this exclusive bust of the embodiment of the Marvel Universe, who made his first appearance in the Dr. Strange backup story in Strange Tales #138. One of my personal favorite characters from the series, the bust was an exclusive for Bowen sculpture subscription holders only. If you can find one, expect to spend AT LEAST $400 or more.

3. 1970'S DR. EXTRANO REPRINTS FROM SPAIN WITH PAINTED COVERS

The art looks like beautiful vintage sci-fi paperbacks. I would need to go to a comic convention in Barcelona to track these down. Not impossible, but very very tough to think I would ever find even one, let alone a complete set. Published by Ediciones Vertice. Images from comics.org.

2. CGC 9.0 OR HIGHER COPIES OF STRANGE TALES #110, 111, 114, & 115

I see them from time to time on Comiclink or eBay and drool. Encapsulated and hermetically sealed Platonic-ideal copies of the first four appearances of Dr. Strange.


1. A STEVE DITKO ORIGINAL ART PAGE FROM STRANGE TALES

Maybe if I won the lottery I could afford to track down an original Ditko. You won't find anything he did for Doctor Strange or Spider-Man under $10,000. The one pictured here is owned by a guy named Stephen Fishler on Comic Art Fans and I bet it would fetch at least $75,000 if he ever decided to bring it up for auction. I read he has it up in his bathroom. Lucky bastard...

Dormammu Squinkie

The Secret Surprise Supervillain in the Superhero Squad Squinkies Set: (Say that 10 times fast)

Last Ground Control Karaoke @ Jewel's Catch One is tonight

RIP Ground Control Karaoke! 

LAST NIGHT IS TONIGHT!

At least until this summer at a new location...

Address:

Ground Control Karaoke

4067 W. Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019

WonderCon gets

My friend Jay Tando, who recently played a cop with a bushy mustache in the LMFAO video for "Sorry For Party Rocking" (which as of the day of this post has been seen by 33 million humans), scored a comp for me to attend WonderCon yesterday (Sunday 3/18/12). Thanks Jay! I totally forgive you for any party rocking you might have done in the past and appreciate you volunteering to drive.

Usually held up in San Francisco, WonderCon was inexplicably held near Disneyland in Anaheim this year. About a quarter of the size of San Diego's Comic Con madness which I vowed never to attend again, it was just the right amount of people to make for a nice Sunday afternoon.

I ended up spending $80 I really didn't have to spend this month but did anyway. Here's my schwag:

Lovecraftian glassware from Fez-O-Rama. Almost got a Cthulhu Fez from them but I looked ridiculous in it. Ended up getting 2 sets of both the Mystic Order of The Elder Gods design and the Cthulhu design.

My friends looked at me weird when I told them "I got an In-Betweener at WonderCon."

Some gruesome Stanley Publication reprints of pre-code horror comics.

Thoughts

Has the internet achieved consciousness yet?

Question for the Internet

Which science fiction story, saga, or mythology has been the most accurate in predicting what it's like to live in the early 21st century?

Video Game Wins!

PERFECT SCORE on 3D Bowling!

Passed the latest level

Book Review: Ritual America

Ritual America: Secret Brotherhoods and Their Influence on American Society, A Visual Guide by Adam Parfrey and Craig Heimbichner is a sleek and comprehensive 340 page book filled with hundreds of amazing photos, illustrations and quotations about numerous secret societies. Included are Freemasonry and concordant bodies such as The Shriners, Prince Hall Masonry, Job's Daughters, Rainbow Girls, The Jesters, The Scottish Rite, The York Rite, and The Knights Templar, but the book doesn't stop there. You also get rare glimpses into the worlds of The Redmen, The Woodsmen, The Odd Fellows, The OTO, The KKK, The Owls, The Elks, The Illuminati and The Fraternal Order of Police, among many others. Quotations range from Albert Pike and Robert Anton Wilson to Lady Gaga.

As a Mason, it's interesting and eye opening (no pun intended) to read about the not-so-flattering skeletons in the closet that haunt the Fraternity. No punches are spared as the racist and sexist history of various Lodges is revealed for all to see. Despite all this, as an insider I see how far we have come when I look at the ethnic diversity in the Masonic community I interact with on a regular basis.

The book tries to be as objective as possible when presenting the various accounts from both pro and anti Masons within its pages, but can get pretty harsh when presenting the latter. Nevertheless, it inspired me to explore and question those unfavorable elements and that's a good thing.

I read every word and learned many things. I really recommend picking it up.

Lenticular of the Day: Jack Parsons Comics

 

I made this one quite a few years ago around 2002. It's a digital collage made from a bunch of golden age comic book elements. For those who don't know who Jack Parsons is, I suggest reading his Wikipedia entry.

To see what this would look like in 3D, click here.

Thoughts

I hardly ever make more than one blog post a day.

Thoughts

Always look for variations in any routine.

The Hogwarts SWPBS

For my EDSP 554 class at Cal State Los Angeles, I was asked to create a Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support Plan (SWPBS). Because this plan didn't need to be actively put into place but only conceptualized, I asked my professor if I could develop one for J.K. Rowlings' fictional Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from the Harry Potter novels and movies. What follows is a 34 page academic nerdfest you can download by CLICKING HERE or on the image below.

Ipsissimus

This is my lenticular piece that will be on display starting this Friday in the annual La Luz de Jesus Gallery group show.

Click here to see it a simulation of it in 3D!