Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is one of my very favorite books. I love it so much that I read it twice in a row in two days. The movie….alas, notsomuch
I’ve always been a tomboy and I’ve always liked dressing up as the female version of male characters (e.g. Thor and Batgirl) so a while back I decided that I was going to dress up as Babe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter for Halloween. I was way overdue for an HNG photo shoot and after talking it over with a few friends and my fabulous photog buddy Jonny Ups over the biggest frappuccino I’d ever seen (next time I’m buying Jon) we agreed that it would be crazy fun to do a Babe Lincoln shoot. I’m very fortunate to have some hot, nerdy friends so I enlisted the help of my friend Meghan who agreed to be the sexy vampire Henrietta Sturges to my Babe Lincoln.
Yes, I know that I’ve got a fake axe and not a real one. Before you give me a hard time about it there are 3 reasons for this. 1) I couldn’t find a real one that had a wooden handle and not a plastic/rubber/epoxy one and none of my friends had any. 2) Real axes are heavy. Great and fine for chopping wood. Not so great for running and leaping while swinging them over your head. 3) (and most importantly) I was not about to swing a real axe at a good friend of mine. Sorry. Her safety is 10 million times more important to me than holding a real axe is. I’m a theatre person. Safety is paramount. Would I have liked a real one for the times when I’m just standing there? Yes. I refer you back to reason #1. If any of you photoshop pros want to take a stab at photoshopping a real axe in there, have at it!
Hope you enjoy the pictures and that you have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
What’s that? You want to win a signed copy of one of these pictures? Ok, fine. There’s a contest after the pics.
My name is Lincoln. Babe Lincoln.
I’m a Vampire Hunter.
This is my bff Henrietta Sturges. She’s a vampire.
Sometimes we get together for tea and training.
It turns out Henrietta doesn’t like tea.
But she does like training.
We practice a lot.
My frustration amuses Henrietta.
Until I get mad and chase after her with my axe.
Sometimes she gets the upper hand.
But I always fight back.
It’s all fun and games. Right, Henrietta?
Training is exhausting.
Afterwards we head back to my house.
To, you know, hang out and stuff.
I like to sit on my porch and admire the scenery.
What? You don’t like scenery?
Henrietta often joins me.
And we share a laugh or two.
She’s an awesome vampire bff.
When she’s not fucking with me.
Until next time, Babe Lincoln out.
A huge thanks to Jonny Ups for taking such smashing pictures again, to Meghan for being up for anything and making it the funnest HNG photo shoot yet, to Mama Jedi for assisting with everything from shoe changes to stovepipe hat holding to lighting gear stabilizing, and to Darcy for being my constant partner in crime.
Now for a little fun.
Leave a comment below and I’ll throw your name into my stovepipe hat for a chance to win one of five autographed 8″x10″ prints from this photo shoot. I’ll pull the names on Halloween night so make sure you leave a comment by then. This is my first ever contest/giveaway type-thing so here’s hoping I’m doing this right.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a nerd in possession of an illness must go on a Jane Austen bender.
At least it does for this nerd.
For someone who fancies themselves a writer (or an aspiring one at least) I don’t write nearly enough about books. Which is strange considering the rate in which I devour them.
I don’t know what it is but whenever I get sick (I’m just about recovered from the second illness in a row) I become obsessed with something and hunt down every form of it that I can. About half the time it’s Jane Austen.
What can I say? I’m a chick.
So it was this last time around. I watched every version of Pride and Prejudice I own (1980, 1995, and 2005 twice), Sense & Sensibility, Emma, Becoming Jane, Lost in Austen…I even watched Vanity Fair hoping it would be Austen-esque (it wasn’t, it was awful in spite of all the great actors in it). And I finally got around to reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Girls! The Pentagram of Death!
I don’t know about you but I always have a stack of books as tall as I am that I need to read. I go through them pretty quickly but I’m constantly adding to it so the pile never really shrinks. And I just can’t bring myself to use the Kindle. I love the smell and the look and the feel of books too much. I have a BookMate and that’s good enough for me. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has been in that pile for years now. Probably longer than any other book. I didn’t pick it up for two reasons. The first being that when I got it I was on another Austen bender and had just reread the OG P&P, Darcy’s Story and Mr. Darcy, Vampyre and I was kind of Austened out. The second reason is that it has zombies. And y’all know that my biggest fear is zombies.
But every time I went to the pile my eyes would inevitably land on the Seth Grahame-Smith redux. I knew it would be good; I’d read and fell in love with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (which I HIGHLY recommend). So on a (totally inevitable) whim I grabbed it from the pile last week.
To my very pleasant surprise I not only loved it but it didn’t scare me. No nightmares, no heart palpitations, no slamming it shut. I even studied the pictures with glee! Though I’ll probably never look at cauliflower the same way again… but mostly I laughed. A lot.
Mmmmmm….cauliflower brains……
Of all Jane Austen’s characters, I’ve always related the most to Elizabeth Bennet. She’s stubborn, witty, and says things that are borderline inappropriate. I would really like to believe that, in the event of a zombie apocalypse, I would rise to the occasion as a zombie slayer like the Lizzy in this version (albeit without the slow zombification of my BFF). Imagining her kicking Darcy in the face had me in stitches for a good 5 minutes at least. Seeing Lady Catherine de Bourgh make her do one-fingered handstands and fight ninjas was epic. Even the detail of modifying the questions printed at the end was hysterical.
Take that you woeful wooer!
And now the truth. I feel like I’m going to end up in literary hell for saying this, but I actually enjoyed it more than the original.
There. I said it.
Now please excuse me while I go and administer the seven cuts of shame.
***
“And to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.”
The first time I went to WonderCon was way back in 2002 while I was in college in San Francisco. I was the only girl in the group and was rocking my Batman Underoos and a very ill-fitting SFSU sweatshirt.
A Spider-Man sticker on top of a Batman logo…I’m trying to remember if we had some sort of Marvel vs. DC thing going on that day….
Since moving to Southern California I wasn’t sure I’d ever go to a WonderCon again but fate had other plans (namely construction) and planted WonderCon in Anaheim this year. I had to go. Now, normally I like to spend at least two days at a comic book convention; however, WonderCon inconveniently fell on St. Patrick’s Day weekend and the Irish blood in me refused to give up the St. Patty’s Day festivities. Therefore, I settled for going to WonderCon on Friday only.
This was the first Comic Book Convention for my Mom, my sister-in-law Troi and my friend Hayden (aka Geek Outlaw). We’re all going to San Diego Comic Con this Summer so it was good practice for them. My Mom wore the HNG t-shirt I had made for Long Beach Comic Con and guys were flirting with her all day. What can I say? I have a hot mama. Hayden wore his Geek Outlaw outfit which was so weighed down by his geeky accoutrements that he literally had to mosey.
First things first. Star Trek. Star Trek actors are the only celebrities I get star struck by. I’m not sure why that is other than the fact that I heart Star Trek sosososososososo much. Seriously, Harrison Ford could walk up to me and I’d be like “yo, what’s up dude?” but if Patrick Stewart did that I would freak the fuck out. So it should come as no surprise that when I saw Anthony Montgomery (aka Ensign Travis Mayweather) I freaked the fuck out.
See that look on my face? That’s pure joy right there.
I was in the process of purchasing a comic book and getting my face sketched on the back of it (more on that later) when Hayden and I realized that Anthony was in the booth right next door. I couldn’t move yet because of the sketching so Hayden went over and warned Anthony that a Super Trekkie was in his midst. I tend to be a very shy person but as soon as I got the go ahead from the sketch artist that I could move I practically mauled the poor man.
I swear I don’t normally do this type of thing!
He now holds the distinction of being the only Star Trek actor that I’ve hugged. Twice. Seriously though, super super super nice guy. I even told him my Connor Trinneer story and he got a laugh out of that (short version: I had just arrived at Whole Foods in Hollywood and saw a guy holding a baby and trying to get a grocery cart. I got the grocery cart for him and when he turned around and thanked me I realized it was Connor Trinneer and I almost had a heart attack right on the spot).
Anthony was there promoting his new graphic novel Miles Away. Y’all should check it out because it looks really good and because I heart him. A lot.
Back to the comic book I was purchasing before I saw Anthony….
Artist: J caught my eye because she’s a fellow HNG who wrote a comic book. Seriously, she’s badass. She combines the comic with music to create a whole experience for the reader. I love and support my fellow HNG’s and you should too. So check her out.
And she makes a darn sexy Wonder Woman too
One of her artists, Will Olmo, did a quick sketch of me on the back of the book.
While looking for an artist I saw at LBCC (alas, I never found him and I can’t remember his name) I ran into two other artists that I will be paying close attention to from now on. The first one is Mike McKone who happens to live just a few miles away from me. I’m going to try and hit him up for an interview. The second is Gerimi Burleigh creator of Eye of the Gods and Morningstar. We first noticed Gerimi because Hayden is a fan of the country western genre and Morningstar has a cowboy twist to it. After talking to him, you can’t help but like him. Super talented and super nice. Plus, he has an awesome name.
Geek Outlaw and Gerimi Burleigh
DC is fighting hunger in Africa with their We Can Be Heroes campaign. To bring attention to the cause they had a photobooth set up wherein you could get your picture taken with shadowy images of the Justice League.
They printed a picture for you (or in Hayden’s case, a crapload of pictures…the printer went nuts over his sexy photo and wouldn’t stop printing them). The photos will be accessible online and on the DC facebook page at some point.
My scanner doesn’t like this picture for some reason so I’ll replace it when they get the digital versions up
We went to an Amazing Spider-Man panel where I saw and got super excited about this:
It’s Punisher! In space!
But the best panel was Nerdist Industries Live! I really hope that no one reading this is too young to remember MTV’s Singled Out. It was back when MTV still played music videos and there were only a handful of reality shows, namely Real World, Singled Out and Love Line (though LL may have come later…I can’t remember, I haven’t watched MTV in years). Anyhooters, people mostly remember Singled Out because it introduced the world to Jenny McCarthy. I remember it because it introduced me to Chris Hardwick. My love for him has only increased over the years what with The Nerdist, Talking Dead, and various hilarious commentaries on E! pop culture shows.
He introduced several people who will be participating in the new Nerdist youtube channel.
Those of us in Ballroom 3 had to pay dearly to see this panel. Warner Brothers decided that right beforehand they would force everyone waiting for The Nerdist to watch an episode of The Secret Circle. It was worse than Chinese water torture. And this is coming from someone who enjoys Twilight (I know, I know). It did give Chris the opportunity to tell jokes about sexy witch scissor sex (that’s how you complete the circle, right?) which almost made it worth it. Almost.
Other Chris Hardwick gems:
Nerds make the shiny things that distract the mouth breathers.
A nerd’s true superpower is to try to understand something and try to live it more than any other living creature.
At the end of the panel Chris had two Angry Bird stuffed animals. The first he threw right to a kid in the front row who made them all feel horribly guilty for cussing. The second he decided to throw as far as he could. The guy next to me was crazy still during the whole panel but he wanted that GD Angry Bird. I’ve never seen a man that size move so fast. It was pretty epic. And the guy was STOKED. Of course I captured it on video.
We got to take pictures in front of an Avengers poster while holding Cap’s shield.
Somehow I ended up being the buttkicker in both photos
And then with Captain America himself.
There was Batman.
And Rogue.
Hulk…at least the top half of him…
And Spidey (who was insanely flexible).
And then there was whatever the frak this guy is.
That’s a nice leg and dangly-thing you got there Mister
To represent the gamers we had some Halo.
And some Halo Barbies.
Scorpion had some crazy white contacts lenses that gave me a really great mental picture of what Roose Bolton’s eyes must look like.
Abraham Lincoln was in attendance just in case any vampires showed up.
Battlestar Galactica was represented.
This is the best Doctor #10 I’ve ever seen at a Con. He was spot on.
These fellow HNG’s made their Tardis dresses themselves. As a very non-domestic lady I was extremely impressed.
It takes this artist 8 hours to put this Firefly display together every time he goes to a convention.
Represent.
My favorite shirt of day.
I heart Transformers. Haha, j/k, it’s a Gundam.
And, of course, there was plenty of the Force.
Last but not least, Hayden’s favorite, the Ghostbusters.
That was a really hard pose to hold.
….and all the times Troi and I decided to photobomb Hayden’s pictures… 🙂
Our souvenirs, including an R2D2 for my nephew.
WonderCon turned out to be a good time had by all. The newbies are sufficiently stoked for SD Comic Con and I got an 8-bit Starfleet communicator. What more could a girl ask for?