Season 17, 1979, 4 parts, Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
Due to poor navigation, two different space ships (a cruise ship and a trade ship) are interlocked, and The Doctor offers to help. However a zoologist on the cruise ship, recently back from the planet Eden, has a device that stores portions of planets on crystals and displays them as projections. A euphoric drug is making the rounds on the ship and monsters loosed from the Eden projection – which is less of a projection and more of a gateway – are the unwilling couriers of the drug running scheme between two baddies.
This one’s a bit of a slog. As is often the case, there’s a fair amount of technobabble workarounds to shore up the plot. The zoologist Tryst is played by an Australian actor who I think is trying to do a German accent? It’s all very weird and he reminds me of a high school teacher for some reason – at least that garnered my interest.
This is the third in a series of annual timed drawing exercises. They were livestreamed on Sunday mornings on my youtube channel. First I went through the AD&D Monster Manual, choosing one monster from each letter of the alphabet. Then I did the same with the Fiend Folio and finally, here, the Monster Manual II (1983).
ABOLETH
Blue Behir upon a bisected boulder bravely defending her brood of babies, breathing blasts of lightning
Choke Creeper as seen in the D&D cartoon episode “The Garden of Zinn”
Drunk drider drawing a drowsy drow druid
Elderly elf with ELECTRIC EEL escapes with an enlarged EAGLE egg
Friendly fulvous FROGHEMOTH foisting frogurt on four frightened flumphs
Genuine ginger GIBBERING MOUTHER gently gesturing in a gibbet
Hoary host of heavenly HOLLYPHANTS hoisting a hungover halforc hierophant
Jade jumping JANNI with a jambiya
Kraken
Lithesome lady LYCANTRHOPE luring a lascivious low-level lyrist in a lavender labyrith (Foxwoman)
Millions of mechanically marching MODRON minions magnificently mismanaged by a monstrous malfunctioning master
Nereid on a Nautilus
Ork on an olive Oliphant (featuring Venger)
Phoenix
Quickling queen questions a quagga about the quartz quail on the quarterdeck
Robust red rancorous RAVENS regard rappelling ranger ransacking the rookery (featuring Hank the ranger from the D&D cartoon)
Speedy speckled SPECTATOR supports a spunky spellcaster spraying sparkles (featuring Zandora the sorceress from the D&D cartoon)
Titanic tangerine TARRASQUE tasting a templar at the temple of Tefnut.
Uncanny urban URCHINS upending upset unicorns (featuring Uni from the D&D cartoon)
Black velvet VEGEPYGMY veteran with a voulge
Weaponless warduke gets a wet willy from a watchet WOLF-IN-SHEEPS-CLOTHING while a wapiti watches in the woods
Xenagogue x-rayed on a xenolith by XAG-YA AND XEG-YI
Yellow YUAN-TI yogis at a yajna with a yummy yaffingale amongst the yucca
A zomp zendik saps a zaftig ZYGOM ZORBO zombie on a zuche
As wikipedia says – Naoshima is an island in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, part of Kagawa Prefecture. The island is best known for its many contemporary art installations and museums.
Don’t visit on a Monday! The galleries are closed! We learned this the hard way.
Getting there
The closest city with a JR station is Okayama, a cool place with lots of its own destinations (like a castle) which I will blog about another time.
If you happen to be doing a day trip from Okayama, you’ll want to leave as early as you can because it will take at least 1.5 hours transit time to get there, and the ferry schedule is limited. And be sure you plan your trip back as well to ensure you have enough time and aren’t rushing.
Uno Station
There are two ferry docks, one that takes cars and one for foot passengers only. The food passenger one is smaller, obviously, and I think it’s faster, and is actually less comfortable.
Getting Around
If you arrive in Miyanoura Port, make sure you check out Marine Station, they had a special pumpkin cream puff/macaron type thing. You’ll have to buy the ticket at the vending machine and hand the ticket to the clerk to get your sweet treat. We’ll check back later to see how that went for me 😀
Another piece of art!Different perspective of the red pumpkin
I expect you could rent a car or something but we went with bicycles. During the off season (December/January) the only Bike Rental place that’s open is Ougiya. Make sure you check the tires, brakes, etc – mine required a bit of tweaking before we rolled out.
map is provided by the Ougiya bike rental place. I thought this was an villains lair but turns out it is a high schoolFound the heron from that Miyazaki film!Glam trucks are a thing in Japan
On the opposite side of the island, at Honmura Port, you can find some giant bubbles in which to park your bike, if you are so inclined. Designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nihsizawa. Fun stuff!
Naoshima Noodles
Right next to a supermarket (Mitsubishi Materials Naoshima Co-op) there’s a little ramen place called Naoshima Noodles [google link]. We arrived just before lunch and the place was completely empty. We struggled a bit trying to decipher the ticket machine that you use to place your order, but there is an English menu available to help you translate – just ask for it! Just a few minutes after we got our ramen, hordes of salarymen came in to crowd the place.
From here we rode our bikes up a winding steep hill to get to the “Amazing View Spot” on the map above. It was a bit rough, even with electric-assist bikes! But we made it! There’s an orange pumpkin down there somewhere….
Down the hill (scary slope and curves – ride slow) we found Tsutsuji-So Seaside Park. There’s a bus stop here and a beach! Must be nice when it’s not JANUARY!
Yes you can get beer from the vending machine! I guess you don’t need ID?Do you see the giant pumpkin?
Time to try my pumpkin macaron – pretty good! Very rich and sweet, a bit of a trial to finish the whole thing by myself.
The area in tokyo gained the nickname Akihabara Electric Town (秋葉原電気街, Akihabara Denki Gai) shortly after World War II for being a major shopping center for household electronic goods and the post-war black market. The name Akihabara is a shortening of Akibagahara, which comes from Akiba, named after a fire-controlling deity of a firefighting shrine built after the area was destroyed by a fire in 1869.[
2025 – my second visit to this neighborhood! (First time was 2019)
Right next to the JR Train station, YODOBASHI CAMERA Akiba is the largest electronics store in Japan and has 9 floors including restaurants and a batting cage – but the 6th floor is where I spent most of my time for obvious reasons:
Here’s a walkthrough video (not mine)
No less nerdy is Akihabara Radiokaikan, just a five minute walk to the West
I bought a few Ultraman monsters and I don’t regret it! Here’s a walkthrough video (also not mine)
So you’re in Tokyo and you’re wondering where’s a good place to get used books? Well by golly I’ll tell you –
KANDA-JINBOCHO (aka JIMBOCHO)
Jinbocho has its own subway station and is 2 stops away from the famous Akihabara station, it’s about a 16 minute ride.
It’s about a 15 minute walk from Tokyo Dome! Which has a theme park…
The roller coaster actually pokes out over the building above the sidewalk which, as a pedestrian is… disconcerting
Fun things we saw on our walk included stumbling across Anitouch petting zoo, where you can pet capybara, ring-tailed lemur, meerkat, and more typical farm animals (it was a bit sad seeing meerkats who wanted to dig in the dirt but they were trapped in a plastic area) and the Cappy Cafe – where it looks like they might be selling capybara burgers? Nah… probably just the name. Right?
There’s a Mos Burger nearby! Try the matcha shake, it’s not too bad! And of course the rice burger (the bun is made out of rice, there were only 2 on the menu and they were hidden out of the way, but they had them). There was also a frozen dessert that was really REALLY frozen and I had to let it melt a bit in my warm hand before the tiny plastic spoon could dent it
tokyo jimbocho mos burgertokyo jimbocho mos burger matcha shake and frozen dessert
Which had multiple floors packed with cool books and tons of amazing art!
These photos are NOT from Komiyama Tokya Gallery, which is another location a few blocks to the East.
Around the corner we had tonkatsu at Butadaigaku Tonkatsugakubu, where you order at the machine by the door and they have a delicious mustard you can put on your tonkatsu! I forgot to take a photo of my meal before I ate it, but you can imagine
And here’s a photo of a random old style storefront, which I find aesthetically pleasing
Woohoo! I’m a special GUEST OF HONOUR at year’s KamCon! Check out the art I provided of our Dread Lord Cthulhu
It will also be available on this amazing dice tray thanks to Crits n Bones
WHAT I’M DOING AT THE CONVENTION:
Firstly I’ll have a table in the Vendor Hall, where I’ll be selling some of my original D&D art,The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets CDS and paraphernalia including some Spaceship Zero comics, and prints of this handsome entity:
SCHEDULED EVENTS:
SATURDAY 11am RPG Writers panel With Seth Skorkowski, Jon Hook, Toren Atkinson, Douglas Lloyd, William McAusland, Connor Heighton and Moderated by James Droucker.
SATURDAY 6:30pm TASKMASTER!
SATURDAY 8pm I’m running SPACESHIP ZERO THE RPG in the Mountain Room, Table K
SUNDAY 11am: YouTube and Content creator panel With Seth Skorkowsky and Toren Atkinson, moderated by James Droucker
SUNDAY 5:30pm GM Styles and World Building panel With Seth Skorkowsky, Toren Atkinson, Jon Hook, Lee Ann Spiller, Nigel Beardwood, Marcus Pelletier and moderated by James Droucker
Season 17, 1979, 4 parts, Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
The Doctor jumps into a pit where he meets a creature! It’s a scary alien but it’s really an ambassador from another planet, we learn, once it’s translator shield is retrieved by metal brigands (brigands who steal metal not brigands made of metal). Somehow the planet’s ruler Adastra put the alien down into her defunct mine after it landed and tried to broker a trade agreement (it wants chlorophyll for its people, Adastra’s planet is a jungle). After the Doctor, K9 and Romana II rescue the alien they have to deal with a neutron star heading for the planet.
Not a great episode/series but watchable. Has a few Douglas Adams flourishes in the dialogue. Adastra obviously comes from ‘ad astra’ meaning ‘to the stars.’ K9s voice is different. The aliens tentacle is very phallic and its ship, though described as an egg also reminds one of a bellend, to use the British vernacular. The astrologer trapped in the mines was my favourite character, I might steal him for an NPC in D&D.
Jiufen is a seaside mountain area in Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. It’s about an hour drive or 1.5 hour bus ride from Taipei city itself.
Jiufen Old Street is a narrow, winding alleyway with shops, teahouses, and restaurants that offers tourists a view of traditional Taiwanese life. It’s filled with food, knick-knacks, mementos – many of which are Spirited Away – themed, as there’s a legend that it was the inspiration for parts of the movie (though Hayao Miyazaki has denied this).
The absolute must-do is to go into A Gan Yi Taro Ball, order your dessert, and then squeeze through to the back of the restaurant to enjoy the view. Check it out!
While you’re there check out historic Shengping Theater
Not too far away is a restored Japanese-style four joint residence
Jiufen is a former mining town and they have a glorious Gold Museum!
Recently I’ve restocked a bunch of the comic anthologies in which my work appears, and I’m making them available at very reasonable prices indeed!
EXPLODED VIEW – contains my 5 page ‘prequel’ comic that ties in with the Spaceship Zero: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets.
Cover price is $11 and I’m letting them go for $5 for a limited time
ACTS OF VIOLENCE – Back in stock! Back in the day Kevin Leeson asked me to do the art for his story “Reggie-Town” which Ed Brisson published in the anthology ACTS OF VIOLENCE along with many other impressive creatives! The book contains 4 stories and ours was 37 pages – definitely the longest comic project I’ve worked on. $10
HISTORYONICS (Cloudscape Comics) – Contains a 4 page, black and white, dialogue free “Secret Files From the World Wildlife Federation of Justice: The Ominous Origin of Rhinosferatu.” $10.
MEGA FAUNA (Cloudscape) – The culmination of my anthropomorphic animal superhero characters (so far) in print. Contains the 9-page full colour “Eye Eye Eye!” written by Ian Boothby and colored by Tanya Lehoux. Cover price $25 my price $5 for a limited time!
GIANTS OF MAIN STREET (Cloudscape) – Featuring a four page story called Tales of the Underbelly written by Kolja Liquette. Cover price is $10 and my price is $5 for a limited time!
Giants of Main Street is Cloudscape’s massive tome exploring the theme of fantasy and magic within an urban environment. This graphic novel carries the reader through a multitude of impossible cities inhabited by all manner of strange creatures. From communities ravaged by sorcerous wars to thriving metropoli preserved in bottles, this anthology has it all. After all, anything imagined can be found between the cracks if you are brave enough to look.
FUNDAY SUNNIES – Cloudscape
Contains a 1 page parody of those old Hostess Fruit Pies ads. In”Mid-Afternoon of the Living Dead” Go-Rilla finds the only way to stop Elk Diablo’s evil plan is with General Woodcock’s Wholesome Flax Pies! Free with any purchase but it’s wider and longer than the other books so that may affect shipping prices if we’re doing this through the mail
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