I may have found just the setting for your next horror game...

The wife and I happened upon this place while traveling around the Great Smoky Mountains yesterday.  I can't say I know much of the history of the Teddy Bear Motel, but I found an image on the web of an old business card for the place, which may have been made during its heyday.

Here's the back of said business card:

I have a feeling the place could be a pretty creepy spot anyway.  It has a very Batman-villain feel to it.  This is only enhanced by the fact that by the time we drove by it yesterday, it had fallen to this state:

I don't really know why part of it is taped off...

...and part of it isn't...

...but the fact that it was apparently abandoned recently enough that when I got out to take a few pictures, I could still hear a smoke detector calling for a new battery, added a little touch of the macabre somehow.

Is it standard procedure to just leave most of the doors open when you have a motel sitting around hoping to be sold?

Oh, and here's a great place to stuff some bodies:

Thankfully, Laura picked up enough of a haunted house vibe that she wanted to stop off for some pictures.  There was also an abandoned Teddy Bear Restaurant right next to it.  I kind of regret not getting any shots of that...

Saturday Evening Cartoon: Misha, mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympics

I posted one for the home team with the Sam the Olympic Eagle anime...so here's a cartoon that seems like a great companion piece.

Hope y'all are feeling the Olympic spirit!

(Oh, and if you don't feel like watching the whole story, I highly recommend skipping ahead to 7:54 so you can hear the closing song!)

IDW Crossover Sale

As of the time I write this, there's a sale going on for digital versions of various crossover series from IDW Publishing.  I don't know how long it's been running, or how long these sales usually last, but there's some really worthwhile stuff there.  Besides the fact that IDW is the publisher for licensed comics...so they have a great stable of their own to mix together...they've also done some crossovers with DC that are taken straight from a fanboy's Christmas list.  Like this dream series:

Here's the link to the sale at IDW's site, and here's the comiXology link (the .com version) if you prefer that.

Dogwood City Drabble

So here's something new for this blog: original fiction!  Why?

Well...why not?

I've been thinking lately about figuring out a way to elaborate on the characters of Dogwood City (my supers setting based on public domain characters).  At the same time, I've become a fan of the drabble (a micro-story), and specifically those that stick to a specific word count.  So, why not combine the two?

Gotta say...the superhero drabble thing is pretty fun to write!  I'm thinking it might be the next big thing in speculative fiction.

Well...it should be.  If anyone else wants to write a 100-word superhero story, I'd love to read it!

Here's my first crack at it:

Decision at Midnight

featuring Cub

Cub looked down at his gloves.  He could see a glimmer of blood shining under the pale streetlight.  It had only taken him two punches to bring the hood down and render him nearly unconscious.

Black Lion would be proud.  He’d barely approved this first solo patrol for the young sidekick, but results like this should help.  Now, what was it that Black Lion always said about fighting criminals?

The first punch is survival.  The second is justice.  The third is vengeance.  You have to figure out where you’re going to draw your line.

Cub gritted his teeth and swung.

Monster Monday: The Mugato

I finally saw Star Trek Beyond yesterday.  (I thought it was pretty good; my initial feeling is that it's better than Into Darkness but not as good as the first reboot film.  Opinions subject to change.)

So, Trek is stuck in my mind today, and that got me thinking about a book from my squandered youth...

In the 7th grade, I won a trivia contest at my school.  Actually, for some reason they randomly asked one trivia question over the intercom, and then awarded a prize to the first student who could make it to the library with the answer.  I think it must have been some sort of national reading day/week or something.  I remember that the question involved Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart."

At any rate, after racing my friend Griff to the library, I was allowed to pick out a prize from a rack of books.  (Griff also got one; the librarian decided that it was only fair to call it a tie.)  I chose The Monsters of Star Trek.

Now, as far as I know, this isn't anything close to a classic of Trek literature.  For a while, however, it was my definitive encyclopedia for the creatures of Star Trek (and I do love how the title uses the word "monsters" rather than "aliens").  While I think the first version had a Gorn on it, I had the second edition picured above, and that guy on the cover, the Mugato, became the quintessential Trek beast to me.

If you're a fan of old toys, you might know the Mugato as the monster that for some unknown reason was put into a funny alien uniform when he was made into an action figure (image from the Mego Museum)...

For today's Monster Monday, I figured I'd whip up some quick stats for the Mugato (for general d20-based gaming...see the GRIND for more info):

Level 6

5 HD

Exceptional Constitution, Superhuman Strength

+1 Defense from natural armor

Attacks:

2 arm strikes (1D damage)

OR

1 horn (1D damage)

OR

1 bite (1D damage + poison)

A victim of a Mugato bite must make a successful saving throw vs. poison/Constitution or become poisoned.  Until they receive appropriate medical care, they will endure 1D damage per hour that passes after the bite.

...

Here are the Mugato's entries at Memory Alpha and Memory Beta.

And finally, here are some great Mugato renderings from DeviantArt that really caught my eye...

mugato

my toon version of mugato from star trek the original series. mugato

Domo Arigato Mr. Mugato

originally posted on my sketchblog: http://bootlegsketch.blogspot.com/2008/04/domo-arigato-mr-mugato.html The Mugato from the original Star Trek series--the version on the left is based on the crea...

Mugato

Blah, blah, blah....... Mugato

Mugato Love

This one spent a while in WIP status, hehe. Wanted to perfect it. Wanna give a shoutout to the peeps at Scifi-meshes.com, who helped me tremendously with all of their comments and suggestions! And ...

Mugato

Disegno a grafite acquarellata - Pubblicato all'interno del LOG 4 - Senato delle Razze - Star Trek Italian Club Mugato

MM gets the Six of the Best treatment...!

Tim over at HeroPress was kind/confused enough to feature Monstrous Matters in today's edition of his Six of the Best series.  Tim's blog is one that I make sure to check out every day, and if I may be so bold, I think that you should too.  You can see the interview here if you'd like...and please don't hold this choice of interviewee against Tim; he does great work!

Saturday Evening Cartoon: 1967 Green Lantern short

Continuing the focus on Green Lantern media, here's the first GL short from 1967-8's Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure.  Pretty cool cartoon, even if the changes to the Guardians and Tom are a little...baffling...