Draw Something: Hungry Zombie

In keeping with the macabre theme from my poem yesterday, I thought I'd doodle a hungry zombie. Unfortunately, it seems he has lost his jaw somewhere, along with a few of his brain cells. AAARGGGHHH!

The Lust.

What crawls from 'neath the bubbling muck
Renouncing oblivion to ravage amok
Oozing stale gasps of long captured souls
Dropped deep below to bygone holes
Bursting through forests and deepest of lakes
Terrors to give you the chills and the shakes
Encroaching the fields of our schools and homes
Flesh intended to fill catacombs
Nothing is safe and nothing is sacred
From shambling horrors rancid and naked
Teeth and claws left dripping with gore
Entrails aglow on the moonlit floor
Life reduced to fleeting ephemera
Death endures to dance in the viscera
An unholy fable formed by acrid chrysalis
Fetid revulsion with a stench limitless
Plunging the surface to rip at the hide
Sloughing off layers no relief implied
Encircling putrescence denies your escape
Hunger unbound their mouths all agape
Piece of you here and a piece of you there
Truth be told there's plenty to share
Rest easy tonight the struggle is over
Better to die than live without closure
A burden to walk the black earth eternal
Cursed to feed a lust most infernal

Draw Something: Mummy

That fact that today is Mother's Day is complete by coincidence. I just felt the urge to create a mummy today (probably because I played Castelvania last night). Literally... no pun intended.

What's The Difference Between A Goblin And A Troll?

The following is a public service announcement.

For far too long, goblins and trolls have been indiscriminately confused with each other. Though both names sound creepy in nature, the two beasts aren't all that similar. I'm here to set the record straight.

Here's the difference between a goblin and a troll.

Goblins:

• Often described as being short like a dwarf.
• Usually demonic in nature, but not always.
• Love to horde wealth, especially gold.
• Always up for a little mischief.
• Often portrayed as having green skin.
• Based in folklore from Normandy, France and Germany.
• Can be good or evil in nature; they've been written both ways for hundreds of years.
• Typically intelligent and crafty with mechanical inventions or spells.

Trolls:

• Can be human sized or extra tall, just depends on the story.
• Usually live like hermits, or in small groups.
• Often make their home in caves, under bridges, on mountain sides or in other highly secluded areas.
• Not particularly social or jovial.
• More often than not, they're dangerous to humans. 
• Portrayed as being grotesque in appearance.
• Not typically very smart, but usually extremely strong.
• Based in Nordic and Scandinavian folklore.

From here on out, you can correct your friends and family when they incorrectly employ either of these two names. A troll is not a goblin and vice versa. Get it right!

This public service announcement was brought to you by the North American Anti-Gnome Benefit Lobby, a subsidiary of Globo-Slime Chemicals.

The Most Bad-Ass Monsters of Greek Mythology!

Greek mythology is absolutely awesome. Since I was just a little boy, I've read all about the ancient Greek heroes and their battles against history's most famous monsters. Make no bones about it -- the monsters of Greek myths are phenomenal. They would easily make a mummy quiver in its bandages! Here are some of the most bad-ass examples!

Lamia - A vicious female monster, the Lamia is like a vampiress on steroids. She eats children as a snack (even her own in some versions of the myth) and can easily seduce any man with her vampire gaze. Known for sucking the blood of just about anyone she can, the Lamia is certainly not to be trusted in any capacity.

Basilisk - Though small in stature, the King of Serpents as it is known packs quite the wallop. It could breath fire and had venom so poisonous that it could melt flesh from your bones. Even worse, the basilisk possessed a mighty death gaze. One look from the basilisk could kill a man! It was often described as having the head and legs of a cock, a large crown, scaly wings and the body of a serpent. COCK-A-DOODLE-DON'T!

Gorgon - Whatever you do, don't look at this ugly female beast! With a head full of snakes for hair, the Gorgon was an opponent rarely defeated. Myth has it that one look at the Gorgon would turn a man to stone. In some legends, the Gorgon has a normal woman's body. Other tales suggest her legs were replaced by the body of a snake. In others, her entire body is covered in shimmering scales. No matter which version you face, be prepared to fight her blind. Only by severing a Gorgon's head can you claim victory, but be warned -- even in death, looking at the decapitated head of a Gorgon will still turn you to stone. Medusa is perhaps the most infamous example.

Manticore - Existing as a disgusting cross between a man, a scorpion and a lion, the Manticore has lethal written all over him. It can shoot poisonous barbs from its stinger tail. In its mouth are multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth, much like that of a shark. Extremely nimble and always ready for a meal, the Manticore is one of Greek mythology's alpha predators.

Hydra - A water dragon so tough that it took Hercules himself to defeat it! The challenge of the Hydra was in its ability to regenerate. It had multiple heads that could spit venom. Yet, when one head was sliced off, two more would grow in its place. Hercules, with some help from his trusted friend Iolaus, figured out how to defeat the beast -- by cauterizing the stump of flesh left behind after slicing one of its heads off. Thereby, two new heads couldn't grow. Had any mortal man attempted to defeat the Hydra, they'd probably have become its lunch!

The Invisible Man And The Future Of Cloaking Technology.

In terms of the Universal Monsters, the Invisible Man is probably my most favorite. Released in 1933, The Invisible Man was a revolutionary film with dazzling special effects for the era. Many of the effects were completed through a particularly difficult process for the time. Claude Rains, the actor whom portrayed the Invisible Man, wore a black velvet suit and was filmed against a black velvet backdrop. Complete scenes were then matted over this footage to simulate his invisibility. While that may seem like a simple task today, it was nearly impossible to construct in 1933. The Invisible Man was universally praised for this accomplishment in film making. For its importance to the history of cinema, the movie was added to the United States National Film Registry in 2008 for preservation by the Library of Congress.

Needless to say, The Invisible Man is one hell of a good film.

Astonishingly, implementing actual invisibility is something that's closer to reality than you may think.

The cloaking technology implemented by the Predator is eerily similar to what current scientific efforts are hoping to achieve.

Many research teams and engineers across the globe are actively researching invisibility technology. Most applications of this research involve varying degrees of cloaking technology and the use of metamaterials (materials engineered to have properties not yet found in nature). Such technology bends or refracts the light that strikes a cloaked object, thereby rendering it invisible. Other cloaking techniques simply allow light photons to pass through them, as if nothing was there. A research team at the University of California, Berkeley successfully demonstrated this to be possible on the nanoscale level with the use of metamaterials. Other research teams have seen promising results through the use of nanobots, which can singularly bend light around an object as it actively moves through an environment.

While current research indicates that the method of invisibility seen in The Invisible Man is probably not achievable, we will be able to cloak objects and people through more rudimentary means in the near future. Considering many objects can already be rendered invisible to radar and atmospheric surveillance, I suspect we'll achieve invisibility within my lifetime. How cool is that?!