Sell Out Copy #57 - September 3, 2010

Where to Find H.P. Lovecraft Merchandise-
If there's anything better than cool products, it's cool products that are based on the tales of H.P. Lovecraft. Here are some places from around the web where you will find various entertaining commodities; undoubtedly inspired by some kind of creeping madness brought about by The Great Old Ones.

Arkham House-
The infamous publishing house that originally introduced Lovecraft's work to the world.

The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society-
Lots of Lovecraft inspired souvenirs, with themes that range from tentacles to insanity.

Arkham Bazaar-
A massive collection of various "Knickknacks from beyond space and time" and "Things man was not meant to see"; a wide variety of Lovecraftian merchandise.

Toy Vault-
Plush creatures from beyond. The unspeakable gods have never looked so cute!

Arkham Studios-
Finely sculpted statutes and busts of various dark cultural icons, including Cthulhu, Brown Jenkin and the gentleman from Providence himself.

SOTA Toys-
Detailed and terrifying collectable figures based on Lovecraft's cosmic horrors.

Meatspider-
An artist who creates and sells various sculptures inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos.

Cthulhu Statues-
Statues that are modeled specifically after the one described in the story "The Call of Cthulhu"

CHAOSIUM-
The makers of the "CALL OF CTHULHU" roleplaying game.

Lovecraftian Movies and Television Shows-
A site which lists the many different media treatments of Lovecraft's work.

        - False Prophet

Sell Out Copy #56 - August 3, 2010

Selling Our Souls-
Sometimes we must compromise our deepest personal preferences in order to placate the consumerist beast. For anyone who has been following this site for the last few years, you may have noticed that it has been slowly taking on certain elements and changes which cause it to resemble other, more standard web sites. This is something that I briefly talked about in our very first Sell Out Copy. The reason that we have been making these changes is quite simple-because they've consistently proven to be more profitable!

Now we've taken Selling Out to another level and have done something that I was honestly very reluctant to do. Twisty, our site's mascot who has prominently graced the Welcome page since day one, is no longer there. Despite the fact that I personally loved seeing him every time I opened my Internet browser, it seems that many people were turned off by the image of the large, disembodied brain with a razor toothed grin staring them in the face at the moment that they entered the site.

Another consideration is that that place on the Welcome page is a pretty important piece of real estate, from an Internet standpoint. Although I think that he looked to really cool sitting there, that's normally the place where people would expect to find important information such as site updates. Needless to say, I was aware of this fact but I'd hoped to get away with doing things a little bit differently. However, being too different or too creative can be a liability in business. Some innovation is essential but it must be done in a certain way and in a controlled fashion. Make things too different and it just freaks people out.

I expect that most people will like this change and I must admit that it is significantly more practical and functional than the way we used to have it (you can now see our site updates from the moment that you log on, instead of having to scroll down). For those of you who liked it the other way, don't fret, Twisty is still our mascot and you will continue to see him around various parts of the site (not to mention we're creating an entire game with him as the protagonist). He's always lurking...

        - False Prophet

Sell Out Copy #55 - July 8, 2010

Evil as a Lifestyle Choice-
I am freak'n loving this site! For anyone who has spent much time on TwistedJenius.com, you know how passionate I can be about the Villainesque lifestyle. And now there is a site which is devoted specifically to that concept. Evil as a Lifestyle Choice is one of the most excellent examples of what I've been talking about, ever!

One thing that I encourage you to do is check out some of the Overlord's The Evil Challenge series of posts. There are so many things here that I've often thought (and probably should have written more about myself; curses!). There are a few delightfully sinister items that I particularly agree with; I'd like to point out in this series of posts.

In Day Five: Present Yourself, she says of villainous clothing "Put together an everyday uniform, something You can wear to feel sinister while going to the grocery store. It doesn't have to be too over the top, just remain in character." I've come to this exact same conclusion myself and I feel that it's definitely necessary for a Villainesque lifestyle. In my case, a black suit serves this purpose nicely.

Day Seven: Dealing with Naysayers, has some excellent advice for not just dealing with naysayers, but people in general. This is some wonderfully practical, down to earth evil and I'm truly impressed.

Day Eight: The Importance of Solitude is the best one yet and is completely true. I must admit that I'm a bit envious of this post, as this is exactly the kind of helpful information that I sometimes like to include in my Evil Rants.

I really can't say enough good (evil) things about this site and it would make this post way too long for me to even try. My favorite thing is the darkly positive approach that this site takes. Towards the end of my Why Villainesque? Rant, which I wrote three years ago, I predicted that we would see more of this villainous lifestyle idea in action. It looks as though my little prophecy may be coming to pass and I couldn't be happier about that!

Don't be surprised to see this site added to our Villain Links in the future.

        - False Prophet

Sell Out Copy #54 - June 24, 2010

Evil Robots-
Nothing proves that Science is a Dick quite like evil robots, and nothing is more Villainesque. Robots are an important element of villainy, and so for starters, we have a list of videos featuring some of the Best Evil Robots from various media.

Next we have a page dedicated to the behind the scenes creation of one of the most infamous evil robots in cinematic history, and one of my personal favorites; ED-209. This visually intimidating and humorously malfunctioning antagonist has become somewhat of an icon and with good reason. There's just something very cool and memorable about him.

Of course robots aren't just for the movies anymore, and for any aspiring mad scientists out there, here's a site which features all kinds of interesting robotic devices, at different levels of complexity, which can be purchased for fun and evil. And to make things even more interesting, there's some new robotics technology on the horizon such as this A.R. Drone. Having a smart phone app to command your army of flying drones, makes it much more convenient to unleash terror from the skies!

I leave you now with a bit of nostalgia, an old Toonami Promo which speaks of this topic with the delightfully threatening eloquence that it deserves. I loved these Toonami Promos; "advanced robotics" indeed!

        - False Prophet

Sell Out Copy #53 - May 13, 2010

Dead Space 2 is Copying Us!-
Outrage! The first screen shot of Dead Space 2 has been released and it features bloody lettering scrolled onto a padded cell wall (top right corner of the image). Dead Space, that's our shtick; get your own! It's been our logo since we first launched this site in 2006! You will pay for this treachery!

The fact that we're not even on Visceral Games radar because they're an AAA developer owned by EA and we're an obscure, niche web site that they in all likelihood don't even realize exists; is no excuse! They've obviously copied us, being naturally envious of our brilliance. We have a game in the works which features that sort of thing as well; and despite being completely ignorant of this fact, they are obviously trying to get the jump on us. They're trying to keep us from completely cornering the bloody-cell-pad-market. Fools!

So, Visceral Games, do you know how Twisted Jenius handles such interlopers? Well, neither do I; but you can be damn sure that we're going to have a couple of meetings to determine some policies about this. And then you'll see...

        - False Prophet