Wizard of Oz - Wizard Head

I'm designing a Wizard of Oz head. Here's the first four initial concepts:

The first is based off a sketch I drew. The wizard head always reminded me of the magic mirror from Disney's Snow White, and since Oz is the all-powerful emperor, I thought of a Mandarin from Imperial China. I had to include your classic bulbous-headed 1939 Wizard, of course; next, what gallery of terrifying inscrutible faces would be complete without an Easter Island Maoi statue? The last one intrigued me most of all: the Wizard puppet from the musical, Wicked. It was originally designed as a cross between Frank L. Baum's Wonderful Wizard of Oz book illustration of the head and the 1939 Tin Man. While the production head itself is a fairly complex bit of engineering, I've seen clips of amateur productions that feature a blacksuited cast member and a giant cardboard mask with movable lower jaw - simple, yet very effective (especially with red LED eyes). I'll keep you posted on further developments.

Rick Out.

Cold House/update

Isn't central heating great? I'm sitting here in the house, frost rapidly spreading over my toes, and when I go to check on the thermostat it says, "63 degrees". Now I know what 63 feels like: April, balmy, a cool breeze. This is not 63 degrees. Our heating unit is either broken or lying to us, and personally I suspect the latter. It's the digital version of a crooked landlord who wants to save a couple extra dollars a month by deep-freezing his renters and then charging normal rates. And what the hell is up with the automatic system? Isn't it supposed to kick on once the temperature goes below program? Instead it waits until the room temperature is slightly above freezing. Then it starts blowing cold air.

But enough of that. Kickstarter campaign is going great; I already have six backers and $120.00. I'm going to need a lot more before April, of course, so don't go cheap on me, all you slackers. I just ordered ten posters from Ka-Blam, and I'm looking to get a proof of the comic done, just to make sure everything's on the level. It's been a busy week, but I'm on a roll here - looking at a job interview, too, so wish me luck.

Rick Out.

Book Review/Theory Gloss

(As you know, Gentle Reader, I'm a bit of a nerd, and I love paleontology to death. Here's a review/gloss on a book I read about the Permian Extinction Event).

I just read a very interesting book called Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth’s History by Peter D. Ward (Viking, 2004). It contained a very intriguing theory about the Permian extinction, an event that snuffed out 90% of all life on Earth.

A short exposition: the Permian period was a stretch of time in Earth’s natural history just before the Mesozoic (“Age of Dinosaurs”). There were no dinosaurs during the Permian, only amphibians, lizards, and mammal-like reptiles. If you want to know what a mammal-like reptile looked like, simply take the body of a big lizard and slap on the head of a dog, minus the fur. As far as we know, these therapsids were cold-blooded, laid eggs, and had tiny lizard lungs – a feature important to the extinction theory.

Large carnivorous gorgon, Arctognathus, with therapsid prey

The earth during that time was pretty dry. There was a single supercontinent, Pangaea, with all the landmass on one side of the earth; not a lot of moisture reached the interior. There were a couple of shallow oceans in the middle, but these were quickly disappearing. The dryness made it tough for species to cope, but it wasn’t a deal-breaker – as we know from modern times, thousands of species live quite happily in extremely dry, hot conditions.

 Your friendly neighborhood supercontinent.

Then, according to the theory put forward in Gorgon, two things happened simultaneously: ocean levels dropped, and a vast volcanic region in what is now Siberia began to erupt.

The Siberian Traps were like a giant version of Yellowstone, a one million square mile area of intense volcanic activity continually erupting for a million years. No one is sure whether plate tectonics or deep-earth magma eruptions caused it, but it definitely ruined everyone’s day – billions of tons of poisonous gases, including sulfides and methane, poured into the atmosphere. That much volcanic ash in the atmosphere forms a choking layer that can result in either global cooling (by reflecting the sun’s rays) or global heating (by trapping heat against the earth).

 

Area of Siberian Traps

As if that wasn’t enough, the theory goes, lowering ocean levels exposed vast tracts of seabed. Underwater this sediment is fairly stable, but exposed to the atmosphere it releases methane gas. And with all the tectonic plates forming Pangaea constantly slamming together or ripping apart, the seabeds just kept rising. Billions of trillions of tons of methane poured into the air, enwrapping the planet in a noxious blanket.

Tidal mudflats (not exactly exposed seabed, but similar)

Here’s the upshot: by itself, Methane is a poisonous gas, and contributes to global warming. But it also has this nasty habit of stripping oxygen from the atmosphere and converting into carbon dioxide. So now all that methane from the volcanoes and oceanic muck is now vacuuming up atmospheric oxygen. Which, as you may have guessed, is bad news for the happy oxygen-breathing organisms: amphibians, lizards, mammal-like reptiles, arthropods, mollusks, fish, most bacteria, and many fungi.

Thus, goes the theory, 90% of life on earth, land and sea, asphyxiated – turned blue in the face and died.

Anoxic fishkill, 2012 - a tiny version of the Permian shoreline 250 mya.

“But wait,” you say. “What about plants? They don’t need oxygen. Why would they suffer in a carbon dioxide-rich environment? You’d think they’d flourish.”

Not so fast. Yes, plants like CO₂-rich environments; but they get their nutrients from soil, and viable soil requires decomposition. Much of this decomposition depends on microorganisms, which require oxygen. With decomposition occurring so slowly, and many fungi, bacteria, and other little critters dying off, the nutrients get used up. Sterile soil causes plant death, which leads to wind erosion, which causes larger plants to get blown over, and you essentially have a dust bowl situation. The hot, dry conditions didn’t help, and the climate was getting hotter and dryer due to global warming (caused by those nasty gases). You end up with a cascading chain reaction of death and destruction.

Dust Bowl sandstorm, Texas, 1930s.

“But wait,” you say. “If all the oxygen is gone, wouldn’t life be extinguished? Why did all these organisms still survive?”

Ah, but here’s the elegant part of the theory. I’ll give you a hint: where on earth do organisms survive with less oxygen? The answer: at high altitudes and in the ocean depths.

As the theory goes, those extreme high- and low-altitude organisms, responding to the decrease in oxygen at their own level, begin to descend (or ascend) closer to sea level. Their lungs are huge, allowing them to process oxygen more efficiently. They are also extremely tough, living in cold conditions with extremes of pressure. Adapting to the sea-level pressures over time, they spread out over the earth. Evidence is found in a surviving mammal-like reptile, Lystrosaurus: unlike most of its ilk, it was deep-chested, with big lungs.

Lystrosaurus

Another type of animal also had these strong lungs: Proterosuchians. Related to crocodilians, they were long-limbed, long-necked, and had legs positioned directly under their bodies. They soon gave rise, in the middle Triassic period, to the new rulers of the earth, animals sufficiently adapted to take advantage of this anoxic environment: dinosaurs.

Proterosuchus, showing dinosaur-like adaptations.

For Mr. Ward, the proof of all this is in the pudding – or rather, the fossilized muck. His fieldwork showed a startling stratigraphic phenomenon occurring right at the time of the Permian extinction: before the Triassic, the strata are green. At the Permian/Triassic boundary – and all the way into the middle Jurassic – the strata turn red. Red rock is caused by oxygen bonding to iron, literally rusting it. Since there is always about the same amount of oxygen somewhere on the earth, more oxygen in rock means less in the atmosphere. Only after the middle Jurassic do the rocks return to a more normal color, and this coincides with the Age of Giants, when dinosaurs and marine animals grew enormous, their bodies feasting on oxygen. This also matches up with the rise of birds and the resurgence of mammals – whose lungs were still as inefficient as their reptilian ancestors – as organisms took advantage of the sudden increase in atmospheric oxygen.

Luann Becker (mentioned in this book) pointing to the P/T
boundary: dark Permian rock below, reddish Triassic rock above.

Ain’t science fascinating?

The book itself was interesting in its own right – a sort of adventure story: Mr. Ward spends ten years in South Africa’s Karoo desert, coping with ticks, weather, racial politics, and temperamental colleagues as he studies one of the few places on earth where Permian fossils are abundant. The writing isn’t bad at all, either, although it gets sentimental at times. It wouldn’t have hurt to have a couple of illustrations of the beasts he’s describing: I had to Google dicynodon and gorgonopsid. All in all, a very good book, chock full of fascinating new science stuff, and a great adventure story to boot.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! 

A day early, I know, but I'd better upload it while I'm thinking about it...

Quick sketch...

Just a little doodle I did in Photoshop. My friend Lauren is setting up a Livingston County Queer Prom, and the theme is, "Zombie Prompocalypse".

Figure 1.1: Dancing Undead.

I'll see if she wants a dance floor littered with glowsticks and offal. Of course, they'll have to have a special machine to clear the dance floor of all the rotting bits that fall off.

And what will this machine be called?

A Zomboni.

Rick Out.

Everybody's shutting down their blogs but me!

It seems like everyone's shutting down their blogs but me. Let us pause to reflect on the unfortunate demise of the personal blog.

(Voice of Nelson: Ha-ha!)

But seriously, folks, I'm sure once this whole "Recession" fad has faded in a couple of weeks and people get back to work, there'll be plenty of leisure time to share our thoughts, opinions, and updates in the wide and wacky world of Web Logging. In the meantime, I will be continuing to upload sketches and such; I am also working on a large post about my comic book creative process, which should be up in the next couple of weeks. Personally, I find this time of apocalyptic economic catastrophe to be the perfect time to kick back, relax, and take advantage of the large vacuum in the blogsphere.

Til next time,

Rick Out.

Kickstarter is Kicking!

Hey, y'all!

Just to let you know, I've just launched my Kickstarter campaign to finance my newest comic book, The Human Cannonball #1! Check it out here. I'm super-stoked about the project; the donation period opens today, and ends April 1st. Any donations will be greatly appreciated!


Rick Out.