This week, I’m starting the process of casting part of the game piece that came with the Rocketeer board game to make a helmet and rocketpack to modify a Heroclix figure into a Cliff Secord! We will pick this up in the new year (once I get some new silicone).
In this episode, we’ll be taking the Rocketeer game piece, adding some vents (toothpicks) to the protruding parts of the figure when it’s upside down, since the pour spout will be the base of the figure. I’ll be using the helmet and pack to hopefully add to the Technocrat figure
These toothpicks will form the vents once the mold is made to carry the air out and hopefully help the areas that protrude fill.
Turns out there wasn’t enough silicone to fill even this K-cup container, so we will shelve this project until next year. But, I was able to case the upper body, which should be enough for my original intention.
And here are some cast torsos next to the original Hero Clix game piece. To be continued!
Lastly, last week, I was talking about a film called Max Q with Billy Campbell who plays a very Cliff Secord type of character. If you liked the Rocketeer, you’ll probably like this film as well. I really enjoyed it. Sadly, it’s very hard to find, though a kind soul uploaded it to Youtube. Check it out! The entire playlist of all eight parts is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQt_32e40QXFA5414DrH8SiyMtyax_VmP
The Thirteenth Hour Podcast Episode #383 and Like a Hood Ornament #45: Troll, Dave Stevens – Drawn to Perfection, Max Q, Airbrushing Rocketeer Figures, and Cleaning up a Resin Minifigure with Hot Water
This week, I thought I’d start by sharing a few things I have seen recently. They all relate to the Rocketeer / previous show guestBilly Campbell in some way, though that was mainly coincidental. If you get the chance to check out a Norwegian film Billy has a small role in, Troll (it’s on Netflix), I think you’ll definitely enjoy it if you like monster movies in the vein of Godzilla. Interestingly, Billy plays a paleontologist whose last name is “Secord” … coincidence? Hmmm …
In addition, a documentary about Dave Stevens also was just released. If you have any interest in Dave, the Rocketeer, or comic book writers and artists in general, it was really well done. They do a nice job at capturing the inherent loneliness that sometimes besets almost anyone who engage in a creative disciple (most of whic, in my opinion comes from the fact the artist alone know what is inside and there are always translational errors in making that vision something real in the world bound by time, skill, and other finite resources.
Interestingly, I happened to see this comic magazine from 1983 on eBay the other day. It was an impulse buy mainly because it had an interview with Dave Stevens in it. Thought I would include it here since it just came in the mail and is very much in line with what was discussed in the documentary.
Lastly, while I was looking for Dave Stevens stuff, I randomly found a film called Max Q that also has Billy Campbell in it. He again plays a flier ut this time a shuttle commander. So far, it has reminded me a bit of Spacecamp, one of my favorite films as a kid, and I’m quite enjoying this look at the space shuttle (which NASA no longer uses) as well as the score of the film. Not sure where you can watch it, but a kind soul uploaded it on Youtube, which is where I found it to begin with.
Welcome to a special edition of The Thirteenth Hour Podcast with guest Billy Campbell (a.k.a. the Rocketeer)! This was initially done as a thank you for supporters of a series of charity auctions of custom Lego Rocketeers done to benefit the nonprofit Hero Initiative. You may also be watching this if you are a listener of The Thirteenth Hour podcast and unlocked this interview by answering a few trivia questions related to our guest. Or, you are watching this at some future date, probably for a slightly different but related charity project. However you got here, thanks for joining, and thank you to Billy Cambell for a fun, wide-ranging conversation about the Rocketeer, comic books, drawing, Dave Stevens, and more.
Next, I thought we’d wrap up with some more hands on stuff. I’ve been experimenting with using an airbrush to lay down at least the first few coats on the Rocketeer action figures
Lastly, I record a section where I am using hot water to warm a resin figurine I made of Logan from The Thirteenth Hour to make the cleanup of flashing and other bits that would need to be sanded or filed away a bit easier. I’m not sure if you can do this with all resin but at least the clear stuff it works for.
Welcome to a special edition of The Thirteenth Hour Podcast with guest Billy Campbell (a.k.a. the Rocketeer)! This was initially done as a thank you for supporters of a series of charity auctions of custom Lego Rocketeers done to benefit the nonprofit Hero Initiative. You may also be watching this if you are a listener of The Thirteenth Hour podcast and unlocked this interview by answering a few trivia questions related to our guest. Or, you are watching this at some future date, probably for a slightly different but related charity project. However you got here, thanks for joining, and thank you to Billy Cambell for a fun, wide-ranging conversation about the Rocketeer, comic books, drawing, Dave Stevens, and more.
Speaking of Dave, none of this would have happened were it not for his many talents (writing, penciling, coloring, etc). Dave Stevens’ high flying hero went on to capture the nostalgia of a bygone era – the sights, speech, and zeitgeist of the golden age of aviation and the promise of the world of tomorrow – much of which eventually ended up on the silver screen in the 1991 movie. Unfortunately, Dave left this world for the next adventure all too soon. In honor of his work (40th years since the Rocketeer comic was first published – 1982), we wrap up the episode by speculating in “what-if” fashion about Cliff’s adventures in the early days of World War 2 in a Choose Your Own Adventure style interactive story.
Now, this episode is just a preview (about 20 minutes), but you can unlock the rest, annotated with pictures and video, by answering these four questions:
1.) In 1991, Billy Campbell played Cliff Secord, Gee Bee pilot, and of course, the Rocketeer. In the late 90s, Billy played another flyer in the film The Brylcreem Boys with Irish actor Gabriel Byrne. While Mr. Byrne wasn’t in The Rocketeer, he was in another Disney film made around the same time. Which one?
a. Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken
b. White Fang
c. Shipwrecked
d. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
2.) Billy Campbell currently calls Norway home, and Shipwrecked was a Norwegian film directed by Nils Gaup. Earlier, in 1987, Mr. Gaup wrote and directed another adventure film, released in Norway as Ofleas. The US title was:
a. The Neverending Story
b. Time Bandits
c. The Young Magician
d. Pathfinder
3.) Speaking of the 80s, Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens penned the comic of the Rocketeer’s first flight in 1982. The Rocketeer comic had some information on Cliff’s background that wasn’t in the film. In the comic, prior to being a stunt pilot, Cliff was:
a. a circus performer
b. a grocery store stockboy
c. a mechanic
d. a short order cook
4.) Speaking of the Rocketeer, one of the beloved parts of the film, comic, and cartoon is the Bulldog Diner, modeled after a real Depression era diner shaped like a bulldog. The Great Depression spawned many infamous diner dishes using available resources. Which one of these real dishes was known as SOS (shite on a shingle)?
a. prune pudding
b. Hoover stew
c. peanut butter and mayo sandwich
d. creamed chipped beef on toast
Put you answers in the password field below, all lowercase, no spaces, to access the rest of the episode (with pictures)!
This week, I’m joined by special guest Obi of Obi’s Toybox as we talk all about one of our mutual favorite topics – the Rocketeer! We were introduced by our mutual friend, Adam from AC Toy Design. The Rocketeer is a pretty hopeful, optimistic film, so I think it’s no wonder that people that like it tend to be nice people. Yet, I seldom meet folks in day to day life that know much about the film or the comics, so aside from my family and this podcast, I mostly keep that interest to myself. So it was a rare pleasure to be able to talk with someone else on all manner of things Rocketeer related. A few things we touched on for reference:
This week, my brother, Jeremy, rejoins the show to talk about the 1985 Disney film, The Black Cauldron. The film is loosely based on the first two books in the Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander, a series I was sort of introduced to as a kid when I bought The Black Cauldron book in a school book fair since it had the cover of the movie, like this one:
The film poster usage for the cover of the novel is a bit misleading since the majority of the plot to the film is actually from the first book in the series, The Book of Three, which I was unaware of at the time. So, it’s not surprising it didn’t make much sense. However, we did have this Scholastic comic adaptation of the film which we found at a yard sale and read many times in childhood:
You can find copies on eBay periodically (click on the picture above to search):
Here’s the theatrical trailer and some screencaps:
The film had to be cut for length and content. Here is the first in a series of videos that has deleted scenes from the film:
Check out Jeremy‘s work over at Pixel Grotto, CBR.com, and Classic Batman Panels on IG. You can support his work on Ko-fi and get access to in-depth, exclusive Batman content here. If you are of the DnD persuasion, his articles on DnD Beyond may be right up your alley. Thanks, Jeremy, for coming on the show!
Today, we’re discussing the recent port of the game to the Nintendo Switch as well as the release of Massimiliano’s recent fantasy art book, Fragments of the Past. Most of this session was spent discussing the creative process. We’ll be discussing more about the book next week, so just a taste this episode.
There are many, many beautifully rendered painting in the book which we’ll explore more next episode.
By the way, if you haven’t gotten the chance to check out the 80s retro soundtrack for Nirvana Pilot Yume done by Retroxx, check it below or here:
Since we’re essentially talking about the nature of the creative process in this episode, I thought for this segment, I’d post a little on the circuitous path Dave Stevens’ creation, The Rocketeer, took flight, first on paper and, eventually, on screen. From the April ’91 edition of Comics Scene:
See you next week for Part 2!
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished one year ago, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
On this week’s show, I had the opportunity to continue the discussion with Jim and Hal from the Rocketeer Minute podcast, which if you never heard of the Movies by Minute podcast movement (I hadn’t until stumbling upon their show), it’s where people dissect a movie, generally one minute at a time. Check out episode 249 for the first part of the conversation.
In the intro, I’m reading from a book I spent hours flipping through as a kid, The Smithsonian Book of Flightby Walter Boyne.
I always enjoyed the first third of the book since it was devoted to the pioneering and golden ages of aviation, that time when a garage tinker could put something together that – even if it might not ultimately fly – the dream was there, and it seemed attainable. So I’m reading from the introduction of the book on the Experimental Aircraft Association (at least, the 1987 iteration of the organization), Hal’s employer, since we’ll talked a bit about them last time and will be again at the end of the episode but also because making the goal of aviation attainable for everyday people captures the kind of hopeful spirit for a better tomorrow that The Rocketeer inspires.
The first aviation meet from 1910 …
To the yearly EAA gathering …
The barnstorming photo my daughter was commenting on at the start of the episode …
The “E” in EAA stands for experimental! Back to the roots of aviation.
We then continue talking about the idea of what makes for a rewatchable film. That was my regular pattern for a number of years as a kid (getting up early on Sundays, usually, to rewatch movies I’d already seen). Most of those films ended up being ones I’ve talked about in some fashion on this website or on the show, ones like Labyrinth, Real Genius, Karate Kid 3 (the only one I had), Some Kind of Wonderful, The Last Starfighter, and, of course, The Rocketeer).
If you enjoyed The Rocketeer, you may enjoy these films:
–Zone Troopers (also written by Paul DeMeo and Danny Bilson)
–Out There(also starring Bill Campbell, playing the same kind of earnest, down on his luck character to Cliff)
–The Brylcreem Boys (also starring Bill Campbell, playing the a downed flier similar to the sort of character you’d expect Cliff to be had he enlisted in WW2).
It was great to connect with Jim (of TVDads.com) and Hal (of the EAA) to discuss the making of their show. Here’s how to find out about their show and/or connect with them.
–The Final Mission by Chris Henry and Hal Bryan. From the EAA product page: “This book tells the powerful and personal stories of some of the people who have stepped back in time by taking a flight on the Experimental Aircraft Association’s restored B-17 bomber, Aluminum Overcast.” Just got mine and am looking forward to reading it!
This little animated .gif is, of course, from the point in the movie where the Rocketeer, not above a little self conscious vanity, asks how he looks. Peevy, not above a little blunt honesty, says “Like a hood ornament!” The Rocketeer blasts off for the first time, Peevy gets blown backwards into the hangar, and I get a name for this part of the podcast!
Stay tuned for more Rocketeer talk next week! Stay safe!
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished one year ago, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
On this week’s show, I had the opportunity to connect with Jim (of TVDads.com) and Hal (of the Experimental Aircraft Association) from the Rocketeer Minute podcast, which if you never heard of the Movies by Minute podcast movement (I hadn’t until stumbling upon their show), it’s where people dissect a movie, generally one minute at a time. So one minute of the movie = 1 episode. The 1991 Rocketeer film, based on the original comic by Dave Stevens, screenwritten by Paul De Meo and Danny Bilson, and directed by Joe Johnston, is 108 minutes long. But there are actually 116 Rocketeer Minute Podcasts if I counted right, making for over 60 hours of listening. That’s one hell of a DVD commentary! (Rocketeer fans have long had to deal with a dearth of any substantial extras on the official DVD releases of the film, but even if there had been a DVD commentary, the amount of material on the Rocketeer Minute podcast would be over 30 times whatever was on the disc!)
As mentioned, I found their show totally by accident. Ever since I learned about the internet in the mid 90s, I would occasionally type “Rocketeer” in whatever search engine was used at the time just to see what popped up. As I recall, there was really only one Rocketeer site in the mid 90s (when I first realized that the internet was someone more that those AOL Online floppy discs that used to come in the mail – we never had AOL Online, but for awhile, that’s what I thought this “internet” thing was). While there was never a ton of info online about the film and comics, there were always a few sites and fanart pictures on places like Deviantart. Earlier this fall, I was doing what I usually did, this time typing in “Rocketeer” in Twitter (which I only half understand), and lo and behold, something called The Rocketeer Minute popped up. (I’d looked around on iTunes in the past, back when I did episode 53 on my first rewatching of The Rocketeer since childhood and hadn’t found any podcasts devoted to the Rocketeer; turns out I was about a year too early.) I listened to the first few episodes that night and was hooked.
It took about a month and a half to listen to all the episodes, and like when I was a kid watching the film over and over again (more on this next week), I was kind of sad when it was all done! (I’ve come to wonder if that is the mark of any meaningful work of art – you miss it when it’s gone.) This was also around the time that the Disney Jr Rocketeer cartoon was released, allowing me to introduce my children to the Rocketeer. The timing of both made me realize there was so much I wanted to talk about when it came to The Rocketeer and also hammered home the realization that there were quite a few other Rocketeer fans out there lurking under the surface that might also like to be interested. And since so much of The Rocketeer influenced my writing of The Thirteenth Hour, I figured, why not just keep it as part of the same podcast as its own recurring segment:
Before we sign off for this week, I’ll leave you with this little spread of pictures from a 1991 issue of the kids’ magazine, Disney Adventures, which thanks to the magic of eBay, I was finally able to read ~thirty years after originally wanting to.
I totally remembering wanting the water rocket Rocketeer as a kid but never being able to find one.
Next week, we’ll talk a little bit more about the EAA, Hal’s employer, in the intro and during the episode. In the meantime, please check out The Rocketeer Minute’s Bulldog Cafe Facebook Group for more pictures and behind the scenes info from the movie as well as the episodes.
This little animated .gif is, of course, from the point in the movie where the Rocketeer, not above a little self conscious vanity, asks how he looks. Peevy, not above a little blunt honesty, says “Like a hood ornament!” The Rocketeer blasts off for the first time, Peevy gets blown backwards into the hangar, and I get a name for this part of the podcast!
Stay tuned for more Rocketeer talk next week! Stay safe!
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished one year ago, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
The old (more comicky) and new (more ?anime-ish) covers to the novelette prequel to The Thirteenth Hour, A Shadow in the Moonlight are as discussed in this episode are here for comparison:
Dave Stevens, the creator of the comic book hero, The Rocketeer, is discussed here, especially his art style and the storytelling influence on the creation of The Thirteenth Hour.
The 3rd edition of The Thirteenth Hour will be officially launched on 1/13/16, on its one year anniversary. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks!
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