Meet the Mad Hatter!

Before we get into full swing in the new year with some more of Chris McAuley's interview with one of the 'fathers of 2000AD', Pat Mills, another in our series of posts highlighting the creative activities of Sector House 13 members.  This time round we're looking at Jay Snyder, a creator of wondrous objects and the proprietor of The Mad Hatter's Steampunk Emporium.

As he'll explain himself, Jay is a keen cosplayer and we look forward to our regular previews of his latest creations at our monthly meetings in the Parlour Bar in Belfast.  (last Friday in the month, lest you forget).

You can check out, and even buy some of Jay's creations at his web-site and see even more of his dazzling creations, but in the meantime just take a quick look at our startling gallery of photographs and read some of Jay's own words about himself..

 

Jay Snyder, The Mad Hatter Himself.

You may know me as the mad hatter but others call me Jay Snyder (the cider hider). I have humble origins, born in Dartford, Kent and moving to Essex at the age of 6 with my Mater and Pater. My alternative tastes developed from an early age, with my love of comics and fantasy. 2000 A.D. and Judge Dredd being two my favourites.

I started making costumes for fancy dress at the age of 14/15, with my first being Friar Tuck for a fancy dress. As Halloween rolled around each year, I evolved into recreating classic horror characters, such as Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

In 1995, I moved to the green pastures of Northern Ireland where I honed my skills of costume design ( and hiding cider) with another Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster.

Custom Cosplay weapons

From 2012 the mad hatter has been attending comic cons throughout Northern Ireland, finding inspiration for his next masterpiece. Suffice to say I felt quite at home surrounded by all my fellow nerds. Some of the costumes I premiered here were Rorschach from Watchmen and The Mad Hatter (my usual attire, of course).

More of Jay's Weapons

With my history, I think you can guess how my love of Hat making came about. So in August of 2014 The Mad Hatters Steampunk Emporium opened.

So there we are, a quick look round the strange world of our very own Mad Hatter. Do check out out Jay's web-site and if you come along to one of our meetings ask to see some of the pictures of his latest creations.  He's always happy to talk you through his process and the details of his amazing designs.

The address of Jay's website, where you can see many more photographs of his hats, weapons and cosplay costumes is...

  http://www.madhattersteampunk.co.uk/

 ...and do tell him we sent you. 

Any other Sector 13 members with creative activities, please contact the editor of the blog at Sector13@Boxofrainmag.co.uk and we'll highlight it here. 

Sector House 13's Got Talent

The membership of Sector House 13 includes some pretty talented people.  From time to time we're going to draw your attention to some of the projects that these guys are involved in.  To start with a word or two about a couple of people who have been involved in the Sector 13 fanzine who have on-line projects deserve your support.

Judge Scarlet from Hal Loren. 

Hal Loren provided us with the excellent Judge Scarlet pin-up in our second issue.  A brilliant mash-up of Mega-City one with the end credits of a favourite kids sci-fi show of years ago.   But he has been producing comics of his own for years and is currently running a Kickstarter campaign for his latest title, Trojan Nova.  I asked Hal to introduce himself and his latest project.



Hal Laren, Creator, artist and writer of Trojan Nova Comic.  I’ve self-published many of my own books from B.Ex comics 1-10 to Trojan Alpha as well as creating covers for many independent publishers both in the UK and in the United States.

Previous comics from 2010 include Trojan CryO and Trojan Alpha.  Trojan Alpha will be an extension to these but not a direct continuation.

To further develop the narrative of the older comics I wanted to create a more suspenseful sci-fi story.  My aim in Trojan Nova was to continue and elaborate on an existing experience for sci-fi comics readers.  If you enjoy this book we have some great rewards available, from t-shirts to prints and even a chrome cover.

Hal has been very generous to the Sector 13 Fanzine with his time and his fantastic artwork, I do hope some of the Sector 13 crew and the members of the wider group will take a look at his Kickstarter and support what looks like a fantastic project.    

The Kickstarter is, as I write, sitting at just over 60% fulfilled with ten days to go. Trojan Nova looks like a great science fiction comic, so go along and take a look and see if its something you can support.

You can find the Kickstarter here and some more of Hal's comics at his web-site http://www.reapercomics.co.uk/

Andy Luke is a writer who draws.  For Sector 13 he’s supplied text stories for the first two issues and was a part of the team who planned the production of the zine.  He's been on the scene for some time but the past couple of years have seen him produce some of his best work.   His novel, "Axel America and the U.S. Election race" provided a surreal preview of events in the real 2016 electoral race.  Funny and frightening, in how accurately it portrays the U.S. political landscape, it's rich in language and thick with satire.    

Axel America is a thoughtful book, but never at the expense of the comedy.   The satire is not subtle, Andy is not exactly a surgeon carving up society with the scalpel of his pen.  No, Andy bludgeons you with the surreal ridiculousness of the American underground political scene.  But then perhaps that's the only way to take on that particular target.  Subtly would be lost on Axel or any of his supporters.  The book is available from Amazon for £9:97 or for the Kindle for £3.20 and although actual events may have caught up with it a little, how do you parody Trump, it’s still well worth your time.


More recently Andy has been working on a longer work.  Something that has been percolating in his mind for a while.  It’s called “The Watch Thief” and tells the bizarre and almost unbelievable story of Trebitsch Lincoln, a Hungarian of Jewish descent who became, in turn a Protestant missionary, an Anglican Priest, an MP in Britain and ended his life as the self-proclaimed, Nazi collaborating successor to the Dalai Llama.  It’s a fascinating story and deserves to be told.  Andy is using the Patreon web-site to make the novel available in weekly parts, aiming to finish the book by May of next year.  

For as little as $2 a month you get access to each chapter of the book as it comes out, add a little more and there are extra rewards in terms of short stories, poems, commentaries and videos.  I look forward to each chapter as it comes out.  Even knowing a little about the life of Trebitsch, each episode is an incredible set of revelations and I can vouch for the quality of the extras.  The photographs, the notes and the sight of the background work he has put into this book are very entertaining.

It’s a huge undertaking and Andy has stuck to his schedule week after week, despite a couple of occasions where he really should have taken to his bed with the flu.  This is an incredible story, one that covers the most important years of the last century, and some of the most important events.  This was the history which continues to shape our world and its story is told from a fascinating perspective.  It’s told with Andy’s usual rich and hugely entertaining style.  So please take a look and if you can support this impressive achievement in some small way then I think you'll find you won’t regret it.

There are others active creators within the Sector House 13 community.  From Jonathan Fisher who has just signed a publishing deal for his book of evocative short stories “Ten Minutes on Mars”, to W. D McQuaid, a stalwart of the Sector 13 writing team who among other things is working with the very talented Adam Brown on something for Comichaus.

And we are aware of still more members working on comics and novels, blogs and the creation of amazing props for cosplay.  So we'll come back and plow this furrow in the future and highlight more of the creativity of the Sector House 13 membership

Any members of the group with projects they want covered on the Blog, please get in touch with some details through the usual e-mail address  Sector13@boxofrainmag.co.uk