Robert Rankin's badass homemade raygun

Posted by Cory Doctorow, February 4, 2009 10:42 PM | permalink

James sez, "Author Robert Rankin creates the covers for his own books. His recent book Necrophenia, sported a clock made from bones. For his 31st book, Retromancer, he has built a really cool-looking raygun and has posted some images on his Fanclubs forum."

I have a small collection of rayguns, begun when my wife surprised me on my birthday with one of Weta's stupendous cast-iron steampunk guns. That little shelf of notional, contrafactual armaments in my office is just about my favorite place to rest my gaze. Rayguns kick ass.

BIG RAYGUN ACTION

Previously:

(Thanks, James!)

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Discussion

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#1 posted by Crawford Tillinghast, February 5, 2009 12:36 AM

If that thing actually works, I might just be feeling a little inadequate right now.

If not, then I don't.

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#2 posted by Ocker3, February 5, 2009 3:40 AM

Very steampunk and all, but I prefer a Strohl Munitions BH-209i as demonstrated by Sergeant Schlock here. With great glee.

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#3 posted by BritSwedeGuy, February 5, 2009 6:03 AM

I love his books (there's something almost Irish about his style of writing, maybe it's that they're like tall tails or pub-spun yarns) and his covers always have a lovely retro fetishistic quality to them.
Also I pass some of the places his books mention frequently and I can never look at them in quite the same way again.

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#4 posted by zish, February 5, 2009 6:03 AM

I have a small collection of rayguns.

Ooh! Oooh! Do you have a Ronald Raygun?

I'm so very sorry for that.

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#5 posted by Johne Cook, February 5, 2009 7:10 AM

We have Ray Gun Revival (which sounds like Reagan Revival, but which actually has nothing whatever to do with the GOP).

[shameless plug - RGR just celebrated milestone Issue #50!]

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#6 posted by mmbb, February 5, 2009 12:29 PM

Robert, I have a bottle full of rays left over from a previous project. Would you like them?

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#7 posted by Philipshade, February 5, 2009 1:21 PM

check the Raygunz pool on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/groups/raygunz/pool/

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#8 posted by Anonymous, February 5, 2009 10:03 PM

Hey all you scifi nuts - rayguns have been around for almost 150 years and are not fictional. The first ray gun was created in the 1860s. It was a heat ray that used a salt crystal for a lens. I lack any clue what it looked like.