Lost Maps

Fans of the ABC television program, Lost, are excited that the final season has begun. Maybe... just maybe they'll finally get some answers... I tried to watch a bit of the show in the first season but generally couldn't bring myself to care.

However, just any other fantasy world (see Lord of the Rings, etc.), Lost fans enjoy creating maps:



The folks at io9.com have pulled together a collection of Lost maps and diagrams, including "Inside the Hatch" and a transit map!:



No spoilers here... My prediction: The series will end as equally satisfying as the finale of The Sopranos.

Via The Map Room

#550

Who Dat Nation?

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints for conquering the United Countries of Football

2009 UCF Conference Championships

Conference Championships this weekend in the United Countries of Football.

Congratulations to the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. We'll see these two Football "Countries" fight it out in two weeks! Peyton Manning will play against his old "home team" (he was born in New Orleans, and his Dad, Archie Manning, used to play for the Saints).



So, were all these playoffs necessary? At the end of the day, the two teams with the best records in their conference go to the Super Bowl.

My early prediction is that the Colts will win another Super Bowl. But good on the Saints for finally making it to the big game.

#535

2009 UCF Divisional Playoffs

Divisional Playoffs this weekend in the United Countries of Football.

As a sports fan, I was happy to see the Colts win and the Cowboys lose. As a poor mapmaker, I was happy to see the Ravens lose so that I wouldn't have two purple Football Countries.



Next week, for the first time in NFL history, both Conference Championship games will be held indoors. I'm looking for a Colts/Saints Super Bowl.

2009 UCF Wildcard Weekend

Last week I introduced the end-of-2009 NFL season United Countries of Football map.

Tonight, after an exciting overtime win by the Cardinals, the Wild-Card round of the playoffs have ended. Four Football Nations have been vanquished: Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New England and Green Bay. The new map stands at this:



Aside from my disappointment at the Bengal's loss and the Cowboy's win, I did pick 3 out of 4 correctly. However, I have a problem with the map. Once again I used poor color choices and now the Minnesota Vikings' and the Baltimore Ravens' territory is colored with the same shade of violet!

Therefore, next weekend, I will find myself rooting for the Vikings over the Dallas Cowboys (I would anyway), and I will naturally be rooting for the Indianapolis Colts over the Ravens. Then all things will be map-color-well.

#525

2009 United Countries of Football

The NFL 2009 regular season has come to an end. For the third year, I am playing around with the imaginary United Countries of Football.



What if the fans of each team formed their own country, and by the end of the season, Divisional Champions have "conquered" their foes? Why the cartogram? See the original post for more details.

Simpsons 20th Anniversary

Twenty years ago tomorrow (Dec 17), The Simpsons graduated from a short animated bit on The Tracey Ullman Show to their own series on the fledgling Fox network. Since then, Matt Groening's dysfunctional family has become a pop culture icon.



Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson all live in the elusive town of Springfield. Where is Springfield? Scholars have studied this question for years, to no avail. However, the geography of Springfield itself has been carefully charted by Jerry Lerma and Terry Hogan in their Interactive Map of Springfield





Meanwhile, while searching for Simpsons related maps, I found this very strange Simpsons map of Europe:

Fritolaysia Cuts Off Chiplomatic Relations With Snakistan

Breaking News from The Onion:

KARUNCHI, SNAKISTAN—Citing crumbling relations due to years of protracted french-onion diplomacy, the president of the Central Asian doritocracy Fritolaysia withdrew the country's ambassadors from Snakistan Monday.

"We have been supplying the people of Snakistan with pre-packaged consumable goods for over 40 years, and for them to show resistance to our savory products is unacceptable," Fritolaysian President Barbbaku Chedar said, referring to Snakistani officials' unwillingness to adhere to Fritolaysia's zesty new initiative introduced during a between-meals conference at last week's international-trading summit held in München, Germany.

More...

Calendria

Electrofork designer and illustrator Elizabeth Daggar sent to me a copy of her "timely" 2010 calendar/poster, Calendria:



The twelve nations of Calendria take their names from months on the calendar: Decembreland, Januarria, Octsburg, etc. Included with each month is a history of its nation, with notes on its geography and culture.

But take a closer look at the map... so much seems familiar. In a special section of her website, she gives a detailed, step-by-step guide to how she created her world:

THE PROCESS
How to design a world? (It begins with a love of cartography.)

I really just wanted to design a map. The reemergence of Electrofork's annual calendar seemed a perfect excuse– to create a world that felt familiar, at least at first glance. Maybe a kind of Pangaea. The point of departure: screen shots of the two hemispheres of earth; one containing North and Central America, the other displaying Europe, the Near East and the Northern portion of Africa. This afforded both the scale and a motley of shapes to reference.

This cartographic flight of fancy should provide entertainment year-round. Available via Etsy.

The Map Realm: The Fictional Road Maps of Adrian Leskiw

Adrian Leskiw is a self-described "avid map collector and roadgeek". He loves road maps so much, he can't get enough of them, so he creates his own road maps of imaginary places:



The island nation of Breda is:

...located somewhere in the south Pacific and was most likely a British colony at one time and consequently roundabouts and European interchange designs are prevalent. The nation's roads are divided into five classes and each one is identified by it's own unique color-coded signage. Motorways are blue, primary highways are green, secondary highways are red, regional roads are yellow, and local roads are white. Motorways are identified by the label Mx beside the international symbol for limited-access highways, primary and secondary highways are identified by a black on yellow Australian-style shield affixed on the appropriate background color, and regional and local roads are referred to by name or primary destinations...

...etc.



I love these maps. I'll be planning my next holiday in Breda...

Via The Geo Lounge

Middle Earth Map Boot

Item Not As Described takes a look at items advertised on Craigslist and wonders why anyone wouldn't want this crap these treasures (motto: Free is a Four Letter Word). Today, we look at Handpainted Middle Earth map on papier mache boot, circa 1979 and wonder why it hasn't yet found a home...



Maybe if it came with matching Narnia...

Another Europe

Miguel Farah sends me this thought experiment map, wherein he plays "what if" with European history.

What would have happened if Simon de Montfort had failed and the Crown of Aragon had continued its northern expansion? What would have happened if the Castilian and Portuguese counties hadn't survived? What if the Sami people had had their own country? Or if the Austrians had avoided being robbed Tyrol by the Italians? Or if Bavaria had refused to be a part of the German Empire in the XIX century? Or if ...? When reading history, there are many occasions where one asks himself questions like this and speculates about the changes those would bring to a political map.

Significant divergences include an East/West schism in the Roman Catholic Church and the Austro-Hungarian Empire becomes progressive and gives its many ethnic groups greater autonomy (thus avoiding WWI). More...

I always enjoy alternate history, and maps always make these stories more interesting.

Related:

Disunited States of America
The People's Republic of America
Alternate Nations of North America
Roswell, Texas

Bulungi

An oldie-but-goodie from The Onion, October 2, 1996:

U.S. Ambassador to Bulungi Suspected of Making the Country Up



WASHINGTON, DC—Chad Halpern, U.S. Ambassador to the West African nation of Bulungi since 1994, has been asked to return to Washington to face allegations that the country does not exist.

"I want to stress that nothing has been substantiated as of yet," President Clinton told reporters at a press conference Monday. "But there is a possibility that Ambassador Halpern made the country up."

Read the rest...

Cartophilialand

Kidlandia is offering personalized fantasy maps, perfect for a kid's bedroom wall:



Type in the kid's name, names of family members, friends, pets, favorite food, etc. and create a unique art gift. The online map is free, posters can be purchased.

HT to Matt

San Serriffe

Cartophilia does not need April Fools day to publish maps of imaginary countries... but more respectable publications, such as The Guardian, have reputations to uphold. Don't you know?

On April 1, 1977, the Guardian published a seven-page supplement devoted to the previously unknown island state of San Serriffe.



More details at The Museum of Hoaxes.

Cuervo Nation

Recently, This American Life, the NPR weekly program of essays, memoirs, field recordings, short fiction, and found footage, re-ran a program from 2002, Plan B. "There's the thing you plan to do, and then there's the thing you end up doing. Most of us start off our lives with some Plan A which we abandon... switching to a Plan B, which becomes our life."

Act One. "It's Another Tequila Sunrise", was narrated by John Hodgeman, who started the story about "Cuervo Man" by mentioning that José Cuervo Tequila had purchased an island in the Carribbean (British Virgin Islands), and renamed it "Cuervo Nation". "They applied to the UN for independent statehood, they encouraged U.S. citizens to defect... they even tried to field an Olympic volleyball team. The whole things was a bold experiment in advertising via nation building."

My ears pricked up on that one. Cartophilia is always interested in imaginary countries and micronations. I had to find a map! The José Cuervo website for the Cuervo Nation opens with an animation of an airliner flying past Gin Island, and the boring Vodka Island, on its way to Cuervo Nation:



Followed by a satelite map of the island.



I've never been a big tequila drinker, nor do I hang out in the kind of bars that Cuervo Man might have frequented, so I missed out on this whole experiment in nation building. Thanks to NPR for bringing me up to date.

Nessantico in A Magic of Twilight

I am currently reading A Magic of Twilight: Book One of the Nessantico Cycle by S. L. Farrell. George R. R. Martin has called it Farrell’s "best yet, a delicious melange of politics, war, sorcery, and religion in a richly imagined world."

Whenever I read a fantasy novel in a "richly imagined world", one of the first things I look for is a map of the imaginary world. Following the acknowledgements, I was pleased to find this map:



But wait! There's more! I turned the page to find these two maps:




And finally, not three, but four maps:



Each map zooms in on the city of Nessantico, providing a useful guide to this detailed setting. Very helpful. No fantasy author should be allowed to publish without some sort of map in their book!

I have enjoyed other books I've read by Farrell, most notably, Dark Waters Embrace (writing under the name, Stephen Leigh).

AND

If that wasn't enough, I just noticed a detail on the book cover illustration (blown up below) by Todd Lockwood. The throne room in Nessantico City includes a globe!




#348

A Secret Atlas

Being a member of the of the Royal Cartographer's family can be a dangerous job. Not only do you draw the maps, but you must do the exploration as well. In Michael A. Stackpole's latest fantasy series, starting with the A Secret Atlas, the author tells the story of this family, and the wealth and power that their secret knowledge brings. Unfortunately, their explorations uncover new discoveries that can bring chaos to their King's realm... These fantasy novels appear to offer a new kind of magic. I especially like the title of the second book, Cartomancy. Yes, there IS magic in maps... I'm sure the story is quite gripping. I'm just not sure I can wade into yet another fantasy series to find out. If you've read it, please let me know how it was...

The Interimaginational Institute for Fantastical Exploration & Cartography

Alison Murray Whittington is the Chief Mapmaker at The Interimaginational Institute for Fantastical Exploration & Cartography, her Etsy shop, where she offers prints and original map art and illustrations.

Strike out on fantastic journeys through imagination! Search for treasure and excitement! Inked with dip pens and illuminated with watercolor, each of these maps is a wonderful navigation tool for explorers, pirates, storytellers, map lovers, and adventurers of all ages.

Here we see the Land of Many Tales:

Just what every traveler needs... a definitive map of fairy tale land. (This is my first map with locations that I did not create but I assure you, all sources are in the public domain.) With this map, you can navigate your way across the landscape of traditional fairy tales and stories and perhaps come up with a few new stories of your own.

Stop in for a cup of tea with the seven dwarves, peek through the window at Sleeping Beauty, snack on cookies at the home of Red Riding Hood's grandma, visit the Marquis de Carabas and his faithful aide, Puss-in-Boots, and climb up Jack's Beanstalk (this one being a newly grown beanstalk, naturally, since Jack chopped the first one down. While you're reading the small print, please use appropriate safety gear when climbing any beanstalks).

Follow Alison's adventures in "paint and ink" at her blog or on Twitter.

Steelers Nation

Thanks to the Steelers for winning the Super Bowl. I get to use my Pennsylvania/USA graphic afterall:

xkcd map prints available

The award winning web comic, xkcd (a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language) is offering signed prints, posters and shirts featuring some of their most popular comics.

Offerings include a poster of Online Communities:





And the Map of the Internet:

2008 UCF Conference Championships

I have to confess that I am disappointed with this particular match-up the the Super Bowl:



My disappointment has nothing to do with the Steelers or Cardinals. I was just hoping for an All-Pennsylvania Super Bowl. I even made this cool map to commemorate it. If not that, then perhaps a Mason-Dixon Super Bowl between the Baltimore Ravens and one of the Pensylvania teams... Or I would have been happy with a Ravens vs. Cardinals or Eagles... for the first ever All-Bird Super Bowl. But no... we've got the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Arizona Cardinals. Where's the hook? Where's the gimmick?

Oh well, congratulations to both teams. Here's to great Super Bowl game in two weeks!

2008 UCF Divisional Weekend

Down to four NFL teams left.



Once again, my Super Bowl predictions are in the crapper... So, now I'll predict a Pittsburgh v. Philadelphia (All Pennsylvania) Super Bowl.

With my track record that is, of course, the kiss of death.

2008 UCF Wildcard Weekend

Last week I introduced the end-of-2008 NFL season United Countries of Football map:



I am Indianapolis Colts fan, and was disappointed that they lost on Saturday and will not go forward. I found I had an unusual basis for the teams I rooted for on Sunday. As you can see on the map above, I made some poor choices of colors. I gave the Minnesota Vikings and the Baltimore Ravens the same shade of purple, and I gave the San Diego Chargers and the Miami Dolphins similar shades of orange! What if the wrong teams win and their colors mix, or I have to change colors? Thanks to the Eagles and the Ravens, that is no longer a problem...



Now I have each team with a unique color. I am predicting a blue and blue Super Bowl this year, Tennessee Titans v. New York Giants... we'll see... I'm usually very wrong.

I should have taken map color advice from John Krygier's book, Making Maps.

#320

2008 United Countries of Football

The NFL 2008 regular season has come to an end. Just as I did last season, I am playing around with the imaginary United Countries of Football.



What if the fans of each team formed their own country, and by the end of the season, Divisional Champions have "conquered" their foes? See the original post for more details.

Circa

Every good fantasy story must have its own fantasy map! Angela Steele is a Cartophilia fan and struggling author. She sent a map of her fantasy world, "Circa".

I wondered if you might be interested in seeing this map I drew as the basis for a series of stories based on a mythical, medieval world. I created the map to 'position' my ideas for two large warring nations – Aregus where kings and their sons rule and the opposite in Cerenth where queens are monarchs and, naturally, the crown is passed to daughters.

Their conflicts were not just male and female in opposition but also the desire to capture the disputed islands to the west and north.

My original idea for Circa was vaguely modeled on the yin/yang symbol, forming a rough circle round a central sea. This in turn has a relatively small central island that neither the king or queen rules. Laye itself gains its security as the home of this world's spirituality, and therefore the resident priests offer counsel and some degree of mediation to both sides.

The map deliberately lacks fine detail as I hoped it would convey the ruggedness of wild and mountainous lands in which life is hard, battles fierce and communications always stretched.

The cities and islands named all appeared in this series of tales and helped me focus on the geography of certain events and relationships. The book itself had the map at the beginning and contained 17 stories – all of which I have to say had a strong sexual theme as well as politics and action ranging from piracy to foot soldiers and archers – and was offered for sale via a self-publishing service but sales were disappointing and after a year and half I removed it from the sales lists.

However I am pleased with the 'world' and the basis for its conflicts, but should I return to Circa it will be as the basis for a novel perhaps expanding on one of the stories - and trying not to take sides in this continuous war which can never really be won.

Good luck with your writing. Stick with it. Successful fantasy novels usually have a well thought out back story and "universe". Perhaps when you next go back to Circa you can create something that will catch the interest of publishers and readers.

Safari - Disney Style

My friend, Nancy, went to Disney World and brought back this terrific map postcard! A map of the Kilimanjaro Safaris' Harambe Wildlife Reserve, part of the Disney Animal Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida:

Daily excursions from sunrise to sundown. You will encounter many of Africa's wild creatures on the journey of a lifetime! Elephants, the Big Cats, herds of Antelope, Giraffe, Hippos, Tommies, Bongo, white and black Rhinos just to name a few.

Harambe qualifies as one of those imaginary countries I write about from time to time. I haven't been to Disney's newest "land", however according to Wikipedia, the official backstory says that it was once part of a Dutch colony, but a peaceful revolution made Harambe self-governing in 1963. Perhaps it is somewhere near Nova Hibernia...

Alphistia Inflated

As a homage to Saul Steinberg, the man who created what is arguably the most famous New Yorker cover, Tony of Alphistia has created his own "inflated view":



The original:





© The Saul Steinberg Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Cover reproduced with permission of The New Yorker magazine. All rights reserved.
per Sheila Schwartz, Executive Director, The Saul Steinberg Foundation