Fantastic Swords! or "how I spent my Saturday mornings as a kid"

I have a little book that I keep all kinds of crazy ideas in that spill out of my head at random moments during the day. One such idea that I had was to create these giant paintings based on comic covers, panels, and characters in general. I've done a couple already and I'm really happy with how they turned out. That then led me to think, "Why should they all be real comics? Why not fake comics that have all the elements I want in them! I am, after all, the one holding the paintbrush! I'll be making the rules around here, you defenseless canvas!"

So for this upcoming batch of paintings, I wanted one of them to be a totally original creation of my favorite 80's cartoon swordsmen. The result is above. Could you imagine this being a real team!?! Seriously, who would have the slightest chance against He-Man, Lion-O, Leonardo, and Snake Eyes? The answer is no one. I don't care if you bring in Apocalypse, Darkseid, or Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet. Heck, bring in Galactus if you want.

He-Man would lift Galactus up by his big toe throwing him off balance while Leo and S-E ninja jump all over the toppling soon-t0-be-corpse slicing and dicing just as Lion-O throws a powered-up Sword of Omens straight through big G's chestplate. The body never even hits the ground, but rather it rains down in the form of fresh sushi rolls. Game over. They have a hearty lunch, share a round of high-fives, and have an after party at Castle Greyskull.

That's how the Fantastic Swords roll.

I'll post pics of the painting (and the other bunch o' paintings) when I finish. I did this entirely on the computer start to finish, using Painter, Illustrator, and Photoshop. Inspired by the great John Buscema and Marvel comic covers of the 70's (beautiful pieces of art).

My SQUADRON game is out on iTunes!!

Here is the main title screen. It was a lot of fun to put this art together.
Here's an early development game screen shot. I made the "map" with a combo of different photos and some digital painting.
This is the very early concept art piece that I put together when we were still deciding on the direction of the game.
Here is my first pass at the game over screen. I thought it was really cool and intense like this! However, we lost a bit of nerve when considering the average iPhone/iPad casual gamer and pulled back a bit to skeletons that were a little more subtle. I still want to have a secret unlock that brings in this full strength skelo-glow. Radiation is like that. It automatically makes people glow and walk around like sentient rave glow-sticks.
Here's the pencil sketch I did for the main screen. I had a lot of inspiration from the old DC Blackhawk character. (and Lady Blackhawk of course!)
Early sketch and art test for the device in the game. It gets nasty.

Why hello my fellow Nerdorks! My friends and I have recently finished and posted our newest offering to the nerdiverse, The Squadron! Its kinda like a mix of Flight Control with Centipede, if you can fathom that.

You tap and drag paths for your fighter planes to follow as they patrol the screen bombing and firing on Nazis as they attempt to infiltrate the ancient device at the center of the screen. If you don't stop them in time and they enter the device, bad bad things happen, like when you eat several pounds of Taco Bell while drinking copious amounts of milk just passed its expiration date.

So head over and purchase it and leave some kind remarks! I would appreciate it a ton! I might even buy you a single taco if the comment is nice enough. But don't wait around on a hunger strike until it appears.

Battle Beast toy line making a comeback!

Being the 80's toy nerd that I am, you can imagine how excited I was to learn of the resurrection of the Battle Beasts toyline. These combined so many of my favorite things when I was a kid, action figures, animals, and a desire to rule the world.

The originals had a key feature though that made Battle Beasts Battle Beasts - the color changing chest emblem. You would rub the little sticker and it would reveal either a water, fire, or wood icon which would indicate that figure's alliance and power source. It was like rock, paper, and scissors.

The new figures don't appear to have that sticker!!? Let me first say that I love the new sculpts and details, its awesome they are part of the Minimates line, I'd buy a ton, etc. - but! - that little team icon crest was a key feature of the original and should definitely be part of the new line. Missing it is like Jedi without lightsabers. Its like Visionaries without their holograms. Its like Starcom without their magnet boots!

As an appeal from a huge fan of the original line and an eager anticipator of the new line. Please stop the presses and add in the sticker. It really should be front and center and prominently displayed, like that bowling trophy you got in 3rd grade. (I actually got mine in kindergarten, but I think at that point they still handed them out to everyone. You didn't hit the real score until you turned 8 and could handle the emotional defeat of not being top striker.)

Enter the Artifactorium!!

I keep having people ask me about my collection or those who have visited in person wish to be able to share the awesomeness with others who haven't had the immense life altering pleasure and so I'm posting a bunch o' pictures here. The shear force of cool that radiates from this nerditorium keeps all jocks at bay (unfortunately, it has the same effect on girls) (good thing I'm already married) (and yes that's to a real girl and not some fat guy's avatar in World of Warcraft) (I learned from that mistake before) (from my friend's mistake, not mine.) (although that bearded dwarf does bring in a lot of gold...)

I'll have to detail these a bit later. For now, I'm just trying to get the pics up. I don't know why it underlined everything. Can't figure out how to undo that. I can build a flux capicator, but I can't figure out how to un-underline a bunch of text.

Mad Genius/ Visionaries Mighty Muggs

Mighty Mugg Jorg Sacul
Mighty Mugg George Lucas
Mighty Mugg Steven Spielberg
Mighty Mugg Stan Lee
Mighty Mugg Walt Disney
Mighty Mugg Peter Jackson

I've been wanting to do some Muggs based on real people for a while now and I finally just made the time to do it.  Here is my series of visionary men who have inspired me greatly with their dedication, creativity, and originality.  They have succeeded in creating entire new worlds for the rest of us to play and dream in.  I hope one day to join their ranks in even a small way.  This is my tribute to them.

Fan choice Muggs Mock-ups

Mighty Mugg Unicron of Transformers fame
Mighty Mugg Raziel of Legacy of Kain fame
Mighty Mugg Rick Hunter from Robotech
Mighty Mugg Max Sterling from Robotech
Mighty Mugg Marilyn Monroe from movie fame
Mighty Mugg Nick Fury of the Marvel Universe (I love this mugg)

These are from a couple months ago, but its about time that I post them here on my blog where I've meant to be more regular and consistent.  I was hanging out at the Mighty Mugg Nerd Headquarters which is also known as www.custommightymuggs.net and told the minions that I would create mock-ups based on the next 5 suggested characters in me thread.  It was an interesting and eclectic mix.  Here are the results of those suggestions.  I don't even know much about all these characters and I would consider my nerd knowledge pretty high.  Truth is, even I can't play even video game produced or watch every nerd film created (curse the time flow and my lack of mastery over it)

Most Wanted Star Wars Mighty Muggs

I wanted to do a batch of Star Wars mighty muggs that I would love to see go into production. I also kinda wanted to do a batch of possible mighty muggs so that if or when these come out, I can compare my creation to the actual Hasbro ones. I have a buncha nerds betting that mine will look better than the actual releases. We'll see. I still need to catch Hasbro's attention so they can just hire me to do the muggs and that will solve everyone's problem, haha. Enjoy X-Wing Pilot Luke, Jabba the Hutt, Gamorrean Guard, Wicket W. Warrick, and the skittish Jawa!