A Small Foreword…
Rarely do I post about very in depth things in my life. I have to take the time to remember a dear companion of mine that was more like a little four pawed daughter than just any old beagle. Well over 12 years of my life had her by my side, along with her sister pups and the crazy cats of my household (who all are part of my stories in development of the Pooch Patrol Children’s book series). Traveling to shows without you there to snore so loudly, to give me a punch paw as I eat a sandwich, or to stand outside of my computer room in the wee hours of the night, have proven to be incredibly hard to overcome. Losing an animal is never easy, but losing a friend and a loving little life that needed me as much as I needed her little snorty self, is pain that is unbearable. Recently many of my friends in rescue have lost many beloved companions as well, so the past few weeks have been somber, yet not without celebration of the lives that came into all of ours. Wherever you are my little pup, run free, have fun with all the others, and know that I meant all I said as I held your little paw, said I love you, and felt you leave this world. I miss you terribly, and it’s rare the moment even these weeks later that I do not get emotional thinking of you. Someday, I’ll see you and the rest again. 
I truly believe that. For now, enjoy the green grass, the warm sun, and save me a spot next to an old oak tree (I’m sure those are up there too.)
StrangeFolk
Prior to attending the first of what I thought would be a four week run of shows, I had to finish getting the backs of my illustration numbered, titled, and marked with my logo. This was something I really had always wanted to do, and anyone that buys an original work from me on wood panel should have a set of numbers and my branding somewhere on the back of it. There are a few that I know of that escaped this branding effort, and if you ever see me at a show, feel free to ask me to add them onto the back for you.
This show was probably to date, one of the best shows I’ve had the chance to participate in. From the way it was run, to the very open and engaging public that took the time to stop and ask questions about the artwork I had on display. I think the one thing that initially struck me at first was the sort of unorganized appearing, yet quaint and eclectic sort of booth layouts that proliferated all around. I’m pretty sure that there was a purposeful air of bohemian hippie about, and it manifested itself in full bloom.
Located in O’Fallon, Illinois – just 15 minutes from downtown St. Louis, it was held in a great little park with a lot of shade and a crazy amount of fairly diverse musical acts and vendors of all kinds. Half of fun of it was that unlike some other outdoor art fairs that I have been a part of, this one definitely had a loose and free attitude about it that made it easier to relax and engage with the public.
Many of my wood panel series illustrations now reside in that area now, and that was probably the wildest aspect of it, because normally I anticipate any show I do for the first time to be a fairly low key return for me. That proved to not be the case whatsoever.For any of you reading this that attended the show, I have been getting your feedback and input on new ideas and there will be a lot of new art coming up on my site and available at the show next year for sure.
For anyone first starting out on doing shows, to even a good deal of the people that have been doing it for years, one thing that is in abundance is time, if only out of design. So many people I’ve known that have wanted to do these kinds of shows and sell wares at them, are always surprised by the way that a show has a physical pulse to it. Unless it is a big national show (and it can happen there as well), you will have down time. There will be agonizing slow periods where either visitors to the show will not interact with you, or just bypass you all together. It could be your art, it could be hot or cold or rainy, it could be they are having a bad day, it could be that YOU look like you’re having a bad day.
Show depression is something that can utterly wreck an event for you especially if you’re not having the best time, or selling much of anything. It took about three years and around ten to twelve shows of various kinds from comic conventions to art fairs before I really started to gain ground. But even then, there will always be down time, and I had found that one of the biggest draws for me is for people to see me working at one of the things I do best (if I do say so myself), which is sketching out concepts, characters, and random things. At least for me, it’s helped as people begin to understand the process of what I do. It allows for people to be able to ask questions, and those who have no knowledge of how art works, to provide a better understanding of how at least one artist works.
The show had a crazy blend of really talented and experimental performers that no recording (video coming soon) can ever do justice. Most of the time, I can’t stand doing shows that have a musical element to it because the whole “get drunk n listen to rockn’ tunes” sort of attitude can be heavy handed and not necessarily mesh with looking at or buying art. Strangefolk actually really did it right. The music wasn’t intrusive and fit the feel of the show in a lot of ways.
All in all, if you can make it out to StrangefFolk, or better yet, be a part of it, I cannot recommend it enough. It is a very good show in public turnout, vendor layout, and really overall entertainment value. It’s one that I am fairly certain I’ll keep on doing.
Freelance
Every once in a while I get a bizarre freelance job, and in this case I was taking what had been a wall mount grey fiberglass shark and turned it into a big beautiful colorful shark. Days of humidity and rainy weather threatened to make this project impossible, but through it all it came together just fine.
I had captured most of my efforts in transforming the shark mold into what you see above, in the following video:
It had been a long time since I was able to do anything like this, and never before in this sort of size and sheer level of coolness. I’d always had a love/hate sort of feeling towards sharks. As an animal lover and conservationist, I am endlessly fascinated by the place they hold as predators in the oceans. That said though, because “Jaws” had been one of my earliest movie memories as a child (…thanks Dad.), I have an unrelenting fear of water and being in it. Granted I do like water and even to some extent being in a boat on it. But Micheal Phelps I am not.
I also had a portrait commission to illustrate which made it’s way over to Australia not but a few weeks ago (many thanks Fiona!). And then I spent as much time as I could organizing what is left of the last few issues of Pagan Zoetrope in show packs. I had been making all efforts to try and be as prepared as possible for the next show. Some things you can never be prepared for….
Archon (or the weekend from Hell that happened in a small patch of Heaven)
Now, Archon was… just bad. The whole weekend was absolutely devastating. I sold nothing. I got compliments on my new work and stuff alright, but pound for pound, there was not one bit of interest in buying anything I had. This is a stark reality that happens often and is not a matter of IF, but WHEN it can happen to anyone, even the most established of artists out there. Bear in mind that this was also the weekend that my older beagle passed away, while on the road, so needless to say I was in an emotional state that bordered on angry and unforgiving.
The staff at the show was nice enough, and most people that did stop by to even talk for a bit were nice enough, but (not only because I will not be doing the show ever again), there were a fair few amount of morons in attendance at the show. The people next to the table I was at, had one particularly annoying person that was hiding under the table and trying to scare people by grabbing their legs as they walked by.
Unacceptable behavior and a liability waiting to happen at ANY kind of gathering like this. But as I overheard, at least there were no violent drunks at this year’s show. And thankfully security quelled the people that were being annoying. I have enough drunks that I have to babysit at my weekend job, I don’t need that night life sort of shenanigans creeping into my art show efforts. So that is actually the reason that aside from the photo below of Tank Girl, and one really cool “Homestuck” item (that I cannot show because of licensing rights and I don’t need to be sued at this point by anyone), the rest of the images below are of this incredibly beautiful and well kept RV/Trailer park out in the middle of nowhere. Hidden by a fairly nondescript wood fence, once you drive in you see sights like this….
As I noted earlier, the events of this weekend at both the convention at with the loss of my little one, were only tempered somewhat by the fact that the peaceful surroundings and the chance finding of an emergency vet that even gave her a fighting chance to make it. Sadly, that was not the case and the ride home was one of the emptiest ones I have ever done. Not even the 19 hour one way drive to Gettysburg felt this lonely.
If there was one thing that I would have to compliment the owners of this RV park on, was the simple beauty and soothing surroundings of this little park. It’s little “Route 66″ like gems like this that can be a highlight for travelers of all kinds. I do try to not do much retouching to my photos aside from editing the size format from what my phone or other cameras will capture (the only exception to this are some of my reenactment photos, as phone lines are a bane to the hobby, as are cars, digital cameras and the like), and yes the views you see were that placid and picturesque.
This is the barn house that the owners of the property lived in. If you want to find our more, you can certainly look up my full review of this place on TripAdvisor where I go one for a while about the amazing cleanliness of the bathrooms. All camper parking spaces were easy to access, at night the areas were well lit. It really felt like a very safe place for people to be able to sit out and relax.
The only highlights of the weekend were being able to 1) stay at an incredible and beautiful RV park, 2) getting to talk to Donato Giancola and spend as much time as I liked in front of his paintings and appreciating them, 3) attending the Hex Games panel which was actually pretty good and well done, and 4) finding my model for Tank Girl.
I had recently done a Tank Girl illustration for the last set of Sketchboxes, but after a lot of time and sheer luck, I find this young lady and her dead on cosplay portrayal of the seminal Tank Girl. So the roller coaster of emotions went ever up and down, and needless to say, by the time the dust had settled, I was in a foul and heartbroken mood, and I did not come back to work at Hallmark for quite a few days after leaving to come back home. But life goes on, whether we like it or not, it waits for no one…
Street Dog Rescue – A fight to help make a difference.
And that was no sooner brought to be a reality than having to respond to two instances of dog rescue. The first you see below was a little stray pom pup that was ever so friendly but incredibly lost and playing out in an area with a lot of larger territorial dogs. After asking everyone around that was home, I found that no one had ever seen the little dog before.
In this instance, what was not apparent at first was that this fuzzball had a collar and tag on it.. So after contacting the Animal Hospital, they were able to help me reunite the little dog about an hour later with her owner. Or so I thought. Things were about to get really odd about 15 minutes after I thought all was well with the pom and her owner whom I drove out to meet and reunite with her dog.
On the way back home, I suddenly saw what looked like two larger beagles running around through a busy intersection. Both had visible collars and tags, so I figured this could be an easy one… IF I could catch them. I know from first hand experience with my own beagles that they follow their nose, because it always knows. 
So after parking my truck on a side street, grabbing a back up can of wet dog food and a container of dry dog food I set off on foot to catch them. This is far from glamorous, but when you are chasing a dog, you need to FOLLOW that dog. A good sense of listening, active sight, trusting your instincts, and on hand supplies like a whistle, a printed picture of your dog, a can of dog food, bottled water and a spare leash should always be at the ready if you have one that gets out.
Also, having window chalk to write on the windows of your vehicle that you are looking FOR a dog helps you (in this case me… ) not get the cops called on you for resembling an, and I quote “Insane loud middle eastern kind of guy walking with a chihuahua in a grass field”. Banks rob all of us everyday and NO ONE calls the cops on them, but stand out in a field yelling a dog’s name and I’m suddenly a member of a terrorist group hell bent on disturbing a garage sale weekend for an affluent neighborhood.
Thankfully a combination of them being older dogs, tired, and being friendly helped me catch them within minutes and with only one garden ran through and one fence vaulted over. Okay, so not so much vaulted over, as much as I snagged my sneaker shoelace in it and half fell and rolled over said fence. THE POINT IS… that I managed to catch the two hounds and was pretty proud of my efforts until my phone rang and I hear this:
“Hello, this is (name witheld), you just brought my Pomeranian to me? I just it scanned for it’s microchip at the vet. This is not the right dog.”
My head took a few minutes to process what I had just heard. What else could I do but get the two beagles home, which I reunited with the owners who did not realize they had gotten out. And then I called back the Pom lady and found this out. Long story short, the woman I had returned the dog to, hand indeed given a Pomeranian away to a couple some time back. The vet clinic that the tags were from had no idea that she had gotten rid of the dog, nor who the new owners were. So in a weird twist, she initially took the dog from me that I had brought her, and she was almost sure it was her dog, but something didn’t seem right. Well, that was what the problem was. It was not her dog. But it WAS the right collar and tags. How did this happen? Who knows? Sometimes people will put collars on similar dogs they own wrong. Sometimes people will put a tag and collar on a dog that actually belongs to another just so they don’t have to pay for new vaccinations if they board the dogs. But whatever happened, I surmise the woman kept this pom, as she did not even want to return this one to the prior couple, but she was heartsick over where her real dog had gone. Point here? Don’t give your dogs away. Don’t trust people to give them good homes unless you really know them.
Rescue is always a mixed bag of success, but it is always intermingled with sadness, triumph, and unending work. Some of my friends like Alexandra Sarau (https://www.facebook.com/alexandra.sarau?fref=ts) who wages a one woman effort against the cruelty in her country against dogs and the wonderful people out at East Tennessee Bloodhound Rescue (https://www.facebook.com/pages/East-Tennessee-Bloodhound-Rescue/140249299357587?ref=br_tf) and so many others I have had the pleasure of meeting online and in person who hold down the frontline and fight ever onward for those with voices that so few care to hear, much less believe they have.
G.A.M.E.
Much to my disappointment, I was not able to participate in this show because of the events that were going on in my life. That said, I was glad to hear that it apparently went very well for those that ahd attended it.
FreeState 2013
Ah, FreeState, the big friendly and fun show that I look forward to every year. Each and every show I do for Craig Klotz allows me to do some great incentive art giveaways for his shows. Well over 200 boxes later, I am still ever so grateful that he trusted my idea to do these for him to help support the unique identity of his shows.
Based in Lawrence, Kansas, it has been a show where I feel instantly comfortable and able to connect with so many comic fans in a much more intimate and low key setting that is the standard for these shows. Toys, collectables, and so many comics presented in a good old fashioned way.
Getting a chance to catch up with many I don’t see all year long and getting input from readers of my books and collectors of my box art, went a long, loooong way to help heal a lot of the insanity and down and out feelings from the previous weekends.
And of course the best thing ever is the trades and buys I make at the show from my fellow creators in attendance. This is something that as big as Wizard World in Chicago or St. Louis is, will never have. That small show, artists in tow as the main spectacle sort of feel.
SharkBar Halloween 2013
One thing I do like about working security at a bar is Halloween is almost always a pretty screwy no matter what. Cap that off with the oh so awesome shark in it’s full UV Blacklight brilliance (apparently shooting lasers from it’s mouth) and a girl coming out to our bar as a 60′s hippie (her costume won the internet that night) and it makes for not so boring of a night.
I’m pretty proud of how well this came out. I was not to worried about it, except for the clear UV reactive paint that was used to give it the flame job. That and for some reason having nightmares that the installation guy was going to drop it and it would hit the floor and explode into a million pieces and I would be sad panda. But it did not and it turned out awesome, and is still hanging awesome.
Projects that take any length of time can be a good drain of creative juices and there are times when I need to go somewhere that no one knows my name and that I can feel inspired by a very different kind of art than what I do…
LegoLand KC Halloween
When I got the chance to go to the Halloween Adult Night at the Lego Store, it’s hard to say no. Yeah, yeah, a lot of people say what could possibly be in store for me there and why in the world would you go to something like that? And I say to that,… WHY NOT?
I don’t need to explain how much fun the kid inside you can have fun going to something like this, but ONLY if you let them out and jump with them into a large puddle of various lego bricks. Well, maybe not JUMP, but more, slither into it like an anaconda. Wait, that’s just creepy isn’t it. How does one go about getting into a tub of lego bricks normally?
This is one of the coolest custom models I’ve seen done by the master Lego Builder. When I was a kid, Battlestar Galactica was the stuff. Yes, I loved Star Wars, but the Viper gave the X-Wing a heck of a run for my money and attention. Years later I was convinced that one of my favorite planes from the G.I.Joe line, the rocket fighter Cobra Stiletto had ripped off it’s design from this.
One of the things I am a sucker for is mini-models. Of the Lego variety. So sublime, so minute, and do not take up a lot of space. But don’t think for a minute I would not have taken that incredible work of Yoda art. I was utterly stunned when I finally saw it on display completed.
All of the KC town displays had a great spirit of Halloween (no pun intended) added to them. And LegoLand had added a lego pumpkin hunt as well as a costume contest for anyone that came dressed up. And of course on the way out is the retail store which usually has a lot of the newest releases in it and sometimes I find something out of left field that surprises me…
CUUSOO is the Japanese arm of Lego that produces, from what I understand fan favorites that are voted on and then if it all works out, are released. The first ones I was actually aware of were the sets that were based on Minecraft. This great set based on the Back to the Future trilogy can be made to look like any of the three variations of the DeLorean. After taking in a lot of this, my creative high was certainly refueled and I had a lot, I mean a lot of new ideas and concepts floating around in my head.
Illustration – Wood Panel Series growing.
The first few ideas started to manifest in my ever ongoing series of wood panel based marker and ink illustrations. In the past few months I had been doing some one off homages and fan art, but more and more (not only because I want to do more original art and ideas, but because you never know when legal issues will pop up), my art and audience has started, thankfully, to grow to more and more regionally, with spots in England, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Italy harboring clients and fans of my work, and I want the ability to push more of my own original creations and characters out.
In the coming weeks toward the end of the year, I will be announcing the release of a lot of work. A good portion of various personal projects are in development and different levels of completion. It seems some chapters close and others open for reasons I don’t understand, but it always brings new and unexpected variety to life. I think that if I let it, that can be a good thing.
Conservation Efforts
For many years when I lived around Warrensburg and Knob Noster, I was pretty lucky to have the Knob Noster State Park nearby that played a big part in much of my younger Scouting days and as a place to go sit, think, discover, draw, and sometimes, just get away from it all, if even for just half an hour.
There are places that I find comforting to walk along because over the years they have all stayed pretty much the same. In some places the paths are more eroded, occasionally I’ll find something I’d not seen before like the birdhouse below. Normally that particular area has had water and the tree roots were always submerged, so I think that if it’s been there for some time, I just never got a look at that particular side of that tree.
I try to keep track of a lot of the older denizens of the park. Trees that were old even forty years ago, before I was born, that give me a sense of bearing and quiet majesty. There is something inherently powerful and enduring about these trees that I’ve personally known for maybe a bit over half my life. When I was very young in Italy the house I lived in was near the base of a sweeping skyline filled with mountains and an old and dark forest. We would sometimes drive past it, and through parts of it on occasion, but otherwise it was this literally forbidden place. Never in a million years would my parents have let me roam around there by myself. But I do remember how the thoughts of various mystical beasts in my mind absolutely lived in those woods.
The years after that, Tolkien’s Ents populated my subconscious with the notion that the older a tree in our real world got, the more of a part of the physical lungs of this world they became. The colors, the varieties, and the ages of many of the trees that I grew up around forged a love of the colors of autumn when you could see the real personality of the trees. It was like a celebration right before they would sleep and reawaken with a new wardrobe months later.
Sometime around the time I was earning my Eagle Scout rank, I decided that I would draw inspiration from a folklore hero of mine, Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman, and devote a good portion of each day I could towards conservation. For those of you not familiar with the tale… John Chapman (September 26, 1774 – March 11, 1845), often called Johnny Appleseed, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, including the northern counties of present day West Virginia. He became an American legend while still alive, due to his kind, generous ways, his leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance he attributed to apples. He was also a missionary for The New Church (Swedenborgian).
My actual Eagle Scout Project was to plant four young saplings, which still stand near a couple of old tennis courts in Warrensburg. I’ll have to remember to get a picture of them now, and dig up the old photos from the time of them being planted. And although I feel that project was decent enough, I felt something about the message was lacking. So in the years following, I would often collect acorns or various types of seed of fruits and vegetables and plant them in various places that I would visit or frequent. As of the last few years when I was able to get out and about, a good one hundred and forty five of the apple tree seeds I planted have flourished and grown.
Omaha Zoo
Since Omaha Nebraska was somewhere I’d never been to, I did have more than a passing interest in perhaps going to the zoo there. Now, as a general rule, I don’t normally go to zoos. Mind you, most zoos are better than SeaWorld or the Circus on so many levels it’s not funny, but the idea of anything on display as they are in zoos makes me feel uneasy. That said, I understand the educational aspects that allow people to learn and hopefully understand more about the wild beings on our planet. But if these animals had a choice, I doubt a cage or a viewing window is what any of them would pine for.
I will say that for this outing, I kept an open mind, and thankfully, I was impressed not only with the zoo itself, but many of the staff that were on hand and full of details, history, and wonderful stories about many of the animals that were there. I got a really good feeling that many of them did feel kinship of a sort with many of these animals.
The zoo was really clean, fairly modern, and architecturally very interesting. Not just on the outside of the exhibits and buildings, but how much they strove to emulate natural environments where they were able to. The only place where it got a bit of a feel like I was sitting in like a “Rainforest Cafe” sort of place was probably around the primate areas.
The animals all looked healthy and interactive, and did not show any signs of stress. One thing that I remembered from when I was much younger, that stayed with me, was one poor tiger had a cage that was scarcely thirty by thirty feet in overall area, and would just pace back and forth on a cement run. That image so burned into my mind because his eyes had looked so out of focus, it looked like he was going insane. At this zoo, not one of the animals showed any sort of behaviour like this. A great many of them seemed to almost enjoy their surroundings, especially the rhinos that were on display.
Visiting a zoo right as it opens sometimes gets you a rare glimpse at watching animals wake from their slumber. The parallels I saw were really pretty funny. Almost all of the primates had looks on their faces as if they had just had one of the roughest nights ever, or could not get comfortable waking up because of a draft, or a crumpled blanket that was annoying them.
Of course one of the other reasons to go to any zoo is of course the opportunity to be able to see animals in closer proximity than a screen broadcasting Animal Planet. I think it feeds a bit of my inner Steve Irwin, and probably fuels my desire someday to see many of these animals if at all possible in their natural habitats. I think that’s a worthy goal to follow.
I did get some nice shots, but spent way more time video recording much of what I saw, and you can see a huge amount more in the video below that covers just about every aspect of this update.
Nebraskon
After the low of Archon’s weekend, I truthfully was not expecting a lot of good to come out of Anime Nebraskon. NOT because of any bad reputation of the show (which actually got rave reviews from many people I know), quite the contrary, the show is in quite capable hands and organization, and impressed me quite a bit.
Prior to this, NakaKon had been the only other large Anime Festival that I had been able to do. Anime shows compared to your average comic show are equal parts full of fans of pop culture in all forms, but I find that Anime/Manga fans take it up a WHOLE other level in ways that even I feel SDCC can’t match. Youth and vigor is really the call of the day when you attend an Anime show, and if you are not ready to have your sensibilities and concepts of how old you actually are kicked like a 30 year old soccer ball, then just stay out of the way of your local Anime shows. If you feel you can hang with these people, do it. And you might just have fun when you do.
Anime in general has such a widespread grasp upon both eastern and western sort of mediums of animation and film that it is always fun to see just how out there and cool the cosplays (the act of dressing up and portraying characters from favorite films and such) can actually be with their outfits.
This was one of the best portrayals of Belle from Beauty and the Beast. The Satyr on the right very much reminded me of something that would not be out of place from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Those hybrid animal legs were really all the rage this year.
TELL me that is not the best Super Mario costume you’ve ever seen! Just mindblowing how well it worked and held together. I wanted to hug Yoshi, but considering how that would have looked, I think it would have just been awkward. And yes, that is a very accurate Green Ranger from the seminal television show Power Rangers. And some guy in a bird suit. Who I believe I also saw in that exact getup at the Halloween night celebration at LegoLand. I mean… there could not be TWO of them… right?
Aside from hocking most everything I brought with me that I could at the show, I also debuted the artwork for “Fox Magic” an upcoming effort from me and writer Craig Rickel. I would tell you more about it, but you’ll have to wait until this next year’s upcoming NakaKon to see the completed work. The reaction to the characters and art so far has been really great, and I thank those of you that stopped by and picked up my comics and to those of you who placed orders for art and additional books, those will be out to you all in the coming weeks.
Now back to some more interesting and great cosplays. Jasmine was done quite nicely, and although I have no idea who this pointy handed fellow is, he was too awesome not to get a photo of. And of course, the big purple and grey robot is the mighty Shockwave, Decepticon Extraordinare and evil genius.
Then we come to another trio where I do not know the one on the far right, but the first is Kasumi fromthe Dead or Alive series of games, and in the center was Ms. Marvel. First rate cosplays really, the whole lot of them.
I also had a good run of commissions come along and I was so happy to do them in the newer style that I have been working on in my issue in progress for Pagan Zoetrope #4. Thanks to all of you that asked for me to draw characters for you, and to those that I did not get photos of, my apologies, I’ll make it up to you next year.
Towards the end of the last day, I did see three more killer cosplays. This time, I could not tell you who the one on the left is, and X-23, who is in the middle, was pretty dead on, and the hipper take on Velma with Scooby in tow was so awesome. By this time I thought I had seen all the good costumes and then on my way to the restroom…
Lo and behold, I see my two favorite characters from one of my all time favorite games by Sega on the Dreamcast, Eternal Arcadia. LOOK at them! I loved listening to how they were obsessing over getting the looks and weapons right, and I was so happy to have caught these guys just before the show ended. Usually when I see something Sega related, I always get a lucky feeling and things kept getting better…
Now normally I rely on getting my classic gaming fix from one location in Warrensburg, Rock N Sports. BUT, when I’m out and about at conventions, you never know what you are going to find, and the three beauties above got me closer to completing my collection of all games Sega. But in one more foray I took outside the dealer’s room, I finally decided to check out the “arcade” that the hotel had next to what was touted as a water park.
Sega Collecting and the Joy of discovering an Arcade.
Not since Token Joe’s had closed so many years ago and left a huge hole in my heart for the kinds of arcades that you could spend hours in, had I seen anything like this. The familiar dings, beeps, whistles, and clinking of game tokens. It was like I was on the set of Wreck It Ralph.
Since seeing these kinds of behemoth arcade cabinets out in the wild anymore is such a rarity, I like to chronicle them (actually it’s research for another personal project that will hopefully see light in the next five years) with photos and video. They are like aging monuments of public interaction of a bygone era to me.
When I first got into college, I would go out of my way to spend many hours and days playing these games because for many years I wanted to grow up to be involved in the development and creation of game worlds. What kept me hunting for these games and playing so many of them was to see the stories and art throughout the levels and of course just good old fashioned electronic competition with the arcade machine..
And even being as big of a Sega fanboy as I am, I am still surprised by a lot of games I had never heard of showing up here and there.
And so with that, we’ve come down to the end of this particular update. I hope for those of you who have asked or wondered what it’s like to be a fellow out and about trying to get to shows and stuff and dealing with life on the road, obstacles and all, that this provided a bit of insight and answered some of your questions.
For all of you that took the time to write me that Ive not replied to, a reply is coming, it just takes a bit. To all those that asked questions, bought my stuff, and ask for original creations and stories. You guys rock. I do love doing art of any kind, but it’s a special moment for me when people ask me to push forward and do my own thing.
[UPDATED] Art and Convention Shows and Appearances for the rest of 2013/early 2014:
A somewhat accurate listing of shows and events I will be at in the coming months heading into the next year. Also, as I side note, I will be opening up slots for commissions before I go to certain shows (more on this later), as I’ve not had the time to get commissions done for people in enough time at recent shows.
- Planet Comicon 2014 (I will not be attending Nakakon as it is on the same weekend as Planet)
- Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 3
- Cincinnati Comic Expo (planned)
- Any and all of the FanCon shows throughout 2014 (only place where you can get sketchboxes as a reward for buying from FanCon’s vendors)
- GenCon
- DragonCon
- and a few others that might be on the road this next year.
StoreEnvy will have new items available and way more coming in the pipeline starting on Dec 1
And Episode 7:
There will be an accompaniment video episode to this, but there is a LOT I mean a LOT of video out there on my drives I have yet to go through, but it will be up within the next two weeks.
The Final Say A lot of you are probably wondering about the size and scope of this update and the probably over detailed aspects of so much of it. Truth be told, the last few months made me want to show a bit more about who and what I am. So many people rarely get to know even half of what goes on behind the scenes with 99% of what I do in my day to day life. Life is more than pop culture, toys, art, or video games. It is much more than politics, religion, or creed. Life is a gentle and incredible notion. An invention of biological and spiritual aspects that we will probably never fully understand until the end. We cannot live life unless we LIVE it FULLY and justly. A lot of people say I can’t change the world, but I figure we all can. One animal, one drawing, one smile, and one seed at a time.
Until the next update, this is Mario, the Artisan Rogue, I’ll see you all soon.
