On Sunday July 12, 2020, the weekend that TFcon was original scheduled for before being postponed until September, I will be doing my best to bring a bit of convention magic to the online world as I will be presenting “Japanese Franchises that Influenced Transformers” live to my Twitch channel. It’s a panel that traces the earliest beginnings of modern Japanese popular culture, how robots became such a popular subject, and how it all eventually lead up to the creation of what we know today as Transformers.

I first presented this panel at TFcon live in 2016. It’s an idea that I had for a long time, as the history of Japanese animation, films, and TV Shows is something that I love to research and talk about, and Transformers is a part of that. I was so incredibly nervous going into the presentation, not because of speaking in front of an audience (that’s the fun part), but rather because I was scared of running out of time. I managed to get though it all with a whopping 5 minutes to spare. Now, being online on my very own Twitch channel, I don’t have to worry about that. I’ll be going as long as it takes! Which is perfect because I’m also adding some new content to the panel for this presentation.

Everyone is welcome, even if you’re not a part of the usual TFcon crew or have never been to a Transformers or anime show before. You don’t even need to have a Twitch account to watch, but you will need an account to chat. I won’t be interacting with the chat during the presentation itself, and all notifications and redemptions will be turned off during that stretch of time. But we’ll have a brief moment to chill from 5:30pm EST before I start the panel at 6, and then a Q&A session afterwards, and I’m looking forward to that.

Should be a fun time. It won’t be the same as hanging out with everyone at TFcon, but it’ll be a good way to celebrate the things we still love even while quarantined. And YOU can help by posting, retweeting, and spreading the word wherever Transformers fans gather so that as many people as possible know that this is happening.

I hope to see you there!

EDIT: Added a Facebook Event page.

Sayonara.

Finally, I can talk about this!

Dwelling of the Duels is a monthly contest where musicians release remixes of music from video games to be judged upon by the community every month. You might hear a song from a duel on one of my streams.

This month’s theme is Robots, and I was asked to provide the album art. So here it is!

I wanted this image to feature some “generic” robots playing video games surrounded by screens featuring some famous robot characters. You can see my name if you know where to look.  This style is often pretty time consuming but I like the way it turned out.

This was a big deal to me, and I was honored to provide the art as I had already been aware of Dwelling of the Duels before I was asked if I could contribute. I was told after I submitted the art that I had knocked it out of the park.

I was thankful for the opportunity and I’m eager for the next thing.

Sayonara.

Hey folks. How is your quarantine going? I was sick right when the whole mess started, so I was already stuck inside. Besides that. as an artist, I don’t get out much anyway. So, it hasn’t effected my life much at all. But it’s clear that a lot of people are suffering due to the virus itself and/or the ripple effect that it’s created, and my heart has gone out to everyone who has been effected.

With everything going on in the world, people have been coming up with ways to keep themselves busy and the #SixFanarts challenge is one that has captured a lot of attention. I participated and asked people for their suggestions of what characters I should draw, and this what I came up with.

I specifically said that I would pick one character per franchise and try to focus on characters that I have never drawn before and didn’t have plans to draw in the future. I also wanted a good diverse bunch so I wouldn’t just be drawing all robots like usual. There were a fair number of suggestions but in the end we have Windblade from Transformers Cyberverse, Static Shock from DC, Akane Shinjo from SSSS Gridman, Slimer from Ghostbusters, Zero Suit Samus from Metroid, and MechaGodzilla 92 from Godzilla VS MechaGodzilla II.

It took me awhile to finish. I went in thinking that I could knock them out easily but I keep underestimating how long this style can take sometimes. But it was a fun project to work on and people seem to like it. I had fun working on it while streaming on Twitch and talking with my audience about the choices.

Now onto the next thing, whatever that is.

Sayonara.

Ok, it’s time! I do this every year, but sometimes it takes me longer to think of a list or get to seeing everything that I might want to consider. This year, I pretty much knew as soon as 2020 started what the list was going to consist of. There are a few cases were I haven’t gotten to the item in question, but I’ve seen enough to say that I’d love it if I had it and I’m glad it exists. So with that in mind, here are the things I liked the most that were released in 2019.

Favorite Game – River City Girls River City Ransom on the NES was not a game that I had played a lot, but this new spin-off title was a must-get, thanks to the amazing 80’s anime style, pixel graphics, and pedigree of Wayforward games. I even sprung for the physical copy from Limited Run.  It’s a fantastic game with a lot of variety and genuine humor that had me laughing out loud. I’ve played it on Twitch a few times and I love it.
Favorite Book – The Art of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles This book is all about the 2012 TMNT animated series. I don’t have this yet, but the fact that a book all about that show is a thing is great. Most shows wouldn’t get a book, but the 2012 TMNT series deserves it. It’s full of interesting art and characters and I’m glad that there’s a book all about how it all got put together.
Favorite Toy – NECA Bebop and Rocksteady I don’t have these either. In fact, I unfortunately don’t have any of the NECA TMNT stuff. But just look at these. It’s like they jumped right out of the original cartoon. They are not easy to find, and being Target exclusives in the US means they might never be released in Canada, but whatever pains it would take to get this set would be clearly worth it. Duh!
Favorite TV Series – The Mandalorian As I type this, the music is playing in my head, and it is in yours too. To think that we got a weekly dose of Star Wars in live action for 2 months. This might be special enough, but they way new characters and elements were added to the story made it especially engrossing. By the end of the first episode, you were hooked, and we all know why by now. I’m looking forward to the next season and whatever other similar Star Wars spin-off series come out. This is the way.
Favorite Anime – Carole and Tuesday A creative and heartwarming story about music, friendship, and authenticity. This might not be the kind of thing people would expect me to like, but I don’t think you even need to like anime at all to love this show. With its diverse cast of characters, universal themes, and excellent animation, I’d say it’s been the closest glimpse of what the future of anime is going to look like. It’s exclusive to Netflix and I highly recommend it.
Favorite Movie – Godzilla: King of the Monsters I don’t care. Fight me. As a Godzilla fan, this movie was my most anticipated thing in all of 2019, and it delivered exactly what I wanted in every respect that I can think of. The depiction of the monsters is what mattered most to me, and not only were they great, but surprisingly full of personality. And the classic music! I was truly moved by the moment when Mothra appears fully formed. They got it right, and if there are people out there who didn’t like this movie, too bad for them. I say it’s freaking awesome.

The only category I had trouble with was for anime, because I didn’t watch a lot of new things for 2019. Instead I was catching up on shows I missed out on, like One Punch Man and Kill La Kill. Once I saw Carole and Tuesday, the choice was clear, and it really is that good. If I were to chose a favorite album, then obviously it’s gotta be BabyMetal. And I know that last year had some huge movies like Avengers: Endgame and Rise of Skywalker, and I absolutely loved Spider-man: Far From Home, but I had to pick King of the Monsters as both someone who loves Godzilla movies and hates stupid idiots that don’t know what they are talking about. Seriously, the same moron film critics who complained that the 2014 Godzilla didn’t have enough monster action also complained that this movie had too much monster action. Give me a freaking break. As if there could ever be such a thing as too much monsters.

So what’s next? Honestly, I’m pretty satisfied with enjoying the things that I have now. I’m not in a rush. But, in thinking to the future, this year we’re getting Black Widow, The Eternals, Ghostbusters, Bill and Ted (!), and Godzilla vs Kong! Ok, I’m in. Let’s make 2020 happen already.

Sayonara.

It wasn’t easy, but I got there.

I still feel like I have to recover from the 31 day art marathon I set for myself with Inktober vs Skeletober, but I’ve waited long enough to talk about it.

I could not wait to get started. As soon as midnight hit on October 1st, I got cracking on the first Inktober drawing during a stream on my Twitch channel. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in my last post, thunder and lightning had also got cracking and there was a power outage. It’s kind of hard to draw in the dark, so that was that. But not only did I have to stop when I had only just gotten started, but the power outage did something bad to my computer and I was forced to start fresh and install Windows again. That set me back in a big way, and I’m still sorting through all the backups I hastily made at the time. But I pushed through as best I as could, doing my best to keep as close to the 2 pieces per day schedule I had set for myself.

There were a few times where I had fully caught up, only to fall behind again after spending extra time on a piece that needed the extra attention. Towards the end, I really fell behind after simply not feeling well.  I was at a really low point and didn’t think I could see it through all the way to the end.

But I did it anyway.

On the last day I had to catch up and pull together 4 or 5 pieces, and technically I finished the morning of November 1st after an all night art stream session. But I finished. 62 illustrations in 31 days.

Was it worth the effort? I don’t know. I’m glad I was able to push myself to successfully complete a goal, but it didn’t result in a lot of new activity around my art. What I did notice is that Instagram liked Inktober better, likely due to people looking through hashtags. Tumblr definitely liked Skeletober better, because Skeletor is always popular with that crowd and people were sharing my artwork on their own blogs. Twitter didn’t really seem to care that much aside from a few scattered signs of support.

But I didn’t do it for likes or hearts or follows or whatever. I did it to try and level up, experiment with new stuff, and get accomplish something that I had set out to do. I was certainly hoping to gain more of a following in my streams and on social media, but the people who did follow, and watch are super awesome, and I’m grateful to everyone who lent me their support.

I don’t know if I’m going to ever do this again. Actually, yeah, I do know: Forget it! I hope I’m way too busy next year to do two art challenges in one month. Even if I wasn’t, I don’t think it’s healthy to put myself through that again. Besides, could I even top what I did this year?

Anyway, I’m sure I have many more drawings of robots and Skeletor in me. I could draw those things forever! I’ll just have to spread them out for the sake of my brain and wrist.

You can see all my Inktober and Skeletober art on my Tumblr!

Sayonara.