Beyond Mode 7 approaches!

Hey everyone, Beyond Mode 7 is coming closer and closer to becoming a reality! Kickstarter info is coming soon, but for now, check out a preview of a piece from the book: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past work from fellow CCS 10′ Alumni Matt AuCoin! -RD Original art is © Matt Aucoin Used with Permission

Beyond Mode 7: Deadline Approaches!

This update has been a long time coming! It’s time to officially get excited about Beyond Mode 7 as the final art submission deadline is just a mere 2 weeks away! To whet all those video game art loving appetites out there, today I’m going to share a few nibbles of some of what has already come in from our STILL GROWING list of contributors! First off, I’d like to announce that the book will officially launch at MeCAF 2014, in Portland Maine on May 18th! Jesse and I were accepted for the sixth year in a row to table at this amazing, growing and evolving indie comics show! It’s got a great history of solid attendance and being great for the whole family, exactly the intended audience for the anthology. Second, if you missed any of my Post-MAGFest Reports (read them here and here) then I’ll once again announce the addition of the amazing Kevin Bolk, 8BitMaximo and Hex Martinez to the Anthology roster! Each brings something unique and powerful to the table and we’re overjoyed to have them on board! Hit those links up and check out their work! Now, for the newcomers to Beyond Mode 7, let me introduce the anthology real quick: The brain child of my table mate and fellow ink-slinger Jesse Durona (artist behind the popular Despondent Mega Man comics) Beyond Mode 7 came to be after MAGFest 11 in January of 2013. The book will be a full-color, 6×9″, perfect-bound homage to all things Super Nintendo. With more contributing artists than the system had Bits to work with, it will cover a broad spectrum of experiences, games and memories from arguably the 90’s greatest video game console and game library. It will feature comics, illustrations, essays, and other works of art all honoring a device that brought interactive art and creativity right into our living rooms every day of our childhood! Some of the games covered by Beyond Mode 7 include: (Art represented are works-in-progress!)

Super Mario World

© Scott Baer

Kirby’s Dreamland 3

© Matt Aucoin

Super Metroid

© Amanda Ruddock

TMNT Turtles in Time

© Bill Volk

Mega Man X

© Michael Ruggia

The Legend of Zelda: LttP

© Matt Aucoin

Earthbound/Mother2

© Randall Drew

…and many many more! As a note to creators still working: The deadline for final art submissions is the end of this month! As of March, Jesse and I will be compiling the artwork together and preparing a Kickstarter for April! Then it’ll be a Super Nintendo Blitz to get as many people contributing to the campaign as possible! We want to put your art in as many hands as possible, so keep and eye out for requests to help spread the word! Thanks, and game on! -RD Above original artworks are © their respective creator, all rights reserved!

MAGFest Report Part II

For the last 3 years now, MAGFest has been the first convention of the year for Jesse and I. This year we never got off the waiting list for a vendor table, and ended up going to MAG as just attendees, but it was still absolutely worth it! Not only did I get to spend a lot more time with my friends and fellow game nerds, I was able to sit down and hammer out the details of an upcoming collaboration with a fellow artist on a huge album project by the great Mazedude! More details on that a little later on. Despite all the factors that would seemingly take me away from the comics/illustration side of the show, I did manage to check out a few old favorites, discover some artists for the first time, AND get three more awesome folk on-board for Beyond Mode 7! Let’s get started on the run-down of what caught my artistic eye at MAGFest XII! Kevin Bolk is a MAGFest staple. He does a ton of shows every year but never misses MAG, not matter how tired and worn out he is from his prolific production and show schedule! He’s a pleasure to talk to and is quick to impart his cartooning knowledge on the young minds that need to know! I grabbed his second and final volume of “It Sucks To Be Weegee!”

Click to buy it!!!! © Kevin Bolk

This popular web comic about the misadventures of the oft-neglected brother of Nintendo’s Famous Plumber comes to a great, but still hilarious conclusion! Kevin has also agreed to submit a comic or illustration (time depending, old or new we know not!) to Beyond Mode 7! Jesse and I are honored to have Kevin on board! Thanks K-Bo!

8Bit Maximo, he’s the nicest Deviant I know! © Maximo V Lorenzo

One of the first artists tables I made sure to stop at was my buddy 8Bit Maximo’s! A fellow comic’s school graduate (he went to Kubert, I to CCS) I’ve been friends with Max for a number of years now. His enthusiasm for games, comics and manga, and his incredible work ethic, have inspired me just as long! He’s got a distinct style with a mix of over-the-top shonen energy and super expressive characters with a hard, high-contrast classic American comics edge puts him in a unique category of creators, I think. He’s also one of the nicest guys I know! I commissioned from him this year a sweet Aya Brea from Parasite Eve. I was expecting her in her typical leather jacket, tee shirt and jeans as she appears in most of the game, but Max wowed me by drawing her in that super sexy little black dress from the Opera Scene at the start of her adventure! Bravo Max, and thanks a ton buddy! Max has also decided he’ll try to find time to bang out a piece for Beyond Mode 7! Whatever he decides to do, I’m sure it will bring a lot of excitement and energy to the book!

The Hex himself! © Hector Martinez

Hector “Hex” Martinez is another artist/cartoonist/crazy guy who’s been around the VGM community for a long time, and it was awesome to run into him this year! He too has agreed to whip up something awesome for Beyond Mode 7, and as he is a very experimental cartoonist, who knows what kind of piece we could get! It will totally be worth the wait!

Bill & Ted art by Hex! © Hector Martinez

Hex’s work is pop-culture infused across many mediums. He does traditional pen and ink cartooning, painting, mixed media and collage, digital, comics, tattoo and even art on wood blocks (his latest, most awesome thing!) If you’ve got something that needs a nerdy, hip-hop twist, Hex is your man!

Sketch Card – FantaCon Samus

I had this sketch card pre-penciled before FantaCon, but decided to finish it off as my warm up at the start of the show. It was great fun coloring this and I even made some free-hand changes while inking to the design so it was more accurate. I’ve been drawing a lot of Samus lately, as I prepare my Super Metroid themed comic for my upcoming Beyond Mode 7 anthology with Jesse DuRona! Next week CITADEL returns with a brand new chapter! Check out the cover inks for Chapter 2 on Tuesday! Microns, Prismacolor and on card stock. -RD Original art is ©2013 Randall Drew