Beyond Mode 7 Update

Happy weekend everybody! It’s been a long while since I made any sort of noise about Jesse DuRona and my forthcoming Super Nintendo themed anthology, but things are really coming together, so here’s an update! As of now, we’ve collected around 20 pages of finished material from other artists, Jesse and I have an equally large amount of content in-progress and on the way, giving us so far over 50 pages of confirmed art, comics, essays, illustrations and memories of the greatest 16 bit system ever (and this coming from a kid who grew up on Sonic and Sega Genesis!) It’s going to be chock-full of great art, great stories and great testimonials! As with any anthology, we’ve hit a few road bumps along the way, so far it’s been nothing we couldn’t handle, but the major road block to our main deadline is the fact that Jesse and I are still on the waiting list for a vendor table at MAGFest, where we had hoped to premier the book. Pre-registration for the show proper ends on the 22nd of December, and if we have not heard from the Vendor Hall coordinator by that time, we’ll have to push back the books official convention premier to MeCAF 2014, to which I’ve already applied for a table! While disappointing in many ways, MAGFest represents the CORE of the audience we hope to get interested in Beyond Mode 7, MeCAF has always been a very well attended convention with a lot of youth, vigor and interest in games, past and present! That said, we will still be attending MAGFest in January and if we are not tabling as in years past, we will be pushing flyers into people’s hands, letting them know about the anthology! We may even be able to use the show to pursue a Kickstarter Campaign, allowing the book to reach even more people! Details on the Kickstarter are still pending, we have a lot of work to do to prepare for such a thing and we want the book to be completely finalized before we proceed with a campaign. Hope all is well and remember that submissions are extended now through the MAGFest registration deadline of the 22nd! Thanks, -RD

Sketch Card – Mother Brain

I’m working on a Metroid themed piece for the Beyond Mode 7 anthology, so one day I warmed up with a Mother Brain sketch card! Microns, Prismacolor and Copics on card stock. -RD Original art is ©2013 Randall Drew