Kickstarter Sketch Card – Swing to the Link

Another Link sketch card for the KS campaign. That shield is a little dinky, but then again the one you start with in LTTP is basically useless anyway!

Pentel pocket brush, prismacolor and copics on card stock.

-RD

Original Art is © 2014 Randall Drew
Link is © Nintendo

Kickstarter Sketch Card – Blue Bomber

I did a lot of MMX’s and Zero’s for this KS, but not too many classic Blue Bombers!

Pentel Pocket Brush, Prismacolor and Copics on card stock.

-RD

Original art is © 2014 Randall Drew
Mega Man is © Capcom

Beyond all expectations

This week Beyond Mode 7 officially became a reality! I picked up the print run and boy do these things look snazzy! The quality is superb and I cannot wait to start sharing these things with all our backers, and then very soon with everyone else!

Rewards posters have also been printed, including a bunch of Blair Shedd’s amazing Legend of Zelda print and the bookmarks are printed, laminated and just need to be trimmed down to size. A lot of this work I’ve been able to do by-hand on some great machinery and it’s really made for a personally rewarding experience.

Citadel is still unfortunately on indefinite hold as I still have to wrap up sketch cards and rewards commissions, but I do still plan on having Chapter 2 ready to go in-print for GraniteCon (Where BM7 will also premier!)

Finally, Jesse and my application for MAGFest 13 this coming January is in! We hope to get a table this year again and bring BM7 directly to the fans who inspired the book to begin with! So exciting!

-RD

Beyond Mode 7 Game Start!

It’s been exactly a month since my last update! Time sure is flying this year.

A lot has happened in the time has passed, most of it involving Beyond Mode 7.

The book is complete, and the digital version is out to all the Kickstarter backers. Jesse and I still have not decided on whether to make this version available after the KS rewards are fulfilled, but we will certainly let y’all know once we do reach a decision!

The final print version PDF went to the printers TODAY, we hope to have a proof approved by Wednesday next week!

The Posters being printed as backer rewards are super cool, so much of the art and exclusives translated very well to larger-size print. IF you didn’t get in on the project’s KS, and want to grab any of the posters, I would encourage you to contact the contributing artist or Jesse and myself about perhaps ordering one.

One poster in particular, Blair Shedd’s exclusive Stretch-Goal Legend of Zelda: ALttP reward poster IS going to be available for purchase from Jesse and I and Blair himself at the many, many conventions the 3 of us do. You can grab a copy from us there!

IF you’re native to New England, plan on attending GraniteCon the weekend of September 13-14th as Beyond Mode 7 will be premiering at the show publicly for the first time! We’ll also have plenty of Blair’s posters, and many other goodies with us for purchase, along with all our regular comics, art, prints, and sketch cards!

Citadel Chapter 3 final draft writing is underway and look for the story to continue in the final week of this month, here at RKDIA Comics!

Cheers!

-RD

Sketch Card – Marle

The damsel in distress who then turns around and becomes a leader in the games darkest hour, Chrono Trigger’s Marle has long been one of my favorite female characters in gaming. Sure she’s bossy and mischeveous, but cute and a powerful mage in gameplay! Pentel pocket brush and Prismacolor markers on card stock. -RD Original art is © 2014 Randall Drew Marle and CT are © SquareEnix

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 – 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