Swords & Lasers

Sometimes you have an idea for a barbarian king on a throne with his badass skull sword but he's also been a space captain. And you think "How do I square this circle? How can a barbarian king with a sword also have a laser gun?"

Well, you only ask that question because you've been brain-doped by pop culture into thinking laser guns and badass skull swords are artifacts of completely different genres. But what the actual fuck is a "genre" anyway?

Ok, I don't want to get into that.

Look, you don't have to mix lasers and swords. I certainly don't do it all the time. I completely understand the desire to have a setting or story in which the technology is distinctly "ancient" or in which it is distinctly "futuristic". But if you want your barbarian king to have a laser pistol you damn sure can and you damn sure don't have to explain it to anyone.

"Why do your feudal warlords carry phaser rifles??"

Because they do. They live in a world where there are phaser rifles and feudal warlords with broadswords. What part of this reality don't you understand?

Artists I Like: Chuck Whelon

Another great artist for the list!

Also, I need to stress that these artist entries are not meant to be comprehensive. I dash these out on a whim on Saturdays or Sundays and schedule them to post on some future Sunday. I sometimes only say a few words and I sometimes talk too much. But the point is to shine a light on artists who I think do fantastic work.

That being said...

Chuck Whelon... I first encountered Chuck's work way back in the early 2000s with his classic comic Pewfell Porfingles. In those days there seemed to be a lot of cool comics being made online. Boy oh boy we had no idea just how many artists and comics would emerge as the years went on! Back then... it was a smaller group, and Chuck was a prominent name among them.

Pewfell is a wizard. Well... he SAYS he's a wizard. He's part of the wizard community. But he's a wizard who can't, doesn't, and basically won't make any magic. I mean, who wants to do that kind of labor, right? He's much happier being a wizard who hangs out at the pub while his very hot wife Tina goes out every day to slay goblins and earn coins. Oh, and he has an annoying gnome house mate who gives him a lot of hell.

Pewfell was co-written quite a bit by Adam Prosser.

Anyway... Chuck's work is, as many are wont to say, "very cartoony". I love "very cartoony" art. I love Chuck's art. I'm particularly a fan of his lovely weight-varied ink strokes. But he's also no slouch at doing pen and ink work with steady lines. He did a whole series of Where's Waldo-style pieces where you search for items and stuff. Very fun.

A funny coincidence and a testament to what was once the small world of online artists: Chuck started doing work for Goodman Games way back in the early 2000s when I had no idea who GG was nor any concept of the growing "OSR" movement, where gamers were recreating the magic of early D&D. I discovered Chuck through comics, then later realized we were both swimming in the same waters by doing work-for-hire for small TTRPG publishers. We both do work for Goodman Games, for example. Very cool.

GOZR Sketch Character Sheets

GOZR is a science-fantasy post-apocalyptic tabletop roleplaying game that I wrote and drew by hand in 2020-2021... a pandemic project, for sure.

The game uses a very simple d20 vs. target system. To do an action, a player rolls 1d20 vs. their character's appropriate Action Class (AC): Prowess for all things action and fighty, Magic for all things mental and weird, and Cunning for all things social and sneaky. There's a lot of other bells and whistles, but that's kind of the core of it.

While the game has an official character sheet, I also like to doodle new ones in my various sketchbooks just for fun. Here's a collection of them.

Saturday Morning Art Rumble 9

Let's get ready to... well, y'know.

This is the DEATH GORE RING OF DEATH for my own art! Randomly selected drawings... which will take the prize??

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♥♥♥☻☻

And it's a vicious rumble as nosering warrior gets blasted by giant robot who gets insulted by the wizard Max Dobo! But in the end, none can stand before the power of the giant robot, which was also the alternative cover to Mike Evans' Barbarians of the Ruined Earth. WINNER.

Random Order Comics Revisited

Way way back in 2002 I did a whole series of comic strips called Random Order Comics. I did them in this big ass 11x14 hardback sketchbook, which I only filled by about 20%. So I dragged it back out recently and started drawing new strips. For giggles.

 

Artists I Like: Hodag RPG

Another brilliant creator!

Hodag RPG! He draws, he makes funky games, he's a great guy.

His work is DIY as it comes. Crude? Yeah. Fun? Yeah. Black and white? Yeah. This is the kind of art that you would hope to find in any small scale DIY book you dig out of some weird box in some weird book store. When you find it, you squeal with joy "HODAG!!".

 

Saturday Morning Art Rumble 8

Aaaaaaaaand FIGHT!

Welcome back to the PIT OF BLOOD! I randomly select some of my drawings and give them ♥ symbols and see which one I like best. Ties are resolved by d20 vs. d20 roll off!

GO!

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♥☻☻

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This week's fight was a tough one because there are two pieces here I really do love. That dwarf picture is one of my favorites! But I cannot allow the Infantry Bot to lose. He's one of my favorite drawings of all time. Very simple, but I felt great about it. Infantry Bot wins. Support the robot troops.

Hymla Again

I really love this character and I want to do something with her. A comic. But damn that's a lot of work.

Hymla was a kitchen worker in a two bit tavern with a mean boss. But she never took any shit and people kinda knew not to fuck with her too much. Then one day this weird eyeball cult starts some shit in the tavern and she ends up killing a whole lot of motherfucker, probably with a kitchen knife or cleaver.

And so began her career as a slayer and adventurer.

She's crude, rude, missing a few teeth, and fucking hot.

I played her in an AD&D game as a 7th level fighter. At least, it was an iteration of her. In that game she had a magic sword with a horn on it she could blow and give buffs to her allies. Thus "Hymla the Horn" became her nickname.