9/9/07 a long overdue update... lol..

Dark Skull Studios. No blogging for the longest time mainly due to my scrambling to get New Gods of Mankind: New God's Handbook and Oddly Adorable done in time for Gencon. Fate's Guidebook should be out early October (we hit a few snags during production).

Freelance, Other! lol. Right now I am busy trying to do art for two separate Dungeon Crawl Classics for Goodman Games, the art for another game for him, and art for Jihad conspiracies 2 for Classic Battletech.

In other news: I have also started writing on a new game, but I am not ready to start talking about it too much until I have more; however, I do already have a publisher, two co-writers, an artist (besides myself), and a professional editor on board. Just let me say this to people who know my older writing work: it is somewhat in the same vein as NightLife, but much more adult and more horror-oriented. If you are scared of (oooh) bad words, you might want to give it a pass right now.

On the other hand, if you want to see what happens when you let ideas for a horror game gestate for fifteen years, then throw caution to ye olde wind and say "fvck it, I am gonna do this motherfvcker the RIGHT way!"...if you want to see THAT... stick around. I am on track with the writing to have it come out at least electronically in early April, 2008.

The second book is already in the planning stages.. heh heh heh... my co-writer is downright salivating to get to work on it, and we have barely gotten past the "necessary rules structure" part of the game.

(ignore this part of this blog...lol) I personally despise games that are all fluff and no crunch. Yes, you need the fluff writing to establish the mood.. can you really imagine Shadowrun without all the wonderful details about life in Seattle circa 2067, or Ravenloft without all the ghastly little bits about the various "realms" that make up the "Dimension of Dread?" Of course not.. those bits of fluff made all the difference.. rules, no matter how well written, only carry the reader so far.. but so does the fluff. These are GAMES, after all, and games need rules more concrete than "uhh, if that happens, figure out something."

No. I repeat, no! You need rules so that people know what can happen, what can't happen, and how things ARE going to happen. Call me old-school if you wish (hell, I started gaming in 1981), but I want some rules that are solid, as well as easy enough to learn that threy are not intrusive to the playing experience.

It does not help my staying in character if the die-rolls are hard enough to figure out that i have to stop playing to analyze the results.. so i am trying to keep the die-rolls that happen during play as simple as as possible: 1d20 and a (SMALL) handful of simple six-siders will be all you should need to play this game!

Ok, that is enough of that! I will now quietly get off my damned soapbox (I am going to spend enough time on the soapbox during the game, btw). and get my ass back to work!

See you in a few weeks, I hope!

4/1/07-Wow. How time flies when you are busier than the proverbial one-legged man at the butt-kicking contest.

Production on New Gods of Mankind is in full swing: I have almost 60 illustrations in from a variety of artists, a logo done, promotinal materials worked out, websites up, the whole shebang. If you have not yet done so, go to www.newgodsofmankind.com and check it out... my wife, Jess, designed it, and IMHO, I think she did an amazing job.. and so has everyone who has seen it.

In other news: I have finished my seventh job for Ars Magica, Houses of Hermes: Societates, for which i did House Tytalus, a House of Magi many of whom both suffer and draw power from being afflicted with leprosy. It was a chance to draw sowonderfully icky illos, and made for some very distrurbing reference-work. Have you ever had to go to the library and ask for pictures of people with leprosy? You get some WEIRD looks.

So what is up with me and Goodman Games, you may be wondering? As usual.. plenty! lol. If you have been to your FLGS lately, you will see I have been doing a lot of covers, many of which are now available. I have also done some art for Goodmans' module for freeRPGday, officially DCC 51.5. More details on this cool and innovative attempt to grow the hobby may be found at www.freerpgday.com. I am also doing work on two fairly top-secret projects for Goodman, and I hope I can spill the beans on them soon!

Well, that is all.. hope to be able to keep this up better, so expect another Blog in late April!

2/21/07- Ok, So I am blogging about icky stuff. Lol. To the point, i am deep into my art for the next book for Atlas Games' Ars Magica, Houses of Hermes: Societates. i am doing House Tytalus, a group of Mages many of whom suffer from leprosy. Lots of really unpleasant photo-reference searches... I never thought I would have to Google for pictures of leprosy.

Thank God i did not have to go to the local library for this one.. the librarians are used to me asking for help with weird stuff, but pictures of people with leprosy might have been a bit too much.

In other news, i just finished my art for Dark Quest Games Guiding Light: Seth, which is all about the Egyptian God of Evil and Chaos. I am hoping I can post those illustrations soon: the image of Seth is one of my better ones, in my opinion at least.

Let me see: Goodman Games stuff.. DCC 48... more good old retro DnD, this time with an annoying magical earring, some slippery, mobile shafts to try to jump from, and a 100 foot deep pit underneath said shafts.

I hope to have some more stuff for Goodman soon, now that my illness-related siesta is over. And lastly: I will be doing a couple covers for Expeditious Retreat Press, but right now, I have some rotting Magi to draw...lol.

12/22/06- Hi everyone, sorry for the long silence..I have been insanely busy with my real world job and my freelance career. In addition to that, I had to quit one job, just in time to get hired by another game company to act as thier Art Director. Yes, I am making an hourly wage within the gaming industry....

This week, I ahve been dealing with artists and signing up an art staff for the company. I have picked up some amazing talent, including an artist that used to work in TV animation in the 80s, as well as a handful of comic book artists (one of DC's top inkers of that period: he used to ink captain Atom, Firestorm, and he even can't remember what all else), in addition to some Magic Artists, and a super-hot artist from Argentine... when you see this guys work, you are going to be amazed.

Other than that, I have done some covers for Goodman Games, as well as some interiors for the DCC books, as well as working on stuff fr the new XCrawl book (set in a dungeon themed like an amusement park...lol), and just some other projects I have picked up here and there.

Most of the past month, I have to admit, has been slowed down due to a brutal cold that has had me so groggy that i could barely concentrate long enough to get to my real job, let alone my freelance. Biut I do seem to be gatting better, so now i have to try to get caught up on several projects.

Merry Christmas to all of you, and a Happy New Years (and a Happy Hannukah, too)!

9/30/06- Finally. We (wife and I) have been puttering along with dialup ever since we got online. To commemorate the new job, we talked to Verizon and got a good deal on DSL... OMG what a difference. Workwise, I can send files in about 1/5 the time.. a file that used to take 10 minutes is usually out the door in 2 mnutes or less. So I guess I cn't not blog because my connection is too slow...lol. So what am I working on.. I whipped through a rush job for Goodman Games this week.. finished a book cover in less than two days, which I did not think I was capable of doing. I am also doing some fun little drawings for a new company, Dark City Games. Today, I have t work on another cover fo Goodman. So hopefeully, you will see more of me next week. In the meantime, we are working at getting a Cafe Press store running.

9/19/06- Yish and double Yish. Where have the last two months gone? I have been so busy with art and two jobs that i do not remember sleeping much since August. As a matter of fac, I had to lose theone part time job so i had even a chance to keep up the freelance. As for the freelance..I am STILL working n House Davion.. thatis how messed up my schedule is, but in the meantime, I have finished a book cover for Goodman Games, two books for Atlas Games, and gotten hired as the Art Director for a new game company. So I was not underemployed long. I am also still working on the re-launch of Blood!, and i need to get back to the drawing board.. so TTFN, as I understand cyber-savvy people say.

7/15/06- Yish. Where has he last month gone? Well: Battletech, (Brush Wars) is done, and I am well into House Davion. I finished the two jobs for Goodman Games (can't talk more about them yet.. but they are both big), and I was informed the other day I will be getting a large chunk of the art for City and Guild, the next Ars Magica sourcebook.. expect that to hit the shelves probabaly Mid-late October.

I have also started doing art for Post-Mortem Studios' re-launch of Blood! I am really excite about this: I never got a chance to check out Blood back int he 90s when it was out originally, and now I am doing both art and the graphic design for the cover. Even better, the cover and some of the other interiors are going to be by Gavin Hargest, whom I consider one of the best new artists out there.(Check out his work in Dogtown RPG.. this guy's art is creepy enough to make ME want to take lessons off him! anyhow, I am off to my day job, so I will hopefully blog at you a bit more later in the month.

6/19/06- Well, the Werewolf illo is done and sent, I will see about posting it later. I am almost finished with Historical: Brush Wars for Battletech; according to FanPro, it should be out in time for Gencon, so keep an eye out for it. Also keep an eye out for House Davion for Battletech later on this year..I am scheduled to have three full page illustrations in it! I also have some exciting news concerning Goodman Games, but I will keep quiet on that for the moment! Right now, I have a cover to finish for Goodman, as wellas finishing off Battletech and starting two new jobs for Goodman, so I will see you in a few weeks!

5/29/06- Still doing pics of demons for Atlas... I may be on the verge of becoming a raging egomaniac. but I think the pieces I am turning in for Realms of Power: The Infernal are among my srongest. Wait til you see the Fury Demon and the illo of the guy that is possessed, and tell me what you think! other news: I am doing a cover for Dog Soul Publishing.. a book on gargoyles, I think I am also doing what I think will be a killer cover for Steve Miller's IDA Adventures. See if you can recognize the celebrity I turned into a werewolf for this one! It should be avaialble at www.RPGNOW.com later on this summer.)

5/15/06- So what else is new? lol I just got more work from Goodman Games, a cover for DCC 35, his monster-sized boxed set world for Dungeon Crawl Classics.. expect to see that as a Gencon release. Also for Gencon, look for my work in XCrawl: Necromerica . For those who have not seen XCrawl, it is a hoot. Imagine a world that combines the most over-the-top aspects of WWF and the wildest aspects of DnD... and in this case, throw in a dungeon decorated like Dracula's castle... lol.

5/6/06- Happy Cinqo De Mayo Plus One. Got some news you all might want to know. First off, we are getting settled in the new apartment, just in time to get hammered with work, Secondly, I have work coming out in the next Ars Magica book, Realms of Power: the Infernal, where, not surprisingly, I get to draw all sorts of fun demonic images. Expect that sometime this summer, probably an Origins release.

Secondly, anyone coming to Indianapolis for Gencon will be able to see me at FanPro's booth, where I will be doing autograph signings on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.. so bring by your old Battletech books and have me scribble in them. That's all for now....

4/19/06- Hi everyone and well, anyone who happens to read this.. lol. Just finished the art for
Dungeon Crawl Classics #29... which will be out from Goodman Games very soon... keep an eye out
for it.. it will be a hardback and feature both a ton of interiors from myself, as well as my back cover,
and a front cover by TSR artist Phil Roslof... anyone who remembers TSR in its heyday will remember Roslof, as well as the other artists Goodman Games has lured back to the fold: Erol Otus top name
only one of them. Also, coming up: work for Battlecorps, the website for Classic Battletech, more
Dungeon Crawl Classics, some work for the new company Delusions of Granduer Games, and..
well.. who knows after that?? Stay tuned, we will be updating again soon as we are settled into
our new apartment!

4/15/06-Welcome to my blog, where I will be talking about what I am doing with my life and my work.