PM: MORE DINOSAURS

I am really enjoying drawing these cybernetically enhanced dinos for Parallel Mafia. Also there are bees.

PK: ANIMAL SWAG

New animal themed swag, some new golem types and a new airship upgrade icon for Parallel Kingdom.

PM: JURASSIC ARK

The pop culture reference is obvious, but I tried to make the dinosaurs in our new update for Parallel Mafia unique, and more scientifically up-to-date. I think they may be among the most accurate depictions of dinosaurs with laser beams attached to their heads in modern fiction.

PK: ANGELS AND DEMONS

We added some heavenly and hellish new swag to Parallel Kingdom. I love medieval illustration and I had always wanted to draw a hellmouth.

PM: ROBO RAMPAGE

Lots of new robot parts for Parallel Mafia. I tried to think outside the box a bit with the gun and buzzsaw arm attachments, it was a bit tricky since in the game the 2D pixel art gets applied in layers on top of the players' avatar, and weapons layer on top of armor; as a result I had to nix the red arm muscle tissues attaching the buzzsaw to the player's shoulder, as it would have overlapped any armor with shoulder pads and looked wrong. This is all just part of the challenge of making art for a 2D game though, ultimately I find these issues informative, and the solutions rewarding.

PK: POTIONS AND TREES

New potions, trees and shrubs for Parallel Kingdom.

PM: PEDDLER

We added a shifty character to Parallel Mafia. I'm quite pleased with how much character I was able to give him, even at the mobile resolution. He looks like he's up to some things.

PK: ASSASSINS' ISLANDS

I was tasked with creating assassins' swag for Parallel Kingdom so I came up with the idea of an infamous assassin known as the Viper; which in turn was expanded by the other developers into a "Duo Serpents" theme involving two assassins, and their ominous warnings that they leave on floating islands scattered throughout the realm.

PM: THE SHERIFF

The Sheriff is in town. My new character design for Parallel Mafia, and some other items.

PK: DRAGONRIDER

For this Parallel Kingdom "dragon rider" swag, I took inspiration from the great 1981 film Dragonslayer. Like Return to Oz, Dragonslayer is much darker than usual for a Disney production. It's streaming on the Netflix so check it out if you get a chance.

PM: HOSTILE TAKEOVER

The evil Apex Corporation is gaining ground in Parallel Mafia, but we added some new items for the players to resist the oppression!

DROPFOX LOGO

I had the opportunity to create a logo for a really cool guy, Trent Brusky of DropFox. Trent creates music for secular shows and podcasts. Definitely give his site a look, this project has been on fire, and if you or anyone you know would be interested in this service, drop him a line. And for that matter, the music he makes sounds great so give it a listen even if you aren't involved in skepticism or secularism. Trent was also kind enough to plug me during his interview on The Skeptic Zone podcast (thanks bud!!).

PK: SWARM SWAG

Insect swag! Because we introduced air combat, and insects are in the air. Hey I thought it was a good idea.

PM: APEX SECURITY

New security officer enemy for Parallel Mafia.

PK: VALENTINE'S DAY

The King and Queen of Hearts inspired our new Valentine's Day swag for Parallel Kingdom. I didn't plan on making them look like a bitter married couple, but I'm single this Valentine's Day, maybe it was subconscious.

PK: AGE FIVE

It's a new Age for our flagship game Parallel Kingdom, which means a major overhaul and the addition of fantastic new features, including an entire sky world with new items, enemies and airships. The ships have cannons with a wide variety of projectiles and upgrades available; and the skills menu has been completely redone with larger, more detailed art.

INFLUENCES: GEORGE TAKEI

I was going through old photos and found this picture from a few years back of me with George Takei. I met him when I was still in college at UW-Madison, and he was doing an HRC-sponsored speaking tour, primarily addressing LGBT rights and talking about his experience growing up in a Japanese internment camp. It was a very good, sometimes heartbreaking, but ultimately very hopeful and inspiring talk.

The funny thing is that everyone was asking him questions about civil rights or Star Trek... and I was the only one to ask him about his role in Mulan. He didn't even seem to remember it at first, and then after a few seconds, in his very low, low voice he said "Oh that's right, I was the fat ghost. Heh heh heh." A delightful moment I will cherish as long as I live.

I admire him for several reasons. I am a huge fan of Star Trek, and it's helped shaped my humanistic values in such profound ways I could probably devote a very long essay to it; he's been an absolutely wonderful advocate for equal rights, and because he was on the original show I found that his example made it easier to talk to older people about social issues such as marriage equality; and when I met him in person, he was so incredibly nice, it really made me proud to be a fan. I am very happy to see that he has enjoyed quite a bit of social media popularity as of late (some people think he might be the king of facebook). George is a great guy and has a lot of really important and interesting things to say. We're all lucky to have him, and I feel blessed to have gotten to meet him in person.

PM: CYBER KNIGHT

Old meets new as we introduce some futuristic knight swag into Parallel Mafia. Kyle made a Mecha Dragon to compliment my knight, check it out on the Parallel Mafia update post!

PK COSMIC CHAMPION

Went with some time/space sorcery action for this round of Parallel Kingdom swag.

PM: RESISTANCE SWAG

I may have watched a few 80's action movies to get in the mood for drawing this swag for Parallel Mafia.

PK: APOCALYPSE SWAG

Although we were fairly certain that claims of the 2012 apocalypse were unfounded, we decided to go ahead and celebrate the end of the world in Parallel Kingdom.

PM STEAMPUNK

We had so much fun doing steampunk swag for Parallel Kingdom, we decided to bring it into Parallel Mafia as well!

PK CHRISTMAS

Christmas time again in Parallel Kingdom. Be merry and bright or whatever. I seriously have the worst cold right now. Ho ho ho!

PM CHRISTMAS

Celebrating our first Christmas in Parallel Mafia!

AMAZ!NG ADVENTURE 2012

VERY proud to have had the opportunity to work with JREF once again on a fun t-shirt design project. This time it was to celebrate the Amazing Adventure, a seven day cruise to the Mayan Riviera. The design plays with pop culture memes concerning the apocalypse supposedly predicted by the ancient Mayan calendar. I hope everyone involved had a ton of fun. It pains me that I was not able to participate. Here's to next year!

Skeptic writer and all around decent guy, Ben Radford.

And for an additional treat, the man himself has been wearing the hoodie with the design I made for last year's TAM:

PK: WILD WEST SWAG

Confession: I enjoyed the contemporary Wild Wild West movie adaptation starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Salma Hayek and Kenneth Branagh. Don't judge me. Or do, I don't much care either way. In any case, here is the wild west swag I made for Parallel Kingdom players.

PM: SWAGGIN' SWAG

A bit redundant but you get the idea. Some stylish new swag for Parallel Mafia players to look sharp in.

PK: STEAMPUNK SWAG

We held a vote in the forums to let the players choose the look of this batch of virtual goods, and the most popular suggestion was steampunk. The balloons are neat because it's the first time a flag decoration will be floating above the banner, instead of being a standard flag pole. It should spice up the game's aesthetic and I can't wait to see them on the game map.

PM: RAT MUTANTS AND TOXIC SWAG

New enemies and items introduced for Parallel Mafia.

'YOU SHALL NOT OCTOPASS' WOOT SHIRT AVAILABLE AGAIN!

It seems shirt.woot has reactivated ALL previous derby winners. That means my "You Shalt Not Octopass" design is available again! Click here if you want to buy.