CHADES CHALLENGE XXVIII:
PATRIOTIC CHINCHILLAS

Injected with a government-formulated serum which granted him super-cuteness, Captain Chinchillamerica works with Nick Furry, Iron Mouse, Squirrel Girl, and other members of THE SCAVENGERS to protect adorability from the threat of ugliness.

Anyone else got any nationalistic crepuscular rodents to share?

My loathsome arch-rival Nate Wragg has contributed Red Chin-Skulla. Sure, he seems patriotic on the outside, but given one chance, he would seal the fate of the daring Captain Chinchillamerica.

Tune in June 18th for...
CHADES CHALLENGE XXIX:
GUILTY INSOMNIACS

Happy birthday to all you Geminis out there!

Go easy on the cake. It's his first time.

Ghastly



It's your classic squirrel meets ghost film.

Buffalo Chicken

My contribution to the Dave Pimentel and Jeff Snow's Drawing of the Day game. Today's theme is "Buffalo Chicken." Here are some other excellent contributions!

Dave Derrick

Louie Del Carmen

Dave Pimentel

Josh Lieberman

Jeff Snow

Happy Birthday!
To my brother, Andy, and The Empire Strikes Back, who turned 33 and 30 this weekend.



Here's a little iPad animation to mark the occasion.

My lovely girlfriend Sarah and I paid a visit to my brother last week. Here we are in sunny Burbank with Andy and his girlfriend Michele. Yes, my big brother is a terminator.

More Star Wars nerdiness:
Star Wars Uncut
Universal Day of the Jedi
The Star Wars trilogy in Lego
Ewok shirts are the new Wolf shirt
Periodic Table of Empire Elements

CHADES CHALLENGE XXVII:
"WE DON'T NEED THEIR SCUM."

Mosta Rizk is one of the many bounty hunters who were turned away by Darth Vader during the hunt for Luke Skywalker and his friends. A kliggak from the planet Ortili, Mosta's large insectoid eyes are well-adapted to low-light conditions,. His asthma and allergies to most alien flora, however, make him far from an ideal bounty hunter.

If anyone has any inept bounty hunters to contribute, please let me know and I'll post them. I'd love to get a rogue's gallery going.

Josh "He's no good to me dead" Billings

Mr. Popular

If you missed this week's challenge, join us on Friday, June 4 for:

CHADES CHALLENGE XXVIII:
PATRIOTIC CHINCHILLAS

"Let the wampa win."

A piece I did for my good buddy, Nate Wragg. Nate is an aficionado of all things abominable. He collects yeti-themed artwork, and this is my little contribution to his ever-growing snowman horde.

Watercolor, ink, and prisma pen 9 x 8

Surfing the Chiustream

Artist extraordinare Bobby Chiu hosts a weekly sketch contest on his aptly named blog, Sketchoholic. Every Friday at 2pm (Pacific Time), sketchoholics all over the world tune in and participate in an hour-long drawing session. Bobby picks a theme at the top of the hour, and each artist spends the next sixty minutes rendering their version of the subject. The contender with the best drawing at the end of the hour gets Bobby's original sketch.

This week's challenge was "Big Arm vs. Big Head." I naturally thought of Brachiosaurus (whose name means "arm lizard") vs the tyrant lizard king. My drawing didn't win this time, but I'll keep participating till I do. Below are some of the other amazing participants. The unfortunate gentleman with the bird crap on his head was the winning submission.

How to Build a Dinosaur
Step 1: First Blood

According to Popular Science, researchers have successfully extracted 43,000 year-old mammoth DNA and replicated mammoth blood. This is the first step in bringing back an extinct species. Next stop: baby dinosaurs.

Animated on the iPad.

In other news, the latest Toy Story 3 trailer is out. It's definitely a different direction for the studio.

Frank Frazetta
February 9. 1928-May 10, 2010

News of my hero's passing is a sobering way to start the week. Frank Frazetta forged modern fantasy art and created some of the most striking images in illustrated history. To me, Frazetta is more of a genre than a name.

Like Tolkien and Harryhausen, he handled fantasy with the same reverence and care as a documentarian. I wonder if he knew of some far off region where he could go and study titans and trolls in their native environment. I can picture him astride a drawing horse, perched on the edge of a mountain precipice, carefully sketching a horde of orcs as they went about their daily routine in the valley below.

Much of my artwork (like the smiley fellow below) is inspired by Frazetta. The man stoked the creative fires of fantasy nerds all over the world and I hope that, wherever he is now, they have a large supply of acrylic and plenty of well-endowed amazonians for reference.