And experimenting in grey scale in Clip Studio! Learning a lot. Thanks @Friended4Ever for recommending some good brushes.

The 1983 D&D Basic Set gave us one of the most iconic fantasy paintings ever created. Larry Elmore’s original sketch included a wizard, a halfling, and a broader view of the dungeon. But Gary Gygax wanted something stronger. He cropped away everything except the confrontation. Suddenly it wasn’t a party adventure. It was one fighter standing alone against a dragon. For over forty years, generations of gamers looked at that cover and thought… “That’s me.” One fighter. One dragon. Roll initiative.

Comicsgate.org is proud to be a Gold Sponsor of For The Fans Fest on Oct. 16-18 at Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City! fundmycomic.com/campaign/962… Thank you to @RumerMatt ! I'll be tabling and showing off the #Comicsgate collection of auction pieces I've bought over the years.

Thoroughly enjoyed TRASHCAST last night. Thank you to everyone who participated. I think we learned that together as a community, we have nothing to fear. Looking fwd to FTFF! I’d also like to thank my DRAW-MUH STREAM friends who are helping the much anticipated REIGNBOW THE BRUTE come to life! Let’s get back to work today!

This is intolerable. You need fucking metal detectors and off duty police to secure something like this. We will not be intimidated! Let us know what we can do to help raise money to boost security if necessary.

18 USC 875: "Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both." law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/… It's basically shouting fire in a crowded theater. People take their families to these hotels, businesses that I imagine will *also* similarly take any threat, even from idiots on the internet, very seriously. Ok, just joking. Sure. Whoops! The hotel cancelled event. Who could have foreseen such a likely outcome? I don't have any special information about the hotel, maybe they won't cancel it. Maybe they'll say sure, it was just a "harmless" joke. But if feds think there might be a serious threat, what are the chances they'd let the hotel know there might be a dangerous situation, and then what might that mean for the con? And maybe fans who were thinking about making the trip say, you know what, it's not worth it. So, yes, maybe it was just a joke--that ends up costing people tens of thousands of dollars as a result. I don't know. So unfortunate. Stay safe!

Hopefully it’s really just a joke and the feds determine there is no real threat… but prosecutors (and the casino) might see it differently and argue it created an imminent threat just a few months before the con; it’s one of those borderline free speech issues that came up in the 1969 Brandenberg v Ohio decision. I suppose there’s also a question of whether there’s an attempt to intimidate and drive down attendance. Kind of like a bomb threat getting phoned in but there’s not really a bomb. That’d still be criminal. I wouldn’t be surprised if the casino cancels the event out of an abundance of caution after the feds show up alerting the venue to the recorded threat.

‘All Men Are Created Equal’: America’s Founding Was Centuries In the Making dailytorch.com/2026/06/all-m… In 1825, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to Henry Lee that his influences in deriving the free and equal principle in the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776 signed by the Founding Fathers in Liberty Hall in Philadelphia, Pa.: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…” included Aristotle, Marcus Tullius Cicero, John Locke and Algernon Sidney — philosophers whose lives spanned more than 2,000 years. By then the American Revolution had already begun with the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. The Continental Congress had already been founded in September 1774. George Washington was already named Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in June 1775. But there was still one missing ingredient: Independence. Jefferson explained: "when forced therefore to resort to arms for redress, an appeal to the tribunal of the world was deemed proper for our justification. this was the object of the Declaration of Independance. not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject; [. . .] terms so plain and firm, as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independant stand we [. . .] compelled to take. neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the american mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion. Jefferson noted that the words themselves were centuries in the making: “all it’s authority rests then on the harmonising sentiments of the day, whether expressed, in conversns in letters, printed essays or in the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney Etc. the historical documents which you mention as in your possession, ought all to be found, and I am persuaded you will find, to be corroborative of the facts and principles advanced in that Declaration." So, what of these influences? Clearly based on Jefferson’s letter, they were classical, in part, and they were inspired by the Enlightenment writers, too, who were inspired by both the Bible and the classical sources. The biblical references are explicitly all throughout Locke’s “An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding,” “The First Treatise of Government” and the “The Second Treatise of Government” and Sidney’s “Discourses Concerning Government” including the Old Testament, including Genesis, the New Testament and the Golden Rule, but Locke and Sidney also included Aristotle and Cicero and other classical thinkers. And so, the Founding was Judeo-Christian in part, and classical in part, considered by some to be the last act of the Renaissance. And it was revolutionary.

CHENOO ‘77 is DONE! I finished the last page today. Tomorrow I will go over the dialogue and get the script ready to send to the letterer. There is still time to back this! IGG: indiegogo.com/en/projects/gr… FMC: fundmycomic.com/campaign/863…

A titan of fantasy: Barry Windsor-Smith ⚔️✨ To talk about the evolution of fantasy comics and sword and sorcery is, single-mindedly, to talk about Barry Windsor-Smith (BWS). This legendary British artist not only revolutionized the industry in the 1970s, but also profoundly reimagined the visual aesthetics of iconic characters.

It seems like a bit of a stretch. The 1982 date means it doesn't appear until a decade after Arneson and Gygax began their campaigns which have been taken over by other DMs and players. There is a campaign local to me which began with Basic D&D in 1977. The players are still playing in their world. Can I interest you in a bit of history? youtube.com/watch?v=np85aNPy…

Luis Royo and Julie Strain had a very close artistic relationship throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, becoming one of the most iconic collaborations in fantasy art and heavy metal aesthetics. Julie Strain —known for her dominant, sensual, and almost mythological presence— served as the muse and model for many of Royo’s illustrations, appearing in paintings, covers, and books where she embodied warriors, cyberpunk creatures, and dark figures characteristic of his visual universe. The combination of Royo’s hyper-detailed, decadent style and Strain’s powerful image helped define much of the fantasy/erotic aesthetic of that era, especially the one associated with magazines like Heavy Metal 🔥🗡️ @LuisRoyoOficial

GLORY, GLORY, HALLELUJAH! HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON! 🦅🇺🇸🕯️

My Graphic novel version of the Odyssey is the best. Soon to be crowdfunded #ODYSSEIA

There could be no Independence Day without Memorial Day. 🇺🇸

Two simple Truths: Jesus Christ died for our sins. America’s fallen died for our freedom. May we live worthy.

101-year-old World War II veteran Don Graves — the last surviving flamethrower operator from his battalion, which fought on Iwo Jima — sings “God Bless America” at the National Memorial Day Parade.