Hoody Hoo!
It looks like I'm getting a few Christmas presents late... but oh mama, what a stack of goodies.

Top of the list, Jeff Valent Studios and Pinnacle Entertainment are doing a line of fantasy miniatures based on my artwork. The pieces are for PEG's new game setting Evernight. A boy am I stoked.

After that I am in negotiation to do a deck of playing cards and possibly get a crack at a neeto keen Sci-Fi game to be named later.

I sometimes have to question my line of work as compared to my political beliefs. For those you haven't figured it out I would call myself a weak-willed socialist. Others might call me a left-wing pinko or a long-haired hippy freak. To this I take offence, my parents were long haired hippy freaks. I am much more reasonable.

What does this have to do with freelance art? Most.... oh who am I kidding... ALL of my art jobs are for Role-playing games that are rife with guns, guts and glory. Now my parents (the afore mentioned long-haired hippy freaks) raised me as a pacifist. Yet my livelihood, and my chosen past-time are all on some level, vicious bloodsports. Why?

It's not because I am rejecting the beliefs of my parental generation. I am still very much a pacifist, yet I enjoy the idea of all my friends trying to storm up the beach at Normandy while I, taking the role of the Germans mow them down. I go into great (sometimes sickening) detail of the effects of their attacks. Heads explode like a crimson sea spray. Units cry out from pain an make pitiful attempts at last words that trail off in coughs of blood. And I love doing it...

And if you love doing it too, Savage Worlds hits stores this month** and comes highly recommended. Fast furious, fun. Just ignore that little tickling in the back of you brain that says "Can't we play the game where we all cooperate to help build a better society?" and reach for the auto-shotgun. It's a keeper.


**Update**
The Savage Worlds release date has been pushed back to early '03, sometime around March. Trust me, it's worth the wait.

"If Bush and his NRA buddies hadn't prevented the formation of a national database for ballistics fingerprinting, the police would have been able to trace the sniper's bullets to the actual gun that he is[was] using. He might have been caught by now. But no -- we must protect the rights of the sniper to make sure that his constitutionally-protected assault weapon is not registered or on any kind of list anywhere, anytime." - Michael Moore

October?... where'd September go?

I have been so hard at work on the tradedress for Savage Worlds that I've been very bad at updating this thing. But then again, I realize that nobody reads this so who cares. here are some cool links... you non-people you.

• I'm Working on a cool new CafePress site for John Kovalic creator of Dork Tower.
  
• Raise the blood with a high-octane vist with the Viking Kittens
  
• Get ready for my annual Night of the Day of the Dead party by reading up on some Ghost Stories
  
• More Spookie Stories
  

Welcome from the road..

This transmission comes to you live from San Jose, CA and Worldcon 60.Business has been great and we've made a cool impression on the west coast sci-fi fans. Here is a brief run down of the past few days.

WEDNESDAY
Arrived in San Jose around noon, checked into the luxurious Fairmont hotel. Savannah and I were stuck with a single-bed room but we'll work it out. Almost all of our stuff had arrived safe and sound so we proceed the long an arduous task of hauling it from the Hotel to the convention center. After several hours we had finished set up and called it a day. I discovered the hotel pool and Savannah and I enjoyed an early evening swim.

THURSDAY
The dealers room opened at 11AM and we were immediately surrounded by ravenous fen shoving money at us. After 7 lovingly grueling hours we retired back to the hotel... and the pool. Not for long however. It seemed that we to put in an appearance at the BASFIC room party as "honored" guests/hosts. we stayed as long as we could without offending anyone then Savannah and I made a break for food. This was around 10PM and we learned that food and 10 is rare creature in San Jose.

FRIDAY
More of the same on the floor. Amazing rushes followed by 10 min lulls. After the Dealers room closed we went right to dinner at 50's themed restaurant "Johnny Rocket's" and as Savannah retired to bed I went to see the Lux Radio Theater troupe perform "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker", a funny take on Star Wars as if it had been a 40's era radio play ( Starring Mickey Rooney as Luke Skywalker, Humphrey Bogart as Han Solo and... dum dum dum Bella Lagosi and Darth Vader...). a fun time
was had by all.

SATURDAY
Busy Busy Busy, Larry Niven stopped by the table. Had Dinner at Johnny Rocket's again. Wandered into a Belly Dancing party on the 15th floor of the Fairmont. Swung by the LA in '06 party on the 19th floor.

SUNDAY
Stilly Busy Busy Busy, Phil and Savannah went for Vietnamese food I chose to get my dinner from a local toasted sub-shop. Went back to the LA in '06 party, got sorted as a "Clone Donor Canadate" for the Space Cadets. I then hung around the filk rooms and caught Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff doing a great Tolkein song, set to the tune of the Beatles Come Together --

..got to be a Ringwrath,
he's just too hard to see.
Come to Mordor -- Right Now
With the Ring.

MONDAY
Not much to say. We put in a few hours in the Hucksters room packed up our stuff and made a run for the airport.

Hey folks! Welcome to Arcane Times.

I’ll be on the road for the rest of the week. But if you are in San Jose this weekend I’ll be at the 60th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in the McEnery Convention Center, San José, California ( Thursday, August 29 through Monday, September 2, 2002 ) and say hi. Patrick Stewart will be there Friday night. ( More here. ). And it's not too late to buy a membership from Online Registration, using PayPal. One-day rates are here.
I’ll be running the Studio Foglio booth in the dealers room and hanging out with Savannah and the filkers in the evening ( possibly at the same time, depending on Savannah’s tolerance levels ). I’ll also be working on the last of the Savage Worlds: Evernight art so stop by and see me in action.

Till next time -- Cheyenne.

Further proof that the Constitution of the United States of America is officially an anachronism
From This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow:

Do you believe that it's okay for the state to hold a citizen in a military facility without formal charges--as long as some law enforcement agency suspects him of, effectively, thoughtcrime? (In which case, perhaps you ought to consider moving to a country which places the same value on personal liberty that you do, such as, say, Iraq or Libya.)

Constitutional rights are meaningless if they do not apply equally to everyone, even Ted Bundy and Charlie Manson and Tim McVeigh, and even traitorous-high-ranking-al-Qaeda-dirty-bomb-plotting-except-as-it-turns-out-not-really gang members from Chicago. You either believe in our system of Constitutional protections or you don't, but there's nothing to debate here, especially when your strongest argument is, But he's a terrorist! I just know he is! There was never much doubt that Charlie Manson was a mass murderer--he still got a damn trial.

If you don't understand this, if you have learned nothing from the lessons of history, if you so blithely dishonor the gift of liberty which has been passed down to you from preceding generations...then I guess you deserve the world you will inevitably inhabit. Unfortunately, you will also drag the rest of us down with you, like a cinder block chained to the feet of a drowning man.
- Tom Tomorrow

Work, Work, Work
Hey, it's my first "day off" since June 28th. I've been to San Diego and back in that time - pictures will be up soon. Right now though, i've been too busy to even turn in the film rolls for development. In fact my next two "days off" will be spent doing the design work for the Big Bad's of Savage World: Evernight. The funny thing is; this year I made a promise to myself to not to drum up more work... but it keeps coming anyway.

Cut one down and another takes it's place
This morning I finished my art order for PEG's Savage World: Evernight and no more than an hour later I got a call from James Ernest looking to hire me for another game. I know, I know... poor Cheyenne. I don't know how much I can talk about the new game, so you'll have to wait for that.... Damn, I'm running out of art supplies.

Busting the WotC Wall
For many years I have tried to reach the artist touchstone -- that is, getting my art into a Wizards of the Coast publication -- This months Dragon Magazine has done the trick very nicely. A few months ago, while Phil was away at Balticon, there was a What's New deadline on the boards and I was given the chance to color that episode. It's now out, and you can find it in Dragon #298. Check it out I'm very proud.

• Added new parts to the site. Photos from the AVN porn convention are up -- in the photos section,
  
• and 10 peices from Freeloader have been added to the Published Work section of my Portfolio.
  

Hoody HOO!
The blog system is up and my ability to update my site with weird and/or usless crap has gone throught the roof! High five my brotha.

Man, I could kill whitey
'I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with equality, liberty and justice for all.'--Francis Bellamy

Leave me out of it. -- God

Monday, July 1, 2002
Oh how high I owe!
We're hitting the road and heading for romantic downtown Columbus, Ohio. For my favorite con of the year, ORIGINS! Where we will be basking in the roar of the grease-paint and the smell of the crowd, all 4th of july weekend. Be there AND be square! and now the art news...

• Freeloader Ah, the good life. You could sit and watch it all day. in this new game from James Ernest you're the neighborhood freeloader, and your version of the good life consists of skipping merrily from house to house, borrowing stuff from people who are either too rich, too nice, or too lazy to tell you to get lost. Enter a cadre of your closest friends, who now have decided to freeload competition-style. To keep the world safe, you've made a pact that only one of you gets to keep this neighborhood, and that's the one player who can score the most free stuff in a single day. Why such an ad for this game you ask? Well because it's illustrated by Cheapass Games newcomer ME. It should be available for ORIGINS.


• in fact, Now you can help put a free ad for your new favorite game on your very own computer! Others in your workplace will walk past and marvel at your taste. You will explain to them how fine Cheapass Games are. Everything will proceed according to plan.
• Also in the works, Savage Worlds. Coming out this summer from Pinnacle. Savage Worlds is 96 pages of the fastest all genre RPG out there. From the simplest action to vast armies Savage Worlds can handle it.The first release also comes with a complete sample fantasy supplement:Evernight. illustrated by ... oh i don't know, how about...ME!

Friday, June 27, 2002
Arcane Rumbling
Welcome to the new home of all things Cheyenne,

it appers to be working now. can you read me? testing one two one two, sylibus sylibus sylibus

blogger no work.... FTP all wonky, it won't let me post to my site.... needs work.