Last Tuesday I was asked to join again in a round table discussion on the Star Wars Fan Podcast the ForceCast. Now I’m sitting here listening to us discuss last week’s episode of the Clone Wars titled “The Zillo Beast Strikes Back”.

You can hear this special roundtable podcast as well as the weekly ForceCast and the IndyCast at www.ForceCast.com.

Special thanks go out to Jason Swank and Jimmy Mac for asking me to be on the show as well as our other guests Eric Geller and “Jovial” Jay Shepard.

Here’s a new shadow box commission of Indiana Jones racing through the Mayan Temple with the golden fertility idol.  I thought that I would show a bit about the process of creating this shadow box.  I started by making these quick sketches to get the angle of the temple hallway and the general pose for Indy.

Once I had the pose in mind I sketched a more detailed version of Indy and then inked it on a light box.

After it was all inked I colored it with Prismacolor markers and  cut it out.  Then I drew, colored and cut out all the pieces for the background images.  Each image is put onto a piece of Plexiglass and then into the shadow box.  You can see the final product in the flash file below and rotate it around.  You can also order your own commission in the store.

This is WonderCon wrap-up post #2
With my first trip to WonderCon last year, I also had my first trip to Lucasfilm and ILM.  We had a great lunch and look around the place, but I didn’t schedule my trip very good and didn’t have much time for a tour.  So this year I contacted my friends and set up a nice leisurely tour around the place.  I’ll have to double check and see what photos and videos that I’m allowed to post, but it was pretty fun!  One of the highlights is to see some of the actual movie props like this Stormtrooper costume.

The other thing that I really enjoyed was being able to pick up some items from the Lucasfilm store.  Along with the clearance copy of Lego Indiana Jones, I was able to by some crew gear.  These are items that are made for, and available to the folks who are working on the different projects at Lucasfilm and ILM.

The last items I was able to pick up was not at the store at all.  Last year I customized a Mighty Muggs toy for a charity auction.  StarWars.com made up some t-shirts for the participants and I finally got mine!  Thanks Pete, Bonnie, and Matt for hanging out before the show!

This is WonderCon wrap-up post #1.
Normally with my convention visits I try to arrange to stay with a fellow artist (or three) in one hotel room to save some money.  Last year was my first trip to the San Francisco convention.  It was a last minute decision to tag along with Matt Busch, Paul Michael Kane, Randy Martinez and Denise Vasquez.  We all stayed in one room and it got so loud from the snoring that Matt tried to get away and sleep in the bathtub!  Sorry Matt!

This year I struck out on my own and at the suggestion of my friend Otto Dieffenbach, I stayed at the Mosser Hotel and really loved it.  It’s a block or so to the convention center, in the middle of some great restaurants, and I didn’t have to worry about walking back late at night through the high crime Tenderloin neighborhood like we did last year.

One of the things that I really liked about the Mosser (besides the price) was that they were active about saving money too.  When I first walked onto my floor I saw a sign for a bathroom and a shower in the hallway and I started to wonder if I had booked a room in a hostel and would find myself waiting in line to use the toilet.  Fortunately, my neatly designed but tiny room had it’s own toilet and shower.  There was a note on the bed suggesting that I save water by not having my sheets washed every day.  Another note prompted me to reuse my towel and leave the dirty ones on the floor.  But the best cost saving device of them all was the soap.

The first thing I noticed was the HOLE in the box.  I laughed out loud remembering that I’d seen some silly invention for a hollow bar of soap that eliminated all those little bits and pieces of soap you get when its wearing down.  So I called my wife to tell her about the soap and about the joke soap I’d seen before.  Then I opened it and read the back of the box.

Here’s what it says on the box, “This innovative ergonomically shaped “waste reducing” soap has been designed to eliminate the unused center of traditional soap bars.”  Fantastic!  I’ll be staying at the Mosser again!

I am pleased to announce that I have some new artwork licensed and approved for sale from Star Wars!

You can find it at my Zazzle store by clicking the t-shirt link below.

Ben Kenobi by starwars_spencerb
View more Star wars T-Shirts

Finding answers to all life’s questions can be difficult, but Google can help.  Even if you live in a Galaxy far, far away…

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back opened in 1980 and introduced us to a Bounty Hunter named Boba Fett.  The masked mercenary was chided by the Dark Lord of the Sith saying, “No disintegrations this time” and we all knew there and then he was bad to the bone.  Through out the expanded Star Wars universe in comics and books we learned more and more about this mysterious figure, but it wasn’t until Star Wars Attack of the Clones in 2002 that we learned his true origins.  Now he’s back in the Clone Wars animated series  voiced by Daniel Logan who played the character on screen in 2002.

Back in November of 2007 I imagined what it would be like to have Boba Fett in his armor surrounded by his clone brothers.  I took created the image below and submitted it to Lucasfilm for licensing and was told that Boba Fett in armor had to appear as an adult and not a child.  I edited the image and it’s now available on Zazzle.

I’m also pretty excited that this upcoming story seems to follow along with the Boba Fett stories that I read a few years back and have him chasing down Mace Windu. The one thing that it seems to be lacking is some sort of memorable quote like, “You killed my Father! PREPARE TO DIE!”

What a strange course of events. Last weekend I was in San Francisco attending the WonderCon Comic book festival. At this show as well as previous events I was pleased to speak briefly to actress Erin Gray. I know her best as Wilma Deering from Buck Rogers. At this event Erin was accompanied by her lovely daughter Samantha, who will be starring in … (wait for it)….BUCK ROGERS!The Buck Rogers story began on January 7, 1929 with the debut of the first science fiction comic strip. It the Radio waves in 1932 followed by a ten-minute Buck Rogers film shown at the 1933-1934 World’s Fair in Chicago. A print of the film was discovered donated to UCLA and can be seen below.

To my mind, Buck Roger is most famously known as a 12-part serial film that was produced in 1939. This adventure serial along with the 1979 TV series helped to foster my own sci-fi imagination. Though I’m not sure where to find this information, but it has been said that George Lucas originally conceived Star Wars after deciding he wanted to create a Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers film and found the rights too expensive to obtain.XXxSo Back to Erin and Samantha Gray. The Buck Rogers story started as a comic strip, then became a serial film, the a tv series and now it returns as a WEB series. The teaser trailer below was launched late last year.

James Cawley is creating the web series and hopes to produce twenty 40-minute web episodes. He has secured the rights and will focus on how Rogers went from World War I to 25th century Earth. In this version of the story, Anthony “Buck” Rogers is now Lucas “Buck” Rogers. I wonder if that’s a nod to George? You can see some familiar faces in the video below.