illustration

Ball Stars 7th-Inning stretch!

| Aaron McConnell
The Kickstarter goal for Ball Stars is over the halfway mark thanks to our backers! The game is afoot! Acme and I have received a full range of feedback, most of it quite positive, some of it along the lines of “your Kickstarter isn’t ready for the big leagues.” However, we will not be deterred! Come aboard and help us move the project forward. This is the start of something exciting… Let’s Play Ball!

If this is the first you’ve heard of Ball Stars, here’s a quick rundown: Ball Stars is a fantasy baseball inspired trading card game designed by Acme McConnell (with some assistance from me, Aaron, mainly illustrations). The game is fun to play with two players or just to collect for the fantastic artwork!

Two teams face off with rules that will appear familiar to fans of real life baseball. The core differences are every successful bat is a home run and the field is overrun by freaks and monsters! 

Equip perks to your batters and roll dice to score points. Apply reaction spells to alter the outcome of the rolls. If the pitcher wins the roll, the batter is out! Three batters out means you switch positions, and this makes up a half. Two halves equals one inning, the game lasts three innings. Whoever has the most points after three innings wins the game!

Gain the advantage by leveling up your pitcher. Your opponent will send out additional batters from their lineup to try to match the level of your super-powered pitcher.

For the full rules click the gif below:

We launched the Kickstarter in conjunction with the convention Gamestorm25 in Portland the weekend of March 21st and have continued to demo Ball Stars locally, both at Guardian Games and at Acme’s new store that opened earlier this year called Paraquosm at 322 SE Morrison St.  We also traveled to Leavenworth, WA and demoed the game at Krampus Kave. If you have a favorite game store, please let us know so we can offer them a retailer discount to stock the game.

In the meantime, please consider supporting the kickstarter HERE and sharing it with family and friends who love games and art.

Thanks again for being Ball Stars!!

Sincerely,

Ancient Futures Kickstarter is live!

| Aaron McConnell

Dear subscribers and comic lovers,

I’m excited to announce the launch of a passion project I’ve been working on for over a year with a writer in Chicago Steven White, aka Seven, on this Valentine’s Day, 2022. What started as weekly zoom meetings to exchange story ideas and concept drawings organically grew into a compelling narrative as characters began to form and ideas bubbled to the surface brought about by the challenging and perplexing times we were experiencing in our collective lives. This story feels very “of the moment” and Seven and I wanted to find a way to bring an audience along with us as it forms rather than keep it hidden away until the entire story has been written and drawn. The hope is to keep it alive and growing in dialogue with reader interaction. Kickstarter seemed like an appropriate choice and so today marks the christening of our ship Ancient Futures as we embark into the great unknown. I hope you’ll check it out and consider joining us on the journey. We have a 40-page Part One that is scheduled to print this spring and ship this summer if the Kickstarter is successful, and we hope it captures your imagination as much as the creation of it has for Seven and myself. Thank you! http://kck.st/3oLKLgi

May the Fourth Be with you in 2021

| Aaron McConnell

I notice I’m getting traffic on my website for the Star Wars in Ancient Greece illustrations I drew in 2015. If you are new to my website, welcome! Thanks for your interest. If are interested in getting a print or t-shirt or a mug or doormat or shower curtain or various other items with my Star Wars drawings, I can direct you to my Artist Shop. I currently only have two images available. If you would like to see some of the others made available, please leave a comment. Thank you and remember : “The Fourth surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Fourth around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes.”

https://aamcconnell.threadless.com

Counting down from 20…19…

| Aaron McConnell

13th Age products are going on sale for 20 days at bundleofholding.com, and for the occasion I’m posting 20 pieces daily that were drawn mainly for the core book or 13 True Ways.  Most will include the original pencil or charcoal art, but I plan to sneak in some other unpublished drawings along the way.  The sale started yesterday, so here’s No. 20 (a victorious half-orc gladiator) and No. 19 (a levitating, meditating monk), both from the core book.

Pallet Magazine

| Aaron McConnell

The latest issue of Pallet, a journal for people who like to think and drink, is available now.  I’m very impressed with the quality of this magazine, and it features articles about everything from science to art to beer..well, mostly beer!  And no surprise that’s where I come in.  I was invited to contribute a beer label for this issue’s themed feature “Shakesbeer.”  To quote the magazine:

He’s the greatest writer in the English language, but one honor yet to be bestowed upon William Shakespeare was for us to invite four breweries and artists from around the world to create an original recipe and label artwork inspired by one of his plays.

I was paired with Ommegang Brewery, but I’ll let the label tell you the rest…Cheers!

coverbeerommegangommegang2

Charlie Who?

| Aaron McConnell

Here’s a piece of fan art celebrating the subject of Sonny Liew’s graphic novel The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye that is sending shockwaves through the very medium of comics itself!  You gotta check this out, but don’t take my word for it, take it from NPR:

At once dizzyingly meta and deeply heartfelt, the book spans 80 years and in its complicated layering remind me of everything from “Maus” and “The Tin Drum” to, believe it or not, “Ulysses.”

Link to Listen to the Story at NPR

CharlieChan_Fan_AMcC