Here is a second set of paper minis created from Ryan “Asok Yeesrim” Rhodes’s illustrations used with his permission. Check out larger versions of the artwork at his gallery linked from his name. The first batch of Ryan-drawn minis can be found here. Here’s our first non-canonical alien species created by Ryan, named the Trog – which I thought looks a lot like the yet-unnamed stalk-eyed species created and drawn by Mike Vilardi for West End Games or perhaps a Zilkin which appeared in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Also, our first extra wide paper mini by way of the humongous Herglic, which takes twice the width. Click here to download the set from Google Drive.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Friends
13th Anniversary and Raya Haji in KL
It was Sitiawan’s turn for balik kampung Aidiladha this year. But I did not get paid for a work I invoiced so we could not gas up to go anywhere far. So Atok and Opah travelled from Sitiawan to Kuala Lumpur for the holiday. Also, Irfan’s exam week was looming. Coincidentally, Aidiladha was also the 13th wedding anniversary of Ain and I. So we decided to scrape up something for the day. 13 years through… a lot of things. Amazing things. Not so amazing things. Unbelievably inspirational events. Events that would destroy the spirit of anyone not prepared. Things I do not mention even in this blog. I owe a lot of people a lot of things. My parents. Sila and Vin. But without Ain to prop against and support my weight in the worst of times, it would have been a different world today. After solat Aidiladha, we took […]
Continue readingPacific Rim Heroclix Battle
Ivan and Kai of the GOKL gaming group dropped by to visit us for Aidilfitri. The Aidilfitri visit is of course an excuse for some gaming shenanigans. [[image:heroclix-pacrim01.jpg:L-R Slattern, Knifehead, two Gipsy Dangers, Coyote Tango and Scunner:center:0]] Once upon a time – about a month ago – I asked Kai if he knew where to get any Pacific Rim Heroclix figures. At the time, there was none in town. When his order from Noble Knight Games arrived, he offered to sell two figures so Irfan and I can play! The jaeger I picked was Gipsy Danger and the kaiju I picked was Knifehead. This game needs more jaegers and kaiju. A Tacit Ronin clix would be awesome. But since a host of clix were arrayed on the dinner table, Kai taught Irfan to play. [[image:heroclix-pacrim02.jpg:Needs more whipswords:center:0]] Here we have Kai playing Scunner and Irfan playing Gipsy Danger. Gipsy Danger […]
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Schoolmates From A Thousand Generations Ago
Nowadays when I return to Sitiawan for Chinese New Year, I rarely get to meet old ACS classmates. It’s because either they’re away at the in-laws, or their family has moved elsewhere, or I don’t communicate to anyone my balik kampung. This year I had two meet ups! The first was with Teck Chee and Cheong Lee at the new mall, Aeon Sri Manjung. They were a year younger than me at school. We had a great time talking about old friends and where they are now. Later that night I met my former classmate Sathya. I met him right at this white wall where I had some sort of coffee and Star Wars talk ensued, as they are wont to be when Sathya is around. Gnana was also present but also via Sathya’s iPhone. And initial plans were made for a class reunion in the near future. Who wants […]
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Shane Goes To Star Wars Identities
As mentioned in the Star Trek exhibition post downriver, my brother from another mother and hemisphere Shane went and visited Star Wars Identities exhibition at the Telus World of Science in Edmonton. Shane gave me permission to feature photos from his expedition into the world of Star Wars miniatures, maquettes, concept art and costumes. Which gives me a reason to post more Star Wars photos on this blog for the lulz. FOR THE LULZ! See this grin on Shane? I will match and exceed that if I ever visit an exhibition like this one. In the background, Boba Fett is unsettled by his number one fan. The entire set up sounds fantastic. As a visitor, you are able to use the interactive displays to choose which path you take as you traverse the entire exhibition. What you choose will create an original character attributed to you as you reach the […]
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Ascension: Chronicles of the Balik Kampung
So, just before Eid, Ivan came around and gave us another gaming gift. This time it’s the deck-building card game Ascension: Chronicles of the Godslayer by Gary Games. We brought it back with us to Sitiawan for some gaming. Extradimensional demonic monsters are passing through interdimensional barriers into the world of Vigil. And it’s up to players to build their decks and employ their cards to kick the monsters in the butt, and win by gaining the most Honor points! Sometimes, my hand is usually full of the guys in the following photo. They only have Rune points which does me no good when confronted with the bad guy-fulled centre array which looks like the last photo in this blog entry. I keep getting dealt into these situations. Strangely, when my hand is full of Power cards, the centre array is inexplicably filled with Heroes and Constructs. Irfan and I […]
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Malaysian Games and Comic Convention 2012
The inaugural Malaysian Games and Comic Convention 2012 (MGCCon 2012) took place on the 19th and 20th of May at Kolej Damansara Utara. I visited the event on Sunday the 20th. Here’s hoping someday I’ll be able to take part as a participant, perhaps with a table at Artist’s Alley sketching stuff and selling swag. Compared to the conventions I’m used to, this would certainly be a more relaxing and fun one. The atmosphere was quite energetic. There were comic book stores selling their wares, cosplayers walking all over the place (including one very impressive, dark armoured Republic Commando), artists sketching at their tables and PeKOMIK, the Malaysian comic artist association, would be having their award ceremony later that day. In other rooms, different workshops about cosplay photography (by photographer Jay Tablante), movie VFX (by Rhythm & Hues Malaysia), videogame talks (by Ubisoft Singapore) were being conducted. I managed to […]
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Small World
Created by Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton, Geek and Sundry’s new biweekly TableTop web series features 30 minutes of tabletop gaming video that shows how much fun it is to pay tabletop games from boardgames like Ticket to Ride to card games like Munchkin to roleplaying games like Fiasco! Each episode, hosted by Wil, shows how each game is played by playing it onscreen. Every episode also has different guests. Irfan and I saw the first episode together and he totally fell in love with the board game they played, Small World. Small World allows a player to control a society of one fantasy race after another, allowing your race to expand or decline each round using the game rules. The game randomly mixes in special abilities and racial abilities, and by planning a combination of these abilities you are able to maximise the number of points you acquire each […]
Continue readingIrfan’s Transmogrifying Present
Irfan received a gift over the mail from Ryan Rhodes. There is a great sketch of Irfan with the octopus plushie at Wan Chor’s house in the inner cover! Here’s hoping Irfan will never stop dreaming. (Although he has been dreaming of zombie attacks these days…) It’s a Calvin and Hobbes collection – which in my opinion is tied with Bloom County as the best newspaper comic ever. Irfan says, “Thanks for the book, Uncle Ryan.” Bo shuda.
Continue readingA Mini Comic Con in KL
Last Saturday, Earth 638 the comic shop located at Kelana Mall – in colaboration with Banshee Creative held COMICS ARE COOL, the first unofficial mini comic convention. From 4pm to 9pm, visitors came to the store to buy comics and meet creators. Local indie publishers also sold their comics and signed their work. There was also a line where artists drew sketches for visitors. Below, Sheldon Goh draws! [[image:cac-08-2011-01.jpg:with his honour guard, one of the twins, standing by for combat:center:0]] Tan Eng Huat sketches Thor on the big collaborative card thing! [[image:cac-08-2011-02.jpg:Recently, he worked on Marvel’s Annihilators:center:0]] Artists’ Alley (or perhaps Artists’ Nook would be more precise) is just bustling with all the participating comic professionals before visitors form a line for signing and sketches. Among the guests for the day were Sheldon Goh, Tan Eng Huat, Lefty Julian, Alan Quah, Yazid and Muhamad Azhar. Even Reggie Lee dropped by […]
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Aww.. It’s NOT Made of Mole Skin
I’ve always bought sketchbooks they sell around here, but they’re difficult to bring about and open for a quick sketch. Also, they don’t have a lot of pages to draw. Last week, the awesome fellows over at GOKL got me an outstanding present for my birthday: this Moleskine sketchbook for impromptu sketching which Ivan passed to me when this event was transpiring. It looked so nice and pristine that I put off drawing in it to avoid sullying it with my scratchings, but I finally drew Clark a few nights ago. Thanks for the present, guys.
Continue readingSix Degrees of Separation of Old Friends
After years of not being together again, Zarin, Ida and I finally managed a meet up. Last time I saw Ida was at my wedding (that’s over 5 years ago!). And look, Ida’s about to have a baby! Apparently 3 different doctors independently of each other confirmed it will be a girl. The only person missing from this picture is Restu. The four of us Animalies have not been on the same continent together since, probably, 1998. Ah well! One day! 🙂 [[image:2010-sept-friends01.jpg:Me, Ida & Zarin:center:0]] If you want to know what “animaly” means, well, you had to be there in 1993 *arf!*. * Mouse over the pictures for more captions After adjourning from the Nando’s at Alamanda, we then went to a donut place for dessert (I forgot the name lah.. Zarin remind me again?), and to kill time until Hisham and his family could take us to Eliza’s […]
Continue readingYati Comes a-Calling
On the fifth day of Aidilfitri (September 14th), my old friend Yati stopped by for a quick Hari Raya visit: [[image:2010-sept-yati04.jpg:Onyang Yati:center:0]] It had been a while since I last saw Yati, and it was really good to see her again, and also to see her husband Zukry, and to meet their beautiful daughter Fatihah: [[image:2010-sept-yati01.jpg:Zukry and Fatihah:center:0]] Yati brought some mini-cheesecakes (or cheese-tarts) for all to enjoy. Does this make her the Queen of Hearts? [[image:2010-sept-yati02.jpg:Irfan, Yati and Opah checking out the tarts:center:0]] The kids got along famously: [[image:2010-sept-yati03.jpg:Hands up, Irfan!:center:0]] [[image:2010-sept-yati05.jpg:Yaya plays congkak:center:0]] Yati was obsessed with trying to fix Yaya’s hair. After about thirty minutes and about a million tries, Yaya finally acquiesces and allows her hair to be ponytailed (for all of about 3-4 minutes, but that’s ok). Yati was so involved in fixing Yaya’s hair that Fatihah, that sweet little daughter of Yati’s actually told […]
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They ARE Zombies, After a Fashion
After reading Gary’s Facebook status last week, I was inspired to draw this three page preview of a fake comic book. If there aren’t stats for fart zombies, there should be! (At least for All Flesh Must Be Eaten.)
Continue readingThe one with more birthday cakes
Finally, on August 1, we had what is becoming our annual backyard cookout and Allie birthday bash right here at home. We timed it so like last year, Vin’s baseball team played at the local high school so they were able to come and eat and hang out for a while. Our wonderful neighbors and some friends also came to liven up the party. Unfortunately, Yaya’s Auntie Jo had to go back home to Leeds. But we had a wonderful time with Auntie Jo and miss her terribly! [[image:allie756a.jpg:Let them eat yet another cake!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Vin rushed back from his game and fired up the coals. In the meantime the guests have arrived and Allie mingles: [[image:allie754a.jpg:Talking baseball:center:0]] [[image:allie755a.jpg:Allie mingles like a good host:center:0]] Then it was time for cake! Again! [[image:allie757a.jpg:Smiling while everyone sings Happy Birthday:center:0]] [[image:allie758a.jpg:Yaya blows out the candle!:center:0]] [[image:allie759a.jpg:And proceeds […]
Continue readingAllie’s 25 Month Birthday
And since I was so late with the last two 2-year birthday blogs, here we are, on August 29th. Allie is now 25 months and 1 week old! July and August have just flown by! Ramadhan Mubarak to everyone! Courtney had been in town for a conference and so spent the weekend with us (yayyyyyy!!!). [[image:allie765a.jpg:I’m pink and rowdy!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Before we get started, I have to apologize. You can see in the first picture above that there is a pinkish tinge to it? Well, the reason why is because we had to resurrect our older camera, the one that we had to replace because it was taking pink pictures – remember that one? Well, the reason we had to use the old camera is because “somebody” “dropped” the camera and it no longer works. The fatal “lens error” appeared and the camera will […]
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