Here is where I am right now: I've decided to do some illustrations for some friends of mine.

Here are the statuses...

- Drew and Nell Illustration. Finished Inks. <img src="http://fc76.deviantart.com/fs38/f/2008/320/4/6/Drew_and_Nell_by_ChaosBurnFlame.jpg" /> Awaiting to hear if Aisaku wants colors.

- Reddish Illustration. Finished. <img src="http://th00.deviantart.com/fs39/150/f/2008/336/8/7/Reddish_in_Blue_by_ChaosBurnFlame.jpg" /> A

- No Information Yet.

- Matsumoto illustration. Sent in Sketch.

- No Information Yet.

It's been hard to cope with... my comic, Point Guardian, is going to end soon.

I've had a 2 month buffer going on since at least 3 years ago, and Point Guardian's end is going to be released next March, so I only really have until the end of January.

Point Guardian has been a part of my life in some shape or form since 10 years ago when I first started creating it. Now, I've been drawing it for five years and I'm hitting a stopping point. However, with something that was such a big part of my life gone, I found myself unsure of things in life.

For a few days, I was quite annoying to several of my friends(sorry guys!). I was panicked, worried, almost sick. Now, I'm quite a bit better, coping with the idea, the reality that Point Guardian is pretty much over.

It's been a great ride, almost 1500 pages, and a commitment that lasted longer than a college degree or a marriage.

My mentor was one that didn't like for me to drop his name often, but I think in this case he wouldn't mind as much

His name was Wayne Howard, considered one of the legends of the comic book world, one of the greatest products of a long apprenticeship under the greatest inker of the industry, Wallace Wood, and he taught me the beginnings of how to ink, a lesson I now must finish on my own. I ink with a brush, just as he did, and just as his teacher, Wally Wood did.

I'm nowhere near the level of both, but there was one great lesson he taught me: Do a page every day. Keep doing it, that's what he was expected to do, and he did it proudly. No excuses, no sabbaticals, no days off.

He also gave me one more invaluable lesson: You're always cooler now than you were 10 years ago. He talked about his disdain for how the new comic industry warped itself from a great place with great adventures to this dark beast. We enjoyed watching Batman: The Animated series together, and he taught me that we should never as a reader, or a writer, yield to sub-par work, either from us, or from others.

Thank you Wayne for all the lessons.

Alright, here's the contest: I want people to submit their best rendition of Optimus Prime(preferably G1 version, maybe movie version, absolutely no Lio Convoy!) battling The Big Guy (From the animated series "The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot". I'm setting this contest up in honor of my own illustration on this subject matter.

[link]

Now you can get as wild as you want on this subject, but:

a) Do not depict a clear victor in a single image. If you want your submission to be a comic of some sort, then yes, show a victor

b) If you spot the Big Guy help from Rusty, then Optimus Prime gets help from Roller.

c) one submission per dA user.

The deadline will be Christmas day. The winner will receive 1 Transformer DVD of their choice.

Commissions are open. If you want something drawn, just contact me via AIM and we'll hammer out the details, and price.