An update on my new friend BRUTE! and the artwork I think he has just agreed to make for me:

Aidan,

Sorry for the delay. I think I actually got a little self-conscious with how dumb my idea sounded. I kept thinking, “Is this really something this guy would want to work on?” But maybe work is work!

OK, so: I basically just wanted to ape a few elements from the Rider-Waite Death tarot card but make it this whole other thing:

Helmet-less black-haired dude in black armor (which would be, uh, me) on a red-eyed white horse carrying a black flag with a white shooting star / meteor on it and “VIII” instead of “XIII”. The rest of the tarot card we can eschew in favor of an army of skeletons rallying beside and behind the white horse. A skeleton war, more or less . . . in the vein of the 16th century painting ‘The Triumph of Death’:

So obviously I’m not thinking it should be anywhere close to as insanely detailed this is. The painting probably took 20 years to paint. Just something loud and pulpy like you’re good at . . . more of a symbol of something bigger. We don’t need to see who the opposing side is: the opposing side is the world itself. Maybe just black and white and a lil’ (blood) red here and there. I don’t know what would be on the horizon. It could be nighttime with a starry sky above a dead skyline, if that’s not too much blackness drowning everything else out.

Ah, that’s what I got. What do you think??

Thanks dude.

Ryan☆

TWELVE HOURS LATER I received this (truncated) reply:

I think I can picture what you’re after, Ryan.

W-whew!! Sounds like this gonna be a real thing. I got T-shirts I’ve had for half my life with this guy’s illustrations on them. What a dude. And now we’re freaking working together!!

Maybe you can buy a T-shirt with this hideously stupid idea of mine on it soon?? Aidan will of course save me from my own stupidity, because let’s face it: whatever he comes up with will rule.

Why have I made myself the harbinger of doom? I don’t know. I guess I think it’s funny. It’s OK if I’m alone in thinking that. And let’s not forget that the Death card does not mean physical death . . . but rebirth! At the very least, symbolic meaning or not, I’m going to be surrounded by cheery skeletons.

☆彡