Classic Game Room

Early Access Old Timey!

Yo Patrons, get one early! Enjoy the giggles.

Mark

It's Monday, have a SOUP-STACHE!

The world is miserable. Mondays are miserable. But you don't to be miserable because I'm finishing up Old Timey Pictures with Silly Captions Volume 3 and that means more soup and absinthe jokes!

Mark

Blizzurricane & Narwhals: New Art For You!

New art for you Patreons! Here's a look at a concept piece for a project in my head called Blizzurricane (which you may remember is the clothing brand that Ethel the Cyborg Ninja wears.... no relation.)

I'm working on a how-to-draw T-Rex book and that dinosaur drawing is based off one of my sketches, heavily filtered with the addition of Blizzurricane, a heroic wandering she-warrior with an RPG. Something fun to think about. She probably won't be in the kids book though... sadly.

...

Early Access - The Horrible Octopus drawings for How To Draw...

Early access first look (I just did these today) at three The Horrible Octopus drawings that I created for my next drawing book titled "How to Draw Narwhals by Mark Bussler."

It's fun to have a guide through parts of the book and I like that The Horrible Octopus can hold up to eight drawing and painting devices at once! He also occasionally points with his cane which I find amusing. Why does an octopus need a cane?

Hopefully you've been reading the strip on Webtoons (his own site ...

Magnum Skywolf with Kuretake and iPad

Nerd alert - I'm super excited about this video. 

https://vimeo.com/387068915 

I've been pounding out background work with my Kuretake 50 Fountain Brush for the past few days trying to learn how to make the most out of the fewest strokes to give that visceral energy to the most mundane of imagery that makes a classic comic/manga pop off the page. I'm still learning, but I'm getting there.

Magnum Sk...

Kuretake No. 50 Fountain Brush

Early access-

I'm working on some better black and white brush stroke style backgrounds for my newer books like Magnum Skywolf and Omega Ronin, going for that classic 70s look. Most of the work will be done digitally, but learning the trade with physical tools is the best practice, and I'll be making some original art pieces as well.

https://vimeo.com/385897039

Enjoy a look at one of the best (high maintenan...

Early access - The Horrible Octopus #20!

Indeed, running out of coffee is horrible! Don't let it happen to you.

The design is evolving as I experiment with different proportions here and there, but overall this strip has been a lot of fun to create and I love the character. Enjoy, it's running on Webtoons at at HorribleOctopus.com

Mark

Early access - Magnum Skywolf Haylee Davenworth sketch

Early access to a drawing video for Turbo Volcano, this is a Haylee Davenworth sketch with the superb Pentel GraphGear 1000 .9mm pencil which is huge, it's a great pencil.

https://vimeo.com/385403834 

Magnum Skywolf had to be set aside at the end of last year as I finished up some of my bigger history projects, but it is now back in full production - I'm basically re-drawing it on my current templates and it'...

1st look, Robot Kitten Factory final cover!

Robot Kitten Factory Issue #1 is complete. Spent all day in QA, revising, cleaning up, and tightening the cover art. Heavily inspired by classic manga and monster movies. That's what I went for with the cover.

Should be out within the week. Ran out of time to make any videos or art vids today but there will be plenty more as I start work on Issue #2 soon. Each issue may reveal a robot cat... you never know :)

MarK

Everything must go! Price drop on remaining studio items.

Greetings! We just dropped the price on most of the remaining big-ticket items in the CGRempre Ebay store. https://www.ebay.com/usr/cgrempire 

If you're looking for a Power Base Converter, Nomad, Saturn, Darth Vader Atari, Gunstar Heroes, Castlevania, studio monitor, Odyssey 2, memory cards, audio gear, cables, games, accessories, disco balls or whatever check it out. The CGR arcade and studio project has be...

From rough sketch to final comic

Dear patrons, enjoy a look at the process from rough sketch to a completed Horrible Octopus cartoon.

The site will take shape through January. Until then, you can also enjoy these single panel comics on Webtoons:  https://www.webtoons.com/challenge/dashboardEpisode?titleNo=368625 

Thank you!
Mark

Have a Horrible New Year!

Have a Horrible New Year with The Horrible Octopus!

 (Actually, I hope you have a happy new year but he doesn’t. He’s horrible.)

Happy 2020, see you soon - Mark

Meet The Horrible Octopus!

Sneak preview for Patrons! Coming soon to the Internet and Webtoons near year, it's The Horrible Octopus!

One things leads to another and during my "antique style art" experimentation with Robot Kitten Factory I created this character which works better as a single panel comic strip. It has that classic 1890s vibe that I thoroughly enjoy. 

For years I've been trying to find something that works as a single panel comic and this is finally it. It'll launch offi...

Like a Space Ninja, we on to the next decade!

I could write a volume about what I experienced professionally over the past decade but the fact is I really don't want to. It was fun, it's over. I'm excited about the next decade. No time to reflect.

2019 was a great year of professional and artistic growth for me. I learned new tools and got back into web programming. I'm experimenting with a new video production style and building dozens of new social media outlets. I'll detail more of what to follow and where soon. It'll take a few...

Pre-Release Robot Kitten Artwork

Here's a look at a nearly complete Robot Kitten Factory page pre-dialog and final shading. Note the looser pen strokes and shading effects created within Procreate. 

I'll be posting some new art videos on my accounts later today. 

The issue 1 release may take place in between Christmas and New Years! It seems like a good way to wrap up the decade - with ROBOT KITTEN FACTORY!

I'll be working on the cover design soon,

Mark

Early Access - Kitty Mk II design for Robot Kitten Factory

Here's the preliminary sketch of Kitty Mk II from Robot Kitten Factory who makes their debut in issue 1. The second Robot Kitten has different powers which may help to defeat the alien laser monster that is ravaging the city.... collateral damage will occur!

I'm slowly rolling out the social media campaigns for this project which (may) launch during the last week of 2019 if I can wrap up the artwork by then. It's a short comic-issue sized release that kicks off this series.

Robot ...

Updates, Revisions, New Stuff

Greetings everyone and welcome to December 2019. We have all outlived the original Blade Runner!

Though you may not have noticed it, with 80sComics.com (the videos) I have developed a system to bypass any one Internet monopoly and instead use all of them. You can now watch my daily uploads on YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and 80sComics.com!

You’ll soon be seeing new drawing videos devoted to my upcoming projects with the same format. Exciting times in s...

Have a Heyzoos!

I was learning some new tools to add color to some of my upcoming projects and made a retro Heyzoos!

Created in Procreate on iPad.

Mark

Atari Force (1984 series) #1

Sneak peek at the 80sComics.com review of Atari Force (1984 series) #1! Enjoy :) This is such as bad-ass book.

https://vimeo.com/373818266

Atari Force. Wood grained heroes from yesterday's future of tomorrow maybe.

Mark

Robot Kitten Factory page layout

Here's a fun sneak peek at rough inks and a page layout for my upcoming Robot Kitten Factory. Heavy lifting done in Procreate, and I'll be doing finishing work in Photoshop. Probably December release, these will be shorter issues. So many robot kittens, so many monsters trying to destroy Toykoburgh.

:)

Mark

13 Years in the Making! A Good Time....

Trailer for A Good Time at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

https://vimeo.com/372491171 

My newest film is DONE! So I wanted to make a 1939 World's Fair Film dating back to 2005 after I wrapped up my 1893 World's Fair documentary.

In 2006 or 2007 our old production company picked up this stunning 16mm film reel and I started coming up with ideas. I even started to talk to a few people about on-camera int...

CGR 20TH Launch Day!

CGR 20TH is live! We just spent all day shipping packages and oof, I'm exhausted. Anyway, enjoy the new trailer and hopefully you'll get a chance to check it out in physical release form or digital. I'm pretty happy with it :)

www.ClassicGameRoom.com 

The CGR 2085 Master Collection is also live and now shipping!

The 1939 Documentary is running a week behind but looking good. It'll be out next week. 2019-11-04 22:22:57 +0000 UTC View Post

How am I celebrating CGR 20TH Anniversary?

Right around now is the 20th anniversary of Classic Game Room! The oldest, longest-running Internet video game review show in the universe turns 20. I don't remember the exact date since things were a lot different back then and we probably shot it a week earlier than the posting date (which I forget), but it was basically now in 1999.

I'm celebrating by shipping stuff! Hopefully your party is more exciting (though I am very happy that enough people ordered videos to keep us really, rea...

1939 New York World's Fair Book Launch

My newest book, 1939 New York World's Fair: A Century of Progress in Photographs launched on Amazon.com yesterday. 266 pages of photographs and commentary about this remarkable historic event that took place in New York City during the outbreak of World War II.

1939 New York World's Fair: The World of Tomorrow in Photographs 

I have been working on this project all year and am pleased to see it in pr...

Growing again! Early look at Transformers review.

For the first time in two years the CGR Publishing YouTube channel gained subscribers over the past month, which is a dramatic change of events after losing several thousands. It's been fun and also creatively rewarding talking about something that I find interesting and, hopefully, finding a new audience.

These videos also run on four other platforms (TikTok, Vimeo, Website, Twitter) but any growth is good news and the response to the 80sComics.com series has been good - but more impor...

Let's have some fun!!

Yoooo Patreon! 

It's your friend Mark here and I've been having a good time over the past week spending my few hours of "alone time" unwinding with an iPhone and stacks of my old comic books.

Most of my professional work is pretty serious these days and not much fun to talk about. Do you really care how long it takes me to complete a packaging design or what the printer specs are? You don't, and it's not exciting anyway.

But what is fun is embracing a new production men...

Atari Force #2 Review!

I had a lot of fun with this one. Shot a few of these last night and enjoying the wacky commentary.

https://vimeo.com/365638986 

You can see some shorter teaser reviews on the site like this one:

 https://80scomics.com/akira-manga/akira-book-1/ 

Mark

Sneak Peek at 80sComics.com

Enjoy a sneak peek at a side project that started when I tried to catalog and organize my G.I. Joe comics. Turned into a good way to continue my Internet video production while also working on the bigger jobs! (also watch the new Atari Force review!)  

ATARI FORCE #1

https://vimeo.com/365269283/7e6ab9be58 

www...

Ethel 2 Launches!

Ethel the Cyborg Ninja 2 launches in print on Amazon!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1688934642 

 https://classicgameroom.com/product/ethel-the-cyborg-ninja-2/ 

There's still a few signed copies left on the website. The signed copies are still a few weeks out because of shipping/inventory....

Hookizoos Go!! Heyzoos Page and More

Pictured above is a nearly complete page from Heyzoos #3, coming out very soon. I'm still fine tuning a few details and adding tails to the word bubbles and wrapping up the marketing text.

Heyzoos 3 and Ethel 2 will launch the same day. probably later this week in print and digital. Loads of little "fiddly bits" to get right before they hit print so thank you for your patience. I think you'll enjoy the end results. The custom signed versions take a bit longer to process but they'll be h...