Author: J.Ho

Monster Truckers by Table Cat Games!

~ J.Ho ~ Leave a comment

Just in time for the Halloween season, my good friend PVincent of Table Cat Games has released a new tabletop RPG, Monster Truckers! And as it turns out, I did a little illustration for the book!

This was a lot of fun to work on–I tried some different techniques to give the drawing a bit of a grittier quality. PVincent added the type and made it look like a billboard in the real world!

The book is a lot of fun, has some fantastic illustrations, and a gorgeous layout. Available as a PDF at the Table Cat Games web site, DriveThruRPG, and Itch.io, and a printed version will be coming soon as well!

A Tee or Two

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I’ve been designing some t-shirts for Symbiote Studios recently, and having a lot of fun!

The shirt on the right is Symbiote Studios’ mascot Catnip Bravo (and his pals) crossed over with Cold Slither (Zartan and the Dreadnoks in disguise from GI Joe!)–this one was an SDCC exclusive!

The shirt on the left is Catnip Bravo crossed over with video game icon Shovel Knight–you can get this shirt HERE!

Also, the Grimlock shirt I designed a few years ago is still available HERE!

Very happy with how these turned out–the prints look fantastic, and by the way the shirts are super comfy. Please visit the good folks at Symbiote Studios and take a look at their fine wares!

Super Nerdy

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I’m not the only one watching the new Superman movie on repeat and drawing their Supersona… right? ^_^U

I imagine this alternate-Me from, let’s say Earth-J somewhere in the multiverse, was caught in an explosion when an H-Dial was destroyed by a malfunctioning Bizarro Duplicator Ray–the mysterious energies unleashed by this catastrophe permanently granted him Kryptonian level superpowers, but did nothing to cure his tragically nerdy brain.

Kicking off Halloween season, the design itself is based on my kindergarten era Superman Halloween costume, created by Mom–she was giving the S-shield a yellow border before it was cool! I was very proud of this costume and let me tell you–little J.Ho was very judgey about the 2 or 3 other Supermen in my grade who were dressed in store-bought costumes that were not nearly as good. B-)

A Good One

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Eons ago, before the epoch of man, there used to be art challenges on the He-Man-dot-org forums (I think I heard the site is returning, but the forums remain extinct? I digress). One of the challenges was for a good version of Evil-Lyn–I drew something, but didn’t finish the colors, and so I never posted it… until now! I decided to finish up the colors for practice, and so, behold: Benneva-Lyn, Heroic Goddess of Justice! In accordance with the old ways, I have composed a super-nerdy bio:

* * *

PROFILE: A goddess of Justice and righteous battle, the true limits of BENNEVA-LYN’s powers are unknown. Like most deities, she is nigh invulnerable, and possesses awe-inspiring magic capabilities, including illusions and attack spells. Her physical strength is easily greater than that of Grayskull’s Sword-Bearers, and she is an expert in many forms of combat. Actually, she invented many of those forms of combat!

HISTORY: While some ancient powers, such as Lighthope and Grayskull, choose champions to advance their causes–Benneva-Lyn roams the world, meting out justice herself. She dons many disguises to help mortals solve all manner of conflicts, both large and small. She rarely shows her true form, but when she does, it is a boon for the virtuous and spells doom for the wicked. In regards to the Horde’s ongoing invasion of Eternia, Benneva-Lyn is appraising the character of Eternia’s heroes before she makes her presence known…

* * *

Haven’t typed up one of those in a long time–that felt good! Maybe I need to get back to more MOTU/POP headcanon soon…

RED ALERT

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Was Star Trek Day last week? Yes. Am I yet again excusing my tardiness by saying that every day is Star Trek Day? Also yes.

With this illustration I’m channeling the energy of an oft-repeated Star Trek plot in which a Starfleet officer is annoyed by a visiting (non-Starfleet) relative.

The fellow on the left is a Mugato based on the bizarre Mego Action figure. I decided to interpret this as a highly intelligent alien race that shares a common ancestor with the Mugato and has some physiological differences (notably, lack of vertebral spikes and a tail). This particular guy is a diplomatic envoy who excels at pushing people’s buttons.

The other fellow is his relative, who is of the same species, but also based on the Mugato as it appeared in the Star Trek TOS episode “A Private Little War.” This science officer is (normally) a mild-mannered toxicologist who spends his days in quiet labs researching venoms and synthesizing anti-venoms to save lives across the galaxy. He would just like to get back to work.

Yes, it did just get more nerdy in here. Happy belated Star Trek Day!!

Nubia

~ J.Ho

Nubia–long-lost daughter of Hippolyta and twin sister of Diana!

My redesign draws from her pre-Crisis lore, especially the costume from her appearance in Super Friends #25 (penciled by Ramona Fradon, so presumably the costume was designed by Fradon as well). I like how that particular ensemble made her look like a superhero rather than a regular Amazonian warrior, further illustrating that she is every bit the parallel and equal of Wonder Woman. I did my best to uphold that philosophy while revising her costume, hopefully that comes across!

bb

~ J.Ho

Lineart from a million years ago; Colors from this week… I didn’t know what to draw, so grabbing an old piece to color was a good warm-up.

#FlashbackFriday #fbf #transformers #bumblebee #autobots #cybertron

EDIT: And here’s another Bumblebee drawing from a million years ago. This one was posted previously, but in preparing to re-post it on other platforms, I couldn’t help but slightly spruce it up (added a few color holds, improved the contrast for the shading on the yellow parts, added some more highlights, and did up a quick background)… and now I want to make Transformers stickers in addition to the other 792 things that I want to do??? Hmm…

Bruce

~ J.Ho

Here’s Batman, completing DC’s Trinity! (The holster at his side is a grapple gun btw)

Having fun with this DC line-up, and now that I’ve got the main three down, I wanna veer off into some more obscure corners of the infinite earths. Stay tuned!

And that’s the bottom line…

~ J.Ho

There was a time long ago (that no one will remember) when I started drawing Mario fanart and threatened much more Mario fanart to come… well I’m making making good on that threat (for today at least)! Here’s (a) Toad based closely on their original Super Mario Bros. sprite. (Look it up! ;)

Diana

~ J.Ho

The drawing I posted for Superman Day is actually part of a larger line-up of DC characters that I’ve been working on, so here’s Wonder Woman!

Bye Bye Bongo

~ J.Ho

After 27(!) years I am no longer with Bongo Comics—this news is actually several months old, but I held off posting about it until the last of my work with them was printed. So that’s a wrap for me on bulgy eyeballs and overbites! 

I started at Bongo many (many) moons ago as an intern in college, became a production assistant, then a staff artist, and finally an art director. In my tenure at this job, between comics, collections, foreign editions, exclusives, calendars, and miscellaneous books, I drew something in the neighborhood of *500* covers. 

My career with Bongo covered well over half my life, and literally has been my entire adult life. I’m well aware that this kind of run with one company is not a common story these days, and I’m very grateful that I got this experience.

I came up with the rough idea for this drawing a few years back when I realized I had been on the job for (at the time) half my life. Just wanted a bizarre way to illustrate my career versus my influences/favorites. It had been on the backburner for a bit, but this seemed like a good time to finally finish it and mark the end of an era!

Excited for the next chapter… 

Rex and Sapphire

~ J.Ho

I started this drawing of Rex and Sapphire earlier this year when Ramona Fradon passed away… seeing the glimpse of Metamorpho in the Superman trailer spurred me to go back and put the finishing touches on this!

Cerritos Strong

~ J.Ho

I would be remiss to not mark the final episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks with a little bit of fanart… it’s Taylor, the USS Cerritos‘s resident Kzinti Ensign!

I was a teen when I read the first volume of Larry Niven‘s Man-Kzin Wars. I was already a huge TNG fan, but I had never seen the episodes of TAS that featured the Kzinti, and I had no idea that the Kzin had any connection to Star Trek. And I definitely did not expect to see a Kzin wearing this particular uniform!

Just one example of how Lower Decks has lovingly homaged every corner of Star Trek history. What a journey–and now I can’t wait to see how the mythos of Lower Decks lives on as Star Trek continues on. LLAP!

En-courage-ment

~ J.Ho

If someone you know had a childhood crush on He-Man and is going through a hard time, you are morally obligated to draw them a picture of He-Man providing them encouragement.

Furthermore you are then morally obligated to create a corresponding picture of Faker with a separate brand of encouragement.

Art Dump Dec 2024

~ J.Ho

Going to be sharing a number of older pieces that I haven’t shown before, and just decided I’m going to keep them all in one post. Updates will be ongoing!

Swordfighter:


A ghostly fox spirit (kitsune), and an old school JRPG mock-up featuring the said fox spirit… pretty proud of myself for coming up with the pun Kit Swoony.:


Here’s a nutty one… a vanilla/coffee/chocolate ice cream squirrel. Topped with hot fudge and nuts:


IYKYK #letsfightinglove


This skull dude is one of those rare cases where a visual popped up in my head, and I was actually able to draw it as I saw it. I think maybe I should put him on a shirt. Or a sticker?


A cosmic maiden and a cosmic unicorn: