RIP David Warner

“I offer a toast. The undiscovered country…the future…”

David Warner passed away a few weeks ago–such an amazing and unforgettable actor, with so many iconic roles, but my favorites were his voice work as Ra’s al Ghul in Batman: The Animated Series, and his performance as Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Last year I drew a tribute to Christopher Plummer as General Chang, so it felt fitting to create a companion piece. RIP.

Admiral Nyota Uhura

One more for the late great Nichelle Nichols!

Imagining** Uhura as an admiral later in life, circa TNG era (if McCoy was alive then, she could have been too!). FYI she’s got one more rank pip wrapping around the other side of her collar, you know Nyota wouldn’t stop at just Vice Admiral! The uniform is a hodge podge of various styles, because it seems like it was pretty much the wild west when it came to TNG era admiral uniforms. Also added a completely made-up Admiral’s variant coat just for a little extra pomp and circumstance.

** Apologies to followers of Star Trek novels and comics–I’m sure Uhura’s later life is well-covered in fiction, but I haven’t read any just yet–when it comes to Trek, I’m only versed in on-screen stuff! 🙏

Gorn Again

Since it was First Contact Day earlier in the week, I’m in a Star Trek mood… well actually, I’m always in a Star Trek mood. 😎

ANYWAYZ, here’s my interpretation of the charmingly inaccurate vintage Gorn action figure by Mego. The toy re-used a head from Spider-Man’s foe, the Lizard, and was garbed in a Klingon uniform. Star Trek Online presents the concept of multiple alien races being part of the Klingon Defense Force, so I figured why not import that concept into the TOS era and really lean into the Klingon thing? I added a TOS era Klingon belt buckle and turned the toy’s bright red weapon and communicator into proper Klingon gear (but retained some bright red colors). I also made the eyes more Gorny, but mostly tried to leave the head as-is.

I see this guy as a rank and file soldier who was transferred from the Gorn military as part of some boring treaty between the Gorn Hegemony and the Klingon Empire. He’s oddly good at his job despite being pretty uninterested in it–there’s a promotion in his future, but he could care less.

(Previously I also drew interpretations of Mego’s Mugato and Neptunian figures, as well as a non-Mego Gorn. Yes–I do know how to party. 🤓)

RIP Christopher Plummer

“Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings.” 

Christopher Plummer passed away a few weeks ago, and last night I finally had a moment to draw an homage to his role as the Klingon General Chang—my favorite Trek villain as featured in my favorite Trek movie, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. I have literally watched that movie hundreds of times, and I never get tired of his performance. RIP!

Flight of (a) navigator

Hey remember when it was Star Trek Day last month?? TRICK QUESTION, every day is Star Trek day, ya nerds!!!

Here is a Medusan navigator–her carrier pod is equipped with new exo-limb features as well as a basic sensor array and vocoder. She’s very social, so these developments allow her to interact with her corporeal crewmates (they’re weird, but she likes them anyways). The pod also includes a built in jump-pack which is useful for accessing those hard-to reach Jefferies tubes (as well as tall shelves).

(This design is similar to what I drew for Fleet Captain Pike, likely sharing some engineering lineage.)

O_O

I’ve been sitting on this info for a bit, and I’m so excited I kind of don’t even know how to say it… the TL;DR version: The Starfleet uniform in “Star Trek: Lower Decks” is based on a design by me! When Mike was creating the pitch for the show, he asked me to design some possible uniforms, and so I did. One of those uniforms is like, 96% the basis for the final design that you see in the show! 😱 So naturally, I drew this to commemorate the occasion! 🤓

Additional background for those who enjoy long rambling historical context: Six years ago, before I ever met Mike, his TNG Season 8 Twitter account was already a viral hit. Dafna and I were starting a Star Trek Zine and she had roped him into writing some tweets for the zine, which I would illustrate. 

The zine was a solid hit, Mike and I met and got along thick as thieves—and a few months later, Mike hired me to illustrate the book version of TNG Season 8, which was later titled “Star Trek The Next Generation: WARPED” (availableonamazonforprimeshippingsorrynotsorry). 

Fast forward a few years, and last night I attended the (virtual) premiere of Mike’s show “Star Trek: Lower Decks”! I can’t believe it! (BY THE WAY, the show is hilarious and beautiful, and chock full of Easter Eggs for hardcore Trek fans! I can’t wait for everyone to watch it! ❤️💛💙)

Art Dumppppp

Eek… I haven’t updated in over a year. But it’s never too late! Especially when no one is paying attention! Anywayzzzz…

  • As a kid, scoring a 4-in-1 multi-color pen was like obtaining the Infinity Gauntlet of stationary supplies (before the Infinity Gauntlet was even a thing)! Also, if you can relate to what I just said, you too are an old-ass nerd. ANYWAYSSS here’s an android lady I just made up, equipped with a 4-in-1 multi-tool arm! 😎🖤❤️💙💚🖋
  • Ever since I was a kid I’ve been wondering why BIC’s mascot is SO DAMN TERRIFYING… PS: no one tell this creeper that I was only able to finish this drawing with the aid of a number of non-BIC pens… 🤐

  • Rogue/Ranger specializing in monster photography. 📸
  • Dark Mage on a bargain hunt… 🔮💸💀
  • Gladiator! 💪🐯

  • A totally random smiling shark man from 2014 (yeesh!) that I never got around to posting anywhere. Drawn with red +white color pencils, silver + black markers, and white gel pen on a random cardboard scrap that felt like a good size.
  • Opening panel from the l’il 4-pager (written by my BFF Josh Williamson) for the Adventure Time 2013 Annual! 👑❄️🐧

  • REBEL ALLIANCE 4 LIFE 😤 (I tend to detest photos of myself, but I really liked this photo of me at Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, so I only did a *slight* drawover. 😎)
  • Remix of an older group shot of the gang…
  • Some old lineart of Kylo Ren with new colors.
  • That feeling when you suddenly realize you can turn in that last bounty and then relax for a few days! (I understand there is some debate about whether Ortolans have 4 limbs or 2—I went with 4, Kenner style! 🤓)

  • Saurian brandy for a Saurian captain. New colors over old lineart.
  • Quick Counselor Troi warm-up. New colors over old lineart.

  • I’ve had GI Joe on the brain recently, and got an idea for a Storm Shadow redesign that I had to draw! (This is actually my second go at it check the Instagram post for a janky video of my previous attempt plus some in-progress views)
  • For the TL;DR crowd, look, it’s Ironhide & Sparkplug! Yay, we like them, right? For lovers of long rambling: this was one of the first things I ever drew on a Cintiq, 5 years ago. It’s a weird artifact because I was using a Cintiq Companion which I never got the hang of (too heavy and too ungainly) and Manga Studio (aka Clip Studio Paint) which I never got the hang of either (because the Cintiq Companion was so awkward). About a year later I got a desktop Cintiq at ye olde dayjobbe, and I took to that much more intuitively. Over the last five years my work has become mostly digital, and I recently got an Apple Pencil and Procreate (which I am really enjoying) so I think that will push me even further into the completely digital world. I just hope this all ends with me living in the world of Tron.
  • I drew this last Fall—an idea for a different way Pretender Monsters could work. 👹🤖

Lastly, here’s a pandemic postcard…✌️💙

It’s my first real go at a finished drawing with Apple Pencil + Procreate. Really happy with these new tools! ✏️📲

And that, should just about catch me up. Phew. More art coming, I’ll try to post more regularly lololololol sighhhhh. 😅

Uniform variations sounds like an oxymoron…

This particular Star Trek TOS warm-up got a little out of hand… here is Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, modeling Starfleet uniform variations (covering both canon and my own head-canon)…

– Row 1-1: Standard TOS woman’s uniform.
– Row 1-5: Dr. Dehner wore a uniform along these lines in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”.
– Row 2-2: Standard Kelvin timeline woman’s uniform.
– Row 2-5: Standard TOS men’s uniform.
– Row 2-6: Something resembling Dr. McCoy’s short-sleeved variant from TOS.

Using those 5 uniforms as tentpoles, I filled in several more variations to complete the line-up. I imagine there are many other variations accommodating alien anatomy and customs (see previous), but these would cover most basic humanoids.
 

BEEP… BEEP…

I feel like 23rd century Federation technology really could have done a little more for Fleet Captain Pike in “The Menagerie”, like maybe a fully mechanized exo-suit with built-in phaser, tricorder and communicator?
 

From planet M-113…

I’m in a Star Trek TOS mood, so here’s a glamorous Salt Vampire who joined Starfleet and became a captain! A strategic genius specializing in stealth operations, highly decorated, but has a bad habit of licking the salt off of everyone’s margaritas at parties.
 

ink on paper

a few marker sketches from the past year plus…

a blue dragon…

 
an Oliver Queen/Ken Masters mash-up..

 
Doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy…

 
and a practice Dr. McCoy (TOS era version) that actually turned out okay, along with a bonus Data…

Star Trek: The Next Generation – WARPED

So! I’m the illustrator for Star Trek: The Next Generation – WARPED, an episode guide to the never aired 8th season, written by the super duper funny Mike McMahan. The book is based on his twitter account @TNG_S8, which I’m sure you’ve heard of. If not, go, follow it, love it, thank me later.

  • The book is out on October 13, 2015! That’s like really soon! Pre-order it! Or go to (gasp) brick and mortar and buy it in person when it’s out! (I believe it’s going to be available digitally as well)
  • Here’s the press release on the book: http://www.startrek.com/article/tng-season-8-spoof-guide-coming-in-october
  • Here are the back and front covers of the book:

 

  • So my name was on the official Star Trek site! My art was on the official Star Trek site! I have an entry on Memory Alpha AKA the best fan-wiki ever! I’m living out many of my nerd dreams! This is not a humble brag, I promise I’m being very overtly smug! Hashtag smugbraaaggg! Hashtag exclamation points!!!
  • I have advance copies in hand, the book turned out great!

 
I’m super proud to be a part of this book. Please check it out if you are even remotely into funny and/or Star Trek and/or good things of any kind.

About this blog, Tumblr, Star Trek, and everything. (NOT THAT ANYONE ASKED)

Okay so… obviously I can’t just start blogging again like nothing ever happened. I’ve been absent for a kajillion years! And I’m sure you, theoretical dear reader, noticed and were concerned. Nobody wants my life story, so I’ll break this down in brief bullet points:

  •  To summarize, I have been drawing and working on stuff, just been too busy and lazy to post it here!
  •  Feb 2014: My pal Dafna and I co-edited a Star Trek zine, which we released at last year’s LA Zine fest. It’s called TO BOLDLY ZINE. We sold out but you can download a free digital version HERE.
  • Dafna and I were somehow able to beg/plead/blackmail a lot of our talented Trek-nerd friends into contributing, so you really should check it out. Here’s what the zines looked like, cover designed and handcut by me:

 

 

  • Click on the pic below if you want a peek at the making of the zine:

 

 

  • One of the features in the zine was a series of tweets written by Mike McMahan AKA @TNG_S8 and illustrated by me. Here are some of them:

 

 

  • Mike dug my work and asked me to illustrate the officially-licensed-by-Star-Trek-for-reals book version of his tweets, which is the main non-day-job thing that I worked on in this year. More on that soon!

 

 

  • “But Jason, you posted stuff in 2014 AFTER the zine, why no mention of it?!” I’m glad you asked that, imaginary blog reader! Basically, we had completely sold out of the zine, so there was nothing to promote! But if you were following me on Twitter or Instagram, you got the full shameless plug barrage leading up to the zine fest.
  • Feb 2015: Dafna and I co-edited a second volume of TO BOLDLY ZINE, which we released at this year’s LA Zine Fest. We still have some copies left, if you’re interested, check back here (or my various social media, see the links to the right) for details! In the meanwhile, here are some looks at the AWESOME cover, designed by Dafna (btw those are Dafna’s hands, my nail polish is much more flamboyant):
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  • Mike and I collaborated for the zine again, this time on a children’s story about Data:
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  • And, I started a Tumblr (yes finally)! This was my first post:
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  • To clear up any confusion about the various ways I post art, this blog and my deviantArt will always be where I post finished artwork (fan art, side-jobs, and personal projects). Instagram is where I post sketches and behind-the-scenes looks at process (including stuff from ye olde dayjobbe). And tumblr will be a combination of finished works, instagram crossposts, and some best-of moldy oldies (since I’m new to tumblr and nobody knows wtf I am and wtf I’m doing there).

OKAY I’m gonna try not to be a big baby and start posting regularly again. SEE Y’ALL THEORETICAL READERS BACK HERE REAL SOON Y’ALL.
 

y’all