# Ep 187: Star Wars to John Wick | Inside Stern Pinball Art with Randy Martinez

**Source:** LoserKid Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-01-23  
**Duration:** 63m 34s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://zencastr.com/z/y_3XIh4L

---

## Analysis

Randy Martinez, artist behind Star Wars Comic, Mandalorian, and John Wick pinball machines, discusses his journey into pinball art, his background in Star Wars illustration for Lucasfilm, and his collaborative process with Greg Ferris at Stern. He emphasizes how licensing languages differ by IP holder, the importance of cohesive artistic vision across game editions, and how he approaches each version (Pro/Premium/LE) as distinct artistic expressions while maintaining thematic consistency.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Randy was recommended to Stern by a colleague from his Topps trading card days — _Direct statement from Randy about initial contact via Greg Ferris based on prior professional relationship_
- [HIGH] Lucasfilm specifically requested Randy for Mandalorian after seeing his Star Wars Comic work — _Randy explicitly states 'Lucasfilm asked for me specifically because they like the work I did with Star Wars comics'_
- [HIGH] Randy deliberately designs each game edition (Pro/Premium/LE) to have distinct visual personalities rather than repeating the same art — _Randy: 'I want them to have their own life like they're like their kids' and consistently describes treating each version as separate canvas_
- [HIGH] Star Wars Comic initially offered Randy the Avengers: Infinity Quest project, which went to Jeremy instead — _Randy recounts: 'they offered me the Avengers the Infinity Quest game and I did samples and everything like that and they loved it but just ultimately it didn't go to me'_
- [HIGH] Greg Ferris is primarily responsible for decisions about which art package becomes Pro/Premium/LE assignments — _Randy states his influence is '5% of the discussion' and credits Greg with making final assignments and polish decisions_
- [HIGH] Different IP holders (Lucasfilm, Warner Bros, Marvel, Universal) require different artistic 'languages' and approval processes — _Randy explains licensing constraints require understanding IP holder-specific approval workflows and aesthetic requirements_
- [MEDIUM] Star Wars Comic photorealistic art faced criticism for appearing like 'sticker art' or a 'lunchbox' — _Josh notes critical feedback from community about previous photorealistic approach, motivating shift to Randy's comic-book style_
- [HIGH] Randy intentionally corrected the Emperor character on Star Wars Comic playfield from prequel version to Return of the Jedi version — _Randy: 'I went back and I changed that to the Return of the Jedi version of the Emperor. And I've gotten a lot of responses of that, people saying thank you'_

### Notable Quotes

> "always be cool to people. You never know when that's going to come back to you. And it really did."
> — **Randy Martinez**, early in interview
> _Reflects on how his professional courtesy at Topps led to Stern recommendation; establishes his professional ethos_

> "there's a different language with Lucasfilm there's a different language with Warner Brothers Universal and so on"
> — **Randy Martinez**, mid-interview
> _Key insight into IP licensing complexity and artist adaptation requirements across manufacturers_

> "the fans won't let you fudge in Star Wars. You know, it's like they look at all these little details."
> — **Randy Martinez**, mid-interview
> _Reveals community scrutiny of Star Wars IP authenticity; explains why detail accuracy matters in fan-facing IP_

> "I don't want you to confuse any of the versions with one another. I want them to have their own life like they're like their kids, you know."
> — **Randy Martinez**, mid-to-late interview
> _Core philosophy on edition differentiation; explains artistic motivation for distinct Pro/Premium/LE designs_

> "I'm probably undiagnosed ADD, I just can't do it. So I just I relish the opportunity to take each one of these versions of the pinball machines to give them their own life."
> — **Randy Martinez**, late interview
> _Personal motivation for avoiding repetitive art; explains psychological drive behind edition diversity strategy_

> "my portfolio at that point was pretty much Star Wars and Marvel. And that was about it. As an artist, you just kind of want to have a little bit more well-rounded kind of a portfolio"
> — **Randy Martinez**, discussing John Wick
> _Reveals strategic career thinking; explains why he pursued John Wick despite hoping for Jaws_

> "Lucasfilm once gave me the nickname, the Swiss Army Knife of Star Wars artists"
> — **Randy Martinez**, early-mid interview
> _Establishes credibility as versatile Star Wars artist with decades of Lucasfilm experience; explains his selection for pinball work_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Randy Martinez | person | Pinball artist who created artwork for Star Wars Comic Edition, Mandalorian, and John Wick pinball machines at Stern. Veteran Lucasfilm illustrator with 25+ years experience in Star Wars comic art, trading cards (Topps), and Marvel Fine Art. |
| Greg Ferris | person | Art Director at Stern Pinball who recruited Randy Martinez and served as creative mentor and collaborator. Responsible for final decisions on which art packages become Pro/Premium/LE and special effects like polished metal finishes on Mandalorian LE. |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer that contracted Randy Martinez for artwork on Star Wars Comic, Mandalorian, and John Wick titles. Factory toured by Josh and Scott during Chicago Pinball Expo. |
| Lucasfilm | company | IP licensor for Star Wars properties. Specifically requested Randy Martinez for Mandalorian project based on Star Wars Comic work. Employs unique approval process and artistic requirements ('language') for Star Wars projects. |
| George Gomez | person | Stern Pinball creative figure who recognized Randy Martinez during factory tour in Chicago; George is referenced as 'great' by Randy. |
| Jeremy | person | Artist who ultimately received Avengers: Infinity Quest project that Randy had submitted samples for but didn't get awarded. |
| Josh Roop | person | Co-host of Loser Kid Pinball Podcast interviewing Randy Martinez; attended Chicago Pinball Expo and gave Randy ride to/from Stern factory. |
| Scott Larson | person | Co-host of Loser Kid Pinball Podcast alongside Josh Roop; attended Chicago Pinball Expo with Josh. |
| Star Wars Comic Edition | game | Randy Martinez's first pinball project for Stern (2017), featuring his comic book art style interpretation of classic Star Wars imagery. Includes intentional narrative storytelling on side art rails (Empire winning vs. Rebels winning on respective sides). |
| Mandalorian | game | Randy Martinez's second Stern project, developed during pandemic lockdown. Includes three distinct artistic editions: Pro (spaghetti western), Premium (good vs. evil narrative), and LE (Beskar metallic blue). |
| John Wick | game | Randy Martinez's third pinball title for Stern, featuring noir/stained glass chapel aesthetic with gold foil elements. Offered to Randy shortly after his birthday in Las Vegas. |
| Avengers: Infinity Quest | game | Stern project that Randy submitted samples for but was not awarded; referred to Jeremy instead. Occurred after Star Wars Comic pandemic interruption. |
| Topps | company | Trading card company where Randy worked on artwork years before Stern contact. A colleague from Topps recommended Randy to Stern, leading to his pinball career entry. |
| Jaws | game | Upcoming Stern pinball project (at time of interview) that Randy had hoped to work on but ultimately was not awarded. John Wick was offered instead. |
| Marvel Fine Art | company | Organization where Randy was simultaneously creating paintings (distinct from comic art) while working on Star Wars Comic pinball project. |
| Jerry Thompson | person | Stern Pinball figure who arranged early access to factory tour for Randy Martinez during Chicago Pinball Expo, contingent on Randy attending. |
| Chicago Pinball Expo | event | Event where Josh and Scott provided ride to Randy Martinez and attended Stern factory tour together with George Gomez present. |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Pinball art direction and visual design philosophy, IP licensing constraints and approval workflows across different media companies, Multi-edition (Pro/Premium/LE) artistic differentiation strategy, Randy Martinez's career trajectory from trading cards to Star Wars to pinball, Collaboration between artist and art director (Randy and Greg Ferris)
- **Secondary:** Star Wars Comic Edition design choices and historical accuracy, Mandalorian edition variants and thematic development, John Wick noir/chapel aesthetic and gold foil finishing

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.85) — Randy expresses gratitude throughout interview, speaks warmly of collaborators (especially Greg Ferris), and demonstrates genuine passion for each project. Josh and Scott are clearly fans and the interview maintains enthusiastic, celebratory tone throughout. No critical tensions or negative sentiment detected. Mild deflection on technical details (deferring to Greg) but framed positively as respect for collaboration.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Stern's art team structure involves collaboration between artist (Randy) and art director (Greg Ferris) with director making final assignments and strategic decisions about edition positioning, suggesting formalized workflow. (confidence: high) — Randy consistently credits Greg with 5% of edition assignment decisions, final visual effects, and polish treatments, indicating art director holds decision authority
- **[community_signal]** Star Wars Comic edition photorealistic art faced fan criticism for appearing like 'sticker art' or 'lunchbox,' motivating Stern to shift to Randy's comic book style for improved thematic cohesion. (confidence: medium) — Josh notes prior photorealistic version received criticism; Randy was brought in specifically because 'they needed somebody who knew the language' of comic book Star Wars rather than photo-realistic approach
- **[design_philosophy]** Randy employs intentional narrative storytelling within constrained playfield space—side art shows Empire winning vs. Rebels winning on respective sides of Star Wars Comic; Mandalorian premium shows character 'walking the line' between good/evil. (confidence: high) — Randy explains side art composition choices: 'on the right side if you look closely the empire is winning if you look on the left side if you look closely the rebels are winning' and Mandalorian premium has 'bad guys on one side, good guys on the other'
- **[licensing_signal]** Lucasfilm exercises tight approval control over Star Wars pinball artwork; initially offered Stern access to all comic art, but Marvel rights complications required Stern to source original artists. Lucasfilm specifically requested Randy for Mandalorian after approving Star Wars Comic samples. (confidence: high) — Randy explains Lucasfilm told Stern 'take whatever you want from the comics' but then required Stern to hire their own artists due to Marvel artist rights; Lucasfilm then specifically named Randy for Mandalorian follow-up
- **[community_signal]** Randy Martinez transitioned from traditional illustration/comic art (Topps, Lucasfilm, Marvel) into pinball game art starting 2017, now established as key artist for premium Stern titles. (confidence: high) — Randy was recruited via contact from Stern after colleague from Topps recommended him; no prior pinball experience but successfully adapted illustration skills to playfield design
- **[personnel_signal]** Greg Ferris appears to be senior art director/mentor figure at Stern with significant influence over artist hiring, project assignment, and creative direction—described as 'worth their weight in gold' by Randy. (confidence: high) — Randy repeatedly defers to Greg's creative judgment, describes him as mentor, credits him with guiding all major decisions despite Randy's artistic autonomy
- **[product_strategy]** Stern is differentiating Pro/Premium/LE editions through distinct artistic treatments rather than cosmetic changes alone. Randy's approach is to give each edition separate visual identity and narrative—not just varying polish/components but fundamentally different artistic concepts. (confidence: high) — Randy: 'I want them to have their own life like they're like their kids'; each Mandalorian edition (spaghetti western, moral ambiguity, Beskar metallic) has distinct thematic and visual approach despite same underlying game
- **[licensing_signal]** Licensing approval timelines are tight; Star Wars Comic samples needed first-take approval due to Lucasfilm schedule constraints rather than multiple iteration cycles. This shaped Randy's hiring—Stern needed someone trusted with IP. (confidence: high) — Randy explains Stern 'kind of needed sketches done send it in needs to be approved like on the first take' and they hired him because 'they trusted I knew what I was doing'

---

## Transcript

 thanks for tuning into the loser kid pinball podcast i am josh roop with me my co-captain as always scott larson and scott we're going to be talking some art today if you want the mandalorian i don't think they're making that anymore john wick well okay hey mandalorian John Wick, Star Wars comic book either home edition or whatever, there are lots of options here and I have my banner next to me my Mandalorian banner which is done by Randy Martinez who we're going to talk to today, but if you're looking for all your pinball needs, just go ahead and reach out to Zach and Nicole and they need you flipping out pinball new and used stuff including accessories they're always really good to work with yep, definitely, you know it's funny too because I've been moving the collection around a little bit and I forgot after I moved it to level it. And I was teaching my son, we got one of these pin levels for Christmas. I was really excited about it. It's this cool little toy that like, not toy, it's a tool. And I obviously have it upside down. But you just stick it on the play field and then it gives you the up and down, the left and the right. But the cool part is you can save the game in it and the pitch. And then you can actually set it on the glass and it will stay to that game. And you can save it up to like 20 games or something on here. but it was funny because I was showing my son Carter who's now 15 how to do this thing and he's like dad um he's like princess bride is an eight degree pitch I was like oh dang like no wonder we can't hit some of the stuff on here like uh when I moved it I forgot to re-level it so it's a it's a fun reminder but seriously go check this out uh they're on pin side uh and I'll drop a link to the shop below but enough of that randy martinez is joining us today this man jumped on the pinball scene in 2017 with star wars comic edition and then wowed us again with mandalorian and killed it with john wick and whether you like guns or not it doesn't matter because the weaponry was amazing on this thing randy thanks for joining us and being on the show today thanks for having me man So we got to hang out a lot this October Because we got to pick you up and bring you over to Expo When we were there in town in Chicago And it was really great to chit chat with you and kind of some of the stuff And so we were like we got to have this guy on Right Scott? A few moments later Hey Scott, you're muted Okay fine, I'll unmute me I'm just like Randy's not saying anything I'm not like, is he saying something? I just can't hear it. Yeah. So we don't want to break this. It's a little awkward. Okay. So the thing about a lot of pinball machines people don't realize is when you look at a white wood or a, you know, just a, their production, not stereotype, their prototype, when they're trying to do out all the shots, it really looks kind of bare. And I remember back in the day seeing the original Whitewood of Deadpool, and it looked super bare. And eventually when the art gets in, all the inserts get in, and now it looks like a machine that you are familiar with. And so the best part about the art is it's really – it's the first thing you see when you walk into a game. but you don't realize there's a lot of constraints that you're working around because it's not like you're just doing a poster and slapping it on the pin on the play field. So Randy, what is your background in pinball and how did you get into this crazy hobby? Well, first off, thank you guys for the ride to Stern and back from Stern during the, the pinball festival there in Chicago. I was trying to find a ride and you guys came through for me. So thank you for that. But it was really great hanging out with you guys and getting to know you and your families and seeing that. That's my first time seeing the Stern factory. So seeing it with with new friends was it was great as well. So that's first things first. So thank you. Well, the funny part about that is we we were in one of the first tours because we had something we had a seminar later. And because because we were in this like the seven nine o'clock, I can't remember exactly what it was. but we walk through and George sees you and he's like, hey, it's Randy Martinez. He's talking around. And then later Josh gets a message. He's like, hey, you guys were at the tour? Like, yeah, we were with Randy, but I think he saw my jersey or something like that in the clip. So it was funny. I didn't notice you guys were there until we went back through the footage. And he's like, Josh, I saw you. When did you come through? And the funnier part is because Jerry Thompson, I ran into him earlier that day, or it was the day before. and I was like, hey Jerry, how you doing? He's like, you're coming to the tour tomorrow, right? And I do, we have a seminar like right during the tour and he's like, come early and I'll get you in. And then I get texts that he's like, so long as you bring Randy Martini. And I was like, oh, sure. People get celebrity status too on this? What else are you going to tell me? So it was awesome. Well, that was great. So thank you for that. Yeah, George is great. I was not expecting him to do that, but it's cool. Hey, I'm here. I'm here. That was fun. But to answer your question, which is how did I get into pinball? I it was one of the craziest things. I really didn't know that it was something that I could do in terms of incorporating into to my illustration career. I got an email from I think it was Greg Freres. I didn't know who that was. and he's like, I'm from Stern Pinball. Would you be interested in illustrating a pinball machine? I'm like, yeah, that'd be awesome. So they talked to me on the phone. It turns out that I was recommended by a gentleman at Stern who worked with me at Topps years ago when I used to do artwork for trading cards for Topps. And he recommended me and they needed an artist. And so that's kind of where that got together. So that's why I always tell the kids out there, like, always be cool to people. You never know when that's going to come back to you. And it really did. So I was really happy about that. And I'm forever thankful. Now, you also have a history in Star Wars. They were specifically asking you about, hey, we have the Star Wars thing. And in many ways, I get it. There are a lot of people who they like the the photorealistic stuff that was done for the original machine. However, there were some criticisms when some people were like, well, is it sticker art? Is it kind of like a lunchbox? Is it all that kind of stuff? And now they approached you, it seems like with the intention on, hey, this guy has a history in Star Wars and specifically the comic book style of Star Wars, Which is a little different than a lot of people notice. If you look at the early stuff in Star Wars, especially the early set on the Star Wars, like 78, 79, there's a lot more different styles than you would have anticipated with what people have normally seen with Star Wars. And so tell me about them saying, hey, we want you to check out and see if you can work your style, work with us. And by the way, you're getting a great theme. Yeah, so I had started doing artwork officially with Lucasfilm in 1999 when Star Wars Episode One came out. Started it off with Star Wars Kids magazine and that led into the Star Wars Insider and then that led to Topps and so on and so on and so on. So I had been steeped in not just Star Wars because I was a huge fan, but with Lucasfilm. And when you work with these licenses, they're all a little bit different. And I like to say there's kind of a different language. there's a different language with Lucasfilm there's a different language with Warner Brothers Universal and so on so coming into the project they were a little behind not like crazy behind but they needed somebody who knew the language because they really didn't have time for throw a couple sketches out there then they need to be at feedback and then I got to make the changes then send it out and they got to get feedback they kind of needed sketches done send it in needs to be approved like on the first take and I can do that because I just and they knew me so they they trusted I knew what I was doing they trusted I knew the property and things like that so that was a huge feather in my cap getting the job and then once I did my first sample for them they knew that was the I was the right person for the job but as far as later on I was told that initially they were told by Lucasfilm to, oh, just take whatever you want from the comics, which posed a little bit of an extra problem because that's Marvel. It is Lucasfilm, but there's also Marvel and those artists that they had to deal with. And they had workarounds and stuff like that. But the main problem was that from Stern, they weren't the – So I loved those comics. I just want to say I love the early Star Wars comics. It's what I grew up on. It's not a case of the art being bad. It's the art was done so fast. When Star Wars came out, as everybody knows, they just tried to put out as much as they could. And they still are kind of like that. But speed, they didn't have the technology we have now. And so a lot of the art was very sketchy, done very fast. the likenesses weren't there and that was really important for Stern. And so they asked Lucasfilm if they could use their own artists. And so that's when they went out and looked for their own artists and that's when they found me. So obviously you've had a background in doing this before. So was it, was it hard to integrate into Stern or was it, was it kind of just fluid as you started this process? It was pretty fluid. I mean, my, my career and, uh, Lucasfilm once gave me the nickname, the Swiss Army Knife of Star Wars artists. And that's because no matter what project they threw at me, whatever the license or whatever the artwork was going to be on, I've literally done everything from 3D artwork to cartooning, caricature to straight illustration. I've done everything. And so when I was coming into it, it was pretty fluid because that's just how I am. I can work on everything. So when they told me what they wanted Stern, when they told me what they wanted, you know, I did a couple of samples of my own just to get my head into the comics thing and then shot them off the sample, which is similar to the premium side of Darth Vader in the carbon freezing chamber with Luke in the background. It wasn't that piece totally, but it was similar with the different lighting hitting Vader with the oranges and stuff. And that was really important to that piece because I thought that was really important to the old comics. Nowadays, because we can do Photoshop and things like that, there was a lot of years where it was just kind of smoothing out the color with airbrush and things like that. Whereas in the old days, they didn't have that. So you had to be creative with how the artwork looked. And so you had a lot of, well, kind of like what we did with John Wick with the neon noir. And you got like, you know, magenta on this side and a yellow coming over on this side. And it was because of the limitations of the printing process. But it created a whole different type of artwork. And to me, that was the artwork genre of comics that I grew up with. so when I came into the Star Wars project and I knew it was comics I really tried to get my head into that I went and looked at those old comics the Star Wars comics luckily also I was also working with Marvel Fine Art and creating paintings for them which are different than the comic art but my head was in the comic book world at the time so it just really worked out well the only thing that I was not ready for was the workload I had no idea how much work was involved with that. I mean, the most that I had done in terms of a full illustration was, uh, uh, two or three trading cards, um, that were due in three months, you know, and that, that was no problem for me. Uh, now this huge thing, you know, with the, and learning, I think I'm getting ahead of myself, the question. So anyways, I get excited. That's awesome. Well, and there is a lot to this. I mean, I know that you're not, so when you do the artwork, it's not solely you, right? Like you do a ton of it, but there's a little bit of help here and there. But for the most, you're kind of the maestro of everything, right? Or do you do it all? Well, I have to give credit to Greg Freres, who is my guidance through it all. I would say the decision making is part. Actually, I was surprised at how much freedom and the decision making that I had a lot of cases in terms of composition and choices. of where things go, not necessarily which characters we use. They told me which characters they want, things like that. But, yeah, they gave me a lot of freedom, and I definitely brought something different to the package that I don't think they were expecting in terms of not just my enthusiasm, because I think anybody coming into this their first time is going to be enthusiastic because it's new and it's so cool because it's a pinball machine. But I'm enthusiastic about art. My thing was, I don't want just this drawing of Darth Vader and that drawing of Luke Skywalker to be cool. I want it all to look really great together. I want there to be some sort of narrative going on. And I want it to look like a standing piece of art, not just a mishmash of different ideas. I wanted it all to be cohesive. and so with that coming to the project and you know Greg Freres is already like that and we just we worked really well together and yeah maybe that was why they gave me a little more freedom with making decision making because also was the subject matter I came in with so much more knowledge of the Star Wars world than anybody it was like And I knew at least 80 to 90 percent more than everybody in the room at any given time, including the people at Lucasfilm. That's just my geekery for all the years, which they welcome. They love that because there is some decisions being made that I'm like, you know, that doesn't really make a lot of sense. They're like, yeah, well, it's it's we can fudge on things. I'm like, oh, the fans won't let you fudge in Star Wars. You know, it's like they look at all these little details. And so they're okay. So after the first month, they kind of realize, Randy knows what he's talking about, just let him make some of those decisions. But really to answer more specifically your question I would say 90 of it and I including the decision as far as composition it was me The actual execution of the art is 100% me. But there's no way I could have done that project or any of these projects that I worked on without Greg. a great art director is is worth their weight in gold now tell me how so the project had already been released as the you know as the the photo the photo type um art on it now you're coming to it and they're like okay here is the layout with the inserts already intact how are you going to to move your art around the space available to tell a story. And that's the whole point of having a pinball play field in the art, is you're telling a story about how the shots are going to flow and why you put different people on different shots. So tell me about that learning curve of doing that, because your first one was the Star Wars comic package. Yeah, and I was lucky in that for Star Wars comics, I really just had to redo the art. I didn't have to worry about showing where the shots go. I just had to do everything there in my style. I did a couple of corrections in terms of what scenes or what characters should be and where or what versions. So, for instance, the Obi-Wan facing off Darth Vader in the center of the play field and the Emperor's behind them. And on the Photoshop version, they used, I think it might have even been a, I don't know. It might have been like a prequel version of the Emperor. I know it wasn't the correct one. And so I went back and I changed that to the Return of the Jedi version of the Emperor. And I've gotten a lot of responses of that. people saying thank you because it's like you know it's that's important to star wars fans you know wait you didn't want you didn't want the empire strikes back version with the monkey eyes you know that story right yeah of course yeah yeah yeah monkey eyes a woman yeah yeah yeah uh i feel like i missed something can okay okay all right so randy and i are roughly the same age so we grew up in the same like he and i grew up in okay this is the the bane like we were born in this universe you know we're you know it molded us and it's it it is true in many ways that you find out all these little things you're like oh that's so cool so in the empire strikes back the original one the emperor was uh an amalgamation of like um chimpanzee eyes and the lower fate the lower half was a woman's face. And so it's, it's completely different than what people see now is because they've swapped out, you know, emperor Palpatine for that. Right. For those who don't, might not remember it was a hologram. Yeah, it was a hologram. Yeah. So that's how they can superimpose the two halves of the face. Yeah. And so I knew it was, it was just a cool scene because the emperor is only on for maybe 30 seconds. It's when he, It's when he goes in like contacts and they're in the asteroid belt. And so that's why I was asking about the monkey eyes because, yes, that is just one weird thing of Star Wars lore. But if you're Andy in my age, then you are going to remember that. I'll tell you, I definitely thought of it. I mean, just if we're going to be like, you know, hardcore. But I knew, again, knowing the Lucasfilm language, they would never let that go. Yeah. You know, so I'm like, I'm happy with the Emperor one, just as long as you look to, you know, the right, you know, timeframe of movies. And then there's some little things in there. But yeah, that experience, I'm really happy that I paid attention to the artwork, how it was used to tell the story, how to tell where the shots are, how to tell what the rules are. That was really important as going into The Mandalorian. okay so let's talk about that because you you did the star wars um comic book and by the way i'm looking behind you which version of that is behind you because it looks like a slightly different side art than i'm used to that's the pro that's the okay because i pulled up on i i literally pulled up on stern's website and the the pro picture looks a little different really well there's a there's an x-wing on the other side oh okay well it's basically the same uh same thing it's it's it's either side is the battle over endor yeah and uh one side has the i'm telling this is this is like how deep i was going i wanted to tell stories so on the right side if you look closely the empire is winning if you look on the left side if you look closely the rebels are winning okay so there's there's a whole lot of stuff going on there that a lot of people i don't know if people put the pieces together but it it made a lot of fun for me okay a side note have you did you see the fan art uh the fan video of obi-wan and darth vader fighting it was like it was it was like this fan video that was like 10 minutes it's probably the the best lightsaber fight i've ever seen it's really good i'll have to send it to you okay i've seen it oh yeah yeah i think it's uh it's it's well done but i i i think there's um i'm not a huge fan of uh of the correcting that people want to do i think it's just it's art is a time capsule of its time and that was original it's like a video and so i was thinking that it looked a little more dynamic because obviously they could show a more dynamic fight than Alec Guinness was pretty old when he fought. So it wasn't able to do all the acrobatic stuff. Oh, it was definitely entertaining to watch, but I would never in a million years suggest that they would go back and do a special, special edition. Oh, no, no, no. Please, Alec Guinness jumping around. Oh my gosh, those were terrible. Actually, they're going to be re-releasing the original in the theater. Did you hear this? Yeah. Yeah, the unadulterated version. Okay, so we'll move on. You got the Star Wars comic, and then they approached you to do this guy over here on my shoulder. It's Mandalorian. That's not true. Oh, tell me more. Well, it's not totally true. Okay, all right. this is why we have you on tell the story so when we finished Star Wars comics of course the pandemic hit and that was a real bummer because people at Stern were really just going crazy over how it was looking and they were telling me all the conventions they wanted me to go to and they were going to start promoting it and then pandemic hit and it just killed everything so that was a real bummer they said don't worry we got something coming for you we want you to do so contacted me and they actually offered me the Avengers the Infinity Quest game and I did samples and everything like that and they loved it but just ultimately it didn't go to me the history went to Jeremy and that's great he did a great job on that but when I didn't get it they're like don't worry we got something coming for you and so week goes by and we're we're everybody's locked in locked down at home and i'm like i don't know what i'm gonna do you know uh so they contact me like do you want to work on the mandalorian i was like uh what do you think yeah and so um yeah not only did they ask me they said lucasfilm asked for me specifically because they like the work i did with star wars comics and they just kind of wanted to keep that kind of a look going and work well with the company, obviously. It was a really good experience. So during the pandemic, I was super – I'm super grateful that I had that opportunity and actually was working. So it really saved me and very, very lucky. Getting all serious. That's good. The Mandalorian is great. I love the Mandalorian art. yeah it's it's pretty fantastic it's one of the things that stands out about the game is the art and the thing i love about mandalore the thing i've loved about all your games so far is they are so uniquely different from one another like the mando le looks like it's just polished chrome polished platinum whatever you want to call it best car polished best car and the other editions they all stand separately on their own but they all look so great what drives you to go in this kind of detail and this much work into one of these games well it was it goes back to Star Wars comics and one of the things that Greg told me was for that one it was two versions of the same game is that they wanted to make them thematically differently than one another. And so I looked at a lot of the, excuse me, a lot of the other pinball machines. And I just kind of thought, you know, a way that I could stand out was to really try to make every single version, its own character, its own life, its own personality, and nothing against what anybody else is doing. Uh, but I just wanted, like, like you say, which version is that? Because I know it's not the premium, right? Like, you know, you know what the premium looks like. You know what the pro looks like. I mean, everybody's same thing with Mandalorian and Wick. And it means a lot to me, actually, when people say that, because that's my intention, is I don't want you to confuse any of the versions with one another. I want them to have their own life like they're like their kids, you know. And so that's just the artist in me, I think. I'm already doing one idea on one pinball machine so it's kind of like I look at it as like canvases if I got three canvases lined up I'm going to paint something on this one and I'm definitely not going to do it on the second one I'm definitely not going to do it on the third one they might all be the same character but I'm going to do something different because it's honestly just to be frank it's no fun just trying the same thing and painting the same thing over and over and over again And some some walks of this career choice of mine in art, that is a detriment because you sometimes for some jobs do have to do the same things over and over. And that's fine. But for me, and I'm probably undiagnosed ADD, I just can't do it. So I just I relish the opportunity to take each one of these versions of the pinball machines to give them their own life. when you know i should say when you're doing three different art packages do you in your mind have a an idea this feels like the pro one this feels like the premium this feels like the le or do you just let the art packages speak for themselves and let stern decide that um i would say on that those choices are ultimately i have nothing to do with it if I have any influence, it's like 5% of the discussion. It really comes down to their marketing and things like that. But I definitely put my input in there. And again, I credit a lot of that to Greg Freres. And he made sure he retired. He made sure that I didn't focus like on one piece like okay this is going to be the premium this is going to be that let's just just just do equally good on everything not that we're going to do less on anything but just i mean yeah i like that approach better you know and then once we get everything rolling out there and how things are coming together uh we'll kind of make the decision what's going to be the premium what's the pro what's the le and so you know all the the extra the bells and whistles and stuff and how great the LE looks. That's, that's, that's all Greg, you know, he's, he, he was like a wizard with a, with a mirror and the polish look like you said, and just that kind of whole idea. I don't know if it was his idea to do the, make it Beskar. It might've been, but, but he definitely guided that one there. Once we had an idea of the artwork we wanted to use and ideas, but the first one that we really kind of put together was the pro in terms of a theme. Because we knew, and we didn't know it was going to be the pro. It was just a package. And we knew that we wanted to do a spaghetti western kind of feel. And we knew that the other versions of that game would kind of spawn out of that, whatever version of that is. And so I literally went online and in books that I have and just I really studied into spaghetti westerns and the old posters and wanted to get the feel to that. And I love it because it's an education for me and learning things. And so that one right behind you, the Mandalorian poster that you have, that was based on the spaghetti western. And it really did. Everything else came out of that. the premium became the story of not even good versus evil. He's literally walking the line right between the two on the bad class. You have the bad guys on one side, good guys on the other. That's kind of his story. That's that kind of a Slash. The last one, of course, we're just calling it Beskar as we were working on it. The whole thing just has that kind of blue kind of tint to it that's like metallic and yeah so taking me back I haven't thought about this stuff in a while I absolutely love it I mean your artwork is fantastic and one I mean we talked about Mando and we can't let go John Wick like seriously seeing the LE on this the whole like stained glass the chapel fill with the golds was it your idea with the foil on that too because it you have to go on greg again huh just go again oh my goodness it's so good that was one of the things just to jump ahead is why and i keep mentioning his name but um he's not only just just a unbelievable mentor to me through this whole thing i could call him text him anytime i had questions about everything now that we're on the subject, how did, how did John Wick fall into your lap Like how did this all happen So John Wick came uh just shortly after my birthday I always remember we were here in Las Vegas having a good time and um and I got a call from Greg if uh it's like how would you like to work on uh John Wick and I'm like well Greg you really don't need to ask me anymore just come and say I got this for you you know I told me I love working with you guys. And yeah, I would love to. At the time, like I didn't have anything on my plate and I was kind of hoping that I would get Jaws. I had heard Jaws was coming down the pipeline and Jaws is my favorite movie of all time, not even close to anything else. And I just, I would have, I would have loved to have done that. But ultimately I'm happy that I didn't because I am, And I just I really loved doing John Wick for a few reasons. Number one was my portfolio at that point was pretty much Star Wars and Marvel. And that was about it. As a as an artist, you just kind of want to have a little bit more well-rounded kind of a portfolio, at least subject matter. And boy, John Wick was so different from any of that and different type of storytelling. and the art in the movie, the art direction in the movie was just incredible. And it introduced me to a whole other genre, a whole different way of thinking, different philosophies that affected the rest of my art in the different things that I do. So, yeah, so when we picked that up, I was just so excited. And that's pretty much how that happened to answer your question. This time was pretty simple. How familiar were you with the John Wick franchise before they asked you? I'd seen all of them except for four, which was when I got the job, four was coming out in about three months. So I had not seen four, obviously. But I'd seen the three movies before that. I wouldn't say I saw them a lot, but I was impressed with them. I thought, again, the art direction was really cool. So going back to watch them again was a lot of fun looking at a different, more observant eye. I was looking at everything, you know, going on the backgrounds, looking at the color. I read a lot about it. And they use what's called the neo-noir style, which is where they use a lot of the reflective color from like neon or different things like that and so like I think before that the best example of was like Blade Runner and so I was looking at older movies like that too just just I started to get really into the neon noir kind of a thing and like I was saying before it bled into the other parts of my art career and so for my paintings that I do for the gallery um I was doing Batman Scooby-Doo they they had just gotten Warner Brothers license so I was able to do all those characters and I was doing neon noir of all those things and I couldn't tell anybody why because people are saying where is this coming from this is great and I'm like I don't know I just got an idea it's so um but it It was really, really – it really was changing. It changed the course of my career, at least creatively speaking. Which is awesome. So the real question is, what's your art looking like nowadays? Hypothetically speaking. This is a frustrating thing for what I do. I absolutely love 99.9% of what I do. The 1% is that I can't talk about anything that I'm working on. So it leaves me with sometimes up to a year of things that I can't talk about. So people write me and ask me what I'm doing or I do interviews. What am I doing? And I've got to put my head like a year ago of something that released finally, whether it's pinball or trading cards or something, anything. so uh well and we talked about at the beginning of the episode that we took you into stern and we got to do that in the the walkthrough and everything did we mention this you did the mural like the massive mural yeah as you walk into stern this thing is huge it spans the whole length of one side of the building it's it's not it kind of wraps around it's uh it's inside it's it's probably it looks like it's about 20 feet tall and it just goes all the way around i mean It's impressive. How did you end up doing this? So this was a – it was collaborative in terms of conceptualizing. And so George Gomez spearheaded it and asked me if I would do it. And I said, absolutely. And so they had me come up with a couple of ideas that they didn't use. And I understand why. Like one of them was like doing space with astronauts and pinball machines and stuff. And I seen what it looks like up there now that that wouldn't have worked. It just was too non-relative to what they do. So they just kind of brought an idea that they already had of doing a close up of a pinball machine. And what we did with that pinball machine, that was kind of left for me to kind of create that and the angle. So it was a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be because it's a really weird angle of the machine. And so you got all those graphics. I'm used to either doing like this or like this or like this. But this is kind of like this weird angle. So I actually had to go to the Pinball Hall of Fame here in Las Vegas because we wanted to be a little on the retro side. They didn't want to look like the Star Wars pinball machine that I had. And I had to try to take pictures at weird angles that was trying to fit. I still had to bend some things. So, yeah, it was a challenge. But doing it, I was just so honored to have them ask me. And then just that, you know, my artwork is representing to the world and the outside, you know, Stern Pinball. And that just means a lot to me. And that they wouldn't even ask me to do that. And there's some influences in there. Some of the decorative art that's on the pinball play field on that is derivative of some of this work that Jeremy had done for some different promotional things that they did long ago. And so that was there. And I wrote him and said, hey, man, they want me to use this. This is okay. I'm real touchy about that. you know, using other people's artwork in any way. So he's like, absolutely. It's like, I think they actually own it so they can do whatever they want with it. So, but I care, you know, I'm just, I'm an ethical like that. I like to make sure. And so, but yeah, it's really cool. So what has been your favorite part about this, this new chapter? And so the last almost 10 years now, you've actually been able to do things on pinball. So one, how has it changed your your style and two have you have you gotten into pinball have you started playing your your own uh your own games and and started uh figuring out the you know i guess the addictive quality of having pinball machines well the biggest thing that has changed uh me is my my workflow um it's just because there's so much work involved with the pinball machines it uh just by necessity it changed the way that I work and that I have to set hours in the day and uh in order for everything to come out a certain way you know when I'm when I was younger you know I could stay up all night and and do things at the last minute and and it still comes out looking good and and I'm a you know in a pinch I can still do that but I don't like to it's it's no fun on my body or my sleep or anything like that but just the amount of work you you have to start like I said, setting time each day to do that. So once a pinball machine is done, a project, it's now affecting everything else that I do in the same way. I'm so much more organized than I ever was before doing pinball machines. In terms of my artwork, I should say, everything else is kind of a mess, but my desk is like, what's going on? but yeah that and then just like I explained like the influence from working on John Wick the different styles and things like that the kind of comic book kind of a look I like to say it's I use the line that is traditional for comic books but then I try to use more of a painterly kind of a coloring style I don't I really don't like using the airbrush tool on digital that much because it's like too perfect. So I like using brushes. I use Procreate on my iPad and it's just got a million brushes that are just incredible for that. I can adjust them and I'm trying to find new brushes all the time and adjust them so that I can give it some more character rather than just a smooth gradation. And I'm looking at the clouds right behind you on the Mandalorian. And I remember which brush I used on that. And I didn't want that smooth look. And even if you look at the Mandalorian himself on there, you can see there's kind of some jaggedness to the color being put on there. It's not just smooth. And that was completely intentional because I didn't want it to look just shiny, shiny, shiny. I wanted it to look like it had some texture to it and some grit. And then that also fed into the whole Spaghetti Western. Everything's dusty kind of, you know. So it's affected me in a lot of ways. Those are just a few. That actually totally is consistent with the Star Wars universe. One thing that before Star Wars, all the future shows, you know, Star Trek and, you know, Buck Rogers, all these, you know, Battlestar Galactica, these type of things. everything was so clean in the future and star wars was the first time that he actually showed hey yeah if it's i know it's a in a long time ago in a galaxy far far away but it is still very science fictiony and being able to have like hey this is this is how it would look with people using it daily and you have c-3po who has a different color leg so at some point he has the And a lot of people don't even realize that he has that gold chrome metallic stuff. But I think it says left lower leg is silver. Yeah. Yeah. And originally, it wasn't as emphasized. But when you watch it, you're like, yeah, okay. So this is – imagine the futuristic car that's coming down the street that has a different color door that they grabbed from a different car because it got in an accident or something. so i don't think anybody realized that about c-3po until the special edition when they cleaned up all the negatives and everything yeah but that was in the original it really wasn't you're right i i didn't know that either because i mean i had the c-3po toy and it the the toy didn't have the the lower leg that was that was chrome because it was cheaper to make it one color um but yeah no i i do like that it does look a lot more rough. And that's not saying it's not refined, but it does look more like it's battle-hardened. Right. So that style has opened up a few doors with things that I do, and I've been using that with the San Francisco Giants. I just did a piece for them that's going to be a T-shirt that everybody gets in the stadium this next season. That's kind of cool. But it's a very similar kind of style that I did line with that kind of gritty kind of paintbrush. So, yeah, your question was how did it affect me. And a lot of those things, just when you get to practice something and work on something in a certain way, probably anything you do in life, it just starts taking an influence and then when you like it you like doing it you know it's the big thing and I really liked what I was doing so he just kind of like yeah I'm going to put that to the forefront of of the things that I do and um and then it just does my confidence as a as an artist and as a professional I should say even more than an artist you know I mean Stern's a big company, you know, and so adding that to my client list was really big and getting treated like a professional and getting the feedback from my client about the things that I would really stress to try to do as a professional. It's really boosted me in terms of like, yeah, I've been doing the right things, you know, over all the years. And sometimes you don't know because you want to stay ethical you want to stay uh working hard and you try to uh there's a social side to this you know in terms of working with clients and meeting people and you just you don't know until you get the feedback you know and and sometimes jobs come and you get them and and that's it and they don't tell you why most of the time it's just because that project ends and the company wants to go somewhere else but you don't know it's like that artist like did i say something wrong? Did I do something? Am I hearing from people anymore? Like I said, 99% of the time, that's not what it is, but again, you don't know. And then just hearing from fans like you guys and telling me the finer points that I don't have to tell you about, and you see it, it's like, okay. It's good. It's really good. And you know, one game that many people haven't got to see in person that you did that was fantastic was Coming to America. You've got to tell me how this came about so that was pretty um unexpected so a um uh kyle smet i don't know if you know kyle um he's a homebrew guy and he he's he's very good at what he does and he did the big trouble in little china um homebrew and he had me do the topper for that where the hands light up for the lightning character and the blades on that. And it was a lot of fun. Again, I love doing these projects like out of left field that I haven't done before. So that was fun. And after that, he put me in touch with the with the gentleman who made the coming to America And we talked about it and had a great conversation And we just started going for it And he loved my ideas. And it just worked out great. And, yeah, it was really cool. Ricardo, he's a good guy. And he's really good at what he does, him and his team. the crazy thing with them is that he went to Expo I think Expo or it was one of the big shows he went to Expo a year ago and he's like I like this I'm going to do that I'm going to make one I'll be here next year with one of my own and I was like yeah yeah yeah everybody says that and everything and he's like okay and so he went home and started working on it and he got his team together contacted me and a year later there he was you know in the homebrew section at Expo and and winning awards and uh and and meeting everybody and such a nice guy just fit into the community really well and um I was just it was I was really happy the art was and the theme was just received so well by all the fans and um it's a funny thing because you know he was working on it right up during the show you know and so he had the play field on uh i forget whose booth it was where where you can work on your playfields i can't remember whose it was but he had he got more exposure on the play field that way from everybody than being in his section in the homebrew area um and it forced people to oh my god what's that we'll go check out the cabinet it's over there and they would rush over there to go see it. Um, so, um, yeah, I w I was just, you know, I was really proud of it and I was just really happy, uh, for, for them and, uh, and for Ricardo and it was, uh, yeah, it was a fun piece too. Are there any themes that you're a fan of that you would, you would love to take a chomp at? Absolutely. I mean, who wouldn't, you know, um, I have, people always ask me what's your wishlist. So, uh, My number one wish list that I told won't happen on an official level would be a Seinfeld pinball machine. Yeah. That would be so great. I don't even know if there was any opportunity for me to do artwork on that, if it would be appropriate. But you can imagine all of the modes, you know. You can do the puffy shirt mode, and the ultimate is being the master of your own domain. Yeah, the master of your domain. that's the wizard mode by the way whatever we need a festivus mode or a festivus actually that would be so great if you had a game that rotated themes depending on what time of year it was oh yes that would be cool your games all of a sudden just magically have like a Christmas theme or a Halloween theme added to the game you know what would be great if there was an ugly baby mode like you know how you have frenzy modes and pinball machines but every time you hit a switch it'd be someone trying to compliment the baby yeah and when you finally like when you finish the mode it's kramer just freaks out like it's it's breathtaking yeah okay so here's what do you think he looks like yeah linden johnson okay so i have a funny story about babies so my friend put me right before you start okay guys laughing right now yeah yes i think you would make a great machine oh it was so good yeah it would i got me sold you've got i love that i love the in seinfeld's actually one of those shows that you can still watch and it's funny because there's a lot of shows that were funny at the time that like if i watch friends now i'm like it's painful it's the same way the jokes don't land it's not there it's not that funny it's it feels very dated, Seinfeld's something that would continue to go on. So, no soup for you? No soup for you. I know that guy. The real one or the actor? Yeah, Larry, the actor. That's awesome. He's a character actor. He's done all kinds of stuff. Of course, that's what he's most famous for. I got to know him from doing the different comic book conventions where he's signing autographs. We have common friends and things like that. And we both ended up at a friend's birthday party up in the Hollywood Hills and having a great time. And my friend had a guitar and I pulled it out and I start playing it and playing a little blues. And Larry comes in and he starts singing. And I'm like, we should do a song called like the Soup Nazi Blues. And he did. He started singing the Soup Nazi Blues. That's amazing. Okay. Something we know about and we didn't even bring up. You actually play guitar. I do. Yeah. Not super well, but enough to be able to play and sing. Okay. Enough to start a non-canical song in Seinfeld, apparently. There you go. Did you see the guitars that Josh and I made out of pinball playfields? Mine's upstairs. I know. Mine's upstairs, too. I wish Shaker won. It's made out of an Earthshaker Playfield From Sothar Guitars Daniel up in Canada Amazing We're going to have him on too Randy you've got to see these guitars We'll send you pictures after He was at Expo right? Yeah correct Those were our guitars Mine was Silverball Mania Mine was Earthshaker Loved it I told him he should make a John Wick one If he's willing to tear one up He said if you're willing to send him a Playfield If he can find the play field, he can make it. Yeah, do you know anyone that can get a hand on a John Wick play field? It doesn't have to be perfect. Actually, that's the whole point, is getting a second. They modify it so you can't use it as a play field. But yeah, that would be awesome. If you're interested in that, we can definitely hook you up with that. We've been toying around with the ideas of getting some Metallica guitars made, because that would be awesome, too. It would be even cool. I know this will probably be hard, but you know how he's holding the sword in the artwork? I mean, that's not on the play film. It might be the side cap. But holding the sword, if you could position it right so the neck looks like it's the sword that John Wick's holding, that would be legit. Yeah. I did something similar like that with Star Wars years ago. Back in 2007, I did a poster called Sith Rocks, and it featured Darth Maul playing a double-ended guitar. oh that's funny he's jumping it has all the sith in the background it has the vaders like singing and instead of uh the lights that like the kiss lettering it says instead of kiss uh general grievous is playing drums and then it has the emperor playing the cowbell oh that's awesome i love it i'm telling you that that him playing the cowbell yeah sold more prints just that yeah because i was able to sell prints at the star wars convention and just that when people saw the cowbell the emperor playing cowbell and in 2007 that was still pretty new i mean it's still funny you know cowbell but more cow back then yeah so oh i gotta get that okay we'll have to send pictures of the guitars you'll have to send us pictures of that absolutely definitely well i have i have one final question for you randy and then we're gonna wrap this up but my final question is i'm not gonna ask any titles or anything like that do we get to see more of randy martinez in pinball artwork uh coming out yes definitely definitely um well i can't uh we talked a little bit at the beginning i can't say what it is and i can't announce it but something um that is not really related to anything um you would normally think of is coming out in spring so look for that it's more in the toy side of things so to keep a lookout for that or at least for an announcement coming from my way. And then there's stuff I can't talk about. Perfect. Your art lends so well to pinball. I just think a lot of people are excited to know if we're going to see you in pinball again because I think you're just, you're one of the greats. And it's great that he's bringing you back and using you on projects. I think you do a fantastic job. You're a wonderful illustrator. Let's keep it going. I want to keep seeing more Randy Martinez. Thank you. You know what? I have to say that I really enjoy this. I enjoy the fans. You know, I've done comic book conventions and I've done all kinds of things with my art. And the pinball community has been really great and they've been really welcoming. Probably some of it is that in the comic book convention world, everybody's pretty young. Everybody's a little older in the pinball area, so at least closer to our age. So I appreciate that. But everybody's so nice and very creative. I mean, I do the art side of it. Oh, my gosh, the engineering side and the ideas of, you know, one just at a glance would think, okay, it's a pinball machine. It's probably what I thought when they first called me. Like, what possibly more could you do with a pinball machine? You could do a lot. You could do a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. People doing just amazing things. And, you know, I get dipping my foot into the homebrew area has been really great. And it's really fun because, you know, there's no rules, really, you know, except for, you know, how deep somebody's pocket is. That's about the only rule there is, you know. and people trying things and at expos seeing some things that didn't necessarily work. The idea was there, you know, and it's like, you know, next year they'll be back and it will work, you know, and they're the ones who are like kind of like who's revolutionizing the game. Is it the companies anymore or is it the players and the fans? You know, it's it's a really interesting thing that's different from all of the other communities I've been involved with through my art. Yeah, it certainly is a collaborative process. Not when there's only one game in town, then you get stagnation. And we I've talked about this so long. Stern in the 2000s, that was challenging because they they had they had a monopoly on the market and they didn't have the collaboration that they saw. Oh, well, this person is doing this. How come we didn't do that? And now you're seeing at least six viable pinball companies out there that are able to produce their own things. And it really has driven the innovation in pinball to a different level. And even the way that they're presenting the games with barrels of fun, having the LCD in the back of the play field. And it helps out with that. there's so many different things that I've still yet to be tapped in pinball. I'm really looking forward to it. Well, I really like some of the different themes. So, you know, like the Winchester theme was really cool. I mean, I grew up going by there. I never went in, but I went up in California. We knew all about it. We knew the mystery and the story and all that. And that's just that they took that theme. And it's actually perfect for pinball with all the different phrases. that house is crazy it's nuts but if you could put that with pinball it was great and then again in the the some of the things in the homebrew area that that steamboat willy one was like oh yeah it was it was really oh it was so clean yeah with it was used with the topper had steam yeah yeah yeah so i mean it's it's it's wild man and it pushes me um not in a competitive like gotta be better than everybody kind of thing but it just pushes me to want to be uh in that that uh that river of creativity with everybody uh because you know what it's fun and that's what i always say about art and anybody asks like how do i do this how to do that you know the key is just have fun and if you're not having fun then that's the only way you can make your art or whatever it is in this life wrong just remember to have fun exactly well randy if if you want someone to get a hold of you, what's the best way they can get a hold of you? You go to my website, which is randymartinez.art. That is the easiest way. If you want to go on social media, most all of my social media is randymartinez40. 40 was my basketball number in high school. Can't let it go. Awesome. Well, if you want to get a hold of us, we are Loser Kid Pinball Podcast at gml.com. We are at Loser Kid pinball on all the socials um anything you can think of and we do sell silverball swag.com slash loser kid i'm wearing the loser kid attacks pinball shirt it's even got the little logo on the side uh i don't know if i don't this is randy's board i have too yeah that's a it's super comfortable isn't it it is it is it like it like squeezes my head a little bit it's like you know support socks yes we only do those like once a year and we don't do very many of them so they uh if you're interested in one of those hats you listen out for us we'll uh we'll announce another run of them probably here in the future but uh other than that scott do we have anything else you know that that's pretty much it but definitely go and check out randy's uh page uh Randy's a he's a, he's one of the good guys in the hobby and, uh, in any hobby you can find toxicity. If you're looking for it, Randy's not one of them. Thanks. Oh, and I do want to mention this to all the fans out there. And I do like to communicate and things like that. I try to get back to everybody that writes me. Um, but, uh, this does help this one thing that when you talk to people at a different pinball, your favorite pinball companies, uh, tell them the artists that you not just me, I'm saying that to benefit me, but whoever your artists say those things, they take notes on those things. When you do that, it keeps me in business. I appreciate that. Okay, everyone, time to spam at sternpinball.com. Randy Martinez needs to be on more pinball. We want to follow the empire of Comic Edition. yes awesome you want to make demands you can just tell them how much you like the art true true okay just slide it slide into the dms okay scott give us our last words you know i just go play more pinball and i'm heading to guatemala on friday so yes in about two weeks good for you man you

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 6d345a6d-35fd-4ec4-b97a-ca05a2303f2f*
