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Episode 38 – Christopher Franchi Hexagon Threesome + Mrs Pin!

Head2Head Pinball·podcast_episode·analyzed·Apr 9, 2018
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Franchi reveals Guardians artwork design, Marvel approvals, Easter eggs, and upcoming Dune/Grumpy Cat projects.

Summary

Christopher Franchi presents an in-depth behind-the-scenes look at creating artwork for Guardians of the Galaxy pinball at Head2Head Pinball. He discusses Marvel's approval process, design iterations, Easter eggs (including hidden tributes to Paul Ferris and Stan Lee), rejected concepts like trading cards, and technical challenges like the color-printed armor scrapping. He shares insights on his artistic process, licensing constraints, and reveals upcoming projects including a Dune machine and a Grumpy Cat game.

Key Claims

  • Marvel required approval samples before hiring Franchi and reviewed Groot/Rocket character work before green-lighting him

    high confidence · Franchi showed Marvel his Groot and Rocket drawings as a 'Marvel tryout' and stated 'Marvel approved me yay' before allowing him to proceed

  • Guardians design took nine months with on-and-off work versus an earlier three-week rush project that caused nightmares

    high confidence · Opening statement: 'it was much better to have nine months than three weeks that man was not fun I still have nightmares about that point'

  • John Borg rejected two complete art packages because they included trading card designs

    high confidence · Franchi showed trading cards in multiple designs, 'John Borg absolutely hated them... all of this work was thrown in the garbage because he hated the trading cards'

  • Loki's mask was the starting point for playfield design after John Borg requested it in insert lights

    high confidence · Franchi: 'John Borg said to me... he wanted to start Loki's mask in there so I'm like well that's where I'm going to start... it took us about a month to get this right'

  • Slingshot design was changed in one day after Spooky's Total Nuclear Annihilation released with similar graphics

    high confidence · Franchi called Craig Fares at Stern: 'emergency emergency I don't want to look like I stole anything... he said yes one day if you get it to me in the morning we're good'

  • Marvel made zero requested changes to Franchi's initial art submission, possibly the first time on a Marvel pinball project

    medium confidence · Greg Ferris reportedly told Franchi: 'it was the first time something had come back and they made zero changes on the art'

  • Color-printed armor on playfield got scratched off by player rings and was scrapped

    high confidence · Franchi: 'if you had a ring on and you were playing the ring would actually scratch the printing off so that whole concept got scrapped'

  • Franchi gets paid royalties for his artwork and believes this structure is better than per-machine royalties to prevent eliminating profits

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm not a fine artist I wish I was I'm not cut out for that kind of stuff but everything's a separate illustration and it's like playing with color forms”

    Christopher Franchi @ early presentation — Describes his layered digital art approach allowing flexibility vs. traditional fine art

  • “It takes a village, and I'm just one guy. So if you paid royalties to everybody, there won't be anything left.”

    Christopher Franchi @ Q&A section — Justifies collective compensation model over individual per-machine royalties

  • “I did everything not to casein point and actually a production artist in Stern named Steve Martin did that logo and he had no idea what was going on with his Total Nuclear Annihilation thing”

    Christopher Franchi @ mid-presentation — Defends against accusations of stealing design ideas, clarifies Total Nuclear Annihilation slingshot similarity was coincidental

  • “George Gomez actually completely hated it. And in a panic moment, three weeks before Expo, they just went out on Google and they typed in 1966 Batman and my artwork popped up.”

    Christopher Franchi @ Q&A section — Explains how he was discovered for his dream project (1966 Batman)

  • “Marvel is very creative-driven, and they welcome other people's takes on things as long as it fits in the world. You don't do something really crazy, like, you know, Lego people or whatever.”

    Christopher Franchi @ Q&A section — Characterizes Marvel's licensing approach as collaborative and flexible vs. restrictive

  • “My ideas come to me when I look at what I'm working on because a lot of this stuff really depends on the space that you have available.”

    Christopher Franchi @ Q&A section — Reveals his creative process is reactive/iterative rather than pre-planned

  • “And that's a preview of my next game because I know you guys were going to ask. Right now I'm working on Grumpy Cat.”

    Christopher Franchi @ late presentation — Announces Grumpy Cat pinball game project

Entities

Christopher FranchipersonGuardians of the GalaxygameJohn BorgpersonMarvelcompanyGreg FerrispersonGeorge Gomezperson

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Head2Head Pinball presentation featuring detailed behind-the-scenes artist talk, Q&A, and exclusive previews of upcoming games

    high · Full seminar format with slides, playfield design walkthrough, Easter egg revelations, and audience Q&A

  • ?

    design_philosophy: John Borg rejected trading card concept in multiple design iterations without clear explanation; Franchi frustrated but hints concept may resurface in future games

    high · Franchi: 'he's just like No no no... I don't know if he just didn't get it... I'm gonna ask him... I need another picture where we choked at him because we wouldn't let me use those damn trading cards. Don't be surprised if you see them down the road.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Left outlane on Guardians playfield problematic; ball finds it in first 10 seconds of play; Franchi added magnetic indicator stars as favor to players but John Borg rejected additional visual guidance

    high · Franchi: 'left outlane here anybody else play Guardians anybody like that left outlane the ball seems to find that the first 10 seconds of every shot... I did this a little favor for you guys like here's where the magnets are they're gonna save... Little kid in here can I swear I want to swear it at John'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Franchi intentionally includes hidden Easter eggs and tributes (Paul Ferris ships composition, Stan Lee pin, Cosmo signature, daughter Presley) with varying consciousness of discovery likelihood

    high · Franchi systematically reveals Easter eggs and states: 'I'm getting more and more clever with my Easter eggs' while noting some (like Ronan in upper left) are barely visible unless you look at machine sides

  • ?

Transcript

youtube_mirror_subs · $0.000

0:05
are you guys are in for a treat I get to introduce my favorite pinball artist I'm Zach from straight down the middle of pinball show and this newcomer is I'm Jack danger from that play what's going on all right guys we have the pleasure of presenting our friend an awesome pinball artist with so so much to come this everybody put your hands together for Christopher Franchi Zach he didn't do the thing Chrissy ready yeah let's kick this [ __ ] and honor of Greg who can be here today thanks guys how are you guys doing let me Munoz really bad local bands I said how are you guys doing right on I actually do have to be right up on this thing that's what she said we got a hunch down here I
1:16
can you hear me all right all right cool welcome to the making of the Guardians pinball machine as you can see up there I have compiled some interesting things to show you guys and offer you some insight on what it was like to create this thing I will tell you this it was much better to have nine months than three weeks that man was not fun I still have nightmares about that point in my life but I did have about nine months to do this one on and off obviously didn't take nine months but and then after we go through this I'll show you some rare art that we didn't use I'll show you some art that I really wanted to use that they wouldn't let me use some other little Easter eggs things and then we can do a little Q&A at the end and I'll tell you this right now I have a very cool guardians of the galaxy heart print but I'm gonna personalize whoever has the best question at the end of the seminar so start thinking right now anyway alright let's get this thing started there's the three basic models as you will see them on the show room that's what we ended up with so in case you're not familiar with this game there you go this is what I call my marvel tryout marvel would not just let's turn have anybody you know do the artwork on the machine they wanted to see something that was related to the machine so whoa things going crazy on me there we go
2:53
so I drew a Groot and Rocket and Marvel approved me yay and you actually see this artwork on the machine because I wasn't gonna waste it because it spent a lot of time drawing a whole lot of damn wood giggity I don't often draw wood but when I do it's Groot so that wasn't my trying out I keep hitting the wrong buttons here and this was as well they wanted to see some sort of pencil sketch rough of the side cabinet and I just kind of threw this together very quick and we didn't end up doing anything like this so I kind of wanted to but so there there's a rarity for you a layout we didn't use this was the first cabinet that I designed now up in the upper right corner there you'll see that's actually the radio from the DVD menu of them of the movie what the movie studio did was they took you know he had like garbage pail kid trading cards and things like that tucked in around the edge and they just made cards of the characters and I really liked that idea so I researched some old sports card designs from like the 70s and created these cards and john borg absolutely hated them he said no we're not doing that so this design got scrapped yeah you know it is kind of to thing so here's here's my first complete package design now you see what I did there in the right side I'm gonna sneak those trading cards in there John's not gonna notice John noticed John also hated this entire art package because of those trading cards all of this work was thrown in the garbage because he hated the trading cards I kind of like this one too but it got trashed so anyway here's another one now something you know you have to notice I'm sure some of us are was eventually used because what I do is like if you've seen Bob Ross paint pretty trees and all that on TV that's not how I do my work because when Bob Ross is done you can't change his art it is what it is I'm not a fine artist I wish I was I'm not cut out for that kind of stuff but that girl's really good so everything's a separate illustration was there a punch line over there Jack could I talk over you I'm sorry so every drawings are separate drawing and it's like playing with color forms you can just you know once you've got it scanned in you can move it around I can even change the lighting paint over top of it and if I want a purple light coming from the side I can do that but once it's in the computer I can do what I want with that so so a lot of this art was eventually used just not in these particular layouts here's my first little Easter egg in the upper left corner you'll see mr. Stanley he's the guy who created most of the Marvel characters and he had a saying I was just enough said the picture next to that are those are actual vintage pins that Marvel put out in the 70s and as a little nod to Stanley because he appears in all the movies he appeared in guardians I put that little pin on Rockets vest which I believe that that's a limited edition so that's the that's the front of the cabinet where the coin door is on the limited edition so if you can find one of those here and go look you'll see that little pin there and I don't think Marvel caught it because if Marvel caught it that might have said he didn't wear that the movie take that off but so I split that one through here's a picture of the playfield Whitewood as we started as as John started putting everything together I drove in from Michigan to to see what I had to work with keep in mind this is my first play field I did not do the play field for Batman Kevin O'Connor did and I just did the illustrations of the characters so all the graphics and like the Batarang and the little cityscape and all that that was all done by by Kevin O'Connor so this was my first play field I know when I saw this I think there's a little poop in my pants because it's when you don't when you see a pinball machine without graphics on it it's very intimidating it's like we're the first thing you can tell just by looking at this I'm like where am I gonna put any art you've got inserts all over this thing so it was a little scary thing and that was even scarier to on the left side that's what they sent me are you ready to do the playfield yeah all right here okay what is this I could see little pockets of area that I had to work with but they sent me a labeled version which I didn't put in here because you know you wouldn't be able to read it but it said you know over here is you know the group shot this is the Gomorra char and shot etc so I knew enough of where things were going I just had to figure out how is I can design this how I was going to get the artwork in there you can see it's pretty well covered except for in the center so one thing that John Bork said to me is you'll see those two little insert lights down by the flippers he wanted to start Lords mask in there so I'm like well that's where I'm going to start so the first thing I did was I drew the mask and and did the inserts and started the playfield from there know that was a big ordeal when you look at it you go oh that's cool but if you look at all these different things this is me drawing the mask in portion and sending emails to John saying this isn't gonna line up right it's too high it's too low the inserts are too close together they need to be further apart they need to be smaller etc etc it took us about a month to get this right to get it so that when they are printed the lenses were the right size they were the right distance apart etc so when you see a little thing on the playfield don't look a gift horse in the mouth sometimes it took a lot more work so you can see here I'm starting to fill out the play field and putting different things in there one thing nobody even realizes if you look right up here in the upper left corner Ronan's up there and there's so much stuff in the back that you can't see it but if you walk up to the side of the machine and look in the back and peek down there you'll see it so you can see how I put the different shots in and try to give it a signature color each one of the icons it's my first play field I didn't know what I could get away with so the first thing I asked was can I put artwork on these inserts because it just be more appealing to me like when I play pinball and I'm not I know jack danger if I had a visual reference it's much easier so if I see gamora's face flashing I know that's where I need to shoot it rather than have to read things so sometimes you use a funky font and you can't even read it and you know you got to look fast you got to act fast so the first thing I did was was put faces on all the inserts for the signature shots and that seemed to work out real well I don't see what we have on the next slide here and here's the bottom so there's the mask in place with the correct size inserts the first thing I started with after I did the mask was right above here all the different call-outs for the what do you call them not events Jack help me out here pardon

high confidence · Q&A response: 'I get paid very well... if you paid royalties to everybody, there won't be anything left'

  • Franchi's 1966 Batman project was his dream, obtained after George Gomez rejected Stern's artwork and discovered Franchi's work on Google three weeks before Expo

    high confidence · Franchi: 'George Gomez actually completely hated it. And in a panic moment, three weeks before Expo, they just went out on Google and they typed in 1966 Batman and my artwork popped up'

  • Franchi has two new machines coming out in September/October including one featuring his daughter Presley

    medium confidence · Franchi: 'I have two machines that will be out in October or maybe September... my lovely daughter Presley is gonna make an appearance in there'

  • “I would love to do some of the ones I'd love to do will never be made into pinball machines, like The Exorcist or Dexter's Laboratory... I'd really, really, really—and this might come true—I'd really love to do Jaws.”

    Christopher Franchi @ Q&A section — Expresses dream projects including Jaws and hints at future Jaws possibility

    • Paul Ferris
    person
    Stan Leeperson
    Craig Faresperson
    Jack Dangerperson
    Zachperson
    Total Nuclear Annihilationgame
    Dunegame
    Grumpy Catgame
    1966 Batmangame
    Kevin O'Connorperson
    Steve Martinperson
    Jawsgame
    Presleyperson

    leak_detection: Dune and Grumpy Cat game previews shown during presentation; limited distribution of Dune preview image ('going away right away')

    medium · Franchi displayed Dune preview image with explicit instruction it would be removed immediately; Grumpy Cat similarly shown briefly

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Marvel's approval process for pinball includes vetting character artwork samples (Groot, Rocket) before hire and final review; makes zero changes to approved designs per Greg Ferris

    high · Franchi: 'Marvel would not just let's turn have anybody... do the artwork... they wanted to see something that was related to the machine so... I drew a Groot and Rocket and Marvel approved me yay'

  • ?

    machine_intel: Grumpy Cat pinball game in active development by Franchi

    medium · Franchi announced: 'Right now I'm working on Grumpy Cat. If you want to get a cell phone picture of that, because it's going away right away'

  • ?

    machine_intel: Dune pinball machine in development with hexagon visual theme reflecting movie plot points; Franchi serving as artist

    medium · Franchi shows preview image and explains: 'So it plays a big part in the movie because depending on which one of these you go through, it tells you where you're gonna go. That's where the hexagon theme came from.'

  • $

    market_signal: Expo schedule disruption causing two-machine project delay from originally planned Expo release to September/October timeframe

    medium · Franchi: 'Originally it was supposed to be Expo, but Expo is now all broken up and something's going on there. So sometime around there, I've two new machines coming out.'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Christopher Franchi transitioned from Stern Pinball (where he created artwork for Beatles, Guardians, Munsters) to Spooky Pinball as lead artist

    high · Presentation context indicates Franchi now at Spooky while discussing his Stern projects; KB confirms this transition in 2025

  • ?

    product_strategy: Two new Franchi machines originally scheduled for Expo but now targeted for September/October due to Expo schedule disruption

    medium · Franchi: 'I have two machines that will be out in October or maybe September. I don't know. Originally it was supposed to be Expo, but Expo is now all broken up'

  • ?

    product_concern: Color-printed armor manufacturing issue: paint scratched off by player rings, requiring concept abandonment despite aesthetic appeal

    high · Franchi: 'if you had a ring on and you were playing the ring would actually scratch the printing off so that whole concept got scrapped and it's a shame because it looked really cool'

    • 10:54
    moans yes thank you start with the modes a little cluster there I work that out I figure I'm just gonna work it out from here I'll fit characters in where I can't see Gamora just barely in there but you know get her hand over here and you know the sword coming through here you know all this stuff just kind of barely weaseled in there because there really was a lot of room there was inserts everywhere we did the little magnet force area know as a favorite of you players I tried to indicate with these little stars here where the magnets were on the play field John wasn't so kind to do that so I did this a little favor for you guys like here's where the magnets are they're gonna screw every little kids in here can I swear I want to swear it at John about this left out lane here anybody else play Guardians anybody like that left out lane the ball seems to find that the first 10 seconds of every shot so there you go here's a little close-up this is not my Easter egg shot but within contained within this picture there's a tribute to Paul Ferris Paul Ferris has done a million machines but the one that's most dear to me is the 89 Batman and hopefully this will be what's on this next shot here nope it's just a close-up on the play field there's another little Easter egg in here that I'll get to if you look at the slingshots you might notice that those are not the slingshots that we ended up with and I'll get to that in a minute too just moving up the play field here
    12:44
    yeah that's just a crappy photo of groots head kind of spliced in there for positioning only and up on the left corner there's a forget a name Lutz Gamora sister
    13:03
    sure what done it it's just barely cut off on here no it's not my homie nebula yeah that didn't end up I don't know why that didn't end up I did two different plastics one with and one without and they chose the one without I would have thought it would have been fun to include that but they didn't so there's another little extra these are the plastic levels and basically how we see how this looks is one sort they've done created we layer these on top of each other and put them on top of the playfield so you get an idea what everything looks like together oh no it's jumping ahead on me but we'll stop it and so that's the plastics two levels of plastics this is the back wall plastic people don't even realize if you look at it in the game there's actually still the what's at the characters in there but people never really noticed but they're in there this is a layout with all the stickers and all the targets and all the cards and fun stuff all of this stuff has to be designed this thing is really pissing me off there we go down here on the lower right side this was a first for stern color printed armor it looked really cool but if you had a ring on and you were playing the ring would actually scratched the printing off so that whole concept got scrapped and it's a shame because it looked really cool and above that we have the head run enforcer plate this little round thing here you might not recognise when you play the game but those are actually stickers on the inside of the orb so when it opens up you see all the detail of the orb inside that had to be printed it's a certificate and as we said all the little apron frames and plastics all right here we go okay so my tribute to Paul Ferris on the top is the guardians and you'll see the Milano and the Zander ships the good guys coming in over here well if you look at the 89 Batman you'll find and this is the best picture I could find the batwing is flying down the right lane here and the Batmobile is coming down the left lane so that was my little tribute to Paul Ferris it never hurts to forget the people who were here before you so I've got my heroes there's another Easter Egg now if you were to clean your machine and take the metal ramp off on the plunge Lane you would find underneath that you set a [ __ ] where the guardians of the galaxy and Marvel was cool enough to let us put that in there of course they knew that it wouldn't be seen by most people but if you pull your ramp off it's down there and of course Cosmo makes an appearance and all the movies to go ahead and make an appearance in the pinball machine we'll get to that one so you'll find him right up here coming out of the shooter Lane it's actually right through the ramp if you look down at the ramp right through the center of the ramp and look down you see him down there I had to include him dopey boy and here's where I sign the game that those letters are actually a guardians of the galaxy alphabet and that's actually my name it if you look at it you can tell it says Franchi because if they're just kind of slightly whacked to fied letters but anyway if you're looking for it that's where you'll find it I didn't sign the art so all right here's the interesting stretch just finished all the plastics in the play field and in the summer spooky releases total a nuclear annihilation and look what's on the slings right here and lick what's on mine right here son of a [ __ ] so I called up Craig fares at Stern and I said emergency emergency I don't want to look like I stole anything from anyone do I have time to replace this he said yes one day if you get it to me in the morning we're good so that's where this design came in I don't know what that is I just kind of made a funky shape and that looks neat listen a comb I don't know what it is but we'll go with it so so as much as a lot of crap went around about Stern with that 80s sort of logo on the video screen and all the ripped off totally nuclear annihilation two things about that number one I did everything not to casein point and actually a production artist in Stern named Steve Martin did that logo and he had no idea what was going on with his total nuclear annihilation thing he he lives in his own little plan and he just did it because the eighties graphics were like hip at the time so just coincidental nobody's stealing from nobody they asked me to do a topper design so this is a little concept I came up with and they built it exactly like this in every way they didn't change anything the way the base was everything I don't even know what I'm doing I'm not a topper designer or an engineer I just said well this would be cool put some lights in the back you know some LED color changing light this is a piece of plexiglass with the Lightning on it and the silhouettes of the characters and that's what they did so that's that's what the original layout looked like now what am i showing you a picture of here this is a milano going through a time warp in space everybody says hexagons hexagons hexagons what's with all these hexagons well if you watched a GD movie you would have known that so plays a big part in the movie because depending on which one of these you go through it it tells you where you're gonna go so it basically opens up thousands millions of worlds so that's where the hexagon theme come came from I didn't this ago I'll just fill up the space with hexagons it's actually a plot point in the movie now you can tell your friends and that's a preview of my next game because I know you guys were going to ask right now I'm working on grumpy cat if you want to get a cell phone picture of that because it's going away right away there now it's gone so that's it then sure well that's the graphic part of the presentation again out like I said I had nine oh not done yet I had nine months to do this it was a lot of on-and-off time you know I would finish the you know the the cabinet's that's the easy part it doesn't really work with the game you know you just throw some pretty graphics together once that's done we'll get you the playfield as soon as we're done you know a month might go by then the play field shows up and then plastics after that and then you go in and you start tweaking things and things don't turn out the way you think they don't fit right John was making changes on the games which required me to make changes on the plastics so but it was good to have nine months to do this we didn't get in too many fights I really tried to push those those trading cards but I didn't get my way but it wouldn't be surprised that they show up on something that's it's all I'm gonna say not necessarily a future games guardians of the galaxy related but but don't be surprised if you see them down the road and that's it I guess I'll I don't know what you guys want to know so I'll turn this over to a Q&A you guys can ask whatever you want and I will answer to the best of my knowledge hey are you getting any royalties off the artwork for every game so I'm getting royalties yeah I get paid very well so I guess there's no need to ask for royalties it's I'm just performing one of many services that it takes to build a thing is it takes a village and I'm just one guy so if you paid royalties to everybody there won't be anything left and when there's no profits there's no more people on machines and we don't want that do you um are you provided a style guide from Marvel and do you follow it religiously or do you take your first shot show them what you can do and then trust that they'll let you continue to do what you do well they do provide a style guide most properties do I try to stay away from that as much as I can I'll use it for reference obviously when you know when you're drawing pictures of you know star-lord and Gamora you know they offer great photos in there too you know as a reference and you but first pass is let's see what I can get away with because no artist wants to use anybody else's stuff you know I believe that anything that has to do with pinball should be artwork that's what I grew up with and you want is there an amendment there to follow up when you did that did they give you pretty much after you showed him hey this is what I can do - they give you free rein then yeah yeah that's what happened - I did the first pass and showed it to him and they were happy with everything and I just said okay well I'm just gonna do everything and I'm gonna do it the way I want and if they come back and say make changes I had plenty of time so you know if they say well you know I mean I always can use whatever I do I can always use it for something so if I drew a picture of star-lord they said no no no you know use a style guide or whatever you know I'd eventually find a use for it but luckily they didn't they liked everything that I did and I was able to use it and had no it was I think I might be mistaken but I'm pretty darn sure that's somebody there it might have been Greg Ferris who was my art director on the project told me that it was the first time something had come back and they made the zero changes on the art they'd it was just like yes go with it so I didn't the only changes I made were be you know for for the purpose of sitting John's game like if he changed something in a plastic had to be changed I do that but Marvel training guides don't talk about the trading cards so anyway yeah that's that's basically what you can get away with and if you can pull it off and they're happy with it a marvel really cool to work with I know like everybody's really down on the Star Wars and all that Marvel Marvel is very creative driven and and they welcome other people's takes on things as long as it fits in the world you don't do something really crazy like you know Lego people or whatever you know as long as you stay with with what they're doing that they like different art styles and all of that so so they're very good artists and I had no problems was it dream to work with them anyone else
    24:30
    areas that you struggle with what am I gonna do with this section or what am I going to put there in the middle of the night did you have how many times do you have like aha moments where you got out more like oh my god like it finally came to me like so they have having trouble with something and then like having sort of an epiphany at some point that that rarely happens to me like if I'm just laying a bed then like wow you know and I wake up I got an idea my ideas come to me when when I look at what I'm working on because a lot of this stuff really depends on the space that you have available I can dream up all kinds of things but is it gonna work is it gonna fit so you know I usually know the way I did this was I started with the backgrounds after I had that head and the cluster with all the modes I put in all the backgrounds I'm even you know coming you know tie in those electric fire rings you know and that'll contain everything in the center and then there'll be space outside of that we'll do an asteroid field and blah blah blah blah blah and I had to tweak that stuff a little bit once I put the characters in but that's how I started and then I'm like where is this stuff gonna fit the ideas come as you as you're worrying on things you have a lot of time to think when you're drawing because takes a lot of time just to draw one character you just sitting there drawing somebody's shirt you know and you start thinking you know your mind just starts wandering of you're more interesting things and so ideas come to you come to me anyway that's how I work they come to me while I'm working anyone else who was first this guy blue shirt why does John have a vendetta against trading cards is here so we can't really hear oh I need to ask John that I don't know I really don't know I don't know if he just didn't get it or you know it's I couldn't tell you he had nothing to say about the artwork otherwise as far as everything else goes cuz he's not really there at Terkel he's designing the game and Greg Harris was the art director but Greg showed it to John and he's just like no no no no and and I'm glad you asked that cuz like he is at the show I'm gonna ask him like dude I already got a picture of me choking him because of the left outline I need another picture we choked at him because we wouldn't let me use those damn sports cards so I couldn't tell you sorry I don't have an answer but if you see him walk around the show he's a guy that looks like a BMX biker ask him and then kick him in the nuts for me all right someone over here if you could do any pinball art package original or licensed what would be your dream project well you'd have to ask me what my second dream would be because number one was 66 Batman but if any of you don't know I was tapped to do that because I already had a bunch of 66 Batman I work out in the world and Stern had their artwork done and Jorge Gomez actually completely hated it and in a panic moment three weeks before Expo three or four weeks before Expo they just went out on Google and they typed in 66 Batman and my artwork popped up and that's how I got the job so so that's that was my dream you know that's awesome to like I don't take that for granted like I feel extremely lucky that my introduction and the pinball was drawing my dream theme that's very rare but I do have more and I would love to do some of the ones I'd love to do will never be made into pinball machines like The Exorcist or Dexter's Laboratory no DT knew that be a great pinball wouldn't it because he always had the laboratory full of crazy machines I'd really really really and this might come true I'd really love to do jaws you know that my style works more towards that than it does like you know doing the Iron Maiden or something like that you know just you know I love drawing movie posters and and you know trying to capture a movie in a single image and stuff like I love doing that kind of stuff and I happen to like sharks so jaws would be another one [Music] dream theme and a jack danger pinball machine that's what I'm talking about that's about it anyone else so you mentioned some great Easter eggs in this machine has anyone ever asked for a specific Easter Egg and/or have you ever put one inside a machine we're only an owner a repair person wouldn't see it for someone did you guys all hear that it probably sounds better on that side of the speakers here it sounds really echoing strange so I'm sorry about that well I would I would hope that Paul Ferris saw the the spaceships and got the you know the tip of the hat that's not really why I did it though but there are things coming that are let's just say I'm getting more and more clever with my Easter eggs for example I can't say how but in one of I have two machines that will be out in October or maybe September I don't know originally it was supposed to be Expo but Expo is now all broken up and something's going on there so sometime around there I've two new machines coming out and my lovely daughter Presley is gonna make an appearance in there and of course that means the most to me that my dog well if I could get my little French Bulldog in on one of these machines I certainly would because Barlow's my buddy but other than that know somebody somebody asked me to I would try you know it's pinball machine there we go Sims Pet pinball machine sure okay someone else raised their hand so uh she's good with the microphone isn't she like you raise your hand and I get to you and you already got the mic when pinball designers are designing their games for a Nellie versus a pro the base model some designers start with the Ellie and then they take things wait for the pro some start with the pro and then add things for the Ellie from your our perspective how do you approach like you want to put cooler things in the Ellie because they paid more or do you want to say more people have the pros I want the pro table the cooler well I know there's somebody in the audience here I learned my lesson the hard way on guardians well basically what I do is I create art packages I don't create necessarily for you know here's a limited edition there's a super limited edition I just create art packages and then we kind of look em sometimes it's really obvious one stronger than another one well when I was doing guardians I took the one that I liked the most and I said let's put this on the pro because that's the one you're gonna see in the arcades that's the one most people can afford so it's gonna get seen the most however some people feel that if you're gonna pay a premium dollar for a limited edition you should get the best art package no but I would say mr. Canada that art is subjective and just because one is my favorite doesn't make it everybody's favorite so we gave it a shot and then they put gold our Marlin ruined it but we won't get into that so yeah I just with these next two I did take that into consideration and I will say that one of them once a kapow game one's a stern game the Le for the stern game looks like a limited edition there is no mistaking that this is the top of the line there's some very cool things in this thing that have never been done before on the exterior of the game and you will see it and you will know that's a limited edition so so I'm taking that into consideration nowadays all right anyone else sorry it's the person with the microphone you found particularly inspiring and is there any work that stands out in your mind any any work like a particular piece of art not a particularly severe my favorite artists are kind of eclectic it's I don't know very many people who could say if you list of your list of favorite artists at least contemporary artists wouldn't have Drew Struzan at the top of the list he's my absolute favorite I think the man's brilliant I also like an artist named Charles Burns who is an underground comic artist and you might have seen his work on album covers he also does comic books that are kind of adult themed not like you know creepy nudity and stuff but you know just stuff kids wouldn't be interested in reading crazy I don't think kids are very interested in reading this either Elizabeth well that wasn't on my flash drive I don't know what that was but one thing on these on this thing are slides for this show because if anything else is on there and accidentally got showed
    34:58
    all right where was I Oh favorite artist yeah Charles burns he's a he's a an inker this guy is a robot he just strictly draws him black and white and his lines are so any humanly perfect that it would just blow your mind other artists now I can't think
    35:25
    help me tell me who are my favorite artists Paul Ferris isn't one of my favorite artists no no I respect his work as far as pinball goes you know I have a lot to learn about people I've been a fan all my life and I've owned an 89 Batman for a long time only because it's Batman I'm a Batman collector so so I still have a lot to learn but I will I'll say modern day I really like Jeremy Packers work whose you may know as zombie Yeti dead magic girl and others yeah he just has a sense of fun about his artwork that I really like I have a very similar style than he does along that vein but I have really haven't had a chance to use it yet because I basically grew up as an artist thinking if I could draw like anyone I could be used more than a guy who just draws like this because if you need this you'll go to that guy but if you need this any of these you could come to me because I can do all of these so I don't really have a particular style but there are different different ways I like to draw and and you know I don't know I'd still you know Jeremy's probably better at me than that style but I appreciate that style I like all that little fun stuff too little good luck charms and flaming dice and we are I will say this he definitely has a favorite color scheme I can tell you're whole orange Aquila yes performs in Seattle everybody I'm scared for purple orange until and that weird green color yeah the first ya when Batman came out everybody was like you know wow with the colors you know and I'm like what did you ever watch the show it wasn't you might have watched it on black-and-white TV but that was like the first super colorful show and when I got to Guardians the lessons I learned on Batman were really bright colors really stand out and they go well with the concept of a box of flashing lights you know would you want to have you know I've seen some emotions that really dark and tall and and they don't appeal to me I don't want that doesn't look for fun it all should be fun and so visually you know I'm a firm believer in bright colors and I'm a firm believer and giving you what you what you pay for you're not gonna look at a play field that I design and go there's one two three characters wow thanks I'm gonna put as much effort in detail into every area of that play field as I can so that when you look at it as Canada says you fall into the world under glass that's what it should be there should be no dead zones it should be fun everywhere it should be exciting it should be colorful it should pull you in hey lady excuse me okay next yes yes with the guardians of the galaxy that's a group of five but you put all the villains in as well did you get any concept feedback from Stern like what they wanted to do with the game in terms of how Vega we're going to play the modes and that kind of stuff that you figured like okay they all need to be in there or was that your choice or were there are guidelines like we need everybody in there you're asking if the the concepts that I used on how the different things were presented know about the characters used on the game because in essential in essence the guardians of the galaxy are a group of five but you put all the all the villains in as well all the villains I just you know I've seen both movies at that point I had seen both movies and I knew I could only use the one to answer your question or to answer the question everybody's thinking or always talking about like why didn't they do both movies you can't just do what you want sometimes a studio will say here you go you get the whole suite and sometimes they won't Marvel did not so we went with the first movie as far as the villains I just went with with what I knew you know there were there was ronan he was he was the main bad guy you had Gamora and you know okay what's his name who's the big baddie what the glove Thanos Thanos yes thank you sorry I'm old and I can't remember [ __ ] anymore you know Fanus was in there for like two seconds but but that's where the movies going that's where you know the Sears was going like you know it's eventually going to end up with you know with Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet so I had to put him in there and pretty much felt that that's that's all it needed you know the other bad guys were you know miniscule it didn't really need to be on there I figured the less I used the more the bigger I could make them all right Chris you started told my question earlier so before you started doing pinball art what was your tell us about how you got it what your feelings were towards pinball beforehand obviously you said you had an old Batman but so how did you get how did how did you like pinball other than the fact that it was a Batman machine
    41:37
    okay so what was I doing before pinball no see now the lack of microphone works much better okay how much did I like pinball I at this if anybody hears from the Midwest I grew up playing hockey so we all know that there was at least three or four pinball machines in every hockey rink and what you don't know is that my mom wasn't always on time to pick me up so I played a lot of pinball and my favorite was Captain Fantastic Bally's Captain Fantastic so my interest in pinball was strong but I wasn't into the culture I didn't know about the inside you know I I didn't know about all these oh you know I didn't know about well you know what a big culture it was now you know cuz just two years ago this thing was already happening you know the resurgence was already happening and I wasn't even aware of it you know this the strange thing with Stern was that in 1996 I was working with kiss and I called up Stern after finding out they were the only people left and I called up Stern and I said you know and this was just for selfish reasons because I wanted one I said you know kiss is a really collectible pinball machine did you guys ever thinking about making a new one with today's technology with all the cool ramps on the crowd because you know the classic machine is classic it isn't all due respect to it it's boring you know you know hit these three targets down there's a bumper over here you know big deal I just thought the way kiss does things a new machine would be amazing so I was working with the Beatles at the time doing t-shirt design sportswear designs for the Beatles and I said kiss also works with the same merchandise company as the Beatles so I said I could hook you up with the licensing people for kiss and put in a good word for you if you let me do the artwork and they said okay well and it was probably [ __ ] they're probably like yeah we'll let you do the r or whatever [ __ ] you know but set it all up and kiss Bing kiss wanted way too much and Stern didn't do it at the time but I had a bunch of concept art that we eventually used for kiss you know like I had this brilliant idea or at least I thought it was brilliant at the time because I never saw anybody do it before to do a plastic that connected the inline plastic to the sling bumper and it was a side view of jean with his mouth open and his tongue missing but the flipper lined up right with the bottom of his chin so if you put a red flipper in there it would look like his tongue flipping brilliant right and then the ball would come down from behind his head so you couldn't really see it until it popped out of his mouth never got used never got used got thrown in the [ __ ] can because kiss is a bunch of money-grubbing vultures hope that answers your question oh one more question
    45:14
    are you in house with Stern or you contractor for artwork Oh in house for stern no I'm a contractor for stern right now and that will probably take me up to October and then I probably won't be but we don't want to talk about that so for now contractor yep all right is that it we're good all right who had you want to pick the best who had the best question who would the best question come on I think I like the question of what what you would be doing and what you were doing before pinball because that's what I grew up on I grew up on the t-shirts and kiss oh okay so you okay so you and the personal personalized signed Guardians print anybody else if you want a signed Guardians flyer come on up and I will sign one for you no charge at all of course because it ain't worth [ __ ] but come on up and thanks for coming out listening and have a great time at the show