Christopher Franchi

Pintastic New England·video·52m 44s·analyzed·Jul 5, 2019

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Christopher Franchi shares career trajectory and addresses pin-up art controversy that's ending his convention appearances.

Summary

Christopher Franchi, Spooky Pinball's lead artist, delivered a career retrospective at Pintastic New England covering his path from licensing design (KISS, Warner Bros., Joe Cameco work) to pinball art starting in 2016 with Batman. He detailed his creative process on games including Guardians of the Galaxy, The Beatles, The Munsters, Catwoman, and discussed unreleased artwork for Beetlejuice and Superman that were rejected by Stern leadership. Franchi addressed controversy over his 'Fantastic' poster design, which drew backlash for allegedly sexist pin-up imagery, leading him to withdraw from the convention circuit and restrict his social media engagement with the pinball community.

Key Claims

Batman was his first pinball job, completed in two weeks with three back glasses created over three consecutive nights after being hired on zero notice by Greg Ferris
high confidence · Franchi recounting his entry into pinball in 2016 via Stern's Greg Ferris
The Beatles pinball game's high price was due to the licensing cost ($1 million) rather than art costs
high confidence · Franchi explaining controversy about The Beatles pricing, citing Joe Cameco conversation
All artwork on The Munsters pinball was created from scratch because Universal only provided three poor-quality photos, wallpaper designs, and a logo
high confidence · Franchi detailing research process for The Munsters game
Beetlejuice and Superman artwork were rejected by Sam Stern and the Stern team, who didn't have a team that believed in the projects
high confidence · Franchi explaining George Gomez's position that games need internal team buy-in
Sam Stern believed Franchi made the company look stupid by releasing Superman and Beetlejuice artwork publicly after rejection
high confidence · Franchi's direct account of Sam Stern's reaction and subsequent reconciliation
Franchi is currently on hiatus because a scheduled pinball job fell through due to licensing issues
high confidence · Franchi stating he's on 'hiatus for another couple months' due to licensing fallthrough
The 'Fantastic' poster design sparked backlash from a contingency of the female pinball community who perceived it as sexist and depicting women as weak/unempowered
high confidence · Franchi recounting social media controversy over the pin-up style artwork
Franchi is ending his convention circuit appearances, with Pintastic New England being his last seminar/signing event, though he will return for a one-hour autograph session at Texas Pinball Festival
high confidence · Franchi explicitly stating this is his last convention seminar and signing appearance

Notable Quotes

“send me the template and I'll have something for you in the morning...he had it in his email the next morning he says wow that's great he showed it to George Gomez and Gary Stern and they all loved it”
Christopher Franchi@ 3:57 — Describes the rapid turnaround and executive approval process that launched his pinball career
“I wanted to feel like he just opened up a fan magazine in 1964 and like The Beatles just blew out of a magazine and into your bedroom”
Christopher Franchi@ 9:19 — Articulates his artistic vision and design philosophy for The Beatles game
“if we force someone to do this game their hearts not going to be in it so we ask anybody if they're interested in doing it and if somebody raises their hand...that's good but if they don't then we don't do it”
George Gomez (quoted by Franchi)@ 17:33 — Reveals Stern's internal philosophy on game greenlight decisions and team commitment
“I'm eating this one I'm not getting paid for it I certainly wouldn't charge Joe for something that wasn't getting made”
Christopher Franchi@ 17:55 — Shows Franchi's willingness to absorb costs and maintain relationships despite project rejection
“I noticed a separation between the pinball industry and the pinball makers and harvest and creators and the pinball fans and I never understood that and so I thought I would make it my job to be the bridge between that”
Christopher Franchi@ 18:09 — Explains his community engagement philosophy that later backfired with the 'Fantastic' poster
“I got called things like sexist butthole...it's honestly it's still going on now...I set out to like piss on the female pinball community when it was not the case whatsoever”

Entities

Christopher Franchiperson Greg Ferrisperson George Gomezperson Gary Sternperson Sam SternpersonJoe Camecoperson

Signals

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personnel_signal: Christopher Franchi, lead artist at Spooky Pinball, announcing withdrawal from convention circuit (except one-hour autograph sessions at Texas Pinball Festival) due to social media backlash over 'Fantastic' poster design
high · Explicit statement: 'this is my last appearance as a where I'm gonna be sitting and signing things and doing a seminar and all that' and decision to delete pinball community members from Facebook
~
sentiment_shift: Sharp deterioration in Franchi's relationship with pinball community over pin-up art style controversy; self-identified withdrawal from bridge-building role due to perceived unfair criticism and personal attacks
high · Franchi recounting being called 'sexist butthole,' describing controversy as 'still going on now,' and framing community critics as 'pinball justice warriors...preying on people and ruining it for everyone'
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industry_signal: Stern Pinball's internal policy (via George Gomez) requires internal team buy-in for game greenlight; games without committed team support are rejected regardless of artwork quality or IP appeal
high · Gomez statement: 'if we force someone to do this game their hearts not going to be in it so we ask anybody if they're interested in doing it and if somebody raises their hand...that's good but if they don't then we don't do it'
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licensing_signal: The Beatles Stern pinball game's licensing cost was $1 million, not artist compensation, explaining the high retail price
high · Franchi quoting Joe Cameco: 'the license that costs a million dollars'
?

Topics

Career trajectory and licensing backgroundprimaryPinball artwork creation process and artistic styleprimaryGame-by-game breakdown (Batman, Guardians, Beatles, Munsters, Catwoman)primaryRejected/unreleased projects (Beetlejuice, Superman)primaryCommunity controversy and 'Fantastic' poster backlashprimaryWithdrawal from convention circuit and social mediaprimaryStern Pinball internal politics and greenlight philosophysecondaryLicensing costs and third-party IP broker relationshipssecondaryPinball community fragmentation and bridge-building attemptssecondary

Sentiment

mixed(0.35)— Franchi begins positive and nostalgic about his career accomplishments but shifts to defensive and bitter when discussing the 'Fantastic' poster controversy, community backlash, and his decision to withdraw. He expresses frustration with 'pinball justice warriors' and frames criticism as unfair preying. By the Q&A section, he's visibly wounded and has made a unilateral decision to exit public engagement. The tone suggests he feels misunderstood and targeted despite good intentions.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

hello everybody well we're gonna start this seminar with a a quick history most of the histories that I've done about my career have started in pinball which was in 2016 so it doesn't really tell you much about what I've done in my life so I hope to give you a little bit of background on that before we get into pinball and then after that we'll do a QA and then after that I have fabulous prizes to give away for three of you who were kind enough to sit through all of this rhetoric anyway so we're gonna start off our little slideshow there's me I used to work for kiss for five years that was one of the first big jobs I had I did a lot in the licensing industry mostly t-shirt designs that worked for Warner Brothers Paramount Pictures it is Star Trek Batman lots of bands Rob Zombie things like that and then I sort of KISS stumbled upon me and hired me to revamp their merchandise line and then of being a photographer and I worked for their magazine and did pretty much everything and most of the creative stuff aside from like designing their stage shows and things like that so there's me with a rock interior well there's me with the band there's me with a bunch of KISS junk that I designed and with some interesting hair this is more like after I start with kiss I started getting more into concert photography because I got more comfortable with it when I did it for kiss so there's shots I did for warrant and some other bands worked real close with Juliette Lewis for a while when she was doing a music thing so there's some shots there that I've done there was a project in with Norman Reedus doing a sign lithograph he likes to take every picture with a middle finger so I figured I'd join in the fun and that was the artwork that we did this is my first step to working for Stern and this was not for Stern this is artwork I did for model kid boxes from Mobius this is what Stern saw on the internet and hired me at zero hour to do that man for I will get more into that but there's the hour that idea those are all the different covers for the boxes actually if you look at that you'll recognize some of that stuff from the pinball machine and we'll get into that later too this is after that I did this cover DVD and blue-ray cover for Warner Brothers for an animated movie featuring Adam West and Burt Ward voices as well as Julie Newmar and then that began my pinball career in 2016 there's Greg Freres in the lower right corner saying you've got two weeks think you can pull it off it started off with them hiring me to do the gadget drawings which if you played the game you know that they pop up on the premium edition whatever the middle edition is what does that one call the limited edition all the plaques were named after a gadget and I did all of those drawings and then Greg kept saying I wish you could do a back glass that'd be great and I said send me the template and I'll have something for you in the morning and he's like what I said send me a template so I knew all this artwork that I'd already done for Mobius was approved and it's plus the artwork I did for a Warner Brothers obviously approved so I took that artwork matched it together drew some new things Batmobile in a different background and whatnot and he had it in his email the next morning he says wow that's great he showed it to George Gomez and Gary in them and they all loved it and I said can you do another one all right stayed up all night next day so now I'm working on like three hours of sleep sent them another one and they loved it and they said do you think you could do a third okay so when three nights I did three back lapses and that's why when you look at it you know you'll see like oh well that's the same Batman and Rob you know in the right one it's in the middle one you know this is all done in three days that's why you know the the elements that I could draw knew I did but I just didn't have the time to do it from scratch but as far as pinball was concerned this was all new and they said do you think you could draw a backbox yeah send me the templates so I did the back girl once I got Batman and Robin on the front let's put Batgirl on the side do you think you could do another one this is literally what Greg Harris did to me it was one piece at a time he got me to complete them a day at a time one day after another even on the weekends until I had all of the back boxes the trans lights and the cabin artwork done in two weeks actually the Ellie took a little bit longer because the the bat the Batmobile on the side that was all new artwork and there's like a little cave in the city in the background it took a lot of time to draw that but we got it done and it was ready for Expo and that I continued working on the gadgets until November so that was a whole lot of fun but that was my introduction to involve after that guardians of the galaxy the the artwork that you see on the right side there that was my tryout for Marvel because you don't just get the job Marvel wants to know if you're capable of doing because they don't want to waste your time and they certainly don't want their time wasted so I did an illustration of Groot and Rocket and they said yes and we went ahead and did that so there's that we've gone over this you know and you've seen this stuff so I'm not gonna dwell too much on this stuff but I do have a little surprise to show you this was something that I really really really pushed for in the movie you know it's a very heavy 70 soundtrack even to the point where on the spaceship you will see you know his little sort of a retro tape deck that he's got and around that tape deck there were old trading cards sports cards and in the end of the movie and the credits they had the characters on different like sports cards that they had created so I went and found five different old baseball cards and redid them all the characters and I wanted that to be the side cabinet on the le and I went from the Le to the premium to the pro no no no so I redesigned it as a site on the backbox no they just did they weren't feeling the sports car thing so it didn't happen but there's a sneak preview of we're not preview about a sneak peek at something that didn't happen but it really did want to happen I was kind of neat then we went to the Beatles it give you a story behind the Beatles so there was a lot of controversy about this game not only the price which I did not set and it wasn't because my art was expensive it was the same price I swear it wasn't my fault it was actually the license that costs a million dollars Joe Cameco came to me and he said we're gonna do the Beatles and I said okay cool I mean who wouldn't want to be a part of that he says we've got two choices we can do yellow submarine or we could do 1964 Beatles and I took a look at the artwork for yellow submarine now the first my first reaction was forget yellow submarine whenever I see Beatles merchandise it's always yellow submarine puzzles lunchboxes little Hot Wheels thing you know how about something new and then I saw this and I would never buy a pinball machine with the Beatles looking like that that's your yellow submarine Beatles right there Paul's got an orange beard you know yeah no no no so I said I said is there potential to do another Beatles game and he said there's always potential he says I'm not saying no I'm not saying yes it could happen and I said well if there's gonna be a series of games or even if there's just gonna be two I think it would be nice to start off where the Beatles started off and since their original plan was to do a remake of C which and it is a remake it's not a reskin it's all been be engineered from the ground up George will tell you that let's go with retro art you know let's let's just do the whole you know beetle me it's called Beatlemania pinball so I drew all of these little you know vintage you know pieces of memorabilia and we stacked it all in the game and it's it's okey know the idea that I told George was like I wanted to feel like he just opened up a fan magazine in 1964 and like the Beatles just blew out of a magazine and into your bedroom and I think we successfully pulled that off that's exactly what we wanted to do a lot of people were like you know we want the hippie you know the later Beatles wasn't an option the only option was 64 Beatles or Yellow Submarine and between those two I hope you agree on my choice did not want to do Yellow Submarine so yeah I definitely think that the you know the Fab Four the mop top Beatles were the way to go and with the retro design of the pinball machine I thought it was perfect and I only just prayed that everyone else did so that's where we went with the Beatles this is something you probably haven't seen this is the side of the Platinum Edition whoo platinum you got $25,000 you can have this artwork in your house that's what that looked like because most people have not seen that and then we have the monsters that was my next job I actually did the monsters the same time I was doing the Beatles this was a very interesting job they sent me the assets from Universal for the monsters and they consisted of three photos that sucked some wallpaper designs that you could put on your computer that some high school students won a contest designing or so it appeared there was nothing that I had the logo that's what I had to work with was the logo and I'm like okay well I'm gonna have to do some research I spent a lot of time watching the two series the two seasons taking pictures with my cell phone at the screen you know for reference I got all these great pictures of Herman Munster with my arms you know like a silhouette reflection of my hands and my camera over his face but you know I just had to get what I could shots off at Google so everything in here was created from the ground up pretty much even had to draw hate hate hate drawing cars and that was the worst car to draw ever like there was there were no good pictures of that car and I'm not like a Motorhead I can change my oil I can add oil I can't even change my oil I can add oil I can look in and go hmm that looks dirty but that's about it I can't fix cars so I'm drawing this engine and there were no clear pictures of it and I'm just like trying to figure this stuff out it was a pain in the butt anyway all the illustrations on this were were ground up some of them don't even exist in photographic form anywhere I just created them you know I might have stolen you know an angle of Herman's head and you know put it you know drew it onto a body that I just created but that was that a little a little fact you may not know about the limited edition which you will see on me that just change on me oh the the red one the casket handles on there though the concept behind that was that it was a casket and I designed it with actual casket handles and George said do you know pinball people and I said not very well yet I've only been in this industry for a couple years he goes these people will try and pick up the machine by the handles and they will crack the cabinet we cannot put real handles to cabin so you guys quit drinking beer and horsing around we might go to do some cool stuff I'm just saying so I had to draw off casket handles and put them on there but you know cool anyway that was that was my latest job what do we have next so here's a shot of the playfield without the lower thing now they're on the far right you'll see the words the monsters and a spiderweb that's actually hidden underneath the RAM that lifts the ball up over the orbit so if you're ever clean if you own this game and you're ever cleaning it you will find that underneath the ramp I like to hide the whole fun stuff here and there and there's a shot of you know maybe you can see it good in there I've been criticized at times of just drawing realistic stuff that has no style and I tried to find something that I could show good enough that would at least try and you know show the style in my artwork because it's not I would not ever call my artwork photographic there's a lot of scratchy lines in it you know I just render it by scribbling you know after I get base colors down I Rendel by scribble with color pencils until I get all the shading and everything the way I want and if you're ready to look at you can see all of those lines in the artwork so there is a style to it I'd like to outline everything because I grew up being a graphic artist and working more with a technical pen then I did with a paint brush so I just adopted that and I always do I was trying to do like a signature color that goes around the character so that's kind of my style there is a style there that you will see so take that critics and then we have the cat woman edition that just came out the version that you would purchase is the main image there but I also did an unmasked version you'll see on the right that was they opted not to do that because it didn't look as villainous but this was a sort of a quick this was a we need something quick don't spend a lot of time we don't have a big budget so all that was really redone was her head you know the artworks still exists in in that you know family of artwork for those machines I just drew a new head I was never really happy with the head because the original head was drawn off the model kit and the model kit I thought sucked the head was not good but I it had to look like the model kit so for this opportunity I'm like I'm gonna go and then draw a nice head because I knew she was gonna see it anyway she's gonna be signing cards for this stuff to be happy with it she sent me a message she was very happy so there's the unmasked version and then I would convince stern to also do a backbox originally they just wanted to do a trans light and I said well us let's do a little bit more and I didn't even really ask them I just did the artwork and this artwork was lifted the figure of her was lifted off the playfield but read wrong because on the playfield it's about two and a half inches tall I liked the pose and I never thought that it got its justice in that crappy little thing so I read through it much larger and then just to give more value I did Batman and Robin on one side and any other villains on the other is to mix it up a bit so it was fun this come from to give you the full story on these guys here Superman oh hey look see now you can see some style in there Kenya's here little scribblings in the face and in the air when you get real close to that you could see that anyway the story behind to these two guys there there's a lot of a lot of BS about this stuff and this is the actual truth of what had happened Joe again came to me and said we like to do a Beetlejuice game but Joe is just like anybody else that would approach Stern to do a boutique game he has got to pitch them the idea they have to agree to do it and then it gets done well Batman was the case in case one of them the Beatles and then this came along I got used to it being a lot of Matic I got used to this like okay I'll draw its gentle see it and I'll go yeah and I'll start working on it so rather than do some crap sketch or what about them like I'm just gonna do a full-blown black back glass and I did and he took it to stern and Stern said no they didn't want to do it they didn't have a team that believed in it and that's fair enough I talked to George about it and in George's life it you know if we you know if we force someone to do this game their hearts not going to be in it so we asked anybody if they're interested in doing it and if somebody raises their hand and you know and we believe in it you know that's good but if they don't then we don't do it so they rejected both beetlejuice the Superman well I didn't exactly have a contract through Joe I mean Joe is a very good friend of mine and so I'm like okay well I'm eating this one I'm not getting paid for it I certainly wouldn't charge Joe for something that wasn't getting made so I'm like well since I got into pinball one of the day one when I got into pinball I'm gonna serves a separation between the pinball industry and the pinball makers and harvest and creators and the pinball fans and I never understood that and so I thought I would make it my job to be the bridge between that oh I can go I'll talk to the people tell them stuff that maybe Stern or other people don't want me to talk about not secrets like oh this is going it's going to be next but you know on the process be a little bit more open with people and that's what I did of course like anything else that ended up bite me in the ass but that's another story but I thought hey let's let's give everybody a chance to see this because how often do you get to see artwork for something that didn't get made at least in a timely fashion maybe 20 years down the road if I make a coffee table book would be like here's a Beetlejuice game that never got made like oh I wish I would have saw it back then you did I put it out cause a lot of controversy people thought that I was lashing back at Stern I don't know why because I posted George's comment with the artwork but that said this is why they didn't do it and I completely understand but they did and then people went after Stern thank you for that because that all the rumors a-helix branches still working for starett you know a lot of that stuff was founded on some stories going around where Stern was really pissed at me and I wouldn't say Stern was really pissed off at me I would say literally Stern Gary Stern was not happy with me he thought that I made the company look stupid and I was certainly not my intention and I'm not saying that it didn't if people came to him and said why didn't you make this I can understand why he felt that way but again it wasn't my intention I was just trying to like show you guys something neat like you know that you ordinarily wouldn't get to see so we have since mended our ways and you know all was happy and trans Easterns land I'm currently on sort of a hiatus for another couple months because the job that I was slated to do fell through with the licensing so just so you know that's all good but but that's a true story behind this artwork there's nothing more than just trying to show you guys some neat stuff the you know like we this particular one we did a little bit more because we had to get the family to buy in the Christopher Reeves family but you will see a lot of reused art which would have not been the case when we did it I was just I only had so much time so I tried to milk what I couldn't spread it out that's why you'll see you know him pulling a shirt open on the side of the bath box as well as on the back glass on the mock-up there and then on the side of the cabinet you know down at the bottom and then on the alternate back glass it was the same flying pose we're just trying to use what artwork I could I did have time to do and spread it around just to show them some neat stuff that's that's really and that was I think that was well the cat woman was the last project that I've worked on but facism things were the last things that really got into theirs of course again the close-up Christopher Reeves noggin this was the last piece of artwork that I did now this we could may be familiar with this movie one got two guys three four five this is a Steven King movie that came out in 1979 a made-for-tv movie in and scare the crap out of me there were little kids floating in the window like vampire kids and they were scratching on the glass hey my god they made those white eyes like when you're like 12 years old and you have a bedroom window it's just not a good combination like just like I moved my bed to the other side of the room because I used to be right by the window I'm like I'm not being by that the kid the kid had a model kit in the movie that kid had a model kit with a little cross from a cemetery on it and when this floating terror baby came to his window he snapped it off and he held it up the window I went and bought a model kit like that so that I would have a cross just in case I needed it but anyway that's just something I really somebody some little kid a little girl sweet little girl I was talking to here over the weekend wants to be an artist and so we were talking and spent a lot of time with her probably about 45 minutes talking to her about hard work and she asked me is something no one ever asked me before what's your favorite piece of art and to inspire her I told her I haven't drawn it yet it's coming but I haven't done it yet but now that she's not around I'll say this is my favorite that's that's actually there's a little bit of trivia for you that's who I named my dog after that's Barlow the vampire and I have a little french bulldog at home waiting for me to get back to him named a Barlow I named him that because they have similar ears anyway so there's that and now it is time for a glorious Q&A I know you guys have heard a lot of my story before so I thought I'd give you guys plenty of time to ask me any questions that I may not have answered or that you have a burning desire to ask now is the time you want to get up to the microphone what are you I'm afraid of this guy's question already it's just back there laughing that's what she said I was just curious if I could get your explanation for your Facebook implosion call it what you will you can you can yeah one thing I didn't make part of this this presentation was the artwork that I did for Fantastic which you guys will see in on the hallway out here on a big banner and on the t-shirts and the glasses and all of that the story behind that was Gabe asked me actually at Texas pinball Festival last year if I would do this show and it's always an honor when someone says hey you know we want you to be like our poster artist you know and I mean poster iris doesn't like you know poster person obviously I would do the poster as well but I said absolutely because I can a pre-trip out here but no it is an honor and and I said sure I said what do I have to do and he says we hit the draw t-shirt in the poster and he told me you know one year we'll have an old guy and I don't mean because I'm an old guy but you know a classic artist and then we'll have a new artist and even though I'm 52 years old I'm still considered new artists because I've only been in pinball since 2016 so I said okay and he showed me some of what the other guys had done and like last year was Paul Faris and he had the luxury of having this huge body of work which I greatly respect I love the guy and he and all these characters like back in the 70s when they didn't do Batman and Superman they did you know gargoyle from hell and all this other stuff so he had all these characters that he had created he could pull into a t-shirt design I didn't have that I had Superman and you know all this stuff that's license that you can't put on a shirt so I I said to Gabe I'm like I'm I just have to create something you know I have nothing that I've done that that you could put on a shirt and not get sued over so he said well all right go for it so I thought all right well I like old sci-fi movies like cheesy old not good old sci-fi movies like you know 2001 but like you know bloodsuckers from space and stuff like that I like that you know like I love like Bettie Page stuff like that old pin-up art you know like the old paintings that the guys used to do and then the artwork on the nose of the bomber planes you know the women riding Rockets and you know laughing and whatever so I thought you know well let's tie all this stuff into one and make a really cool design and and I came across this poster for this movie called the green slime which sounds disgusting but and it's like these monsters from outer space didn't the name didn't make any sense at the time but anyway the poster was this octopus looking kind of creature was more humanoid with legs but then it had octopus tentacles coming out from there and and this you know these this girl in a foil suit or whatever and she's got like a Raygun and saying I'm gonna do like my own version of this because of like look I don't know the space octopus appeal to me like that's just kooky I want to draw that do my own version of it so mine's a little bit more of an octopus it doesn't have the human legs that are disguised as something else but and then I wanted the girl to be kind of like a pinup version of a girl so she had you know obviously her outfit is not something you'd wear in space you know like a jacket and pants you'd have like oh you know a suit on but the girl in the original poster had a little circle cut in her jacket and in her outfit she's like a silver foil outfit so kind of that guy's a tribute to that I'm like I'm gonna put the little circle pad and the girl's jacket to match but that's like the only skin that shows and then that's cool bubbled helmet and she's got a ray gun and Betty Page like anybody here from my read Bettie Page gonna be a ton of people write their amount every 80% of the pictures Bettie Page took were like this she always had that look where her lips were pursed in her eyes were bugged and again I can't put Bettie Page on the shirt because it's a licensed character so I said I'm just gonna borrow and all the girl would look different giver in here and but I want to give her that expression because it's just a cute expression so that's what I did sent the sketch to Gabe I said what are you thinking he's like perfect love it start doing the final art so I'm doing the final art the next day Gabe calls me he's like all excited about this art he's like can I show this sketch just like get people excited and I said sure and bad idea he posted the sketch and it started a poop storm of controversy and I got called things like sexist butthole will put it nicely it wasn't the word but that called a lot of ugly stuff and it's honestly it's still going on now I mean I've talked to people here you know I mean supportive people will come over and said you know I'm screwed and all that but there's a there's a backlash like I set out to to like piss on the female pinball community when it was not the case whatsoever I did something that represented me because that's what my task was and those are the things that I like and I don't mean sexism is something I like but I like old pin-up art work I like old sci-fi movies half the movies half the movie force did you see those will move you know some monster carrying a girl and like there's a girl in the corner you know that's just what it was but apparently the the a contingency of the female pinball community thought that I was painting women as weak and non empowered you know that's unfortunate I'm not going to apologize for it because I didn't set out to hurt anybody's feelings or rub anybody the wrong way that wasn't my intention but people are gonna take things the way they want so that's unfortunate so I said I said that bad but I'm not gonna if I apologize that's like saying I did something wrong I don't feel I did I did what I wanted to do you're never gonna please everybody if I I mean I just I don't go to pin side anymore when like get released you know our work sucks what a bunch of crap I brought so I know everyone at every was gonna be pleased I certainly didn't get expected you know be expect to be called a sexist piece of you know whatever bless you but you know that's unfortunate and at that point I had just decided that it was probably not a good idea where's the gentleman answer question there at that point I decided it probably would not be a good idea that I was that person that bridged pinball to the people that you know because when you do you just you know I just felt like one of those tin ducks in the shooting gallery like just take your shots and I thought why am I doing this Jeremy Packer (Zombie Yeti) Yeti he's over here taking a nap he doesn't even know what the internet is he's just doing his art and he's having a good time and he's getting his paycheck and I'm like you know what I'm gonna do that I tried the other way I tried to be that guy Hey look what I'm doing check it out stir ins kind of pissed off but you know hey what do you think and just decided I can't do it anymore so I went to my Facebook page and I just went to my friends list and if I went to anyone I go that's a pinball person delete that's a pinball person to leave the only people that I left on my page were Stern employees or really good friends of mine that I know aren't you know someone that's gonna you know whatever people I can trust and I can keep them my friends list and then there's a few stragglers that I don't think I got to in time you know so they're still there but whatever but yeah so unfortunately at this point in time I decided that I'm not going to do you know like the convention circuit anymore this is my last appearance as a where I'm gonna be sitting and signing things and doing a seminar and all that I will be at Texas and I will take part in the autograph session which is like an hour long thing but me and Ed are really good friends so come back out for that but you know it happens sometimes you know a few people spoil it for everyone but you know I just pinball supposed to be fun you know and the way I look at it is like you know I learned a new phrase this weekend and that's the SJW do you guys know what that is social justice warrior well P what is it p JW pinball justice worse they're out there and they're preying on people and they're ruining it for everyone else so clean a swag missus pin if you want to make a shirt no pinball justice warriors and on my back keepin ball fun that's what I hope for some day right now that's not the case and like I said some people are ruining it for everyone and I had to buy a bow out and that's unfortunate but I told Gabe I said there's no way I'm going to bail out on this you know even though my feelings have changed I made an obligation to do this and Here I am so and I don't regret it I'm not up here because I feel I have to be I'm up here because I said it would be so that's does that answer your question anybody else questions come on Oh our own in-house artist art director Joel de Guzman alright let's get my hair find jobs sir hey Chris so I want to ask you something that I actually also wanted to ask Jeremy Packard when he was here but I never got to so one of the big things that I've noticed as I've gotten into the pinball hobby is the whole technological change in lighting and as an artist this is one of those things that I always see even you see people who put LED game LED lights and like a Paul Faris game but they're all purple so what I want to know is when you're creating artwork for these newer games which all have these like new RGB color changing lights you know flood lights and contain iums whatever this crazy stuff do you have to take that into consideration or do you like make something and then see the lighting they put on it and like ah what do they do can we change that that's what I'm wondering well there's a there's two answers to that number one I get a rough idea when I get the schematic for the playfield if you guys saw what look some people like that if you guys know who cañedo is but there are some people out there that will say there's plenty of artists out there why aren't there more honest and pinball if you can draw you can do pinball no no you have to it's you have to understand pinball you have to know what you do you can't just draw pictures and I can slap on my you know if you look at there's a lot of thought going into that so sorry cañedo but you can't just make a pinball machine if you can draw so we get a schematic that has like we're all you know it's black and white and I mean literally black and white like black lines of white background no grayscale no pretty stuff here's where all the inserts are going they plan all that out so some extent I can change it I change the inserts drastically on the Beatles because I wanted a big image of the Beatles and they have just like a rainbow and a spot for the Beatles in there so they will give me a rough idea of what they're planning on doing with with the lighting it's it's not always dead-on and I take that into consideration but that that's very mild compared to what they plan they give me very little information on lighting the second half of that question is I do my art and let them worry about it so you know here's here's the art you know they'll put the lights in they'll you know print out the playfield they'll test the game if anything looks funky they'll change the lights yeah because that's what you want and the arts got to look good when the machines off right you know I can't I can't work around that and and then have it work great for the lights and then when you shut it off or when that feature is not going it looks like crap it's got to look good all the time so I let them work around my work makes it easier for me I'd say generally when when you see these machines stock out of the box you know before people start changing out the lights or whatever they look good like though the art you know it's it's lit well and it's displayed well yeah yeah it's all taken into consideration there no I'm getting more comfortable with with the guys at Stern and they are with me as I go so you know I've made suggestions we're like let's not make this like a clear RGB let's make this an opaque yellow you know we had a lot of fun doing real retro kind of things with the beetles where we having a solid white big solid white insert and we put the Beatles logo on and we use that for the kick drum of Ringo's drumset yeah you know I want to do I wanted all the inserts on the Beatles to be old-school and I didn't get my way but because I really wanted that game to look like you know you just pull them out of a you know that big warehouse where the temple was not the Temple of Doom you know like they pulled it out of that we're also on check it out you know but now they you know they wanted to put the modern technology in there too you know so it's taken into consideration on both ends is that the true answer you know I'll use the information I have do the art and then they work around here thank you following up on that are you when you are back on another pinball assignment do you think you might get more into their brainstorming sessions and try to influence earlier on in the process I only do it when I think it's necessary I don't make it a point to try and put my stamp on the game you know like well yeah that's a great idea to life but screw you you know I've got better ideas I don't want to do that I don't step on anybody else's work my interest is is how everything is going to get married together and I merely suggest changes it's not my call I can't say this insert needs to be like this I think mentioning Dwight that gives that's a perfect opening for somebody and it's I think nowadays commonly the programmer says when we're doing this mode all the relevant targets are going to have their RGB LEDs go blue this shade of blue because that's the mode you're in would you want to have some say in that because it's no no I don't I don't see the lighting as art I see the art that I put over top of the insert is art but you know a lot of times especially working with Dwight Dwight Dwight modeled a lot of the insert colors and things like that off of my heart Oh after he saw it you know so because they get early peaks at that stuff I don't finish the whole play feel then send it in I'll finish the bottom I would start at the drain and work my way up and I saw send him that and you know they worked a lot you know like whenever you in the monsters whenever you hit the Lilly Bank of targets there's this old organ sound and it only makes that because I decided that the plastic on top of that was gonna be the keyboard from the old dusty organ so he's like put the sound in you know for the organ you know so it we kind of work hand in hand there's no real plan but I do come in at the beginning like for the monster so we sat down and they had some very basic stuff done with the playfield and all that and I had a marker and Dwight had a marker and he's just telling me things and I'm writing things down and I have all these things that Holman has pulled it up the giant pieces of you know full-size pieces of paper with all of our scribbling on what's gonna be what but that's pretty much White's job or the ER the coders job is to really call all that out that's not an artist thing like you know he wanted all the inserts to be purple for the you know the little grandpa vampire teeth and that's all at his call like I said I can make suggestions if I think design wise something would have worked better or whatever but it's up to him to say yes or no and that's it and I try to I honestly try to stay away from that because it's someone else's job I just I just sent you this message on slack it turns out we're in the same division it's ain't good oh you work at sea yeah and what's your name Chris grant and the audio director oh yeah casino match nice just we never actually I just thought that losing a brothers powers activate great great story about Dwight and playfield art and connecting it with sound we've gone back you know decades Dwight and I yeah in addition to all the political stuff that we love to talk about love to disagree about but he's got some he's got some great notes about that but actually that was not what I was going to ask you about I just wondered if so we both work at a division of Zynga that uses a economic model that's like free-to-play right so we get people to come in and play for a couple of hours and and when you lose and you will you can either wait til tomorrow where we give you some more coins or you can buy and we are still in existence because a lots of people frightening lis numbers large number of people are prepared to do that right so that's what we do but I just wondered whether or not that was something that you'd ever thought of in terms of pinball whether or not we're in a where we're gonna place where where the work that we do you know I'm a sound guy you're an artist and so we don't necessarily get much into product management and stuff like that the economy of it all I wonder if we should should we should we know about that should we be thinking about you know job Jill Balcer was talking about ball time and stuff like that in the last in the last session should we be thinking about ways to get people to get people three moves before the end when they run out of power run out of money or something like that and we wanted can't can we get them to get me to spend another buck - it sounds evil doesn't does it is that is that evil is that just like it's like it's its business and it's and you know we're in business because of it you know we're both well you know yeah you know happily employed or whatever you know I'll tell you what I think the difference is between the two of those is that the you know the Zynga games think Chris and I both work for a company called Zynga which is social media games mafia wars gardenscape of wonka world of candy because we're all the candy did you ever switch teams are you though yeah I'm on Game of Thrones right York okay that's what we do but I think the difference how that why that wouldn't work between the two companies is not even my field but just from the gut those games that you play on your phone are there like a slot machine they're like it's it's something that's predetermined more or less pinball you're on your own you're whacking the ball around its gonna go where you want it to go you have more say in what happens than a social game so I don't think there's really any way that you can control the outcome of that to where you want to stub somebody like they're on their third ball and they're just about to get to the wizard mode and you're like yeah you can come back tomorrow good yeah you all ready to give us another dollar and we'll give you another ball it's quite out of all right we used to do what you guys do that like you know 50 cents to add a ball on to a game would you do that yeah that's cuz it's kind of cheatin right that's right that's right yeah it's it goes way back goes back 20 22 25 years or something like that was the thing oh they used to do that it was when quite opposite point out you know when you know when a coin aquas King when you know when ball time mattered and you know all these games were made for yeah you know maybe for the street and not for basements and stuff like that you know very different world now for sure though yeah it's nice to me that's the best answer I have for you and and with ideas like that don't get your butt beat when you walk down the hall three o'clock in the same room all right anybody else so riding on the last gentleman's commentary an example of that would be the Flintstones where at the end of your game you could put in another 50 cents and get an additional ball that does happen yes I didn't play The Flintstones because the one I went to had that alternate back glass I understand I felt gross because I was my daughter I understand so at the same time I have a two-fold question firstly the Salem's Lot artwork is there a purpose or an idea behind the usage for that anywhere and if you had a dream theme for pinball that you could design anything you wanted to what would that be first answer is the Salem's Lot was something I've always wanted to do and since I've got like three months free I had the time to do it so it was just a labor of love sort of a thing there's no use for it other than when I posted it I got contacted by a guy who is writing a book called the pulp art of horror and it's gonna be featured in that book now along with my Creature from the Black Lagoon art which was also just a labor of love and then the second question was what well well you pay for anything well honestly I mean I've already done it Batman I collect TV show Batman that's how I got that job because I love Batman I did the artwork Stern saw it they called me up so really you know my dream team was already done but that's not really fair so I reassessed and what I like to do there are two that I would love to do that probably most of the people in this room would hate one would be Bettie Page and two would be the monster serials Frankenberry found Chocula and Boo Berry you know hey it's a serial so you can do anything you want in General Mills isms or you can't do that it's Frankenberry oh yes I can because all he does is eat cereal you know but you can build this whole monster world with little tubes that the balls could go around and you know just I don't know if you put your quarter in and don't get a game you hit the corner turn you get a handful of cereal part vending I just like those yeah I know it's retro it's fun you know kids you know some kids would love and the beauty of that that property actually is is that it's cross generational I know it you know what your grandkids know it everybody knows it cuz every Halloween it comes out so it's not like something like Betty Page where like you know all the 57 year old dudes are gonna go good you know so I don't know I think I'd be good you know I think it'd be fun that's and I'd love to do Creature from the Black Lagoon but it's over but that one's been tainted so maybe we could redo it that is a big selling title and some other big selling titles like Pirates of the Caribbean never been done more than once yeah I'd like to do yeah my daughter just reminded me uh Dexter's Laboratory - could the cartoon with the guy with a little kid with a German accent no anyway anybody else know ah reprise time I'm not just gonna hand out prizes you guys got to work for it so what I did was this is how we're gonna handle this there's gonna be a question or a visual or something up on the screen if it requires anything from me additional speaking I will give it to you but you must raise your hand to answer the question my daughter and I are gonna do the best to try and see if we can get the person who raised their hand first and we'll go from there and then we have a fabulous prize pack waiting you up here if you are correct first one is who is that did you catch it that is my dog Barlow now the funny thing is as a picture the big picture in the middle he goes to puppy camp three times a week and they sent me that picture and they said we love your dog to pieces he's insane and I said why and they go this is how he goes down the slide he literally gets at the top of the slide lays on his side and goes down that's my boy okay what's that shirt you wear large this one real all right wait don't just there's others oh there yeah we got the prize runner so there's that and then there a fancy hidden sign for your game room alright that's the first one so yeah you get a t-shirt a cool pin stickers and a sign ready okay the question oh you're not cheating if you know well if you know you know well who she raise your hand that you answer so she just buoyed her okay yes I'm the plastic this is a plastic for the Beatles and that little girl world out in the middle is my daughter do the pose yeah I I had the photo on my phone somewhere still if she saw up against the bathroom door because the bathroom has us like lighting going all the way across and I wanted even lighting and she's just like its dumbest looking picture I said it looked like you're excited to see the Beatles and she's like I don't like the views pretended so I probably said somebody a Brad Pitt what's how should you worry all right well who's gonna who wants the shirt of the two of you since you're one it's if mrs. and doctor pin over here by the way with podcast wonders large okay alright in the last one everybody ready turn around you got to see the hands I'm gonna watch too I was watching the screen for a bit all right here we go oh that's a fake question did anybody see this video on Facebook it's cropped there's two girls and they're rapping in a car and this girl her expression does not change her eyes were closed like that she was so stoned that she couldn't open her eyes she's like go home and I just freeze sit on that and I'm like what the hell is that like look at her anyway here we go ready more cowbell that's correct I got a fever and the only prescription is more combo no but that's the that's the guy from Saturday night that's cool Farrell all right did uh I didn't misspell anything all right that's it guys thanks for your time