Last year we (as in, the Creative Concepts team within NCsoft Europe headed by me) put together a limited edition City of Heroes Sketchbook, and very happy I was about it too, as you can tell from this picture taken with the first one.

Anyway, while I know many of you who attended cons we were at (particularly Bristol ’08) probably already have a sketchbook, not many of you will have it signed by the artists whose work is inside the covers!

Well, now’s your chance to own one of ten sketchbooks that have been defaced by artists like Dave Gibbons, Doug Braithwaite, Mark Buckingham, Andie Tong, Phil Winslade, Bryan Talbot and many more! Oh also there are pictures.

All you have to do is bid on this charity auction, with all proceeds as ever going to EveryChild!

Seriously folks, this thing is lovely, with loads of sketches inside depicting the well-known signature characters from City of Heroes, including Statesman, Back Alley Brawler, Ms Liberty, Sister Psyche, Lord Recluse, Ghost Widow and more. If you don’t believe me, click the image on the right to see some thumbnails of the imagery inside.

Considering the sketchbook was only available at a few UK conventions last year, and there’s only nine of the signed ones in existence, if you’re any kind of fan of City of Heroes you should really go make a bid! It’s for charity, after all.

Stay tuned for more hot auction items including original art from the sketchbook!

As I mentioned yesterday, starting my week on a Thursday after a West Coast US-South Coast UK transition threw me for a bit of a loop, so much so that I was convinced it was Monday for a while. Today I didn’t think it was Tuesday, but naturally it didn’t feel much like a Friday either.

Again, slowly getting back up to speed today. One thing that’s been making that whole process feel a bit ‘different’ is this:

Yes, it’s an iMac, which I am now (as of yesterday) using completely as my primary work machine, as opposed to the screen I turned to when I needed to do a nice presentation, or perhaps check my receding hairline (it’s very shiny, you see, like a mirror). This has meant that I’ve had to re-learn how to do my email (I’m using the built-in Mail app, not Outlook) and even how to use Word .docs too. So that’s been a bit slow. Thank God the web works the same, wherever.

What did I get up to today, though? Mostly email catch-up, and I also spent quite a bit of time writing this and this.

Yes, we’ve finally announced what we’re doing at the Comic Expo in Bristol this year, and it’s quite exciting. First of all, I officially announced the first ever Draw the World Together Sketchbook. It’s 32 pages with a colour cover (black and white interiors), and I saw the final proof today. This thing is rockin’. We are so happy with how it turned out, and at a measly £5 (all going to charity) I seriously think it’s going to be the steal of the show.

The second thing I announced, which was really the big surprise, is that we’re going to colour sketches – both new and existing ones. No, not with crayons… digitally, by professionals. It’s a pretty cool development and I really hope people like yourself are going to love the results. Heck, I hope I love the results – you don’t think I’m going to miss out on an offer like that, do you? In case you missed it, here’s an example of what a sketch might look like coloured, courtesy of Jason Cardy:

Pretty damn nice, I say. And that all happens in… eep… two weekends. Before then though, lots of stuff. So I better go and get to doing it!

Talk to me people! I crave comments!

Last day in the office for a week. Three weeks until the MiniCon. Holy crud do we still have a lot to do.

• Started the day in the coffee shop, trying to power through the schedule a bit more. We’ve had to divide the busiest days into half-hour blocks because we’re trying to fit so much stuff in.
• Back to the office and straight in to trying to knock down my to-do list before I go.
• Chris/Aero finishes the final, final mix and cut of the first podcast episode; fingers crossed it’ll be live next week, while I’m away and can’t hear people laughing at my voice.
• We make it out to lunch and talk over what we still have to do; it’s a lot. I make calls on the way back to the office and apologise to answerphones that I sound like I’m in a wind tunnel.
• Get a nice sketch from Andrew Wildman for the sketchbook; he must have been picking up my mental projections… Chris reminds me that we still need plenty more, but we’ve got a month.
• Struggle to finish the official announcement story for the MiniCon. Four days of ‘stuff’ can be hard to shovel into one story.
• Have a quick phone chat with Andrew over secret stuff, where I use the phrase “I have a million things to do and have to go” twice before I get off the phone… I can feel panic rising.
• Catch up meeting with marketing and community at 3pm. I find out that several people are unaware of several big things, including the MiniCon, so fill them in. Grab the road atlas we bought from our store cupboard for use tomorrow.
• Have to leave the office for a doctor’s appointment, and lose all of my momentum; appointment’s at 4:20pm but I don’t see the doctor until 4:54. I’m out with prescription, I kid you not, at 4:57pm.
• Because of the delayed appointment and all I have left to do, I have to miss the grand opening of our new staff room, which is packed with goodies and gizmos and games galore. I’ll catch up with it when I get back.
• Blitz the last few things and put the official announcement live at just a shade before 6pm. Leave at 6:30 or so after a few hurried emails.

I’ll be sending a few more before sleep tonight, too.

So tomorrow the wife and I go to Devon for a week, where I expect I’ll be pretty much off the grid, while getting cosy in a cottage, and taking bracing walks around Exmoor.

Back around the 8th with full exciting commentary. Unless I find a wifi hotspot.

Fast, fast day. For some reason listening to a 32-year old interview with Gene Roddenberry (I don’t even like Star Trek… but hey, I like my pop culture trivia) has made me slow down.

• Get another sketch in first thing… well, ‘sketch’ isn’t really fair, it’s more of a painting. Al Davison continues to impress!
• I joke with Andrew Wildman via email that he now needs to ‘raise his game’ – he hasn’t done a sketch for the sketchbook he’s really happy with, yet. A conspicuous silence.
• Straight into a meeting with my boss and our Biz-Dev manager at 10, in which I manage to get said Biz-Dev manager squirming when I suggest that we should do something for no money “because it’s good for the community”. I actually feel kind of sorry for him… but I also win the argument. Yaaay!
• Bounce emails back and forth with Andy at Omega Sektor, and chat on the phone with another Stephen, the ‘Omega Sektorian’ about his presence on our official Forums.
• Start working on the inevitably large announcement story about the MiniCon for our official sites…
• … half way through, get an email with Melissa Bianco’s flight details. She’s going to have some early mornings but I know she’s a trooper. At least… I hope she will be.
• Lunch is at our local coffee haunt, where Aero/Chris and I start hacking out the mammoth schedule for the entire weekend. We have something like 24 hours to fill and it’s not easy when we have multiple ‘tracks’ of activities, but we make progress. Somehow we decide having Hamidon raids on all four EU servers in the same night is a good idea.
• Back to desk. Expenses, really overdue. They expand into a massive pile of paper as they leave my wallet. As usual I wonder where these all came from. Worry about how I’m going to use the Excel sheet I have to use on my incoming iMac (Google Docs??).
• We get quotes for the two vans we’ll need for the MiniCon – one long wheelbase transit and the other a minibus for staff. Together they’re… very expensive. It’s the damn Bank Holiday weekend – we have to rent each for five days.
• At 5pm, sit down to re-record sections for the podcast, as we needed some extra bits and time has moved on, making some earlier takes irrelevant. I realise half-way through why professional voiceover types do their job in a sealed room without anyone else present. Somehow when you have to speak properly, and someone’s watching you, it gets harder than usual.
• Later, I listen to Chris laugh as he hacks my lengthy bloopers down into a usable form. It takes a while. We maybe use 20% of what we recorded.
• Amanda calls at 6pm to remind me I don’t have to leave until we have dinner later. Glad she called, I’d forgotten….
• Talk to Melissa at NCNorCal about the MiniCon, her flights, etc. She is, as I thought, a trooper about it. Phew.

Right. Plenty to do and miles from home….

Quite a few days, actually… but then some days I get things like this in my inbox:

Even being a small part of making that happen… well dang, I feel pretty damn good.

(It’s another image for our sketchbook, by the way, by the amazingly, stupidly talented Andie Tong. Ta Andie!)

One of those days.

• Spent the morning tweaking and adding photos, photos and then more photos to a presentation I have to give at Sussex University on Wednesday. Didn’t finish. Finding the right image takes too bloody long sometimes.
• In the middle of that, get the image I mentioned earlier. Jaw literally drops and hangs open for about five seconds. Stunning….
• Lunch with Jen where we both vent about different things… and talk about this blog, as it happens.
• Back to finalise and post details about the ‘Hero Pass’ for the MiniCon, then I duck into a meeting about said MiniCon. As the words come out of my mouth I keep thinking “So much to do, so much to do, so much to do….”
• Get back to my desk to find Forumites frothing about not being able to get ahold of Hero Passes, as the phone at Omega Sektor is ringing off the hook. Try to calm them down.
• And suddenly, it’s 6pm.

“Day ain’t over yet….”

Being ill on Tuesday gave me a feeling of ‘Must get more done!’ all day… and left me unsure which day it actually was.

• Early on, find out that Andrew Wildman’s posted all of the sketches we’ve had done so far for the DTWT sketchbook on his blog! I suggest he take ‘em down and preserve some mystery…
• Figuring the cat’s out of the bag I post a teaser to the COH EU Forums – the Statesman (1930s era) that Ian Churchill did (seen right). I start to wonder just how many of the original sketches I may have to bid on when we put ‘em up for auction. Possibly all of them… and I’ll get beaten by players, I just know it.
• Call Andrew as scheduled to discuss secret stuff. That leads to an internal conversation about that call, more emails and probably a meeting next week.
• Hear our iMacs should arrive next week. Just in time for my hols. Dammit!
• Get a sketch in from Mike – someone he’s drawn before, but in colour and in a style I’d not seen. It’s lovely stuff. I email him to say thanks and subtly remind him he owes me a sketch… but not to hurry…!
• Talk to our PR Manager about MiniCon for a bit, about press we want to get there, etc. Sounds like we’re going to have a good presence.
• Speak to COH’s Marketing Product Manager about Trial Codes. We’re under the gun on getting those done.
• Aero shows me the artwork of a certain… artist that we both agree would be a real coup to have at the MiniCon (aka Player Meet, aka Secret Event). Trouble is, he’s in the US…
• Back to Product Manager to pitch idea of bringing over said artist. Have to take it higher up the food chain, but she agrees it’d be great….
• Call Andy Hannon, Assistant Manager at Omega Sektor, and finalise pricing for the MiniCon, while firming up our meeting with him on Friday. I think I got him on his day off, but he’s helpful as ever.
• With those pricing details in hand, I can finally post some solid preliminary details about the event to the COH EU Forums, and appease the eager players who want to budget for the weekend. Love all of ya!
• Chat briefly with Melissa Bianco at NCNC, to finalise her flight details. Get some goss. Look forward to more….
• Jump onto Skype and have a great four-way chat between myself, Matt ‘Positron’ Miller, Sean ‘Manticore’ Fish and Sean’s wife, Jen, who ‘officially’ is Sister Psyche… it’s recorded for our podcast. Despite some slight technical glitches it works really well and we get some good stuff. I get to ask Matt if he’s a sadist for making the Positron TaskForce… he denies it, but I think we all know….
• Into town later to catch a late showing of Jumper. Quick verdict: abysmal. Longer verdict: book’s better. Still dream about jumping, though.

Loads to do. No time to do it.

At this rate I’ll be writing posts about the future before too long.

• First thing, open up another sketch for our secret Draw the World Together sketchbook project. Is nice.
• Second thing, get the go-ahead from our IT Manager to order new desktops for me and Spaff. New iMacs, baby. One trip to Apple’s online store later…
• Mercilessly tease players on our official CoH forums about the upcoming Secret Event. This isn’t entirely because I just like to tease… we don’t have all the details yet so I can’t spill. It’s good to get people’s blood up though.
• Thanks to an eagle-eyed Forumite, suddenly find out our secret sketchbook project isn’t so secret now, as the Bristol Comic Expo has posted about it. D’oh! Their artist list includes Dave Gibbons, Doug Braithwaite, Ian Churchill and Mike Oeming. Well, at least one of them is in it right now.
• Book car and hotel for Secret Event scouting trip this weekend.
• Go forward, backward and then forward in time (playing City of Heroes! Zing!) during lunch as I do the Orobor.. Oobiedoo… Oreo… I’m too lazy to figure out the spelling of that. The time travel arc, the first one. I love the design of the ‘zone’ you get the missions in. Reminds me of good Kirby Marvel work. Also: want the jacket The Pilgrim wears (for my L34 Blaster).
• Intrepid Editor ‘Stick’ drops off the final cut, burned to DVD, of our behind-the-scenes Memorabilia video while I’m getting attacked by Freakshow (in City of Heroes! Zing!). Have half a conversation while I hit number keys. Thank you, Defiance, for saving my butt.
• After lunch, start to flag from cold.
• Half-finish a ‘corporate history of NCsoft Europe’ which is more dull than it sounds. No wait; it’s not.
• Have a chat with our Business Development Manager about the numbers on a project we want to do. I’m arguing for us to get less money. I am an ass, really.
• Provide false headlines to Spaff for his big pitch. Gotta book that in.
• Video Aero having his brand-new PC pulled apart, as Dell has managed to build it in a very special way so that the drive bay doesn’t open. Inwardly, thank the Lord I’ll be going all-Mac very soon.
• Leave early as cold is beating me up.

Blehhhh.