Long John

With Chapter 5 in the can and Chapter 6 in development, I figured it would be a nice time to dive in once again to the really fun 6 Fan Arts Challenge! For those unaware, the 6 Fan Arts Challenge was designed by artist Melissa Capriglione in 2020 that devoured social media throughout the year. As before, it was a really fun exercise, taking from the previous attempt the idea of using a limited color (to keep from getting too bogged down in the drawings). A few of the characters were plucked from suggestions on social media while others were personal favorites. If you’re unfamiliar with the characters, here is their context:

• Hilda (from Hilda comic series by Luke Pearson; also from the Netflix animated series based on the comics): Hilda is a comic and animated series that quickly became important and sincere parts of the lives of my wife and me. It’s an incredible series filled with optimism, hope, humanism, and creativity. The show became an absolute balm for the world around us during the pandemic and we are currently on our third (or fourth?) rewatch.
  
• Bishop (from X-Men comics): Debuting in a 1991 issue of Uncanny X-Men, Bishop is a time-traveling superhero with a mullet and who wields huge sci-fi guns, and he’s one of the handful of characters who is so obviously ’90s that it becomes endearing. That being said, because he comes from a dystopian future he always had a tragic aspect to his character that paid off in more recent storylines. But that’s all beside the fact that he just looks cool.
  
• Chun Li (from the Street Fighter video game series): Who probably started as a token female character in a fighting game quickly became a beloved and iconic character that the series couldn’t do without, as long as she has her spiky bracelets, that is.
  
• Goliath (from Disney’s Gargoyles animated series): Goliath captivated me as a youth with his booming, commanding voice and powerful but sensitive personality. Voiced by Keith David, he basically became the new Optimus Prime in my head––the fictional father figure I didn’t want to let down. Gargoyles is an incredible show, an animated series that tackled serialized storytelling, mythology, and topical issues with a flawless style. It was just a bonus that it featured a lot of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation in it as well.
  
• Bavmorda (from Willow): Friends and family know that the movie Willow is a deep and personal text for me. Many people love it, but I never knew a cadre of fans with whom I could share my appreciation for Willow with; because of that, it became an intensely personal movie for me, to the point that I wouldn’t talk about it with people because I wouldn’t know if I could handle it if they said it was bad (childish, I know; but hey, you’ve got to protect the things you love). The incredible performance of the actress, Jean Marsh, as the villainous Queen Bavmorda is one of the things that makes the movie so much fun. Part of it is that she is clearly having a lot of fun with it, really leaning into the villainous qualities of the role, but remaining earnest and true to the world the story was set in.
  
• Captain Picard (from Star Trek: The Next Generation): My wife and I are devoted members of Trekdom, now, having finished a front-to-end watch through of Star Trek: The Next Generation. While I learned a lot about the show and the franchise during our watch of it, one thing it did was solidify the Captain Picard as one of the greatest characters of all time and Patrick Stewart as one of the most deservedly beloved actors of all time.