About DND for Dads and Sidekick Quests

Today I was lucky enough to be featured on the WIRED Geek Mom blog. An editor there, Natania Barron, had some really great things to say about my DND for Dads project from last year. You can read what she said here: http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2012/12/stowe-dnd-8-year-olds/

This post is mainly for everyone who found me through that post... 

Why? well... because I am not sure if you know this but I've taken the DND for Dads concept and expanded it into a unique property I call Sidekick Quests. 

Currently there is a webcomic component you and your kids can read weekly here: www.sidekickquests.com

I am also beta testing a Sidekick Quests RPG and a Sidekick Quests card game as well. The RPG will hopefully be ready for limited open beta testing come the first of the year. If you would be interested in joining that play test please let me know through email. You can find my email address over there on the left.

Also, in the meantime I am currently looking for submissions for kid created monsters that will eventually be published for the RPG. If your son or daughter would find that interesting you can learn more about it here: http://sidekickquests.com/announcing-fiendish-fan-made-fridays/

Thanks again for being a fan and a geek mom or geek dad!

-Stowe

November 2012 Meaties Poster

The November 2012 Meaties Poster

Thanksgiving Eve Tryptophans

Kobolds Ate By Baby!

A piece of super quick fan art.

Donutsmas 2012

This Wednesday is my favorite holiday... Donutsmas! It is the one day a year where everyone can eat as many donuts that they like without worrying or feeling guilty about  getting fat eating them all. Go on... eat them, you have 24 hours.

Sidekick Quests Halloween Mask Ad!

Here is an ad for Downloadable Paper Halloween Masks just in time for Halloween! 

Find them for direct PDF download at the http://sidekickquests.com/store/

My Bloom County

This is my C.L.A.W. Open Swim submission for tonight of a comic strip that really influenced me as a kid. I miss you Bloom County. (tied for second with Ryan Anderson. Mark Brill came in first.) This is a vector illustration done in Adobe Illustrator.

Mystery of the Moon Stone

Here is the cover to the next Sidekick Quests storyline. 

Come see me create it in 24 hours on October 20th during the 24 Hour Comic Book Day event at Nerdy Stuffs (115 176th St S. Spanaway, WA 98387). 

Come meet me and other ambitious cartoonists, maybe bring me some food and donate to the CLAW Scholarship Fund. 

Sidekick Quests Halloween Art 2

Here is another Sidekick Quest Treat or Treater... Benton as well... just look and see:

Sidekick Quests Halloween Art 1

So this got stuck in my head and had to come out... expect others to follow... BLAH! (I love Halloween)

Crushing Mountain Form

One more drawing of my DND character. This time in his Guardian Form. Slight bump to defenses and a super cool look. I've never played a Warden but I am looking forward to it today.

Prebil Turreter

This Sunday I am lucky enough to join a new DND troop as a player. They have been together for years with the same characters so being the new player in is pretty daunting for me. Here is the character I am planning to play. A few parts Kaladin from Way of Kings, a few parts King Bumi from Avatar with a dash of Zartoz fashion thrown in. Now I need to figure out a terrible accent.

Political Bumper Sticker

Sidekick Quests Virtual Bumper Sticker anyone? Show your support this voting season.

A Sidekick Quest Preview

Here is an early preview panel of next Monday's Sidekick Quests comic.

Zombie Chunks

My entry for the Zombie themed Open Swim contest tonight! I was given the assignment to make an advertisement for "new and improved" Zombie Chunks, which are ice cube sized little cubes of zombie flesh. More information about the event can be found here: http://www.cartoonistsleague.org/claw-open-swim-wednesday-22-august-2012/

dragonweek

This isn't a real thing... but it should be.

My Mom

This year, for my Mom's birthday she said I shouldn't get her anything. So I listened to her and instead made myself something instead. I made this. This is a digital painting I made of my Mom tonight. Her name is Grace and she means the world to me. I love you Mom, happy birthday.

Sad Tauntaun is Sad

http://io9.com/5931217/science-proves-luke-skywalker-should-have-died-in-the-tauntauns-belly?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_twitter&utm_source=io9_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

A Message to Everyone Out There

This is my winning entry in this month' CLAW Open Swim. The theme... The Alternate Lifestyles of the Super Fabulous (What if your favorite super hero was gay). You can learn more about it here: http://www.cartoonistsleague.org/june-open-swim-announcement/ I decided to take the high road and recreate an icon Spider-Man Annual with a small twist. I decided early on with this assignment that to me the hero wouldn't or shouldn't visually change just because their sexual orientation does. I kept the heroes and villains the same. I just turned Mary Jane into Marty James. Total time to complete: 1 1/2 hours.

Enclave of the Bear

For the past few weeks some friends and I have been playing one of the best games I have ever had the luck to come across... RISK: Legacy. It is a game of RISK that is meant to be played only 15 times and involves changes that are permanent and change the board and the game forever. The game features races with unique powers as well. This is one of my favorites, the Enclave of the Bear.

If you are geek and know up to four other geeks I urge you to buy RISK:Legacy. It will be the best 15 games you will ever play. You can count on it.

Preview of Page 15 of Sidekick Quests

Here is a preview of the next page of Sidekick Quests. This is my favorite panel. Check out the whole page on Monday! Http://www.sidekickquests.com

June Meaties Poster

I quick poster for the next Meaties.

Wonder Dawn

This is a caricature of my friend Dawn. She was a co-worker of mine at my day job as Creative Development Manager at Lucks Food Decorating Company. She recently quit in order to move back to her home state of Texas. She is pretty awesome and always adds excitement where ever she is. She is that kind of person. I'll miss her at the office and here in Tacoma.

Sidekick Quests page 12 preview

Here is a preview panel of this Monday's Sidekick Quests comic. http://www.sidekickquests.com

FWAP!

My entry in the sound effect themed C.L.A.W. Open Swim tonight. My randomly assigned sound effect? FWAP!

Memorial Day Meaties 2012

It has been a while since I've posted a Meaties Grilling Club Poster. You can just smell the pineapple on the barbie can't you? 

My apologies to Kelloggs.

Youtube Video of my CLAW Lecture

The lecture I taught in April sponsored by C.L.A.W. is up on Youtube in its epic entirety. Youtube videographer Adam J. Manley filmed the entire lecture with my blessing and posted it up for everyone to see. Now I warn you... it is like 2 and a half hours of Adobe Illustrator for Comics tips! All the tips and tricks I show here are used to create Sidekick Quests and my other strip BotFans. Also... fair warning, there might be some saucy NSFW language.

May the Fourth be with you

...Always...

Sidekick Quests as the Avengers

As you can see... I am pretty excited about the new Avengers movie.

A new BOT FANS

Cheap luggage is one thing... but sarcastic Cheap Luggage is too much to tolerate. http://jamesstowe.blogspot.com/2011/09/dnd-for-8-year-olds.html?showComment=1334557698739#c7628551970943632083

D20Monkey

Here is my latest Artertown trade piece. This one is for one of my favorite web comics out there... Brian Patterson' D20Monkey.

Nameless PCs

I've proposed something on Twitter a few night ago. I've sent out an all call for a straight up commission art work swap with other web cartoonists. We called this swap thing 'Artertown. The idea is that each cartoonist draws the other's main character(s) from their strip. This is my first volley. Meet the main cast of the webcomic Nameless PCs: Yancy, Dwayne, Barry and Diana.

The Sidekick Quests RPG Player's Handbook cover

As seen over at Sidekick Quests I've released the cover of my forthcoming RPG rulebook. So for you, blogwatchers, I've posted it as well. I hope you dig it.

April Open Swim!

The Cartoonist's League of Absurd Washingtonians (a group I am proud to be a founding member of) is presenting a lecture series as part of our popular Open Swim drawing sessions. Later this month I will be leading a class that will provide tips and tricks for how to create web comics and illustrations using Adobe Illustrator. The event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited so get there early. 

CLAW's Open Swim Lecture Series #1

Learn Tips For Making Comics With Adobe Illustrator by James Stowe (me)

Hosted by Comic Book Ink

2510 S. 84th St. Suite 15A-B

Lakewood, WA

Wednesday, April 25th

7:30PM

What I look like.

This weekend I will be at Emerald City Comic Con walking the floor with my family and handing out Sidekick Quests leaflets. Without a booth or table how are you going to find me? I'll be the dude in the cool tee-shirt. 

Ask me about Sidekick Quests!

Let's wrap March up with some MADNESS!

I participated once again in the only March Madness that means anything to me...
MODOK March Madness! 
My doe-eyed entry can be found here: http://marchmodokmadness.blogspot.com/2012/03/submitted-modok-james-stowe.html

Literal Literary Book Title

This was my entry in tonight's CLAW Open Swim. The contest was to create literal interpretations of book titles. Can you guess the title. I will give you a hint: The BLANK BLANK of BLANK

The figure behind the bear is the main character in my fellow CLAW brother's Feed>>Tacoma comic: Thorax O'Tool's Beantown

Purple Unicorn

I recently hit 500 fans on my Facebook page. Fan #499 Leslie Stewart of darlingstewie.com who lives near my home town in PA asked if she could get a prize for being fan #499. I said, "Sure, what would you like?" and she said "Purple Unicorn".

So here you go.

Bonus... I love this thing so much i think I am going to make it one of the starter faeries a Scout gets in Sidekick Quests. Thanks Leslie.

My new addiction

So I've been playing Draw Something obsessively all weekend. I love it. Above is a sample of what I have been creating. 

Want to play with me?

My screenname is: 'jamestowe'

New Sidekick Quests comic

I just posted a new Sidekick Quests comic this morning. You can get a look at it here: http://sidekickquests.com/prologue-page-3/

SIDEKICK QUESTS Commission: The Joe Stroup Troop

This is the latest Sidekick Quests commission requested by GM Joe Stroup. Tonight his troop plays their final session... their last combat of Epic Tier against Tiamat. They've been together in this troop for an awesome 3 years and Joe commissioned this group shot of the level 30 characters to commemorate the end of the campaign.


The characters are (from left to right): Kildrak Stormborn the Dwarven Barbarian played by Gary (Joe's father-in-law), Kydan the Dragonborn Runepriest played by Devan (his sister-in-law's boyfriend), Hermy Blackhand the Half-Elven Paladin of The Raven Queen played by Brittany (Joe's wife), Xune the Drow Rogue played by Hayley (Joe's sister-in-law), Muffi Greasemonkey the Gnomish Artificer played by Noelle (Joe's other sister-in-law) and Bettledex the Human Wizard played by Nancy (Joe's mother-in-law).

Please join me in rooting this roleplaying family on has they end Epic and the life of Tiamat. Good luck Stroup Troop!

Now if you'd like to commission a group portrait of your troop you can do so over at the Sidekick Quests store... http://sidekickquests.com/store/ 

Crowdsourcing Business Cards

Okay everyone... I have a favor to ask. I am designing a new business card. I have four variations I am playing around with. I am going to show you each version and I'd like to know which one you think I should move forward with: Superhero me, Wrestler me, Barbarian me or Nude me.

Measter Poster

Draw Vecna Day Quicksketch

Wayzgoose Print Design

Last night the Cartoonist's League of Absurd Washingtonians (https://www.facebook.com/groups/97715012866/ ) voted on my design for the upcoming print festival here in Tacoma... Wayzgoose! (http://www.kingsbookstore.com/wayzgoose ) Enjoy the flying monkey glory.

Quick Sketch: Devil in a Blue Dress

This is a quick sketch (15 minutes tops) of the result of a Twitter post that Logan Bonner (author of http://critical-hits.com/category/critical-hits/columns/minor-quests-columns/ ) made of a random Amalgam comics character generator (link to the doc here: s.gd/yKi6YW ). My result... Blue Devil and Aunt May Parker...

So...

There you go.

Sidekick Quests Prologue Page 1

 

This is the very first page of my new webcomic Sidekick Quests. You can follow it and future pages at www.sidekickquests.com

SIDEKICKQUESTS.COM IS LIVE!

Depending on how you look at it this is either a few hours early or a week late... but...

www.sidekickquests.com is now LIVE!

The first comic page and blog post are both up!

So is a rudimentary store page where you can order commissions.

Pop and Locke Art

I recently had a chance to work with the amazing Daniel Solis again on his Pop and Locke game. This is the piece I made for the game.

A teaser of things to come

2012 Valentines

This year my son asked for some Harry Potter... so Harry Potter I did.

 

Feel free to download them and print them if you would like...

All I ask is that you donate whatever you think they are worth.