A long time I posted a Saturday Night Showcase for a different form of storytelling. Chris Pearson of PopCross Studios took the characters from a book series he once worked on and gave them brand new stories, telling them while speedpainting the characters. Speedpaints and lore have now become part of Pearson’s main work, creating stories of Venom-type symbiote invasions in other realities, different characters being everything from dragons to kaiju to Transformers, and going over different realities and different types of heroes, villains, and creatures.
Among the recurring story ideas is the continuing adventures of his book characters (or possibly reboots) along with new characters he created in other speedpaint stories. Together they’re known as the Multiverse Tales, the continuing story of a band of heroes from across their arm of the multiverse standing up to great evils and making friends (and even a few lovers) along the way. Sometimes even literally.
In my YouTube backlog I finally came upon an episode of Multiverse Tales that serves as a “for those who came in late” catch-up of the various characters, plus the introduction of four new characters based on submissions by his fans, making this also part of his monthly “community redraw” segment. Tonight, in an attempt to get my schedule on track…again…I’m presenting this special edition of Multiverse Tales so you can meet the whole gang, catch up with the lore, and see if it’s something you might like to check out. Think of it as a bonus showcase this week to make up for not having one last week.
Something not mentioned, and the reason for his ten second delay, Benny Sharpe seems to be aware he’s a character in the PopCross speedraws. He’ll mention audiences and cartoonists, to the confusion of his friends who do not share this ability. Whether or not that’s tied to this records wasn’t explored here. Also, I think Kayla and Teirin (not sure on the spelling) may have a thing for each other, or they’re just really close given their history and it could be all platonic because I’m not one of those internet schmucks who immediately assume a close connection equals getting it on. I don’t do it with straight or gay characters and have no interest in fanshipping what doesn’t exist, nevermind demanding my ship is canon. I hate that. I do like seeing them hang out and Kayla & Charlie the Bio-Mech are my favorites in the series.
Admittedly I haven’t seen every episode. The SCP stuff is on the horror side and thus not for me. I’m also so far behind that I haven’t been able to keep up with the Multiverse Tales or some of his other lore series. I hope to correct that in the future. I do like his Transformers stories, though his robots could do with something to make them look like they transform rather that just share a famous vehicle color scheme or a robot version of another characters. Kind of curious what this Cybertron’s Overseer looks like. Of course, I’m still waiting for “fantasy characters in a sci-fi universe”, something I’ve actually suggested to him…but I mean, the man’s busy! He ain’t there for my sole entertainment and I’m totally aware of it. I just think it would be cool.
I did do a Saturday Night Showcase of the first of the Multiverse Tales stories, introducing the character of Bio-Mech Kayla and starting the whole series. Check that out to see the usual presentation, and check out the other videos as well. He’s a good artist AND a good storyteller.
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