Dusting Off the Creative Part of My Brain…
By Destro Designs – Viper Den Studios
In my late teens and early 20s, I was positive that I was going to be the next Hunter S. Thompson.
I loved to write, and write, and party my ass off. And then write after having partied my ass off. I was published in a couple of magazines and fanzines, ghostwrote some stuff that made its way into a novel or two, and I was set. I thought it was a done deal.
I was going to rip lines, have drinks, pop shrooms, and report from the field.
Alas, it did not work that way.
Quickly, I realized that I actually loved making money. At that time, I had bills, and I wanted to live well, not like a starving artist. Some would say that this was the sacrifice most make, and I chose not to.
Sort of true.
I had responsibilities. I wanted a family, and it was hard to convince a woman to have kids with and marry a dude who was broke and most likely was going to continue to be broke. I get it. It is cool. I did not find a woman to share that vision, and understandably so.
So, I enrolled in college to become an engineer. I am a math wizard, and I liked to build things. I figured good money would allow me to circle back to writing.
During my second semester, I took a hands-on class at a trade school because it would give me credit toward my major. After two weeks, the teacher told me I was exceptionally good and had true talent, and that I should consider working with my hands.
And he was right.
Shoutout to Tom Glasser. That dude pumped me up, set my compass, and got me a job teaching a construction class for inner-city, at-risk youth. It was the most fulfilling thing I ever did. I will write about that someday.
Like all good programs that actually help people, it lost funding. That is when I started my own construction class, after a year of working with Steve Robinson, contractor extraordinaire, who was so good he had a three-year waiting list.
He taught me everything I needed to know, and boom. I was off and running, and I am still sprinting to this day.
But every once in a while, I write for someone or do something for fun, just to be creative. Years went by, and I never fully scratched that itch. It has been haunting me.
Then, after reading a bunch of great articles here, I reached out to my brother at Serpentor’s Lair and asked if I could drop an article. My dude offered me a spot on the writing staff.
Shoutout to this opportunity to break off the rust and spread my wings with the pen once again. I love dropping the heat here and will continue to do so.
But now, I am embarking on a journey that has been a loooong time coming.
My brother Roadblock is in the process of making a whole new line of amazing figures of his own design. The only thing it was missing was a killer story to establish and celebrate the characters.
With a leap of faith, my brother has entrusted me to shape this world and make a story worthy of his new line of toys.
Shadow Strike is going to be an incredible story based in the near future, revolving around an AI that goes rogue after it is entrusted with establishing interstellar travel for humanity and their dying planet.
This will not be your average, run-of-the-mill AI story. It is going to have different angles and a different approach. Most stories, like Terminator, have AI becoming instantaneously aware in a single moment, and then all hell breaks loose.
I see it a little differently.
The AI splits the human race into a civil war: one side believes the AI is here to save them, while the other side is trying to destroy it. There is sooooo much happening with them in between.
With my brother ArtFacto taking the helm as the main artist, Jay Antonio is making a figure extra dope for us, and the latest development is that Matt from Mos Mind is going to make Shadow Strike, the Dark Legion, and the Citadel colorways available for all of his killer offerings.
Brotherhood. Unity. Creativity.
Teaming up with my brother Roadblock to take these traits to a whole new level with Shadow Strike.
Stay tuned.
