Book Covers, Redesigns, And Bad ‘Mechs – An Interview With Eldoniousrex

If you’ve been keeping up with BattleTech at all in recent years, you’ve almost certainly witnessed the work of Eldon Cowgur, better known online as Eldoniousrex. Starting out making art for Tex Talks BattleTech, Eldon quickly infiltrated into the very heart of Catalyst Game Labs, where he produced covers, centerfolds, and redesigned ‘Mechs. He’s also produced his own line of BattleTech fan works and still takes the time to help out with the occasional fan project or two.

He’s also the guy I somehow managed to convince to do all the funny art for the Bad ‘Mechs series, to which I owe an unending debt of gratitude.

For all these reasons and more, I sat down with Eldon to talk about his artistic and BattleTech journeys, how he goes about creating such beautiful works of art, and why all things inevitably lead to Crab. Enjoy.

Sean (Sarna): And we’re live! First of all, thank you for agreeing to speak to me, Eldon, about your work with both Sarna and Catalyst Game Labs. You’ve been doing some great work for them, and it’ll be very interesting to get your take on being an artist for this game universe that we all love.

This is how Eldon normally looks. For reals.

Eldon: Well, thank you, Sean. Finally nice to see you face to face. 

Sean: Nice to see you too! Although I think I may have seen your photograph on social media somewhere.

Eldon: Every once in a while—especially during last Gen Con—I think there were some photos posted of me sitting next to Bishop and Anthony Scroggins. And I look like the most angry, frumpiest person in between those two guys. Because I didn’t know I was getting my picture taken, so I’m just scowling. I’ve got this huge Neanderthal brow on me, so it always looks like I’m completely done with everything. 

Sean: I mean, if you want to have a slightly less frumpy picture for this interview, we can arrange that.

Eldon: I prefer to sit here in my shadow realm and drink coffee while we talk. 

Sean: All right, fair enough. Well, we’re going to start off with your BattleTech history. What first got you into BattleTech, what BattleTech games have you played, and of course, what is your favorite ‘Mech?

Eldon: Hmm, well you want me to start in that order? 

Sean: In any order you want. 

Eldon: Alright, well actually I’ve got a very complicated history with BattleTech because I did not directly engage with it until late into my teen years. Before that, it was always something I heard about from friends who had older brothers. I grew up in the dead center of the Northwest Arkansas sticks. So, there wasn’t a lot of access to game or comic book stores with anything like that. 

So you would have a friend whose older brother would tell you about how awesome a Hunchback is, or an Atlas, but you’d rarely ever see the books. As I got into my teen years, of course, I was finally able to get my hands on the Introductory Box Set; the one that had the plastic minis. And I tried to get my friends to play it then, but they weren’t very interested. At the time, it was more about, like, GURPS, or playing RIFTS, or other roleplaying games. It was also pretty cheap to find old, dusty boxes of FASA games in the back of a game store. I had a Renegade Legion Centurion and BattleTech and CityTech, and I had all this stuff, and none of my friends ever wanted to play. So, it kind of got put back in the closet. And that’s kind of most of my relationship with BattleTech for the tabletop side of things. 

I was later more familiar with playing some of the video games. Specifically, we had an old DOS copy of a floppy of the first 3D game, but I don’t quite remember the name of it. I don’t think it was Crescent Hawks’ Revenge. It was a very early polygon version of the game that had the rough representations of the unseen ‘Mechs at the time.

Sean: I think that’d be MechWarrior 1. It was originally just called MechWarrior. 

Eldon: Later I played through the MechCommander 1 and MechCommander 2 games, and eventually I’d have a copy of MechWarrior 3. But, for the most part, BattleTech was just something on the periphery of my awareness. And then, like years back, I dug out all the BattleTech stuff I had collected.

I had some TROs, I had some compendiums, I had the box sets, and I sold it all on eBay because I’m like, why do I need this? I’m never going to play it. It’s not relevant to my life at all, so I sold it all. 

I’d come to BattleTech later during the early days of the COVID lockdowns and I was working from home. I had the computer here and I was going through YouTube videos. And I had somehow come across Tex Talks BattleTech when he was at the height of doing the Exodus to Elementals series, which was like a two-part, two-hour-long series that he did. I’d gone through all the Tex Talks BattleTech stuff at that time, and he announced that he was going to do the Mackie.

At that time, thanks to him, I was kind of getting back into looking at Sarna, and reading some of the lore and some of the history and stuff, and getting back into it, and Tex said the next video was the Mackie, so I started looking up stuff about the Mackie. And I’m like, well I’m bored, I’m looking for a reason to draw some sci-fi stuff, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of stuff for the Mackie— this seems like an opportunity. 

So I sent him an email out of the blue offering to do artwork, and he got back to me immediately. It was like, “Sure, you wanna do artwork? You know, we need this stuff.” That’s when I first did the Mackie piece, and then I did all the Jacob Cameron stuff. 

Coming back to it after so long—because I was not drawing a lot of sci-fi stuff before I came back to BattleTech. Like, if you look at my Instagram or social media before, it was a lot of practicing digital painting. It was more leaning into fantasy stuff—just weird quirky stuff here and there. I wasn’t really doing sci-fi at all. 

I’m kind of a strange artist in the way that I usually look for reasons to do something. I’m not very much of a casual artist. It’s not like, “Hey, you! You want to draw a fantasy elf?” I’d be like, well, why would I draw a fantasy elf? I need a reason to draw a fantasy elf.

That’s what it was. I was like, well, you know what? I’m here. I’m bored. I’m looking for a reason to do sci-fi. Hey Tex, do you need some help? And he took me on board and everything just started with that Mackie video. He was the one who encouraged me to do the print packs and the stickers and everything else that would come later because I didn’t know if there would be a market for that stuff. And lo and behold, that there was. 

Sean: Indeed. Quite a big one, in fact.

Eldon: Yeah, very much. I can’t even count what pack we are on right now with the Twycross pack. From there, I did the Mackie, and the Mackie was part of my effort to kind of modernize the design. It’s bits and pieces from that and stuff that I’d seen from pre-existing art.

Because I know Bishop Steiner had done some redesigned stuff on it, so I was kind of meshing those parts together and trying to make it look a little bit more modern; move the lasers off the crotch and try to put ammo feeds on the guns. And shortly after that, I got a message on Facebook from Ray.  So he contacted me and said, “Hey, you want to work for BattleTech?” And I’m like, yeah, sure. And he’s like, “I’ll put you in touch with Brent Evans,” and then later, Anthony was like, “Hey, come do stuff for us.” 

So that’s kind of how I worked my way into almost every facet of modern BattleTech. I do work for the TROs, I do work for the books, and occasionally I’ll do a redesign. That’s also about the same time that I got approached by a guy to work on Heavy Gear, so it just all kind of came at once. Seems like if you draw robots on the internet, there’s a lot of demand for that. 

Sean: Absolutely! Okay, we got everything there except what is your favorite ‘Mech? 

Eldon: Well, in the past I would have said any of the Unseens because basically how I came to giant robots was through watching Robotech—like the chopped-together stuff from Harmony Gold. But I have bowed down to Crab superiority. So, I am a fan of all things Crab. 

Sean: All things lead to crab. 

Eldon: All things lead to crab! The ultimate life form, the ultimate evolution of everything is a crab. So, yeah, fan of the Crab, fan of the King Crab. We need to have someone do a reanimation of that Noisestorm video of the crabs dancing but with Crabs and King Crabs. 

Sean: Yeah. I feel like that’s something that may have been done, or at least now that we’ve said it, will be done.

Eldon: Yeah, yeah, we have put it upon the lathe of heaven and it will soon exist.

Sean: Alright, let’s also get into your art history. How did you get into drawing? Are you professionally schooled at drawing or is this just something you kind of fell into? 

Eldon: Well, I’m pretty much an ‘80s kid for most things, so basically early drawing was just inspired by cartoons like G. I. Joe and He-Man. I was always attracted to adventure cartoons and art; like I said, I grew up in the sticks, so there wasn’t a lot of access to comic books and stuff. Later, as I got into gaming—especially around the time of Final Fantasy VII and stuff like that—I got very interested in computer animation.

The only real formal art education I have is going to a for-profit art school in Arizona to learn computer animation. And, I have to admit, I’m a bit of a selfish artist; I want to do everything myself and take credit for everything. That’s when I learned that animation is more of a group project dynamic.

So at that time, it was like, well, I got out of computer animation and I started to want to do comic books, and later that led to a career in graphic design. Right up until I went full illustration, I was a full-time graphic designer. So, I guess I’m mostly saying I’m self-taught while picking up stuff here and there. 

Sean: Is your graphic design background why we have such great t-shirt designs for all those fake BattleTech products? I’m especially fond of the Warhammer one with the Bernstein Bear-looking dude on the front.

Eldon: That’s where that all comes from! The Big Bear WarMachines. I also love just parody stuff and making goofy stuff. Most of that stuff is just ideas that make me laugh. And as they say, if you can make yourself laugh, there’s going to be somebody else there who will probably appreciate that too. That’s the fun stuff that I really enjoy doing; just making fake businesses and fake ads. 

Whenever I’m doing the parody stuff, or stickers, or doing the magazine covers, or anything you might find in the packs, that’s where I really appreciate Sarna. When I’m writing the jokes or putting stuff together, it’s just like, let’s go through Sarna and do some research. I’m gonna read here, and here, and here, and it’s like, okay, let’s line up all these time periods so I can write the jokey headlines pertinent to the setting.

Sean: And we appreciate it, which is why I keep buying your T-shirts! Let’s move on. We kind of discussed the start of your professional BattleTech art career with Tex and the Mackie, but you’ve since done quite a bit of art for other Tex videos as well.

Eldon: Ever since the Mackie, I have pretty much contributed to every episode. We had an art pack for every episode. 

Sean: I think the HUNCH-PACK! is my favorite. 

Eldon: Yeah, Tex will just give me an assignment on those. He says, “I want this, this, and this,” and then he kind of lets me run wild. So he wanted those Hunchback recruitment-style posters. He said, like, “I want this one that’s gonna be for the Star League, for the Draconis Combine, and then ‘For the Cash!’” And then he gives me a lot of room to work with those. 

Sean: And soon after that, you transitioned into doing official art for Catalyst. What’s it like doing art for Catalyst? With Tex you have a lot of leeway, but if you’re doing official art, do you have that same kind of freedom to design, or are they a little bit more exacting in their requirements? 

Eldon: Well, for the most part, it’s not that different. They’ll give you job requirements—like a brief, a description of what they want. They will usually give you photo reference materials. They will give you 3D assets to work from—we have great assets from the Camo Specs community. So they’ll give you everything and say, “Well, this is what we want: X, Y, and Z,” and then I pretty much have freedom doing the layout from there, just as long as it contains all the elements and the framing is correct. Like, if it’s going to be a big spread, you’ve got to know where they’re going to put their copy on that one. You want to cram all your elements in one place so it’ll be seen on a Shrapnel cover. You got to make sure there’s space for the title—people love the magazine and all the different headlines and stuff they’ll put on it.

But for the most part, working with Brent and now working with Marco, they’re pretty open to a lot of the suggestions I might make. Normally when you’re working on something, I get the brief, I’ll put together a layout showing them where all the elements are going to be, then doodle out whatever explosions or whatever I want to put in place. Normally they’ll give me an okay from there, or tell me if I need to move things around or if I need to change the focus or the balance, but for the most part, like, I’m pretty free to come up with how those turn out. 

Sean: Fair enough. Is that the process you follow? From a sketch presented to either Brent or Marco, then they come back with any changes they want done, and then you move on to making the final piece?

Eldon: Pretty much, yes. So they’ll give me an approval. I’ll say, all right, here we go, and then I’ll start working on it and I’ll tag them in as the progress goes along because I’ll be like, well, here’s at this stage, here it is at this stage. Do you have any corrections now? Do you have any notes? And just progress through that until they give an approval, and then you send the final file across. 

Sean: Let’s go to something slightly more complex. I was hoping you could give us a full breakdown of this piece you posted to Bluesky for IlKhan’s Eyes Only. It’s the one with Alaric Ward, he’s got his wolf shawl on his back, he’s on a big stone throne, and it’s absolutely bonkers in terms of just how much is going on. He’s got holographic projections of everything across the Inner Sphere. How did you go about creating this?

Eldon: Well you do get a brief. I don’t recall specifically the brief on this one, but it was pretty much that: Alaric Ward, he’s in front of a holotank, he’s contemplating various situations across the newly reformed Star League. From there, I have a lot of freedom to just kind of do that.

This one particular, since this is a double layout, there’s going to be pretty much paragraphs and wording down at the lower right-hand side of that one. So basically, my focus is to try to tell the story in that image. They’ll give you something like, “You know, what’s happening with the Free Worlds League, what’s happening in the Lyran Commonwealth,” this and that.

So, I can go along, extrapolate from that, and start building all these little scenes, kinda like you’re watching a wall of TVs of various situations. A key part of when I do these kinds of illustrations is I’m focused on the storytelling of it. 

At the time, Brent gave me a lot of freedom to do this stuff. So, I go in, I’ll show this stuff off, show them the layout, and they’ll give me some directions. I believe Marco might have started doing some art direction on this one too, because he gave a lot of feedback on those holograms in the foreground, and tried to get the colors balanced out a little bit more because they were a little bit more inconsistent on the earlier version.

So from that brief, I’ll sit there and think about, like, well, what would you see on a news show? What kind of sensationalist media would be playing out across the Inner Sphere as the turmoil expands in the ilClan era?

Sean: And there was certainly a lot of turmoil to be had around that. 

Eldon: Yeah. This is for IlKhan’s Eyes Only, so this is pretty much like the battle after the battle.  Like, nothing ever ends. 

Sean: Exactly. So for these ‘Mechs on the news reports, do you draw a separate little picture and then just slide it in and alter it with computer graphics? Or is this all a single drawing?

Eldon: Oh, I did those all as individual little images that I worked up and then brought them into there and just pretty much perspective skewed them into the composition. For this one in particular, just to help out with the perspective, I used a little bit of computer sculpting, because I can use Blender a little bit. I’m nowhere near as proficient as someone like Alan Blackwell is, or Anthony Scroggins, but I can get the shapes kind of put together, and I can work out a rough camera view. On this one, all this stuff is drawn individually, worked on individually, and I just brought them in and skewed them into perspective.

Sean: How many images would that be? Just looking at it, I think there are at least half a dozen other pictures you had to draw just for this one larger image.

Eldon: I’m a little bit of an overachiever, so I do, like, a ton of stuff. It’s just like, well, this is what I need. This spread that needs to be done, I’m gonna do a dozen other pictures. 

In this case, we got seven individual painted pieces on top of a larger painted piece, and then everything else—the 3D holographic displays and 3D heads-up displays—that’s all using Illustrator and different stuff to build them out. If you’re looking at the different HUDs around, I’ll build those all out in a different illustrator program and bring in Photoshop magic to make them look transparent and holographic. There are tons and tons of layers of effects over them to kind of make them look more computer rendered and give it kind of that cassette future kind of feel. 

Sean: If we zoom in far enough, are we going to get actual text on those HUD images or is it just going to be lorem ipsum?

Eldon: Yeah, far enough away from ’em, you’re gonna get some ipsum. If it was closer to the camera, yes, I would make sure that there’s something intelligible written in there. There’s probably some art that’s gonna be revealed this month that the lettering and stuff was close enough to the viewer that it’s like I can’t just lorem ipsum these things. I gotta make sure something is written in there. 

Time is money, my friend, so you find the shortcuts. 

Sean: Yeah, I get you. Although apparently, time is still to the point where you’re doing a dozen little pictures for this one image. 

Eldon: Yeah, I was discussing that with Marco a bit back because—like I said, I’m a bit of an overachiever—it’s like, oh man, I’m gonna make this really cool, even if it’s going to exponentially increase the time on this project. Oh man, there’s got to be like, five dozen different things going on here.

There’s got to be stuff written on these signs way in the background, or you’re going to see a small human drama playing out in some corner of a picture far away from the camera that’s going to be partially obscured by fireballs, so you might not even see it. 

I don’t know. I think it’s important to build up the sense of the picture; the kayfabe of the scene, to use a wrestling term. 

Sean: So, you’ve worked with CGL, and you’ve also worked with fans. Who do you think is easier to work with? Catalyst for the official stuff, or fans working on something like Tex’s videos?

Eldon: I like working with Tex. He is very easygoing and appreciative of anything that I come up with. However, outside of him and Big Red, I usually prefer working on the official stuff with CGL, because there’s very much a learned art director—like a back-and-forth. Because in art, communication is key, and when you’re talking with people who can communicate, you have that rapport, you have that back and forth.

I haven’t had a lot of trouble with commissions. Usually, most people I commission with are pretty easygoing. But, when you’re working on commission stuff, it’s more of a grab bag of what you’re going to get because you might get someone, you’ll finish out a drawing, you’ll take them through every step, and then you get to the end and they want five dozen changes. Or you get somebody that just lets you go crazy, you show up and say, here’s the picture, and they’ll be like, “Oh, thanks man. You’re the best. Here’s your money. Bye.” 

Normally I prefer working with people that I’ve already built a relationship with. They know how to communicate what they want, I can easily understand, and there are usually not a lot of corrections at the end of a project.

Sean: Is there any ‘Mech design (or tank, or battle armor) that you’ll refuse to do or just dislike doing for whatever artistic reason? 

Eldon: I’m going to turn that on its head because the thing is, I welcome any challenge. I’ll draw spaceships. I’ll draw ‘Mechs. I’ll draw tanks. I’ll draw cities. I’ll draw crowds. I will tackle pretty much anything. Sometimes I’d like opportunities to draw stuff that’s not really lore-prevalent anymore. For example, a bit back, one of the writers for a scenario wanted ProtoMechs.

And I’m like, aw yeah, let me at him. Let me draw that horse ‘Mech or let me draw that bull ‘Mech. Because mainly when I’m doing art, the key thing is my own dumb entertainment and what makes me laugh. Being able to try and make some of those goofy animalistic ProtoMechs look cool would be a very welcome challenge, but that got nixed. It was pretty much like, “Yeah, we ain’t doing ProtoMechs,” and I’m like, I want new ProtoMechs!

Sean: I want new ProtoMechs too! Curses!

Eldon: Curses! And the thing is, I understand a lot of that stuff has not been redesigned, it hasn’t really been tackled yet, so anything that I might do might be out of line with future plans. There was a spaceship raid scene that I did for IlKhan’s Eyes Only, and I was able to do some powered armor that hadn’t been redesigned yet, and I was able to do some ProtoMechs too. 

But for the most part, I welcome most artistic challenges within the realm of BattleTech. I’m always looking to expand my skill sets and to do something new. I can’t say there’s anything off the top of my head that I wouldn’t try to tackle. 

Sean: You’ve done a few ‘Mech drawings at this point, obviously. Is there a favorite ‘Mech for you to draw?

Eldon: I can’t say anyone in particular. I’ll say there’s a type, and we’ve had this discussion way back when I first started working with Sarna on art. The more human-like a ‘Mech is, the more “acting” you can get out of that ‘Mech. So like, if you have the full set of arms and legs and a head, you can work with that and get it to be more exaggerated posing, or acting, or get it to be more human-like. When you have ‘Mechs that are just more or less like a gun with arms, or their cockpit is fixed to their torso, it gets a little bit harder to get that extra degree of—for the lack of a better word—personality out of a ‘Mech. 

That’s why something like a Commando is fun to draw because you can have the Commando kind of do the whole set of human emotions. Even a Hunchback, as long as you have things to work with. Usually the more human-like a ‘Mech is, the more fun it is to draw, or to get to act, or to do things. 

Sean: Is there a ‘Mech that you haven’t drawn yet, would like to, but might be a little scared to try?

Eldon: This is another one that I will turn on its head because normally I will say no, I can’t think of any particular one off the top of my head that I would feel challenged to draw. But, working on the Bad ‘Mech series with you has certainly presented some challenges on obscure ‘Mechs that have been tossed at me that have not had an official redesign and we’re just working from old FASA line art.

Occasionally there can be some trepidation looking at a ‘Mech, and I have no idea how these legs work, and I gotta try to make sense of this mess.

Sean: Yeah, those old line drawings are great.

Eldon: The term I have coined—and I don’t know if I’ve said this before—is the old ‘Mech drawings are “protractor porn,” because it feels like someone got out their circle templates and their protractors and rulers and like, yep, line, line, line triangle, there you go, that’s a ‘Mech.

Sean: And they were paid a lot of money for that ‘Mech.

Eldon: I’m not paid to figure out the mechanics of how myomers work.

Sean: Sometimes the legs don’t even look like they have joints. 

Eldon: No, no, no. When you think about walking motion on any kind of ‘Mech, you’d have to expect a certain amount of torso twist, or a certain amount of flexibility in the limbs for the positioning of the legs and stuff. Some of those old ‘Mechs, it’s just like a barrel slapped onto the side of an oblong oval—the legs only go forward! I don’t know how you make this move or do anything else.

Sean: Ah, the perfect shape for a multi-ton death machine.

Eldon: You’ll especially see it in some of the old art. It might sound like I’m trashing old art—I love old BattleTech art—but you can definitely tell when the artist fudged something to get a pose.

I think the most obvious example—if you look back at the line art for the original Atlas drawing, where you have that one leg; looks perfectly cool, that guy rendered a leg alright. And then you see the left leg, and it looks like they just wrenched the geometry into a different angle and it just doesn’t make sense. Every time I see that picture, going from the top to the bottom, you’re like, “Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Oh, man, that’s awful.” 

Sean: Yeah, that Atlas was basically an Escher sketch.

Eldon: The original UrbanMech drawing, too! Like, silhouettes are very important. Usually, as long as you get a silhouette right, most people will forgive everything else.

But in the original UrbanMech drawing, you see it, and then you get to where the legs are, and then you notice that the legs are just random boxes and lines. Like, right around the upper leg—I kinda see how this works, but these lines are not making any sense.

Sean: I always thought that the Urbie‘s ankles are just little turret rings that let the foot rotate 360 degrees. But now that I’m looking at it, you’re right, the leg just doesn’t make any sense.

Eldon: Yeah, no. I will stand up for old BattleTech art all the time. You can look at old BattleTech art and say, “Oh man, that’s wonky,” and I’m sure fans were a lot more forgiving at the time—they weren’t hyper-examining this stuff. But what I appreciate about that old art is you could definitely tell there was a human idea and energy behind those pictures. Even if you say they’re not the best-rendered things, you could tell there was a certain passion. Someone was trying to communicate something, and that imbues it with a certain energy and character that is endearing to me.

I love old RPG book art, and Dungeons & Dragons, or Rifts, or whatever, where somebody in their drawing was like, “Man, this is gonna be the raddest shit ever. I’m gonna draw this cracked-out guy with a gun that has like five different barrels and a rocket on top and he’s drinking a can of beer.” 

It’s like when you see old Rogue Traders stuff and it’s like Space Marines opening a soda or putting a guy up against the wall to beat him with batons. You’re like, yeah, there was an attitude for this one. They weren’t taking it uber serious. I appreciate that in old art.

Sean: To finish off the last of the official BattleTech questions: what personal piece do you look at today and say, “I would do this differently?”

Eldon: I think a lot of art, when it’s created, is a product of the moment and the person you are at the time. It’s like a combination of your skills—or lack of skills—and each one I think has its own particular set of charms. I think one that I might reconsider… Are you familiar with the big Mercenaries spread I did?

Sean: I’ve got the Mercenaries box, but I’m not sure which spread you mean. 

Eldon: It’s the one with the Vindicator on it. It’s a big spread, I think it’s the MAC, and they’re raiding a Davion base, so it’s like two big pieces. It was developed for the Mercenaries Kickstarter. It’s used on one of the board games. That one was just as I was crossing over into really getting to use the 3D assets better. And I will say that that one would probably be one that I would be able to approach differently these days. Especially since I have a little bit better sense of colors and stuff.

Each one of those ‘Mechs is an individual screenshot placed separately. That’s how I was doing it at the time; I would take them into Blender, move them around, take a screenshot, put it over there, and then do the paint over, which is the process that a lot of the official CGL artists use. At that time, I wasn’t aware of, like, lens settings, so everything’s got kind of like a weird fish island look to it. Everything doesn’t feel like it’s set together into the same scene. 

From a technical perspective, I probably would have done a lot differently these days. Like that first Mackie picture I did. Yes, there’s a lot that I would probably do way differently now, but I still think that one has a lot of charm to it. I wouldn’t really want to change that. 

When it comes down to it, it’s probably just the development of technical skills over time. And looking back and saying like, oh yeah, I would have completely rebuilt all that stuff differently now. There are some things like the first Atlas and Elemental cutaways that I did, I had no idea of how to pose things in Blender or anything when I did those. I was pretty much just rotating the models, taking screenshots, and hacking them together. So, they don’t have the consistency of later stuff. Later I would redo the Atlas again when I knew more about what I was doing, and I think that has a much more cohesive look to it. 

Sean: Let’s move on to the Bad ‘Mechs series. You’ve been drawing our goofy ‘Mechs for over three years, which we are super appreciative of.

Eldon: Yeah, yeah, yeah! I think when we were doing the Thresher art was when we first talked about doing this interview, and I was like, man, have we been doing this for over two years? And I counted them up and sure enough, ohh man, no, we’ve been doing this for three years. I guess the time flies while you’re complaining about ‘Mechs. 

Sean: Hahaha!

Eldon: But no, I super appreciate the work y’all do at Sarna; you and Nic. Thank you. You have been a priceless resource for me as I’ve been getting back into this hobby so I don’t look like a filthy tourist.

The Bad ‘Mech articles have been my way of saying thank you for the work you do. That’s been my attempt at a contribution back to the community, back to the wiki that has served me so well over the years. Even today, if I need stuff for reference for a piece of art for CGL, I just go to Sarna and grab whatever assets I need. It’s been a fantastic resource, so I’m happy to contribute some part of my talent to it. 

Sean: And we hope that you will continue to do so for many years to come, as we still have many Bad ‘Mechs to get through.

Eldon: Yeah, and I hope you continue to accept the inconsistent delivery date of that art. 

Sean: Absolutely, as we will have an inconsistent delivery date for our articles. 

Eldon: Yeah, I think we settled kind of mid-month, maybe we’ll get one out. But hey, we haven’t missed a month yet! 

Sean: That’s the important part. Do you have a favorite Bad ‘Mech so far, and is it the same as your favorite Bad ‘Mech image? 

Eldon: I don’t have a lot of opinions on the granularity of these ‘Mechs. When I’m working on them and I’m doing the research, I’m looking at it and I’m like—and this is probably a sentiment echoed by most of the commentators in your comment section—ah, this doesn’t seem so bad. Like, this ‘Mech seems kind of fine. What are we complaining about?

Sean: Certainly some of them, yes. 

Eldon: Yeah, certainly some of them I see people agree. But like, I’ll be working on research and I’ll go, let’s look at what the Rook does, and I’m like, it’s all right. I even like the poor Thresher Mk II that we did recently. I’m looking at stuff and yeah, it’s got a bad quirk, but how many people play with quirks, you know?

Sean: So there are certain ‘Mechs that are bad only because the lore says they’re bad, and the Thresher Mk II is definitely one of those. The actual statistics of the ‘Mech are pretty great.

Eldon: Well, I also think people take the title “Bad ‘Mechs” a little too literally.

Sean: Sometimes, for sure.

Eldon: You’re just trying to think of a way to talk about ‘Mechs, and this is an overarching topic. You write these amazing short stories for each one, and the effort that you put into each one of these articles is pretty astounding for just trying to find some topic to talk about a ‘Mech nobody’s ever heard of.

Sean: Sometimes they’ve heard about them a lot, and they’re the ones that get me a lot of hate mail. 

Eldon: Oh, well, you’re cruising for a bruising with this next one, sir. 

Sean: Yes, I know. I think that I will get knowing nods more than I will get hate mail, but we will see. I’ve been wrong before. 

Eldon: I’ve heard sentiments echoed by some other people out of the blue about how this next ‘Mech has such a nostalgic reputation, but it’s really kind of lackluster.

Sean: It will probably go up before this interview does, so I don’t think we have to worry about hints.

Eldon: But it’s fun beating around the bush. The thing about doing official artwork—and artwork for most people—is that you don’t always get the most creative assignments. Normally with ‘Mechs, it’s usually like, this is a ‘Mech shooting, it’s shooting left, it’s shooting right, whatever. The Bad ‘Mech articles have been a lot of fun, because I just get to do ridiculous things with the ‘Mechs, and it’s a reason to do ridiculous things with the ‘Mechs.

I really did enjoy that Rook piece that I did a while back, and even the Great Turtle one I did later. Although, sometimes we’re doing that art, there are only so many ways that you can visually portray a ‘Mech overheating. What’s the problem with this ‘Mech? It gets hot. What’s the problem with that ‘Mech? It’s undergunned for the weight. 

I guess what you’re saying is like a cursed weight class, pretty much between light to medium and medium to heavy. 

Sean: Yeah, 40 and 45 tons, and 60 and 65 tons, because they’re typically just not as good as being slightly heavier.

Eldon: Yeah. Through learning that stuff too, it’s like, man, there’s some iconic ‘Mechs that sound like they’re kind of crap. Like, how many times do you see the Rifleman all over the lore and everything else, and it’s just another one of those “it gets hot.” Yep, it certainly does get hot, sir. 

How many ways are you going to draw a ‘Mech getting hot? Sometimes it’s just like, well, what are we working with? We work with the name, and you’ll give me an idea of what we might do with the ‘Mech.

Sean: I’ll tell you why the ‘Mech is bad, but I’ll usually stop there. And sometimes, I get back an image that has nothing to do with why the ‘Mech is bad.

Eldon: Yeah, yeah, I know.  Like I’m sitting there and thinking, what if there’s a standout? If there’s a standout issue with the ‘Mech, that’s easier to work with. Oh, it looks fast but it’s slow, or it’s got an unreliable quirk or something like that. 

Some of them really stump me. Like the Great Turtle; it’s slow, but it’s heavily armored and lightly armed. Like, what do I do with this? I’ll make him look like the turtle from Kung Fu Panda. 

Sean: That one came completely out of left field. I understood the assignment was hard; how do you make a boring ‘Mech seem exciting or dynamic in any way when all it does is sit there and get shot at? Coming back as a Kung Fu Panda character, I didn’t see that coming.

Eldon: Oh yeah, I got super artsy fartsy on that one. The thing is, I feel like we’ve used up a lot of plain visual tropes at this point. It’s like, this ‘Mech is on fire, the ‘Mech is roasting hot dogs over this other ‘Mech. The Thresher was kind of easy because you can read the lore and it says it just shakes apart or whatever. It’d be funny to just show it running and parts flying off of it and the MechWarrior in the cockpit screaming. 

But sometimes I just kind of overdo it. We did the Chameleon one, and what do I do with a Chameleon? It seems an alright ‘Mech. We’ll have them sitting around in a cardboard cosplay contest.

Sean: Which I thought was great because that’s sort of what the Chameleon does—it has little applique armor to look like other ‘Mechs.

Eldon: Yeah, it mimics other ‘Mechs, let’s play with that, let’s put them in dumb costumes. But you are talking about the practical terms of art production here, and you’re like, yeah buddy, you’re gonna draw three whole ‘Mechs for this scene, and each one takes a significant amount of time to do and get proportions since I draw all those from scratch.

Even when you look back, like the one for the Stinger where I had all the little Stingers flying around shooting the Cyclops.

Sean: A bajillion Stingers. That seemed like it would’ve been a lot of work. 

Eldon: Going back to even the Rook one, where it’s like, you’re gonna draw the Rook, and then you’re gonna draw a Black Knight and an Atlas bullying it. Going back to earlier ones, like when we did the Charger, and it’s the Atlas giving the Charger a noogie while the Spider has stolen its laser and is shooting it in the knee… Sometimes I make too much work for myself on this stuff.

Sean: We still appreciate it because they always come out spectacular. I’ve never seen a Bad ‘Mech that actually looked bad.

Eldon: Bad ‘Mechs, but the art’s good.

Sean: Yeah, exactly. I’ve always said that the biggest reason for me to do this series isn’t that I get to stretch my creative writing muscles, it’s that I get to give you an excuse to draw a goofy-ass ‘Mech.

I do have at least one fun question for you before I let you go. What is your personal favorite art piece that is not yours? And it doesn’t necessarily have to be BattleTech-related, although it could be BattleTech-related if you want.

Eldon: Oh, jeez. I am a very old-school and pulpy fan of art. I’m like a big Frank Frazetta fan. I am a fan of old product illustrations. A lot of the inspiration when I’m working on BattleTech feels like I’m doing illustrations for toy boxes. If you think back to going to the store, and you buy a G.I. Joe vehicle, and it’s all the G.I. Joes on the vehicle screaming and shooting lasers. 

I don’t know if this was quite your era, but you know how you’d open up a toy and there’d be a product catalog, and it’d be for He-Man or something, and they’d have this big elaborate illustration of whatever the toys are and He-Man and Skeletor fighting. There’d be the Castle Grayskull playset in the background and there’s like five dozen different characters all over it fighting. I’m a very big fan of old pulpy illustrations and product illustrations like that.

So that’s what I feel like is the essence of what I’m doing sometimes when I’m working on BattleTech or any kind of art. I’ll look back at it and think, this feels like a toy box illustration. You have one ‘Mech in the center blowing stuff up, and it feels like I’m trying to sell a toy to a kid.

Sean: To be fair, I think we’re all just grown children in this fandom, so that’s just spot-on marketing.

Eldon: I will not deny that I might make some pew pew sounds while I’m drawing lasers. 

But if we get back to the realm of BattleTech, BattleTech‘s got some good artists right now like, Marco. His big Mercenaries piece just hangs continuously over all our heads. At Gen Con, you got his big banner above you while you’re trying to sell prints to somebody at a table. I have to keep looking up and see his art staring me in the face and like, dammit. 

I enjoy stuff that Anthony does whenever he gets to do an illustration. He’s done some of the starter box stuff. I’ve seen some of the stuff he does for Big Red. Alan’s really good at making illustrations. A lot of good BattleTech artwork going on right now. 

But, I’m always a fan of classics. I’m a fan of old comic books and old pulp illustrations. If you’re thinking like a Frank Frazetta, or a Jack Kirby, or an Alex Toth. Or even go into like a Dean Cornwell or a JC Leyendecker or somebody like that. So, yeah, I’m a fan of old stuff. 

Sean: Alright, cool. Well, that’s everything I had. Was there anything else you’d like to talk about or anything you’d like to plug?

Eldon: Nope, not really. Just keep supporting my artwork, keep telling the BattleTech people that you like my artwork, help me stay employed, and go and enjoy Tex Talks BattleTech. I owe a career to Tex, so I will promote him anytime I can. Check out the Black Pants Legion channel. 

And thanks to you, Sean and Nick over at Sarna, for asking me to do stuff and work with you on projects. I really appreciate that. 

Sean: And we appreciate you so much. And thanks so much for agreeing to this interview. 

Eldon: You’re welcome, sir.

Thanks again for the chat, Eldon! You can follow Eldon’s work on Bluesky, his Patreon, and also buy some cool stuff from him here. And don’t forget to grab a T-shirt!

And as always, MechWarriors: Stay Syrupy.