The State of the Grand Bazaar - June 2026

The last five months have been a blur. I began writing book two on January 1st, and I have devoted multiple hours a day, every day to writing and working on the book. And if I needed to miss a day, extra work is done on another day to make up for it. I have been burning the candle at both ends, but I am seeing results, and the book is taking shape. I could not be happier with how things are progressing, and it is exciting to see the book taking shape after working on it for the past six years. There is still plenty of work to do, which is why there is a 2027 completion date, and not one in 2026.

All of this and MORE was already shared with those following my mailing list, and if you want to see things first and see everything, then all you need to do is join my mailing list.

Punch the keys!

(This image is out of date, and more writing has been completed since.) 

The State of Writing 

The third column, listed as The Completed Circle, is the story within the story of book two. It is also, by far and away, the largest and most involved part of the next book. And it is all completely written. It was the very first thing that I tackled because I had to, as everything else will be in response to this story in the book (and a lot of other stuff, because nothing is simple or easy when I make things).

With the Street Voices now completed as well (they were an absolute joy to write, and they all went SO quickly), I went through the Completed Circle again as a whole to edit and update before I started writing Reginald's sections. It took a little work to find the voice for a young and enthusiastic Reggy, but I have locked it in, and his sections are taking shape as I type this.

Needless to say, things are progressing well, it is all taking shape, and I just need to stay focused, and soon I will have another book for you!

Number Goes UP!

This is not an image of what I have written so far. This is what I have written for ONLY the third-to-last chapter of The Completed Circle story within the story. There is a lot going on and a lot to resolve, and this one got big... really big. And book two was supposed to be a smaller book! Hopefully, this is a proof of concept image for all of you! 

That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog. See you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Revisiting the Star Vampire

In 2009, I was hired to design a series of miniatures for Fantasy Flight Games. They were gearing up to make plastic minis of all of their Arkham Horror/Call of Cthulhu monsters, and I was at the right place at the right time to get the bulk of them. It was a fun project with a lot of freedom for a grotesquely small amount of pay. And then nothing. It wouldn't be until 2011/12 for the monsters to finally be released as unpainted figures in board game sets and as fully painted premium minis. By and large, they all turned out great, and I still look back at them favorably. As it has been 17 years since I made the art and 15 years since they were eventually released, I thought it would be nice to revisit some of them. Next up in alphabetical order, we have the Star Vampire. Here is my design and the final miniature.

Star Vampire 

12 x 9 - Pencil on paper - 3 separate drawings

Arkham Horror Monsters / Mansions of Madness 

© 2009 Fantasy Flight Games

The Star Vampire  miniature

And, as an added bonus, something I have never shared before, here are the thumbnails that I created for this piece. Over the past 17 years, I had forgotten how loose and sketchy these were.

Star Vampire  - Thumbnails

Arkham Horror Monsters / Mansions of Madness 

© 2009 Fantasy Flight Games

That's all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here on Monday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Revisiting the Monsters - Zombie

In 2010, sixteen years ago now, I began a personal project to redesign most, if not all, of the monsters in the original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. That original MM had a profound effect on me and led me to eventually work on the game. While I was already working on the game when I began this project, it did prove useful as I have redesigned many D&D monsters in my career on the game. In the end, I completed over 100 drawings for the project and even had a gallery show featuring the work. 

I thought it would be nice to look back at some of my favorites. Today brings us to the Zombie. Enjoy!

Zombie redesign (2010)
© 2010/2026 Christopher Burdett 

That's another exciting Wednesday on the blog. See you back here on Friday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

May Blog Break

Starting on Wednesday of this week and continuing for the following several weeks, I will be taking a break from the blog. One must step away occasionally to try other things and experience new and different places. Fear naught, I will return. Until then, I will leave you with this monster that I have shared so many times before.

NOM NOM NOM NOM!

And yes, I have used this image on the blog for over ten years.

How time flies.

 

That is all for another exciting week on the blog. I will see you back here in a few weeks. Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Revisiting the Star Spawn

In 2009, I was hired to design a series of miniatures for Fantasy Flight Games. They were gearing up to make plastic minis of all of their Arkham Horror/Call of Cthulhu monsters, and I was at the right place at the right time to get the bulk of them. It was a fun project with a lot of freedom for a grotesquely small amount of pay. And then nothing. It wouldn't be until 2011/12 for the monsters to finally be released as unpainted figures in board game sets and as fully painted premium minis. By and large, they all turned out great, and I still look back at them favorably. As it has been 17 years since I made the art and 15 years since they were eventually released, I thought it would be nice to revisit some of them. Next up in alphabetical order, we have the Star Spawn. Here is my design and the final miniature.

Star Spawn

12 x 9 - Pencil on paper - 3 separate drawings

Arkham Horror Monsters / Mansions of Madness 

© 2009 Fantasy Flight Games

The Star Spawn miniature

And, as an added bonus, something I have never shared before, here are the thumbnails that I created for this piece. Over the past 17 years, I had forgotten how loose and sketchy these were.

Star Spawn - Thumbnails

Arkham Horror Monsters / Mansions of Madness 

© 2009 Fantasy Flight Games

That's all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here on Monday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Revisiting the Monsters - Xorn

In 2010, sixteen years ago now, I began a personal project to redesign most, if not all, of the monsters in the original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. That original MM had a profound effect on me and led me to eventually work on the game. While I was already working on the game when I began this project, it did prove useful as I have redesigned many D&D monsters in my career on the game. In the end, I completed over 100 drawings for the project and even had a gallery show featuring the work. 

I thought it would be nice to look back at some of my favorites. Today brings us to the Xorn. Enjoy!

Xorn redesign (2010)
© 2010/2026 Christopher Burdett 

That's another exciting Wednesday on the blog. See you back here on Friday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Tales from LA - That Bit Ain't Right

I have searched and searched for images to go along with this post, and after a great deal of looking, I have been unable to locate anything. Which is a shame, because I think seeing the original designs would have helped with this, but no matter, for this post, I quickly scribbled up something to help.

This story goes back to my time working in Los Angeles. We were hired to work on a PSA commercial focused on improving health. Please remember this: this is supposed to be about improving people's health. Another detail to remember is that the two people making all the decisions on the production side of things are British. Picture what they say with the appropriate accent. It is part of the adventure.

The big, amazing, new idea they had to help improve health was so new and so amazing that it took hours for them to try to explain it to me clearly so that I could understand and design it. The best I can explain it is that they wanted us to physically make "fat socks"... but not like that. Imagine someone is carrying more body weight than they want, and they "pull" the unwanted fat off themselves like clothes, but it's flesh and hollow. Just the outer ring or skin of fat... because that is how our bodies TOTALLY work and all our body fat is along the surface. Feast your eyes upon this very quick sketch.

Getting an idea for what kind of monstrosity they wanted us to make? Well, to get to this point, the point where I finally made something similar to what I have posted above, it took hours. Hours with two British men and the shop supervisor sitting behind me as I sat at my computer and worked. And they did helpful things like be super impatient, repeat the SAME not-explanation over and over like it was going to change anything, and the cherry on top, after EVERY mark I made, every choice I made, after I did ANYTHING... the peanut gallery responded in their accent with:

"THAT BIT AIN'T RIGHT" 

For HOURS. And I am not being hyperbolic or exaggerating. It was maddening. Nothing I did was right, and they most definitely could not tell me what to do differently or what they wanted. It was "fat sock" and "that bit ain't right," and that is all I had to work off of. Even today, "that bit ain't right" is seared into my memory. Well, after a Sisyphean design session, we had something, and the two not-at-all-helpful men left. Long story short, the things we made were horrible. They made no sense, looked dumb, and no one understood what they were or what they were doing at the shoot. It was bad, bad, bad. To be honest, I have no idea if the PSA ever got made, completed, or aired, but I cannot imagine for a second anyone watching it would understand it or take away from it that they should eat healthy and exercise... or something, whatever it was they were trying to depict. 

And as a side note, humans carry extra body fat for MANY different reasons, many of which are outside the control of the individual. So the idea that body weight was something that could simply be removed by sliding the fat off always felt callous, disconnected, and cruel. But hey, what do I know?  OH YEAH! I know THAT BIT AIN'T RIGHT! You know what I am saying?! They knew best, and the fact that they were unable to quickly and easily explain their big idea to anyone else never registered as an issue. Good ole LA!

That's all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here Wednesday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com