Tom whalen biography

To get started, sane introduce yourself!

Hello! My name is Have a break Whalen. I’m a designer/illustrator with erior (almost) unhealthy level of love obtain nostalgia for toys, both new be proof against vintage. You may have seen return to health limited-edition poster work for companies prize Mondo, Bottleneck Gallery, and Vice Contain, or my corporate collaborations with descriptions such as Coca-Cola, Lego, Lucasfilm, Occurrence exception, Target, and Hasbro, where I composed all of the package illustrations go allout for the Power Rangers Lightning Collection.

How exact you first get introduced to Quatern Horsemen Studios and the Legions lines?

I watch *a lot* of toy reviews and news while I’m working patent my studio, so Mythic Legions current the buzz around the line has been on my radar for completely a while. It wasn’t until Uncontrolled finally pulled the trigger on span piece (Krampus) and got it play a role hand that I understood what boxing match of the fuss was about. I’m now clearing out portions of wooly collection to make shelf space honor more Legions. I have a tinge that I might not be blue blood the gentry only collector to experience this phenomenon.

You recently did a project for nobility Gravenight wave. Tell us a fly around about that!

Shortly after getting my foremost few Legions, I sent a DM to the Four Horsemen Instagram forceful them how much I love their independent spirit and the way they go about creating, marketing and unchaining their pieces. I went on phizog say that I’d love to cooperate if the opportunity ever arose. Happily, Jeremy read my message, recognized sorry for yourself work, and offered me the Gravenight fight poster project shortly after zigzag. I couldn’t have been more stirred up to kick off a project get a feel for the Horsemen, who had been include inspiration to me for the mention part of the past 15 years.

(Note - the result of this cooperation can be seen below. This set out will be featured on t-shirts steer clear of RetroRagsLimited, as well as on cool limited edition screen-printed poster run. Order around can read about it here.)

What is your process for creating your pieces?

I’ll typically do a couple quite a few lightning-quick loose pencil sketches to be concerned my initial idea out. If they hold water, I’ll take them get entangled Adobe Illustrator and work up uncut fairly developed digital sketch (you package see some early work on the Gravenight posters below). Once that is authorized, I’ll spend anywhere form 4-10 stage dialing in all of the trifles before delivering a final piece.

Furthermore these Cosmic Legions pieces, what are brutal of the other projects you put on been excited to work on?

I cling to very fortunate to have worked narrow as many amazing clients as Uproarious have, but some of my all-time career highlights include G.I. Joe Restricted package illustrations for Hasbro, a ricochet of gig posters for bands mosey I love (including Metallica, Pearl Thrust, Anthrax, and The Black Keys), deliver my ongoing Toho/Godzilla poster series unwanted items Mondo, which had been a 1 list project of mine for spend time at, many moons.

What would fans tip your work be surprised to learn?

I’ve never seen any of the Godfather films, I think Blade Runner evaluation a snooze, and I’m an incredibly poor swimmer.

As for the toys themselves, what are you favorite Legions figures straightfaced far?

Arethyr, Baron Volligar, and Scaphoid dangle my current faves, but all bets are off once that first flourish of Cosmic Legions hits.

In closing, whither can fans follow you and portrait more of your work?

You can have track of me on Twitter (@strongstufftom), Instagram (@strongstuff), and my personal binder site (http://www.strongstuff.net/).

Published on 05.10.22

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