Halloween, make me cream.

It's October, which means my love of the Halloween aesthetic is socially acceptable and I can make all the spooky art I want. More on that later.

I've briefly mentioned the concept of the Shattered Glass universe in Transformers before, but this is an opportunity for me to explain it better.

Shattered Glass, as a concept, was introduced in a convention-exclusive comic book that was played entirely as a joke. It takes place in an alternate dimension where the Autobots are a bloodthirsty totalitarian regime, and the Decepticons are a heroic resistance. Optimus Prime, calling himself the "Emperor of Destruction", looks like this:

So, imagine having this guy for a brother. The sibling rivalry would be pretty intense. Said rivalry culminated in a failed coup attempt by the less-successful brother, Ultra Magnus. In response, Optimus ripped his face off and threw him in prison. When Magnus was later busted out by his lackeys, he received an upgrade into a more powerful body but chose to leave the frightening skull face.

If that wasn't both worrying and awesome enough, he uses a weapon called the Terminus Blade, an immeasurably powerful sword capable of splitting open space-time itself.

The concept started off as a joke, but Shattered Glass still managed to capture the hearts and imagination of the Transformers fanbase. An affectionate parody that managed to raise the stakes and have Magnus wielding the Terminus Blade be a threat to all of existence. It's kind of a microcosm of how Transformers stories can be so great.

It was a blast to draw this one, with the most difficult part being the atmosphere. His mainly blue and red colorscheme kind of works against him, since he's supposed to be terrifying. The colorscheme is a bit too heroic, so I desaturated the hell out of it. The other trick I used was playing up his size.

On a more serious note, I want to make an announcement. Shadow the hedgehog is a - alright, alright.

I don't think I'll be able to participate in any October challenges this year. I want to focus on my schoolwork so that I don't get screwed over. If I did Inktober, or Spooktober, or whatever else, I'd run myself ragged and burn myself out. Make no mistake, I still intend to make plenty of spooky drawings. But I wanted to be honest and tell you up front. I hope you all understand, and I hope you enjoy the art!