My name is Hal Hefner, I am a Sci-Fi nerd. I create Sci-Fi nerd dreams with my comic Gates, the flagship product of an epic science fiction franchise. How nerdy are you?

Go for it. I dare ya…

1) Conan The Barbarian Soundtrack:
If you are a fan of the movie, Conan the Barbarian then you know how awesome the soundtrack is as well. Great music by Basil Poledouris set the tone of the movie and is an epic score to kick ass to.

2) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep:
This is the book by Phillip K. Dick that inspired Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner. It’s good, real good and in fills in lots of holes in the movie and also gives you a different twist on it. Great, easy read even for you folks out there who haven’t read a book since college.

3) The Twilight Zone Collection:
The Twilight Zone is one of if not the greatest TV show ever. For any aspiring Sci-Fi geek and or creator, it is essential guide to storytelling, RIP Rod Serling, a genius way ahead of his time.

4) The Original Star Wars Trilogy – WITHOUT ANY ADDED CRAP
We didn’t need Boba Fett and Jabba to show up in the a New Hope. We didn’t need anymore crappy creatures that added no value and we all certainly know: HAN SHOT FIRST.

5) A Profound Hatred for Star Trek Enterprise:
Need I say more? Okay, I will. Brannon Braga’s take on the Star Trek universe was crap.

6) The Lord of The Rings Extended Edition, The Soundtracks and all of the books;
You’ve gotta own it all. Own it. Live it. Love it.

7) A Profound Sadness for the Way Battlestar Galactica Ended:
There’s a lot of us that feel we got hosed with that ending. I can still hear Jim Hendrix’s, All Along the Watchtower playing in my head and I’m thinking WTF is this?

8 ) A Passionately Favorite Version of  the REAL Doctor Who:
Tom Baker. Period. And I will gladly meet you in an alley to fight about it.
9) A Fear That Will Smith Will Someday Star in The Movie Adaptation of Your Favorite Book:
Every character is the same, that wise cracking boy from Philadelphia living with his cousin Carlton and Uncle Phil.

10) Toys from Your Childhood That You Refuse To Part With: 
I still have my original Kermit the Frog from when I was three and my first Boba Fett. Trump that.

11) The Belief that the Word Midichlorian Was Just from a Nightmare and NOT a real Star Wars Movie:
This is just a dream. Metachlorians are not real. Seriously. It’s just a bad joke and it will be over when I wake up. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

12) The Original Tron Movie:
You own it. You love it. It loves you.

13) An affection for the TV show Firefly:
Every Sci-Fi nerd loves this show. If you don’t you are a loser.

14) A Hatred for Chris O’Donnell:
As Robin, he was the harbinger of death for the original Batman movie franchise.

15) You Know Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:
Learn it now if you don’t know it.

16) You think Cheetara is HOT!
The star of two version of Thundercats cartoons was also the star of your wet dream. Admit it, you’d love to let her claw your back and bite your neck. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

17) You Believe Aliens are our REAL Gods:
If you read enough science fiction, and of the right kind, all of those books questioning are existence in the universe, finally open up some possibilities for you. BUT depending on where you live, who your parents are and who you are sleeping with, you may not admit this in public.

18) You Have a Favorite Animated Cult Sci-Fi Movie:
There are so many to pick from. Many will choose Heavy Metal.

19) You Blame Hot Rod for Optimus Prime’s Death:
Well, it was his fault. And after Optimus rose form the grave Rodimus got hosed. AND DESERVEDLY SO!

20) You DESPISE Michael Bay for Masturbating on your Childhood.
The king of explosions, inexplicably keeps making million dollar movies and in the process he has destroyed the Transformers and has now decided to shit on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by making the aliens in his new adaptation. Someone needs to destroy the people at Paramount for allowing him to live. Michael Bay is the fucking anti-Christ.

However, in America and the world at large, we are dealing with some serious issues that are happening with a common message. That message is loud and clear and it sounds like this, “WE DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR FREEDOM. SHUT THE FUCK UP AND DO WHAT WE TELL YOU!”

WHAT HAS HAPPENED WHILE YOU’VE BEEN WATCHING AMERICAN IDOL?

1) HR 347-
HR 347 has passed through Congress. It states that the American people will no longer be allowed to peaceably assemble to petition the government when certain government officials are nearby, whether they know it or not. This is a clear violation of the First Amendment, which states that this right is not to be ABRIDGED.

Justin Amash, R-Michigan, explains this change by saying:

“ The bill expands current law to make it a crime to enter or remain in an area where an official is visiting even if the person does not know it’s illegal to be in that area and has no reason to suspect its illegal.”

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/206017/president-obama-signs-anti-protest-bill-h-r-347/#pcFF7BZqxyQAEouC.99

2) The NDAA:
The National Defense Authorization Act again chips away at your constitutional rights to due process of law. Underneath this bullshit pile, the United States government can declare any one of us a terrorist, lock us away without a trial for any amount of time they deem fit.

Does this seem American to you?

Is this what our founding fathers intended?

I think not.

As a creative person, an artist and a writer, and a father…or how about as a member of the human race–THIS PISSES ME OFF!

And I’m on Twitter tonight and all I see are other comic book artists, writers and other “creators” who surround me with Tweets about Batman and Marvel and Game of Thrones. I just don’t get it. As an creative person, as a writer, as an artist, as a musician…it is our DUTY to speak out against the materialistic, the wrong, defend the innocent like Trayvon Martin, keep in check the tyranny and crooked politicians.

I don’t know about you guys and girls but I’m pissed. For those of you with 20,000 Twitter followers, why don’t you say something profound for once and use your brain instead of RT and Tweet about how Guy Ritchie should direct this film based on a comic by Mark Millar. By towing the company line, BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAing like a sheep, you’re part of the problem.

THE REVOLUTION OF IDEAS IS HERE:
It’s time to wake up people. All of you creators, writers, artists, musicians…it’s time for you to make a difference. We are the shamans, the medicine men, the visionaries of the modern age. Yet many bury their heads in the ass of Kim Kardashian or some stupid video game. We can either be thinkers or robots perpetuating the problem.

If HR-347 and the NDAA, piss you off then do something about it! Use your abilities to write words, draw pictures, make music and say something profound! Use your influence to wake others up, like Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd did…It’s our duty.

“Listen, the next revolution is gonna be a revolution of ideas.” – Bill Hicks

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of my favorite artists and someone who was a direct inspiration for me in EVERYTHING that I do has passed on to become one with the great consciousness of the universe. French comic-book artist, designer and creative innovator, Jean Giraud, (Moebius), died overnight at the age of 74 after a long illness, an associate and work colleague reported from Paris, France.

Moebius was a legend. An artist yes but at heart Moebius was an amazing storyteller. He used his art to tell stories. Without Moebius, there would be no Heavy Metal. There would be no me.

Jean Henri Gaston Giraud was one of the world’s leading cartoonists, artists and thinkers, who also found a large and loyal following in Japan and the United States. Moebius was the modern day Shaman shared his tales of science fiction and fantasy around the international fires of the independent comic book industry.

As well as being published in top French magazines, and being one of the co founders of Metal Hurlant, which in the US became Heavy Metal, Moebius worked with Japanese manga artists and co-produced and illustrated, Marvel’s, The Silver Surfer with Stan Lee.

Giraud also contributed to a number of blockbuster movies all over the world. In the early 80′s he and famous French Animator, Rene Laloux, creator of the movie Fantastic Planet, co-piloted the movie, Time Masters. It was a great film and visually stunning with a very interesting take on time. Laloux is to animation as Moebius is to comics and this pairing was incredible.

Back in 2001, I met Moebius at a screening of Time Masters, at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. I actually showed him my tattoo that I have of Fantastic Planet on my arm and he loved it, ” OHHH, I will tell Rene when I get back to France. It is the most beautiful tattoo I have seen of this, Rene will be pleased.” I also discussed my initial concepts for the Gates comic book with him for a second and he encouraged me to keep going and not to ever get discouraged.

Moebius was an inspiration to me…not only because of the work he did, but the work he didn’t do.

There was the ill fated Dune movie by Alejandro Jodorowsky, that Moebius did some amazing character designs for. Below are his conceptions of some of the characters. They are pretty awesome.

Paul Atreides concept art by Moebius for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune

Baron Harkonnen concept art by Moebius for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune

In 2010 France’s Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art produced a far out, retrospective of Moebius’ work that was so uniquely designed and constructed that it was a desire of mine to see–but I never did.

But I did meet Moebius and his work has inspired me since I was a teenager.

Below are some links to some articles I’ve written about him over the years.

Moebius: one of my favorite Heavy Metal comic book artists.

Moebius animated series Arzak.

Au revoir Moebius, My dear shamanistic inspiration. May your travels into the next stage of consciousness be as creative as those wonderful days you spent on planet Earth.

The wold lost a legend this past weekend when famed artist and conceptual master, Ralph McQuarrie passed away.

McQuarrie was an artist who defined an era of science fiction and brought the visions to life of people like Isaac Asimov and George Lucas. Technically McQuarrie was a master of color theory, perspective and landscapes. He was someone so skilled that he could make a typical Earth environment look so very foreign and alien with just a slight color shift or an addition of a strange rock formation.  Ralph McQuarrie was a master of conceptual movie art and his black and white illustrations for Isaac Asimov’s books are just as incredible as his Star Wars art.

To me Ralph McQuarrie was my Yoda. I fell in love with his work early on as a child. I remember being captivated by his concept art for the Empire Strikes Back, especially Cloud City. Then later on I began reading books like Robot Dreams and sure enough, there was McQuarrie again. But when I really felt his power was once I was in college studying art and illustration. It was then that I realized that I didn’t want to be the next Norman Rockwell, I wanted to be the next Ralph McQuarrie. After I graduated from college at RIT in Rochester NY, I bought every book with McQuarrie’s art that I could find and afford. I studied everything about his work, from his color use to his landscape design. He made me better. He taught me when school was over forever. McQuarrie taught me the ways of  the force and how to wield a paint brush like a lightsaber.

I will forever be indebted to Ralph McQuarrie for everything he did for me as an artist.

RIP my master. May the force be with you.

Below you’ll find a short video I made in homage to some of my favorite Star Wars paintings y Ralph McQuarrie. They are accompanies by the music of Kevin Bryce.

Click here to view the embedded video.