Lihua Pinto, in the first season of Starbuck’s Quest, is a self-taught artist, known around the internet and in the world of tabletop gaming as the “Hundred-Handed God of Bally-mills.” His art is drawn and painted all over the world, but where his talent meets his need, he can produce anything he sees fit.

Here, he describes what it was like to make these pieces in this time and place, and why he feels that there’s something special about them.

I’m so happy to be here. The first day of the convention, they’re giving out free stuff for two weeks and the first two minutes the lady behind this booth says, “What are we going to do now?” I said, “I’ll be drawing.”

“Okay,” she said. “What are we going to do now?” I said, “Get these for us.” So I went around with a bunch of pen and paper and drew these wonderful little cards which were called the “Shattered Dreams,” they were on a piece of paper so they had crayons on them, and these are the cards I drew.

A few months ago, right before the show I got a call from someone who’s been reading my blog about my comic, “Starbuck’s Quest” and how the Starbuck’s Quest comic is a personal tribute to him, a gift to him. That came out when he wrote me and I went, “Oh my god, that’s great, I didn’t know you cared,” because people ask so much of me for a sign. I think one of the things about the series, what made it special was it was so personal.

The thing about Starbuck’s Quest, the book he wrote and the comic, and of course every other Starbuck’s Quest work since is that it’s about him, it’s about him being a person and how it’s affected and impacted him. It’s like a big character study of a real person. These are his relationships, his failures, his successes. I’m sure some of them may not show up, they’re just ideas that I was taking from him to make up my pieces. It’s one of those things, when I think about anything I’m doing, I think, “What’s this person’s relationship like? How’s that person going? Do the two of them get along? We do things