Hackjammer: thoughts on the art!

Hey guys,

    FINALLY got my hands on a copy of Hackjammer!  I'll not comment on the
actual contents, since I'm biased, so instead I'll concentrate on the
artwork! :)  Spoilers to the artwork, so be forewarned.



Overall: The interior artwork is black & white inks.  It ranges from fairly
cartoony to fairly realistic.  Since I actually really like this style, this
pleases me to no end!

Cover: We've saw it months ago, and it still rocks!  Pirate of Gith ambushes
a human (buccaneer or ranger?) and his pixie-fairy companion as a trio of
galleons duke it out overhead.  It appears the human, pixie-fairy, & pirate
of gith are in the wreckage of a fourth ship.

Page 7: The apes of Gronnanar!  The Orutan is pointing out something
important on a scroll to a Rillan, who is deep in thought.  Behind him, a
Pantrog appears very upset at something, with a Pithengi trying in vain to
calm him down.Very nice picture.  The apes are cartoonish, but capture well
the spirit of each individual ape race.

P10: Giff, dracon, orc, and lizardmen all standing onboard ship.  The giff
is rather nasty-looking, though a bit hunched over with a rather large axe
in hand.  The dracon looks more like that dragon-centaur from 3e than a
dracon, actually.  One complaint is that the feet are draconic, rather than
bronto-like!  The orc and lizardmen look pretty standard fare, though I
wouldn't want to mess with either of them!

P14: The standard races, aboard a ship, although half ogres, half elves, and
half orcs are all missing.

P18: Beholder doomship, very close to how I envisioned it.  The inspiration
was the Doomsday Device from the Star Trek episode of the same name, though
modified a bit.

P19: The horse-like courser, although I think this is supposed to be the
destrier, as the courser has 2 masts, and the destrier has 3, and the
picture shows 3.  Oddly, the wrong set of legs were drawn!  The fore-legs
should have been drawn rather the hind ones, which serve as the grappling
ram!  Whoops! :)

P20: The dwarven bastion!  It is a flat-topped rock with a trio of dwarven
heads carved into the side, with a fortress burrowed into a hill on top.
Captures the bastion perfectly.

P21: The elven Motharaa Monarchship.  Looks like a gigantic wasp, so this
kinda makes me think this should have been the hornet ship, because it
certainly doesn't appear to be the 200-ton moth-like monarchship.  Its at an
odd angle and not well-detailed, either, so I suppose it could be a moth,
but it looks more hornet to me.

P22: Falconship.  Pretty close to the deckplans, actually, and a pretty
mean-looking ship to boot.

P24: Greathawk Dreadnaught.  The picture is very good, although not nearly
detailed enough.  The upfolded wings hide the decks on back.  The original
inspiration was the unnamed ship on the cover of Greyspace, and I figured it
would be nice to put that ship to stats and give it a deckplan.

P26: Hawkship, our replacement for the hammership in the 60-ton, heavy
hitting galleon category.  This looks pretty nice, fairly close to the
deckplans & sketch I drew for it.

P30: Pixie Battlefly...heh, I wasn't sure WHAT this was until I read the
title.  Missing the butterfly-like wings, but otherwise good.  Maybe one
used by an undead pixie fairy? :)

P32: Threshership, though a small and undetailed sketch of one.  Pretty
mean-looking, athough it doesn't quite convey the sleekness of the ship.
Might look nicer if shrunk down a bit more...my guess is this was a small
sketch that was blown up to 2x or 3x original size.

P33: A wolfship, actually far better-looking than I envisioned it.  The
snarling wolf-head is particularly neat-looking!

P38: A ship being boarded by pirates of gith!  From the fireball blasts and
magic being thrown at them, I'd say the defending crew is being hit hard!
In the foreground a human is cutting down a gith with a big knife, while in
the background, a gith hurls himself, knife raised, at a fighter defender!
Nice chaotic battle for survival!

P42: Two ships, my guess being a rodentship & a hornet, battling it out via
fireballs volleys!  BOOM!!  Both ships look to be in bad shape, with crewmen
flung off into the void (at least four I can see) and yet a third ship
making a death pluge into the atmosphere of the planet below.

P43: A gnomish pirate (from his headscarf) making a map of some solar
system, in what appears to be either the bow of a ship or before an
impressive set of windows.  Either way, this conveys the spirit of everyday
life in space in a most excellent fashion.  Not flashy, not bloody, and
really a peaceful scene.

P56: A wizard studying a tome (with Kenzer's logo on the front & back
covers!) and scroll, a window in the background showing a space backdrop
including a planet and a gigantic turtle with a mountain on its back!  Very
spelljammer/hackjammerish!

P61: A scene of the Rock of Brawl.  Characters of various races (including a
dwarf & an orc!) at a marketplace, a castle in the background.  Really
captures the spirit of an asteroid city.

P69: I'd say an agent of the Celestial Empire (ninja?) taking a gnome
syndicate agent to task.  Nice.

P72: A gnoll with a mindflayer head on a spear!  Rather cute, actually.
Danged humanoids! :D

P76: A high elf hoisting a mug of ale with a hot drow chick with her arm
around his neck in an affectionate way!  Obviously a tribute to the
Pan-Elven Union!  Sweet picture.

P84: Head-shot portrait of Darius Starling (a human).  I think the artist
captured the description quite well.  Rather vicious-looking fellow, if I do
say so myself.

P85: I'd say this is Jamis Quince (a halfling).  He looks almost child-like,
with a huge sword slung over his shoulder.  Pretty cool looking.

P96: Dragons!  All three space dragons are pictured!  On the left is the
comet dragon, at the top is the radiant dragon, and on the right is the
sunrise dragon.  All are very close to the descriptions, especially the
sunrise dragon.  Its exactly as I pictured it in my head.  Very nice indeed!

P100: This picture just rocks; its a quartet of pirates of gith laying waste
 to a crew.  Almost appears like a swarm of undead, but given its located
next to the gith entry, its safe to assume its our favorite pirates!
Brutal...

P104: Oh my, a trio of lakshu fresh from slaughtering pirates of gith...yum
yum...>;^D

P106: A trio of neogi swarm the hold of a ship, overpowering a terrified
human.  Interestingly, the artist gave the neogi four arms that end in
clawed hands rather than spider-claws, something that does make sense.  I
also should point out that the description does say "limbs that end in small
claws", so that can easily be interpreted as clawed hands.  And the neogi
with the sword looks wicked!  One neogi appears quite old, with an eyepatch
and a nasty underbite.

P111: A kindorca chowing down on a ship, the crew falling into its cavernous
maw!  Remember the scene from Jaws where the shark is at the end of the
ship, viciously biting at everthing that comes in range, as the ship slowly
sinks?  Same thing, except this is a huge space killer whale in place of a
shark.  Chow time! :)

P112: A happy-looking, fat, and really ugly pirate glaring at his new
mechanical arm, thanks to the xixchil surgeon standing over him in what
appears to be a basement surgery room.  It kinda reminds me of John Silver
from Treasure Planet getting his mechanical arm.

P114: A brooding elf seated upon a helm.  Nice, I like it.  Guy looks like
someon you wouldn't want to mess with in a dark alley...heck, not anywhere!

P118: A elf looking to buy goods from a wizen-looking elf (kinda looks like
an oriental elder, complete with thin mustache and chin-beard that hang a
good foot or so.  On the table appears to be a ship cloak, a spell
projector, a planetary locator, a hold of holding of some sort, and a crown
of the void.  What to buy, what to buy?!

P124: A ship exiting the pholgestion, with planets as the backdrop.  A nice
closing picture, of a ship exploring the distant wonders that hackjammer has
to offer!

Adam

Look for my coming on the seventh month of the fifth year.  At dawn look to
the world were the Trio (plus one) that is Untouchable reigns supreme