Archie Artist Ben Bates Posts Mega Man Art Auction for Tsunami Relief in Japan

TMMN Staff

March 28, 2011

Following the tragic recent events in Japan, illustrator Ben Bates (whose work for the upcoming Mega Man comic from Archie can be seen on the Villain Variant cover here) has decided to team with his colleagues from Periscope Studio to auction off a series of pictures in order to raise money for the relief efforts.
As he notes on his blog, “I wanted to draw some of my favorite creative properties that come from Japan. Creations that I feel have greatly enriched my life. Mega Man is up close to the top along with a ton of other Capcom creations.”

Check out the full-size image of the piece below.

Bates continues:

This illustration is 11 x 17 done on bristol board with ink and prisma marker. It was penciled digitally and then printed in blue leaving them still visible in the final piece.

My idea for this particular illustration comes from something I thought I saw in a videogame magazine years ago. There was an article on a Mega Man arcade game in which you could play as Mega Man, Proto Man, or Bass which seemed like the coolest thing in the world to me! And it was multi-player! This turned out to be ‘The Power Battle’ and years later I would get to play it and find myself heavily disappointed.

The problem for me was I thought the arcade game I saw allowed you to play as all three characters at the same time. I thought it was like a classic game with side-scrolling levels and tons of enemies pouring out. I thought it would be one of the greatest Mega Man experiences of all time. ‘The Power Battle’ didn’t stand a chance going up against my expectations.

So here’s an illustration for the game I want to exist. There would be levels under the sea and levels blasting through the skies like in 8, Mega Man on Rush Jet, Bass with Treble Boost, and… I’m not sure if Proto Man has ever been depicted flying so maybe we’d get to see something brand new.

You can find the auction for this piece here. At this time, there are currently 23 bids on the auction, with its price at $81.00. There are four days and six hours left on it as of this writing, and all proceeds (minus shipping) from the winning bid will go to the tsunami relief efforts of Peace Winds Japan via the Mercy Corps.

Other, non-Mega Man auctions from Periscope Studio can be seen here.

Thanks to The Illustrious Q for the tip!