zac gorman’s ‘magical game time’ = games+comics+innocence

Zac Gorman, an illustrator who loves Zelda, Nintendo and all things games, didn’t mean for Magical Game Time to become a career. His comic strip started as simple sketches during downtime, or to dodge a dreary job. But Gorman’s work hit a nerve with the public when he used his talent to comment on the announcement of the Wii U, Nintendo’s latest console. His Tumblr fans went nuts.

His rep grew as folks realized that Gorman’s voice is a strong one. A resonant one. His perspective is firmly in the kids’ camp — innocence, imagination, the stories we tell ourselves throughout life that get us through. Sometimes those stories change. Sometimes they don’t.

With his use of Zelda (and other Nintendo characters) his audience is slightly built-in. But he keeps people coming back with a touch of humor and a really appealing style, which includes the use of animated gifs, all created in PS CS3.

From his site:

“I do all my gif animation in Photoshop CS3 using the Animation palette. For my line work, I alternate between traditional techniques, Manga Studio EX4, and Photoshop CS3 (or occasionally a combination of them), and for color I almost exclusively use Photoshop.

When I’m drawing digitally, I use a scratched up 9×12 Wacom Intuos 3 tablet and when I’m working traditionally I use any combination of brushes, dip pens, brush pens, fountain pens, pencils, and more to achieve the look I’m going for.”

Head to the Magical Game Time site to see more of his work. It’s got something for gamers, sure.

But it’s also got something for anyone who’s ever been a kid.