Back in October, Ness of NESSMADETHIS (Bats in the Belfry Art) reached out asking if I would be interested in writing a Transformers Christmas story. She had drawn Soundwave taking the alt-form of the leg lamp from the movie “A Christmas Story” and wanted to create a larger story around that. Something feel-good and light for these hard times. I loved the image, and I loved the idea. I got to work right away on a quick draft.

Ness and I liked the idea of Soundwave learning about Christmas, kind of like Dr. Seuss’s Grinch, from traveling around Earth and observing different human traditions. I did some quick research on winter holiday mainstays, like exchanging gifts and singing carols. I wrote up a first draft that got the point across, but then I had a thought. If Soundwave was going to learn about the power of Christmas like the Grinch did, maybe I should write the story in verse! That additional creative tick added a whole new dimension to the project for me.

Even though the verse version made the text about 3x as long as it would have been otherwise, Ness agreed to run with it. And run she has! Every picture/page is a delight, and I’m excited to share the finished product as a small book when the illustrations are complete. 

If you would like to follow along as Ness posts each image, you can do so via Ness’s Instagram. Better yet, become a member of Ness’s Ko-Fi to get first-run access to these illustrations and so much more!

If you’d like a hard copy of the story when it’s all put together, drop me a line at Mayumi@bonusparts.com so we can discuss details.