All is calm, all is bright

Round yon Loading Ready and Run

Driving buses so tender and wild

Bid in heavenly peace

Bid in heavenly peace

• Ravnica Guild Signet Rings set: Ten (10!) 3D printed signet rings bearing the original guild symbols from the ten guilds of Ravnica!
• duct tape Desert Bus Deck Box (with unstoppable tiny Myr army!): Plus a hugely terrifying Creepy Doll figurine.
• Desert Bus 3000: In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only bus…
• Desert Bus leather arm band – small, steampunk style: Beautifully detailed with the words “Desert Bus for Hope,” surrounded by Desert Bus and steampunk imagery.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only bus…

It’s a little known fact that Graham Stark is in actual fact a planeswalker, a powerful mage able to travel across the planes of existence. We challenged you to create an image of Graham showing off his mystical abilities.

The winner was Simon Sweetman! Here’s what he says about his entry: ” I felt like Graham is more of a “managerial” planeswalker so to speak. I wanted to get across that he would have the Green mana equivalent of control magic… A beastmaster of sorts. Fun fact: The LRR logo is in the image in 3 places: On the chest plate, on the underside of the arm and on the embroidery of the fabric at the bottom.”

Runner up was Caitlin Ryther!

Honourable mentions are Stephanie Martin, Rhiannon McCullough, Ellie Ryan, and K. Schmidt!

Plus Aaron created this rad Flash game about Graham!

Thanks to everyone who entered, we loved looking at your artwork!

Miniature gaming megalith WizKids Inc. has joined this year’s Desert Bus as a new sponsor and given us a huge haul of HeroClix figures!

For those unaware, WizKids changed the face of collectable miniature games with the unique “clix” system that uses a rotating base to update figures battle stats and health. HeroClix, their primary line, has included DC and Marvel Superheroes as well as character lines from other properties like Street Fighter, Lord of the Rings, and Star Trek.

WizKids also makes collectable card games, board games, publishes novels for the MechWarrior and Mage Knight universes, and more! Check out their website to see what exciting products they have planned!

In just two short hours we’ll be hearing from Aaron Forsythe, Senior Director of Magic R&D at Wizards of the Coast! Aaron will be calling in at 2:00 PM PST to talk to us about Magic and a lot more!

Aaron earned his post heading up the daily editorial contest at magicthegathering.com by being a professional Magic the Gathering player on the Pro Tour.  As a member of R&D over the past 10 years, Forsythe has been both a designer and developer for Magic and his design credits include Magic 2010 through Magic 2013 and Planechase. As a developer, his work can be seen on many Magic releases including the original Ravnica block and Zendikar.

If you have any questions for Aaron please leave them in the comments and we’ll pass them along!

Solarbotics has sent us four custom Desert Bus themed kits for making Useless Boxes!

What is a useless box? Why, a box that is entirely useless, of course! Just flip the switch and watch as the box opens up, flicks out a little mechanical lever, and turns itself back off again and closes up before you can put anything inside of it! It’s a box with attitude.

Theoretically, it is possible to bypass the lever and open the box, but then you’re kind of missing the point (and going against the box’s wishes).

Solarbotics is a hobby robotics and electronics company, and sells kits for any skill level. They know that technology is cool and are helping to spread knowledge of that coolness to all who will listen, take part, or perhaps even build their own box-dwelling robot that doesn’t want to come out and play.

There are still so many awesome items available for you to bid on in the silent auctions. The following have just gone live!

• Steampunk lot: Cufflinks! Pins! Goggles! All covered with gears and clockwork of course.
• Dead Monkey Head for Hope: Part luchadore, part Hunter S. Thompson, and all non-stop bussing madness!
• Man, Len Peralta is awesome: The complete third series of Geek a Week trading cards, and more!
• Signed copy of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: Set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots.

Plantonics is the only one of our sponsors to create a product that has ridden astronauts into space. In fact, did you know that the first words spoken on the surface of the moon by Neil Armstrong were through a Plantronics headset?

Now they’ve teamed up with Desert Bus and have donated some fantastic gaming headphones. We are really excited to have Plantronics as one of our sponsors for Desert Bus 6!

His work is the stuff of legends.

His achievements are boundless.

His son is Alex.

Ken “value added” Steacy returns to Desert Bus for Hope to add that extra dose of Steacy magic that will bring shock and awe as per his usual “extra value”(to say the least). When Ken’s not winning the Shuster Award or being inducted into the Canadian Comic Creator’s Hall of Fame he and his wife Joan teach a comic and graphic novel certificate program at Camosun College.

Professor Steacy is joining us on Thursday between 7:00 and 9:00 pm PST to auction off some incredible original art from his own personal collection and to draw custom commissions for the highest bidder. Take a look at some of the amazing work that he’s done for us in the past in the gallery below or see our live and silent auction listings for a complete list of his contributions to Desert Bus!