Last year, we were approached by a gentleman named Michael Lunsford, who offered to make a poster chronicling that year’s Desert Bus, to be put up for auction near the conclusion of the event. While we normally don’t accept late donations of art and such for the craft-a-long, we made an exception for Mike based on the incredible quality of the draft he submitted.

The final product was well worth a little rules bending.

This year, Mike’s been hard at work again, producing a poster based on this year’s events. You may have seen us ooing and ahing over the drafts as he’s emailed them to us, and he’s now produced a near-final version, which should very closely resemble the final product. We’ll be auctioning the finished poster near the end of the event, so stay tuned!

For more of Michael Lunsford’s work, also check out his webcomic, Supernormal Step.

Bothan’s die, get over it and make a piggy bank. If you happen to have a spare dead (or soon to be dead) Bothan laying around the house consult these handy DIY designs.

So I’m going to level with you, even though it’s saying Jer is the author of this post It’s actually James. As many of you know I was at home sleeping last night, it seemed like a good idea. But during my absence something regarding the ever popular mustache (what with it be Movember) happened.

Again, I don’t know what the deal with but I think these images speak for themselves.

When Morgan arrived (late) this afternoon to begin his 24-hour shift driving the Desert Bus, he confessed that he had only had about five hours of sleep. Given his condition, the chat became dubious of his awareness, and asked us to set up a donation-based crash pool.

Of course we have obliged, and used this as an opportunity to create another way for you to win a fabulous Desert Bus prize. To be eligible, make a donation of five dollars and a number of cents equal to the hour of his shift in which you expect Morgan to crash. For example, a donation of $5.17 would indicate that you expect Morgan to crash in his 17th hour of driving. A donation of $5.25 indicates a vote of confidence for Morgan, and the expectation that he will finish his shift without incident.

If (or when) Morgan crashes, we will make a random draw from the successful guesses, and give the winner a  Sega DS prize pack, containing Sonic Mega Collection, The Hardy Boys: Treasure on the Tracks and Pictoimage. If you’re looking for an excuse to donate $5, this might be it, and keep watching as we will have a lot of other prizes to give away before the run is out.

Frequent watchers of Desert Bus will be familiar with Pants-on-Head James who, with Rosco, has had many fantastic adventures. Here are some of your interpretations of his fantastic exploits!

One of the things we like to do to solicit donations and further our torment is auction off awesome prizes. Here is the docket of major auctions you can expect over the next  several hours:

DJ Hero Party Bundle

Do you need 2 turntables and a microphone? Of course you do! That?s why there?s the DJ Hero Party Bundle! The bestselling game, and enough peripherals to make you forget you?re not actually a boss DJ! Generously donated by Freestyle Games!

Tauren Lion plush (DELAYED UNTIL TOMORROW)

This is a plush Tauren Druid in cat form, made with all new materials. He is over a foot long, and is very huggable! One of a kind handmade plush by Serthida, this cat has a very goofy smile and will happily guard your desk. Not for small children, as there are small parts that may be removable

Tetris afghan

This beautiful cozy afghan will keep you both warm and nostalgic as you play Tetris or dream about Tetris or pretend to be a Tetris superhero. Guaranteed to look totally awesome on you, your couch, your bed, etc.

Ramona Flowers bag – denim w/ pink star

This incredibly awesome too-cool-for-words bag has a large pocket inside for a netbook or Kindle, and smaller pockets for a phone, laptop mouse, DS, pens, laminated list of your evil exes, etc. Stars on both sides. Giant hammer not included.

A note from the crafter: “I’ve been sewing for many years, but this is the first handbag pattern I’ve ever created.? I made these after I read the first few Scott Pilgrim books, and knew that just carrying one around would make me feel like a badass.? (I was right.)”

Escapist Games Journalist Prize Pack 1

Ever wonder what it?s like to be a games journalist? Get a little closer to your chosen profession with the Escapist?s Games Journalist Prize pack! Everything here was donated by a REAL games journalist! Pack 1 includes: Mr. Potato Head, The Art of Soul Caliber, Guild Wars game, All Points Bullet T-shirt, Dark Storm Gathering Novel, Police Notepad, Mana Energy Potion, Rise of the Argonaughts soundtrack, The Escapist T-Shirt, Imp Plushie

Also stay tuned overnight (our time) as we’ll be auctioning off a Namco Bandai PS3 Uber Pack:

Bandai Namco PS3 Super Ultra Prize Pack

The Dead to Rights Offensive Attack whistle, Enslaved T, Dragonball 2 DS, Tekken 6 PSP, Dragonball PSP, Dead to Rights, Clash of the Titans, We Cheer 2, Naruto Shippuden DVD

I hope Mark Rosewater is still reading this, because it’s pretty obvious the Desert Bus community is fantastic at card design! Check out all the submissions for our Magic card design contest!

Wow! It is awesome to see that  we have so much talent watching Desert Bus. Because you wanted to see them, here’s some very tasteful pinups of Kathleen … in a bear hat, of course (I said they were tasteful).

Normally, as our crazy bus trip progresses, we’ll be posting notices of our guests about an hour before they join our broadcast. However, because I expect a lot of activity on the blog in the first couple hours of the event, I’m posting our first guest a little early. Those of you who watched this week’s installment of LoadingReadyRun will know that we all recently became very very re-addicted to Magic: The Gathering, so we couldn’t be happier to welcome Mark Rosewater, the lead designer for Magic at Wizards of the Coast, who will be calling in to speak with us at around 7:00pm PST!

Mark has headed up Magic development over the course of many expansion blocks, and has comedy writing chops from years of working in television. He’s famous for his love of crazy mechanics, and his proclivity for writing extremely long blog posts about design, life, and the funny place where the two connect. We’re hoping that chatting with him will ease the pangs of addiction  from missing Friday Night Magic–only one of the many trials to be suffered as the crew embarks on the first leg of its journey.

Wizards of the Coast has also donated a pretty astonishing selection of prizes–sure to tune your Elder Dragon Highlander deck into  something absolutely terrifying–so stay tuned as those are auctioned off later in the event!

If you have any questions for Mark, you can post them here: we don’t promise to ask him everything (or anything) that’s posted, but we may draw on your questions if we have time.

We’re auctioning off original, signed Star Wars art tonight at 8:00 pm PST – this is a bunch of what’s in there, but not EVERYTHING.

All of it is signed by artist Ken Steacy. It should also be mentioned that George Lucas liked this one so much, that he bought the original.

Holy crap.