And now the story of a  bunch of people who lost their sanity, and who had no choice but to play one of the worst games ever for charity… It’s Desert Bus.

The Bilzmom Planeswalker contest! Where we challenged viewers to design the art for a Magic: the Gathering Planeswalker card based on Bill’s Mom. Check out all the entries here.

Jags Necropoles! People read the origin story of the clone of beloved Desert Bus mallard Roscoe P. Jangles and then drew some super awesome art!

We ran our very own Strip Search challenge between Kathleen and LeeLee! We had them draw some excellent ’80s Tom Hanks comics, and you can check them out here!

Cam also did his best to accurately predict who’d win all of today’s (American) Football games. We went 9 and 4, two games better than ESPN’s so-called “experts”!

We’ve also been asking people for help with Achievement graphics. We’re still looking for some so check out this page for more information.

And we hit $100,000! (Thanks to ArmoredFrog  for the screen shot.)

And don’t forget to check out all the sweet photos on Flickr!

We had some super awesome images for the Jags Necropoles origin story! It was really hard to choose a winner, but Jer finally selected this submission from EJ! They won a deluxe edition of Limbo!

We had two super close runners up, the first is by Merav Ulyansky.

And the second is by Rhiannon McCullough.

Plus here are the rest!

Jeremy has challenged everyone to illustrate the origin story of Jags Necropoles, clone of beloved Desert Bus mallard Roscoe P. Jangles.

The winner will receive a deluxe edition copy of Limbo, which comes with a stylish case, a sticker and 7 art postcards, and 3D glasses for special viewing of them.

So, read through Jags story, copied below, and give us your best illustration.

Like any round trip to Vegas, Roscoe expected that the end would be met with the very same hydraulic whoosh to which he had  become accustomed. What he did not plan on was being met with a tiny face much like his own. In the distance, rumbling from a storm caused the sky to growl. The tiny eyes blinked.

 “Who are you?”

 Unflinching, emotionless, the tiny bill parted long enough to respond. “From the abyss of your subconscious, the will of the one they call Creepy Doll, and from a tiny bit of DNA taken from a dropped feather, I come. I am your clone, Roscoe. I am you. I am Jags Necropoles.”

 Thunder roared around them. The storm had arrived.

Get to it people! The contest ends at 9pm!

If you have an eye for icons, this might be the challenge for you. We need some Achievement icons for the following Cheevos, and we’d like you to help us out. The best designs for each one will go up on the Desert Bus Achievements page for all to see and enjoy.

• Two Heads Are Better Than One
• Saturday Morning
• Ring-ding-dingeringeding!
• Crash the Gates
• Dog Catcher
• We’re Helping!
• Hot Swap

This year’s style is plain white on the blue background, but if you feel like throwing a little accent colour in there, have some fun with it!

Use this image as a background to create your cheevo-specific image. Click above to see the full-sized image.

Save your file as a png and send it to [email protected]! Good luck!

We received some amazing entries for our Bilzmom Planeswalker contest, but citricacid83 was our winner, with this dynamic portrait

Well done citricacid83! You win a set of autographed Joe Vollan token cards, assuming you haven’t been whisked off to Oz by a twister.

Click below the cut for some of the other excellent entries we received.

(more…)

Call your bosom buddies, take a break from your bachelor party, and quit working on that money pit for a minute, we have big news that’s sure to make a splash! We present below Kathleen and LeeLee’s excellent ’80s Tom Hanks comics.

With your help, the busing crew made some picks for the weekend’s NFL action. How did we do? Pretty dang awesome! Here’s the match by match rundown:

The Bills put on a Wild West show and ran roughshod over the Jets. CALLED IT!

The Bears cast Earthbind on the Ravens. They were wizard bears, we should have mentioned that. OOPS!

The Bengals earned their stripes and mauled the Browns. CALLED IT!

The Eagles soared over the, uh, other team. CALLED IT!

The Steelers showed their mettle against the Lions. CALLED IT!

The Buccaneers made down comforters of the Falcons. CALLED IT!

The Cardinals proved why they are the state bird of seven different states and embarrassed the Jaguars. OOPS! (Why did we bet against the Arizona team? Isn’t that kind of like the Desert Bus home side?)

The Raiders dared to Mess with Texas, and somehow got away with it. CALLED IT!

The Dolphins swam circles around the bewildered Chargers. OOPS!

The Saints gave the 49ers a stern lesson in proper theology and geometry, then helped themselves to a few celebratory hot dogs. CALLED IT!

The Giants trampled the Packers and scarcely stopped to check the bottom of their shoes. CALLED IT!

The Seahawks swashbuckled their way to victory over the Vikings, spurred on by a rousing Korngoldian score. CALLED IT!

The Broncos overcame their lack of opposable thumbs and managed to defeat the Chiefs. OOPS!

With all of the Sunday games done, we’re sitting pretty at 9 and 4, two games better than ESPN’s so-called “experts.” Now, as far as the spreads go, things were not quite as good, but even still, as of now, our Desert Bus football pool has netted a tidy $29.24 for the children!

Desert Bus is excited to welcome back writer and performer Bill Corbett. He will be calling in at 6pm tonight, Sunday November 17th.

Bill Corbett is most known for his work as the voice and puppeteer of Crow T. Robot (v.2.0) on the award-winning cult television show Mystery Science Theater 3000. He also played a number of other characters on MST3K, including the omnipotent, but dim witted alien, The Observer (also known as “Brain Guy”).

Bill is an international playwright and screenwriter. His screenplay, Starship Dave, was made as the Eddie Murphy comedy Meet Dave. He has also written a comedy called The Big Slam, which has been produced at theaters coast to coast; from Washington to Washington. His other plays include Hate Mail, The Stuff of Dreams, and Super-Powered-Revenge-Christmas #1. He is the co-creator of the animated web show Poker Night and is a regularly contributor to NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion and All Things Considered. Bill also is an actor for the Guthrie Theater and Berkshire Theater Festival and has taught playwriting and screenwriting at numerous schools.

After giving bad film a few years to catch its breath, Bill reunited with his MST3K teammates Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy to create Rifftrax, which creates mp3 riff commentaries for movies ranging from the obscure to blockbuster hits. He is an Aries.

If you have any questions for Bill, please put them in the comments section below.

Attention warlocks, sorcerers, and thaumaturgists: Graham has challenged you to create Magic art based on the Billzmom Planeswalker! We are looking for either a whole Magic card, or the art by itself.

If you do go for the whole card, the casting cost, powers, and all that kind of stuff are up to you, but you’ll do well to have them embody the spirit of Billzmom and her Planeswalking powers.

Whosoever creates the best design wins a set of signed Joe Vollan token cards! Sweet!

The contest closes at 6pm, so get your entries in quick!

NOTE: We extended the deadline to 6pm due to the technical problems on our end. 

Good afternoon one and all. I have relieved Mia and will be behind the keyboard for the next blogging shift, happily toiling to keep you up to date on what’s going on with the Desert Bus.

Live Auction

At 4:30pm we will be auctioning off this one-of-a-kind Desert Bus playmat which features a beautiful heraldic design by artist Joe Vollan.

Silent Auctions

The following silent auctions have just opened and will be running until 10pm.

• Tyrant and Tutor – Skyrim art
• Akroma, Angel of Fury prerelease promo banner
• X-Men Game Gear Lot

Make sure to get your bids in early and often!