Me and my avatar in Poptropica

It's not me - it's my daughter. She drew a picture of her alongside her Poptropica alter-ego, Maroon Whale. Poptropica generates the character's names on its own - she was young enough at the time to not find the name insulting. It's fascinating to see how my daughter's self-portraits have changed over the years. This was drawn a long time ago. Her illustrated versions of herself have become a lot more "manga-ized" and more detailed.

Webkinz School "Photo"

Looking at these old illustrations reminded me about how much my children enjoyed playing Webkinz. There are tons of these things! This was when the game first introduced the school that you could attend, take classes, and get certificates. Later on, you could pay extra and just get the credit without having to do the work. A comment on the modern education system?
The pets in this class photo are mostly of the ones that my girl and boy owned (we didn't own a lion, if I recall correctly). We also couldn't afford to send all our pets to school so we sent just a couple. Another commentary on education? I didn't realize Webkinz had these ethical dilemmas built in!

Neopet Montage

Here's another long-ago drawing, from a game that my girl no longer plays - Neopet. She stopped playing it because it was too demanding of her time and too hard to maintain the pets. She cried when she thought her "neglect" would cause her unicorn to die, but we showed her that it was just "perpetually unhappy" (and since it wasn't real, that there was no harm in abandoning the game she didn't enjoy playing.)

Mysterious Map

I wish I could say more about this mysterious map that I found in the old file of video game related artwork produced by my kids. I think my son made it with help from my daughter. She can't recall what it was from and he's too busy playing video games with his pal Q to answer my questions.

Old Drawings on File - Club Penguin Pals

As I was flipping through my various file folders, I found one from a presentation on video games I gave ages ago. As part of that talk, I had nearly a dozen drawings done by my kids when they were much younger. I keep their drawings in a portfolio in the garage for posterity, but sharing the game-related ones in this manner means that more people can see and enjoy them. There was only one that my daughter said was "too embarrassing" to post (it was a jointly-made comic with her friends featuring characters from the Littlest Pet Shop online game).
The next few weeks will have these older drawings. This one is of my girl's favourite online friends from Club Penguin.

What can Kirby do - revisitied

Not to be outdone, the boy created his illustrated list, complete with unexplained price tags, for some "ultra powers" for Kirby.

Paper Mario and the Shadow Queen Curse

Another explanation, dictated by the girl and typed by the mother.

This is a fan-made Paper Mario game that I drew for my brother because I knew he really liked Thousand Year Door so I decided to make a sequel to it. This is something I made up totally by myself. The characters in the picture are fan-made helpers, since every Paper Mario game has little helpers in it. I modified them based on previous characters. Their names are Goombrina, Captain Bones, Bobby, Yoshi, Boolina, Flare, Umi, and Lakileroy. 

Goombrina is Goombella's roommate and she likes to read. She sort of reminds me of myself because I actually drew her to sort of look like me. Her special ability is tattle, which helps her to identify the foe.

Captain Bones is a dry bones who is the captain of the Shadow Queen's guard. When he sees Mario get captured, he secretly decides to set him free and join his party. His special ability is shell spin, which helps him to hit far away objects.

Bobby is Bombette's younger brother. He is a Bobomb. He is a big fan of Mario and likes going on adventures. His special ability is the same as his sister, which is bomb, allowing him to blow up walls and reveal secret doors.


Yoshi is the grown up version of the yoshi in the Thousand Year Door. As always, he is a bit rambunctious and always ready for a fight. He can let Mario ride on him and take him to far up places.


Boolina is Lady Bow's cousin and she is shy and a bit nicer than Bow. Her special ability is the same as Bow's, out of sight, which can make Mario disappear.


Flare is a mischievous little firefly. She loves to play tricks and have parties. She's a really funny little character. Her ability is to create light in dark places so you can see where you're going.

Umi is a teenage cheep-cheep who lives on Yoshi Island with her friend Sushi from the previous game. She likes to swim and listen to music. Her special ability is to go underwater and find secret items.


Lakileroy is Laklustre's twin brother. Laklustre is a bit embarrassed by him because they have totally different personalities but they look entirely the same. The only thing they have in common is that they can go over mountains and clouds to get to higher places. He's a lot like Yoshi in that respect because they have similar abilities.