What an incredibly cool week here at the GIA. I mean, first AK gets his head spliced onto Gilgamesh, then AV and Nich do the Gaiman interview (and seeing as for nine of the last ten years of my life I wanted to work in the comics industry, I found that really, really cool), and then Brian "Slick" Glick manages to meet Weird Al. Wow. For my part, I didn't have my appearance mutilated or meet any living legends, but getting the wonderful art in today's update over the last week was just about as great. Despite waking up this morning with the beginnings of a horrible cold, this update has been an absolute pleasure to do.

   The first gallery starts off with a beautiful portrait of FFV's Reina and Faris, drawn by Hanna Chang, and a sweet CG from Petra Rödig of the final, epic battle between Sephiroth and Cloud. Petra's also contributed a nice, creepy rendition of one of the new FF8 summoned creatures, in "Cerberos". R.T. Brown has branched out a bit from his previous work to give us a 3D rendering of FF7's "One Winged Angel" that is nothing short of incredible. Shockingly enough, only two more pieces of FF8 art in this update - an adorable picture of Laguna, Ellone, and Raine (and may I add, that Gilgamesh guy is nothing next to Laguna) by K-chan, and from the always-offbeat pulpy, a picture of the Tonberry King and his wife which is just plain cool.

   And pulpy starts off the second gallery as well, with "i originate from zero and end at ten," a Metal Gear Solid pic featuring Psycho Mantis. Petra spans the galleries as well, with a really cool semi-self-portrait entitled "Pokémon, Team Rocket and me." I was a little confused when I got two pieces for the Biohazard series in my email this week, as I didn't realize that it's the same series I've known as Resident Evil. (For a gaming site employee, sometimes I think I'm a bit undereducated...) But despite my ignorance, they're excellent pics: One from Valery Korneev, a Halloween pic entitled "Trick or Treat - Raccoon Style", and one from Simon Woon, a pencil portrait of "The Zombie Busters". Simon Woon also contributes an absolutely fantastic Legend of Mana pic, entitled "The Party of Three." And rounding things off, SaGa fan Sakana gives us a dynamic "Master Gustav-13!!" from SaGa Frontier 2.

   Hope you love these twelve pics as much as I did... I will note that those who may not have played much of FF8 yet might want to be careful - a minor spoiler is present in the text for K-chan's picture of Laguna, Ellone, and Raine. Nothing major or shocking, but seeing as I've gotten yelled at for saying even some really obvious things, I thought I'd better be careful...

   -- Andrea Hartmann, hoping I doesn't get fired for that "blasphemous" comment about Gilgamesh... aw, screw it. Laguna is THE MAN. ;)