This is the happiest news that I've learned about in a long time! I am BEYOND FLOORED to have found out, so pleasantly surprised, that I was up all night last Saturday night/Sunday morning, unable to sleep out of overloaded rapture! Now that I've gotten all this overwhelming excitement out of my system, I can explain the reasoning for this enormous boost of joy.

Last Saturday night, the SPHL's Quad City Storm introduced their official mascot, "Radar", or as he originally was when he was first created back in 2007, "Firestorm The Fox"! My connection with Firestorm, for those that don't know, is that I was the one who designed him!...That's right! I designed this particular character for a professional hockey team back in 2007, and had him accepted!

The team that played in the area at the time was the Quad City Flames. They were a team in the AHL, relocating from Omaha, Nebraska at that time. In June 2007, the QC Flames organization announced a mascot design contest. I just had the urge to got to work on this character and submit it for the contest. Firestorm was one of three characters chosen by the Flames staff to put on their website for fans to vote for their favorite design. Mine got the most votes and became the Quad City Flames mascot!

In 2009, after two seasons in Moline, IL, the QC Flames moved out of the iWireless Center (as the arena was called at the time), to Abbotsford, BC. I thought it would be the last I would hear of my "child". I never would've thought I'd see him again.

And then, last Saturday night, as I was browsing around the interwebs, on Twitter, I see.....FIRESTORM!!! The Quad City Storm just introduced Firestorm as their new mascot...under a different name and color scheme, though. He is now a black-furred fox named "Radar". I'm not sure as to why the Storm organization decided to bring him back, recolor him and change his name? Maybe, they didn't want to build a new mascot from the ground up, but give a pre-existing mascot a makeover and name change? Whatever the reason, this is the happiest news I've heard in a long time. Now, I wanna pay a visit to the Quad Cities to see my creation again! (Maybe I'll do it as part of a vacation to MFF next year, or something?)



Here's drawings of Firestorm, along with a pic of the mascot and I:

https://twitter.com/PaWS_Arts/statu.....93270464598016

Here he is as "Radar":

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrJ5CPMH3R0/