ComicBase Splash Loader Screen: The Four-Color Rift

Beneath the water-stained plaster of a Midwestern ceiling, a quiet transformation begins. As the boy cracks the spine of U.F.O. & Outer Space, the room’s dull tungsten glow is shattered. A radiant spiral of cosmic energy erupts from the pulp pages—rainbow lightning laced with stardust and memory.
The swirl ascends, turning the ceiling fan into a spinning vortex. On the walls, silent guardians—Zorro, Conan, Tron—begin to shimmer, their eyes flickering with sudden awareness. The floorboards hum. The globe spins on an invisible axis. The boy is no longer just reading; he is summoning. In the static charge of the air, the line between paper and reality dissolves.

I created another variant splash loading page for the new ComicBase 2026 that features a focused few from my previous The Four-Color Rift post, plus another alternate zoomed view to be used as a mobile phone wallpaper.

Hi-rez image link [2160px tall]

The Four-Color Rift

Beneath the water-stained plaster of a Midwestern ceiling, a quiet transformation begins. As the boy cracks the spine of U.F.O. & Outer Space, the room’s dull tungsten glow is shattered. A radiant spiral of cosmic energy erupts from the pulp pages—rainbow lightning laced with stardust and memory.

The swirl ascends, turning the ceiling fan into a spinning vortex. On the walls, silent guardians—Zorro, Conan, Tron—begin to shimmer, their eyes flickering with sudden awareness. The floorboards hum. The globe spins on an invisible axis. The boy is no longer just reading; he is summoning. In the static charge of the air, the line between paper and reality dissolves.

[workflow: a bunch of nanobanana prompts to create various components. Image searches to retrieve magazine and poster images. I took my 20+ items into Affinity Photo for composition, including multiple layers and mask work. A bunch of pixel brush experiments to get the magic swirl.]

• UFO & Outer Space no.19 from 1978 (USA) artwork by Luis Dominguez
• Conan der Barbar no.8 from 1982 (Germany) artwork by Bob Larkin
• Alien Worlds no.8 from 1984 (USA) artwork by John Pound
• [Zorro] Four Color no.425 from 1952 (USA)
• Ripley's Believe It or Not! True Ghost Stories no.11401-2 from 1979 (USA)
• Schoolhouse Rock! poster from 1975
• The Explorers movie poster from 1985 (USA)
• Tron movie poster from 1982 (USA)
• The Karate Kid from 1984 (USA)

Hi-rez image link [3840px tall]

Crossover no.1 (The Four-Color Rift Variant Cover by TrUzApalOOza)

My variant cover version of Crossover #1 (Image Comics 2020), story by Geoff Shaw & Donny Cates.

Hi-rez image link [2160px tall]

ComicBase Splash Loader Screen: Christmas Book Store

I created another variant splash loading page for the new ComicBase 2026 that features two teenage boys reading a comic book outside the B.Dalton bookstore located downtown next to Ace Hardware and Hot Topic.

Hi-rez image link [2160px tall]

The Terminator no.1 (1930s Cartoon Style Variant Cover by TrUzApalOOza)

My version of The Terminator #1 (Dynamite Comics 2024), story by Declan Shalvey & Luke Sparrow, was done in a retro-1930s style cartoon art.

[Workflow: I used Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (Nano Banana) to create my draft work items, and then progressed to the final image with further prompts. A lot of clean-ups, layered Fx, font work, hand edits with custom brushes, and even tested out the new Glitch-layer in the new Canva Affinity version 3.]

Hi-rez image link [2160px tall]

Brrrroccoli

I took Cilia's original broccoli image and played around to make things look a bit colder with some ice fog appearing and condensation in the air.

[Workflow: Affinity layers for fog, condensation, and some brush work to add more icicles after stretching the Brrrroccoli vertically a bit so I had more room to play.]

Hi-rez image link [2160px tall]

Fallback for Daylight Savings Time

Quick creation for falling back to Daylight Savings Time, or as I see it the end of warmer weather and the start of nasty coldness.

[Workflow: Prompt experimentation using Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (Nano Banana) to create the basic illustrations, then merged left/right together inside Affinity Photo. Added lighting Fx, some texture overlays, and then hand-crafted the fonts and wording.]

Hi-rez image link [2160px tall]

That's an un-BRIE-lievable amount (1.4 billion pounds) of cheese!

Snapple Real Facts Illustrated #2088 - The statement about 1.4 billion pounds of government cheese being stored in caves in Missouri is an outdated claim; while a large surplus of cheese did exist in the past and was stored in underground facilities like those in Springfield, the government has since distributed this cheese. The idea of a 1.4 billion-pound stockpile has become an urban myth that is no longer accurate, though the caves are still used for commercial cold storage.

[Workflow: Prompt experimentation using Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (Nano Banana) to create the basic illustration.  Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer were used last month to create the magazine layout, adjusted every time I make a new illustrated fact.]

Hi-rez image link [2160px tall]

A Knight of the Green Lantern Corps

A simple Green Lantern action figure styled in a medieval knight's gear.

 [Workflow: Prompt experimentation using Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (Nano Banana) to create the basic illustration.  Affinity Photo to clean up, and added Fx.]

Hi-rez image link [2160px tall]

Mercury and Venus Have No Moons (and Here Is Why)

Snapple Real Facts Illustrated #1260 - Mercury and Venus are the only planets in our solar system that have no moons. This is because their proximity to the Sun makes it difficult to hold onto a moon, as the Sun's strong gravitational pull could either capture a moon from them or pull it away from their orbits. 

[Workflow: Prompt experimentation using Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (Nano Banana) to create the basic illustration.  Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer actions to finalize the magazine layout I previously had created (logo, date/issue masthead Fx, designed beaker wallpaper, the future is fruity emblem, etc.)  Fixed up some image errors by AI, then added in additional text elements.]

Hi-rez image link [2160px tall]

Quick Video Conversion (ghosts, Frankenstein, Batman, young witch, Charlie Brown, demon,and Gazebrax)

100% AI work here via the free photos.google.com option to convert an image into a quick video clip.  I am especially impressed that I fed some of my previous image work in Gemini Veo 3.1, turned them into these clips, WITHOUT an actual descriptive prompt being added by me.

• Frankenstein source images I used to feed into VEO
• Batman 
• Ghosts 
• Young witch
• Charle Brown
• Lilitha's demon
• Gazebrax