Lale Westvind

War Wind

Some games I loved playing as a kid were accessible only at a friend’s house, for access to a different gaming system. My brother and I also rented a ton of games from Blockbuster.

War Wind had different creatures to choose from, and my brother, our best friend, and I each stuck with one of them after much discussion and deliberation. There wasn’t internet multiplayer yet (not for us, at least), so the closest thing was creating character sheets and clay action figures of the different species. I chose the Oblinox, a beautiful three-legged motorcycle-riding reptilian meathead. I’ve been thinking of them for years, and only recently looked up that name again.

I wouldn’t say that War Wind started me on an artistic path. I was drawing before I’d ever heard of video games. But I was enamored with the Oblinox and their vehicles, more so than the characters of any other game. The game booklet was always my favorite part of a game — that and the map, in a strange way. I make comics and animations, and world-building is definitely something I’m tackling all the time. As a kid, the War Wind booklet was something incredibly cool that I was often trying to replicate in my own drawings and characters.