Pinball Magazine: Christopher Franchi Batman interview

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Special interview:

Christopher Franchi on his artwork for Stern’s Batman + Amusement Expo report

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Pinball Magazine No. 4

• 244 (!) full color, glossy pages.

• Special: pinball designer Mark Ritchie discusses his entire career at Williams Pinball, Capcom and beyond, in a 100+ page cover story. Discussed game designs include Thunderball, Firepower II, Sorcerer, Big Guns, Taxi, Fish Tales, Indiana Jones, Kingpin and more.

• Contributions by others about Mark Ritchie include Eugene Jarvis, George Petro, Steve Ritchie, Chris Granner and others, all revealing great insights in working with Mark Ritchie.

• Dutch Pinball owners Barry Driessen and Jaap Nauta discuss the making of The Big Lebowski in a 17-page interview.

• Pinball animation artist Jean-Paul de Win discusses his work for Jersey Jack Pinball (The Hobbit, Dialed In!), Dutch Pinball

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(The Big Lebowski), Silver Castle Pinball (Timeshock) and more.

Showtime: Ed vanderVeen discusses the very successful Texas Pinball Festival.

Dan Ferguson discusses the Lone Star Pinball Museum in Hockley, Texas.

Jeff Frick discusses collecting prewar pinball machines.

A triple interview on Dallas makerspace’s VECTOR Committee where some great pinball restorations take place.

Essential Website: the Internet Pinball Database, interview with manager Jay Stafford Store: Pinball Universe‘s new approach to bringing pinball to the people.

Artist Lippy discusses the first issue of Binge Trigger. and much more

Order your copy of Pinball Magazine No.4 in the Pinball Magazine webshop: www.pinball-magazine.com/shop/ 3

report

Amusement Expo 2017, Dallas Convention Center

Above: the games in Stern’s booth. Below: the Chicago Gaming booth.

March 15 and 16th, 2017 a new edition of the Amusement Expo was held. Where the 2016 edition took place in Las Vegas, this year’s edition was held in the Dallas Convention Center in Dallas, Texas. At the show two pinball companies made an appearance: Stern Pinball and Chicago Gaming.

Stern Pinball had brought the same booth they had at the CES show in January, this time with eight pinball machines set up in two rows of four. The games presented were Ghostbusters Pro and Premium, Batman Premium, Aerosmith Pro and Premium, The Walking Dead Pro and Metallica Pro and were constantly being played. Flyer brochures of the same games were available at the desk of the booth. The company was being represented by Gary Stern, John Buscaglia, Pat Powers and Jim Belt.

All the way at the other end of the hall Chicago Gaming had their booth set up were the long awaited remake of Attack from Mars made its first public appearance in three different models: Classic, Special and Limited Edition. The Classic 4

Edition has a regular sized color display instead of a dotmatrix display. The playfield is similar to the original Bally game from 1995. The Special Edition and Limited Edition both have a much larger sized color display that reminds of the display Dutch Pinball used on The Big Lebowski. Both editions also have LED lit speaker grills next to each side of the display. On the playfield the UFO saucers turn out to be of a more metallic

report

The backbox of the Limited Edition. On the top left the LE playfield.

Lower left: the Special / LE saucers verses the Classic ones.

looking plastic than the grey plastic on the Classic version.

The small UFOs have LEDs in them that alter between red and green animated paters. The Limited Edition appears to be coming with a green side trim and a huge interactive topper on top of the backbox.

Pricing of the Attack From Mars wasn’t available yet and will be announced Friday March 24th at 5PM at the Texas Pinball Festival, where the games obviously will be presented as well.

Doug Skor from Chicago Gaming also mentioned that production of the games will start in about two to three weeks.

As far as gameplay goes the game is unchanged from the original, but it obviously plays like new. Due to the new extra’s did leave a better impression on me than when I played the Medieval Madness remake for the first time a few years ago.

This game is clearly more than just a remake.

That was about all the pinball there was to be found at the event. Unlike last year Heighway Pinball was not present as they instead head to attend the Italian Enada show in Rimini.

For those looking to play new games will have to attend one of the many upcoming pinball shows. Marco Specialties will reportedly be bringing quite a few recent titles to Arcade Expo in Banning, California. A week later is the Texas Pinball Festival where new and recent games from Dennis Nordman, The Pinball Company, American Pinball, Multimorphic and Heighway Pinball are expected.

In case you can’t attend any of these shows, make sure to visit the Pinball Magazine website for show reports and subscribe to the Pinball Magazine monthly newsletter summarizing the major events of the past month. In the mean time, if you haven’t ordered Pinball Magazine No. 1, No. 3 and/or No. 4, these are still available in the Pinball Magazine webshop.

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special interview

Interview with Christopher Franchi, artist on Stern’s Batman Interview: Jonathan Joosten, Copy editing: Paul Rubens, George Gomez

When Stern Pinball announced Batman as its 30th anniversary game, not only did they introduce to pinball the Super Limited Edition model with the $15,000 price tag, but also a new graphic artist: Christopher Franchi (pronounced as Fran-chee), 50.

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On his first game Christopher ended up doing the art packages for all three models, including cabinet art, backglass art, the characters on the playfield and more. Pinball Magazine contacted him to find out how he got involved and what he will be doing next.

PM: Christopher, first of all I really have to thank you for doing that custom George Gomez Batman drawing that was used for the cover of Pinball Magazine’s George Gomez interview on Batman. I think it’s really great.

Christopher Franchi: You’re welcome. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of time, so I did the best I could with the amount of time I had. George is a super awesome guy so I wanted to try to help out.

Special interview:

George Gomez on Batman 66 Spider-Man playfield ghosting and more Also includes Pinball Magazine No. 4 preview and 2016 Pinball Flyer Archive

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special interview PM: I tried to research your work, but I couldn’t find that much. The Batman game that you did for Stern is your first pinball game, but you’ve been drawing a lot longer.

Christopher Franchi: Oh yeah, most of the stuff that I do is not the kind of stuff that you get credit for, you know? For example, just before I started working on the pinball machine I did a cover for a movie for Warner Brothers called Batman: The Return of the Caped Crusader, which is a full-length animated movie based on the old Batman TV show from the ‘60s. You’re not allowed to sign it. They don’t put your name on the credits, you know? It’s thankless work usually. When you work for the entertainment industry, you don’t get credit for what you do unless you get on a soapbox and say, “Hey, I did this!”

So I knew this was definitely a field that I’d be interested in getting into, because after 35 years of being in an industry it’d be nice to actually get credit for some of the stuff that you do and for people to care about it. Plus it’s something that I can really get into and relate to because I love pinball. I grew up playing pinball. I grew up playing hockey. My brother also played hockey, but we were never on the same team.

We had these rooms that you go into that have all the heat, they call them warming rooms where you hang out and drink your hot chocolate while your family’s playing hockey or whatever, and they always had pinball machines. So I grew up with it.

PM: Since you’re an artist and you like pinball. Did you ever think of doing art for a pinball machine prior to this one?

Christopher Franchi: Since I was a kid. I’ve always been into art since I was a very young, coloring in my little Batman coloring books and that sort of stuff. Like I said, being six, seven, eight, nine, ten years old hanging around hockey rinks, pinball to most kids was just a game. But to me it was just a visual explosion. I would just study every inch of the pinball machine and appreciate the artwork and everything. It was definitely something that I would have loved to do. Why I didn’t pursue it I don’t know. I really couldn’t tell you.

But people always say, “If you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.” And because I do graphic design I definitely love what I do. But it gets even sweeter when what you’re actually working on is something that you really love.

Because I might do a poster for a bar and it’s like, “Hey, I’m doing graphic design, this is a good day.” But when you’re working on a pinball machine, it can’t get any better.

Either that or designing toy packages. Yeah, it’s definitely a blessing and a fun thing and I will be grateful forever that Greg reached out to me to do this project. I told my daughter, “No matter what I do from now until the day I die, this pinball machine is going to be my legacy.”

So, over my career I worked for the band KISS for five years, designing their tour merchandise and their retail merchandise and I worked for their magazine and did interviews with them and concert photography and all kinds of stuff. I did work for the White Stripes, AC/DC, Tim McGraw, Alice Cooper. I used to design retail merchandise for Star Trek, Betty Boop, Batman and Superman. All kinds of stuff, but again, it’s just the kind of work that you don’t get credit for.

One thing I think that’s very nice about the pinball culture is that fans of pinball actually really care about who designed the game and who did the artwork for the game. I’ve been getting into it more over the past couple of months. I own a pinball machine. I’ve always been a fan, but I’ve never really scratched the surface of it.

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special interview I actually had a run in with Stern pretty much twenty years ago. [Technically speaking the company was called Sega Pinball at the time – PM] I wasn’t working for KISS at the time, but I was working for the company that licensed KISS and I was doing work with the Beatles. At the time the company was called Sony Signatures. Then they went to Signatures Network and now they’re Live Nation.

This was right around the time when KISS announced that they were going to reunite, with the original members and put the makeup back on. This was 1996 and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be neat if somebody made a new KISS pinball machine?”

The old ones from the ‘70s are very collectible. By pinball standards it’s actually a pretty boring game compared to nowadays with all the ramps and special effects and all of that.

I thought they could probably really design a cool one. So I contacted them. I just thought, “They need my help. I’m going to call them.” So I called them up and I said, “Hey, I can get you in touch with the licensing people for KISS and I think it’d be really neat if you guys made a new KISS pinball machine.”

And they actually did follow up on it. Bottom line is that at the time they couldn’t afford the licensing deal because KISS wants a lot of their money up front. They don’t want to wait for royalties to come in; they want it all now. So it ended up not happening, but because of that I was kind of familiar with Stern already.

PM: Do you still happen to have that artwork?

Christopher Franchi: The KISS pinball artwork? I do still have it. [Unfortunately it could not e found prior to publication of this interview – PM] You see what was going on at the time was, I never asked any questions. I just assumed because of my experience and looking at a pinball machine I’m like, well that’s silk-screened. Looking at the graphics on the playfield, those are silkscreened. At the time, nothing was photo realistic. It was all solid color, comic book art basically. So I’m like, “Okay, how can I do artwork knowing that this is how it’s going to be printed, but really get the most out of it?”

So I kind of created this style that was a little more detailed as far as the way I shaded it. It’s really hard to explain. That’s what KISS fell in love with, the way I had drawn the characters. I had only done Paul and Gene at the time. So when I submitted it they said, “Do you have Ace and Peter?” And I said, “No.” They were like, “Can you draw them in the same way, the same style?” And I said, “Okay.” And that became known as the KISS pop art. And they licensed that artwork for all of their packaging for probably about two years.

So everything that you bought from KISS had this artwork on it in some form or another. On the box, but they actually also have products with the artwork on it. I’ve got a whole closet full of that crap. They sent me four of everything if my artwork was on it. I gave a lot of it away over the years, but managed to keep at least one of each thing.

Pinball Magazine No. 3 (again, it’s more like a book) 260 full color, glossy pages Special: KISS-themed pinball machines (80+ pages covering games by Bally, Zidware, and Stern Pinball) Bally’s heyday (late ‘70s - early ‘80s), including career covering interviews with piball designer Jim Patla, graphic artist Kevin O’Connor and marketeer Tom Nieman Plus: Ed Robertson (Barenaked Ladies) Jack Guarnieri Freddy’s Pinball Paradise (Germany) Essential Website: Pavlov Pinball Pinball Dreams (Germany), Pinball Creative (UK) Festi Flip, French connection and much more

Order your copy of Pinball Magazine No. 3 here: www.pinball-magazine.com/shop/ 9

special interview Spare head That actual artwork, the Paul drawing, was just a picture of his head and I don’t know what I had planned for it. But the Gene drawing was specific, because I was trying to get my head around what a pinball designer would do. I thought, “Well, wouldn’t it be neat if there was a plastic that connected to the slingshot. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a piece of plastic that attached to that and attached to the apron and it was a side view of Gene’s head with his mouth open. Like his tongue was sticking out, but the flipper would line up with his mouth. So that it would look like when you flipped the flipper it was him wagging his tongue.

And also it would create something neat because the ball would have to roll under his head and then come out to the flipper. So it would also kind of add a little bit of challenge.

Which I don’t know if that’s cool to do or not, but again, I’m not a pinball designer. I just thought, “Hey, that seems neat to me.” You know, if the ball kind of came down the side and disappeared behind his head and then came out his mouth and right onto the flipper. It would just add a little bit more challenge to it.

So, after the pinball thing was scrapped I took that drawing and just drew the tongue in because the tongue was supposed to be the flipper. So it wasn’t on the art. And then I had to draw a front facing Gene to go with the rest of the faces. So sometimes on the KISS products you’d see the straight on Gene or sometimes you’d see the sideways head Gene. But that actual pinball art was used on KISS products as just KISS art. No one ever knew where it came from.

KISS and I had parted ways under some sour grapes and I was pretty vocal about it, because I was pretty immature at the time. Usually business is business and you keep that out of the public eye and let it go, but I was kind of angry and frustrated.

Around that time I was pretty mouthy. Since then I’ve kind of made my peace with it. If Gene and Paul called me up today and said, “Would you want to work with us again?” I would say, “Definitely.” If you asked me that ten years ago, or five years ago, I’d say, “Hell no.” I don’t know if Mike is under the impression that I’ve come back around. He might think if he did an interview with me I’d just be going, “Screw those guys.”

So yeah, I don’t know. I talk to them now and then, but never really about his podcast and all that.

I do get a lot of comments from KISS fans asking if I’m ever going to go back. A few of them had said that they think my work for KISS was the heyday of KISS merchandise. That was very kind. It was fun. I definitely had a different take on it. At the time, the people who were doing the KISS merchandise were marketing them as like a serious heavy metal act, like any other band of that time. When I came in I was like, “You guys are missing the mark. These guys are pop culture icons.

You can do anything with them. Don’t just take photos and put metal and chains and saw blades around them. Have fun with it.”

PM: This might be an interesting story for the Three sides of the Coin podcast, are you familiar with that?

Christopher Franchi: Yeah, Mike Brandvold [One of the three hosts of the show – PM] is actually who got me to work for KISS. He was the webmaster for KISS at the time and he’s the one who saw the artwork and showed it to Gene and Paul. So yeah, I owe a huge debt to Mike. We’re still friends on Facebook now.

One of the designs I did was a pinball backglass. It was just a big, square on a shirt that was completely different art to the pinball machine, but it had the little squares with the score on it, you know? You know, like an old electromechanical pinball. And I did one where they were ratfink style. Like each one had their own car with the giant back tires and the big motors sticking out and that really high stick shift. And all their cars were catered to their personas. I just had a blast do10

special interview ing all different kinds of fun stuff. I said, “This is how I think you guys should be marketed.”

Pop culture icons I was a KISS fan when I was a kid. So at the time, it was just years and years and years of pop culture fandom for this band. They were more of a novelty to me at that time, when I was working for them in the early 2000s, and I thought you can reach a much broader audience if you just take advantage of these characters as pop culture icons and not so much as serious musicians.

I think that’s what struck a chord with the fans. This might have been something they had been waiting for. And it’s why I think they cherished a lot of the earlier KISS merchandise because that’s what it was like. The later stuff became a little bit more . . . maybe too serious? I think if anything Gene and Paul would admit that they’ve never taken themselves too seriously or they wouldn’t have got away with what they got away with, you know?

PM: So while you already had some contact with Sega Pinball in 1996, that didn’t get you into pinball at the time. Instead you wound up working for KISS and all these other bands. Twenty years later you finally end up in pinball after all. How did you get involved in doing the artwork for Stern’s Batman?

Christopher Franchi: I got a friend request from Greg Freres [famed pinball graphic artist and currently Art Director at Stern – PM] on Facebook. I had no idea who he was. Like I said, I’ve loved pinball all my life, but I have no idea who does what, or anything other than it is fun to play. I’m not one of those people who just accepts everybody, has 5,000 friends and doesn’t know who three quarters of them are. So I’ll just kind of snoop around when somebody asks for a friend request. I will go to their page and see who they know that I know, et cetera, et cetera. If I see a connection there then I’ll accept it. If I don’t then I just let it sit in my list.

So I got a friend request from him and I clicked on his page and it said Stern Pinball. So I said, “Oh?!” So as soon as I approved Greg’s friend request, he sent me a message right away saying, “We found your work and we really like your style.

Would you like to work with us on some future projects? And I said, “Absolutely.” And they sent over some paperwork, like non-disclosure agreement type of stuff, so whatever they discuss with me I can’t discuss with anybody else.

During this conversation I’m saying, “Boy, wouldn’t it be great if you guys could do a ’66 Batman pinball machine? Because that was always my dream to own, because I collect ‘66 Batman. I’ve been a Batman fan since I was a kid. With the benefit of hindsight now he made some sort of sarcastic remark like, “Yeah, that’d be neat, wouldn’t it?”

So as soon as I signed the paperwork he started telling me, “Well, we’re in the midst of making this ‘66 Batman pinball

machine.” And I’m like, “Oh my god.” And he goes, “But, we’re really far down the line with it now and unfortunately we found you kind of late. All we really need you to do is draw 120 Batman gadgets.” Because each Limited Edition pinball machine gets assigned a number and a gadget. So let’s say number five is the Battarang. If you bought one you’re going to get a random gadget as a little plaque on your pinball machine to identify yours as something special. Plus, we’re using the artwork on the video screen, because you’re sort of collecting gadgets.

Backglass design So during the process of working this out and getting started and trying to find a comfortable area how we want the art to look and all of that Greg keeps mentioning to me, “Boy, I really wish we could have at least had you do a backglass design or something.” I replied, “Greg, I’ve got a ton of Batman artwork at my disposal. You give me 24 hours and I can put something together for you that will look awesome. I’d be using artwork that I’ve already done, so I can get this done for you really quick. Just send me the template.”

And he sent me the template that night and the next morning he had waiting in his email box a backglass design, which apparently he fell in love with. He showed George Gomez, who is the project lead. He fell in love with it and they showed Gary Stern who fell in love with it. And they decided that of the three different models they were making, I had to design one of them.

Originally they said, “We want this backglass, we’re going to use it as is. But can you design the cabinet and the sides of the back box and all of that?” So I said, “Sure.” I put one together and as soon as they saw that they said, “You have to do another one. We’ll have you do two of the three.” So I did another one and they said, “You might as well do all three.”

So I ended up doing the backglass design and the cabinets for all three. And once I did that they said, “Well, now the artwork on the playfield doesn’t match. So we’re going to keep the playfield graphics, but can you redraw all the character art?”

This was all zero hour, mind you. They had no time so I’m running around like a mad man and managed to get all of 11

special interview that done. And then some part of me was saying, “Like, geez, I really hope they got someone else to do these gadgets.” Because they kind of put that on the back burner and had me doing all this other extensive work. So once I finished all that I was kind of thinking, “Okay, take a deep breath now. Now the stress is off my back.” Then Greg goes, “Okay, now you’ve got to get back onto those gadgets.” I’m like, “Oh, you didn’t have someone else do these?” He’s like, “No.” Back to the gadgets So I spent another month and a half doing 120 drawings, which was not easy, because I found photos on Google for maybe 20 of them. I was actually sitting every night – late at night – in my bedroom watching the TV show, every episode.

Whenever a gadget would come on I would pause it and grab my cell phone and take a picture of the screen and get as many angles as I could because I’m really anal about that. Not just going to draw it like it kind of looked like that. I want the font to match, the placement, the colors, everything.

Then some of the things they just mentioned on the TV show.

They never actually showed the gadget, they just said, “Well, lucky we had our Infrared Bat Dust.” So they said, “Well, because you’re such a fan of the TV show and all of that you’re probably best suited to create this stuff so that it looks like it would on the show.” Because if you ask any 20-something year old kid these days, you’re like, “Hey, they never showed a Bat Electrode Remover on the show, but we need one, can you design one?” It’s going to look like some space age thing.

Whereas, I knew the sensibility of the show and could create things that looked like they were created on the show.

These clunky metal boxes with screws and indicator lights and springs and things, you know? So, yeah, the research was very intensive to find all these things, to track things down and then to create things. So between the cabinet art and all these gadgets it was pretty much a four-month process. And now it’s over with and I’m glad.

PM: I can imagine. So this was a four-month project for you in total?

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Christopher Franchi: Yes. It started the end of August and finished up literally two days ago.

PM: So originally they wanted Kevin O’Connor do the artwork?

Christopher Franchi: Yeah, pretty much. As far as I know Kevin was only doing the playfield.

So I don’t think Kevin O’Connor was ever actually assigned to do the backglass and cabinets and all that stuff. I think he was just working on the playfield. And the playfield is mostly still his work. Wherever he had a character, they had me go in and redraw. So all the lines and the ramps and everything else that he put in there, that’s all still his work. I just redid all of the character work.

PM: You mentioned Joe Kaminkow and the slot machine of Batman. Didn’t you do the artwork for that too?

Christopher Franchi: No. I played that and I wished I had been a part of it, but no, I didn’t do anything for that.

PM: Batman ’66 is a licensed game and usually with a licensed game they will need licensor approval. Was that an issue on this game? Or was it easy because most of the stuff that you have done was already approved?

Christopher Franchi: Well, yeah, that’s a great question that leads into an interesting story. Because of the time crunch, I reached out to Chad Colebank at Tweeterhead – he does statues and sculpted statues of different characters. He is doing Batman ’66. I did a drawing of Bat Girl for him based on his statue. This is before it was released, just for promotional purposes. Also, I got my start on Batman ’66 working for Frank at Mobius Models doing the model kit covers for the TV show Batman characters. So far for him I’ve done Batman, Robin, Catwoman, Riddler, Penguin and Bat Girl.

So I told Greg, “Let me reach out to these guys and see if they’ll be all right with us using that artwork.” Because that might have been the only way this could have happened. Be-

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cause I don’t know if I would have had the time otherwise to draw all these characters from scratch. So I reached out to them and thankfully both of them were like, “Hey, we’re all a family here and we’re all reaching for the same goal. So by all means, feel free to use it.” Because even though they paid for the artwork I still owned it.

PM: Which is a very clever thing to do.

Christopher Franchi: Well, it’s kind of standard. Usually people can own the artwork, but you usually have to charge them a lot more. So they try to get out as easy as possible. But Chad and Frank both are doing Batman products from the TV show because they love it. I think that them seeing the artwork I created for them on this pinball machine was just as big a thrill for them. So they agreed to do it and that’s basically it.

Granted there’s new stuff on the artwork. It’s not all recycled.

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special interview PM: Were you also involved with the flyer design for the game?

Christopher Franchi: I was not. I sort of made my own little graphics. Once they sent me photos, like professional photos of the pinball, I kind of made my own little graphics and put them on my page. Rather than just post a picture of a pinball machine, like, I made the little skyline and Batman and Robin running at you, you know? Because I had all that artwork on layers so I was able to do what I wanted with it. Whether that inspired them or not I don’t know.

cabinet of that one, and the backglass of this one and that one.” So I had to do some finagling, but was able to get them to agree to build my own version, although I still haven’t decided on what pieces are going to be on it.

I also said, “Is there any way I could get a plaque?” Because they’re putting these little plastic plaques on each one. I said, “Is there any way I could get a plaque made for this as well?”

And it took a couple of weeks but they finally got back to me and said, “We have space if you want to make your own plaque.”

I do know that they had pulled the graphics from the backglass design and sort of arranged what they had. I don’t know who did it. If I had to guess I would say it was probably Steven Martin who works under Greg and sort of assists on our projects and things. But no, that has nothing to do with me.

As a matter of fact, they put that flyer out and then two days later they changed it. They changed it in only one way and that’s that I noticed that at the bottom there’s a big “POW!” and it says, “Featuring art by Christopher Franchi,” which was quite nice because you can’t miss it on a flyer.

PM: So you mentioned at the beginning of this interview that you have a pinball machine?

Christopher Franchi: Yes. PM: Everybody will want to know which one.

Christopher Franchi: Well, can you guess?

PM: It could be a Bally KISS. Christopher Franchi: No, it’s actually the Data East ’91 Batman ’89. So it’s the ’89 Tim Burton Batman movie with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, but they made it in ’91. It’s fun. When I bought it, it needed some repairs so it was my first experience with replacing plastics and light bulbs and one of the flippers. But it’s mint condition now. I managed to find everything. Even an extra set of target stickers and stuff like that because some of those were beat up over the years.

So it’s like showroom condition now. I’ve had that for about ten years.

PM: From what I understood from some people mentioning it on the Pinside Forum, soon that game will be joined by another pinball machine.

Christopher Franchi: Oh, yeah. I’m getting a new Batman too, my own special model actually.

PM: How will your game differ from others?

Christopher Franchi: Well, there was a lot of begging and negotiating involved. So I don’t think just anybody could call them up and have this happen, but I had said when they first had me design one whole machine, “I have to get one of these obviously, not only because I collect ’66 Batman, but I did he artwork on it. There’s so many reasons why I need one of these. And then they came out with these three models and I’m like, “I like the side cabinet of this one and the backbox 14

So, I don’t know if it’s just because I’m a jerk or what, but their models are the Premium, the Limited Edition, and the Super Limited Edition. So on my plaque it says, “Extra Super Limited Edition 1 of 1.” It has my signature and it says, “Artist Edition.” So I have the only 1 of 1.

PM: Do you remember how you put the art together?

What did you take from which model to be on your game?

Christopher Franchi: It’s basically a choice between the Limited Edition and the Premium. Because just kind of really out of respect for the people that have paid so much money for the Super Limited Editions I don’t want to take those side graphics. You know, I think those are very unique. It’s the first time they’ve ever been used on a pinball machine and I’d just as soon keep it that way and let their machines be that unique. I think it’s very respectful to do that.

I think I’m probably going to go with the villains on the side cabinet and then the sides of the back box there’s a version of Batman and Robin. I’m going to forego the Bat Girl, because she’s actually on the playfield. And then I’ll probably go with the Premium version backglass, because that’s the first one I designed. So just for sentimental purposes I’ll pick that one.

So that’s probably what I’ll end up with. And I’ll probably get the Batmobile topper put on.

Topper tale Here’s a funny story about the topper. Are you familiar with YouTube channel called John’s Arcade? He’s a very fast

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talking guy and to some people he probably comes off as kind of annoying, but he’s very genuine and definitely knows his stuff. He’s mostly video games, but I had come across this video where he had just bought a Ghostbusters pinball machine and he was putting a topper on it. I wasn’t very familiar with this, because my Data East Batman has a topper in it and it’s just a Plexiglas Batman logo. It doesn’t light up, it doesn’t do anything.

So I’m looking at this topper for this Ghostbusters thing where they recreated the top of the Ghostbusters mobile and I’m thinking, “Wow, they’re really willing to manufacture anything.” So I thought, what would be low enough and would be cool and would work up there? And I thought, “You know, I had this artwork of Batman and Robin in the cockpit of the Batmobile. Wouldn’t it be cool to recreate that like just with the two bubbles and the little siren light in the middle?”

So I sent the artwork over to Greg and George. And George responds with, “We must be way more in sync than I thought we were,” because he was already planning on doing that. But I don’t think he was planning on doing the bubbles with the characters. I think he was just planning on doing that centerpiece with the siren lights.

And so it ended up being sort of like two people having the same idea at the same time and each other’s ideas complemented one another. Because the way I designed it I didn’t intend on the center part being a whole three dimensional unit with an actual light and all that. It was more of a vacuum formed plastic thing. So his idea with my side bubble window idea and all that just went together perfectly and created what I think is an amazing topper. George also had the idea to put the bat signal light in the back so you could shine it up on the wall, which I thought was also brilliant.

PM: When we started this conversation you mentioned that you’ve been working for all these rock bands and that you did various superhero merchandise. This is all right up the alley of what Stern have been doing for the past ten years or so. How come this is just your first pinball machine?

Christopher Franchi: To tell you the truth, I’ve done so much high profile work, but I’ve never had an agent. Usually when

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special interview I’ve wanted to do something and tracked somebody down, I’ve always ended up doing it. That’s how I ended up working for KISS. Actually, working for KISS was connected to Stern because when Stern agreed that they would look into doing the KISS pinball machine back in 1996 I started doing some conceptual art. Once it got scrapped I had this artwork lying around, so I’m like, “Well, I’ll just send it into KISS and they’ll put it on their website because they had a fan art section. At least I’ll get some mileage out of it.”

an art page, but the art page has not got my name on it. Like I always went under the name Metal Luna Five Media. That was my little studio name.

Once they saw it, they got a hold of me and I started working for them. So I guess the reason why I’ve never done any pinball was because I never went after it. Other than that thing with Stern and KISS back then, I don’t think I ever thought to send them samples of my artwork or anything. I don’t know what their state was at the time.

PM: All this makes me wonder, did Stern only want you to work on Batman or did they have another project in mind as well?

Christopher Franchi: No, it was strictly the Batman project.

When they originally contacted me they just wanted me to do the gadgets. My end was basically, “We’re hiring you to do the gadgets.” I basically convinced them to give me a shot at doing the backglass design, which spun out into doing everything.

Whether that was their intention all along or not, I don’t really know. That’s not a question for me; I guess that’s a question for Greg. But I do know their original intention was just to do the gadgets and then everything else just kind of fell into place afterwards.

After the KISS deal fell apart it wasn’t like they called me up and said, “Hey, let’s have you work on something else.” So it was just – I don’t know. Maybe it was one of those things that I just thought would never happen.

I make a living at what I do, but I don’t think, “Hey, if they can hire me, why would they not hire me?” I don’t really have that opinion of my work. I respect a lot of other artist’s work. So maybe I just thought it would never happen. I would contact them and they’d go, “Yeah, that’s great.” They’d put my art in a file and never look at it again.

And I’ve kept busy. I actually work a nine-to-five job because I don’t think even at 50 years old I have the discipline to just be a freelancer. I tried it once and I would just sleep until three in the afternoon. I said, “I’ll do that work later.” And then I started losing one client after another. And I’m like, “What’s going on here?”

PM: So what do you do as your fulltime job?

Christopher Franchi: I work for a company that owns several businesses. I do logos, brand identities and things like that for all these different businesses. Then at 5 o’clock I’ll put that down and start working at pinball machine art. I work for a company called Fright Rags, which is fright-rags.com and they do horror movie t-shirts. They’ve always got something going on and I love horror movies too, so that was another perfect fit. Very sort of relaxed situation where he’ll just send me an email and say, “Hey, we’re thinking about doing Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so get your wheels spinning.” I can take my time getting around to it so that’s been fun.

Between that and everything else in my life I just basically kept busy and didn’t really go after too much stuff. And even doing this Batman for Stern it really wasn’t me initiating anything. They did a Google search for Batman ’66 and apparently my art was somewhere at the top of the page. And they tracked me down. I think that’s another problem too. I’m not really set up to make it easy for people to find me. Because I don’t have a website. I have a personal Facebook page and 16

If you go to the page you’ll see my name. It’ll say, “The artwork of ‘blah, blah, blah’.” But other than that you wouldn’t know. And my personal page doesn’t necessarily scream he’s an artist. I just live like a regular schmoe like anyone else. I guess I haven’t made it easy for people to track me down.

PM: Now that this game is finished, any talks going on or prospects for another game?

Christopher Franchi: Well, thanks to the overwhelming reaction to my rookie outing on the Batman game I have been assigned two different games. One for 2017 and one either for later in the year or 2018.

PM: Congratulations. At least you have more time this time.

Christopher Franchi: Yes, definitely. Definitely more time. So yeah, I’m very happy about that.

PM: Well, they must be very happy with you as well then.

Christopher Franchi: I think so. I think so. I mean, people never really let on how valuable you might be to them. They don’t want to pay $10 million for artwork. At the same time all of them are very kind and complimentary about my work. I think mostly maybe what has swayed their opinion, or at least added to their opinion, was kind of the reaction everybody has had to it.

I think Greg really trusted me on my sensibilities. And my concept was basically that the show came out right around the time that color TV came out. The show itself was just an explosion of color. Even within each single frame you’ve got Batman standing against an orange background and there’s a pink light coming from the right and a green light coming from the right. Each scene is filled with color.

So I thought, “If I’m going to do this machine, the underlying theme is that it’s just got to be exploding with color.” And it wasn’t by choice, like, “Wow, this is really going to stand

special interview out in the arcade.” To me it was just that’s what makes sense.

That’s what it is and it was so over the top. The screen was just filled with things going on and “Bams!” and “Pows!” So that’s why it’s also really overloaded. There was so much in that show and so much in the three seasons that you can’t help but try to pack all that in.

PM: You’re from Michigan, right?

Christopher Franchi: Yeah, I’m just outside of Detroit Rock City.

PM: Stern is in Chicago, so I assume that most of the contact that you had with them was either by phone or email or that kind of stuff. When was the first time that you went to visit Stern to see what they were up to?

Christopher Franchi: That was in mid-October. They invited me out for their 30th anniversary party that coincided with the Chicago Pinball Expo.

going to stick it on anything. But yeah, that was it.

PM: So you came in on the Friday of Pinball Expo?

Christopher Franchi: Yes, I drove to Chicago. I pretty much drove straight to the Expo center. I got my room and then I came down into the Expo area. I met Greg before I walked in and then he walked me in and showed me the machines.

PM: What I’m curious about is what your first response was when you saw the games with your artwork?

Christopher Franchi: I almost cried. It was a surreal experience really. Like you’ve seen in the movies and in cartoons and stuff when people see something they covet they animate that little glow around it? That little aura, almost like a holy glow. That’s kind of like how I saw it when I walked in the room and saw all three of the Batman games side-by-side there, all lit up and blinking. I’m just like, “Oh my god.” I don’t mean this in an egotistical way, but I just thought to myself, “This is the most perfect pinball machine ever.”

PM: So basically you had designed all three games and were never at the factory prior to that?

Christopher Franchi: Correct, yes. All I had to go on was my knowledge of pinball and what I saw on the Internet. They sent me templates saying it’s got to fit in here. Luckily I had been a fan of pinball all my life, so I knew what people would expect.

Plus, ever since I had gotten that first call from Greg I was on YouTube watching pinball documentaries and taking it all in. So try to put that all together, keeping in mind I can’t design something that makes just me happy. It’s got to be what’s appropriate for the subject matter – in this case pinball.

I went to Pinball Expo and on my first day was the autograph signing. I got to meet Adam West, which was funny because I met him in Detroit earlier this year. The day that I met him, actually the night before, I had just found out I was doing that cover for his movie with Warner Brothers. So when I met him I told him, I said, “Hey, Warner Brothers just called me and hired me to do the cover for your new animated movie.” And he’s like, “Oh, great.”

So when I met him in Chicago for Pinball Expo he was like, “I remember you.” So I got to meet all of them. We did the autograph signing and then that same night was the anniversary party. And the next day was the Pinball Expo and then the Expo banquet. Sunday morning I drove out to the Stern factory and Steven Martin gave me a tour of the whole place.

He showed me how everything worked. I got to touch the Gottlieb playfield press. Yeah, I got a tour around everything.

They gave me a bunch of samples of the cabinet stickers for the Batman machine. So I actually own that stuff, but I’m not

Of course it’s got my artwork on it, so I love that. I wouldn’t have done anything that I thought was crap. Like I said, it was a labor of love. But to see it all lit up and everyone’s contributions to making this masterpiece – it was awe-inspiring. I just stood there and stared at it. I didn’t have a word to say.

Greg’s standing next to me and I’m just standing there with my mouth hanging open in disbelief that I had even been a part of it.

For those interested in owning or operating a Batman game: Stern’s Batman Premium model is currently still available with Stern distributors. Note that there is no Pro version. For more info visit: www.sternpinball.com.

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Available now:

Pinball Magazine No. 4

Special: pinball designer Mark Ritchie discusses his entire career at Williams Pinball, Capcom and beyond, in a 100+ page cover story. Discussed game designs include Thunderball, Firepower II, Sorcerer, Big Guns, Taxi, Fish Tales, Indiana Jones, Kingpin and more.

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FEEDBACK on Pinball Magazine No. 4 From emails, online forums, social media and website It’s great! - Mark Ritchie Your magazine is a work of art married to a plethora of useful and interesting information. Great job! #TakingItHomeToRead” - Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball The magazine came in today’s mail Jonathan... looks great and can’t wait to read all about Taro! :) Thanks for being a force for good in pinball. Hope to see you in Texas sir! Take some time off over the holidays and play some pinball. - Charlie Emery, Spooky Pinball

I forgot how thick these issues are. Looking forward to reading it. Thanks. - PinballBeerGuy My magazine arrived in perfect condition. - Marc Pinball Magazine No. 4 is here! Thanks and congratuuulations for this wonderful “Book” nr. 4! BIG :-) Highest Quality, I love it! - Guenter, Pindigi Just got the magazine. Interview and pics are great! Thanks! Nicolas, PinSound

Thank you for all the time and work you put into consistently publishing such a high quality magazine (book)! I am looking forward to another round of interesting articles/interviews. AvidListener

Awesome job on the magazine! My copy arrived today and will be top of my list after work tonight! Great looking issue and excited to read it cover to cover! Thanks for the great work and dedication! :) - Fishbeadtwo

Keep up the great work and many thanks for the free mini download interviews. - Chris

Got mine today! Love it ! Such a top notch quality product. Well done! - Mnpinball

Nice package in the mailbox today, so the next few evenings are planned out. Thanks for the sturdy packaging and of course the awesome magazine. Looking forward to dive in! - Ben

Another very impressive THUD landing on the table. - Frolic

Just received my copy along with episode 1. Thanks for the great packaging, items all arrived in mint condition. Looking forward to reading these over the next few days/weeks - Choppacade Bonjour Jonathan, I received your magazine yesterday. I spent at least 15 minutes just to browse it, looking at the titles and pictures. It’s just AWESOME and the postcards are a nice addon, especially during this upcoming Xmas period. Hence the reason why I did not ask if you were doing fine, because I had no doubt about it ;) - Pascal Janin, FLIPPP When I heard the drop of the package being delivered I figured it would be something special. Outstanding job on both the magazine and the packaging. - Gary Thank you for a great pinball magazine/book. Well worth the wait. Thank you so much. - Andy I just received Pinball Magazine No. 4, thank you very much!

Thanks for putting so much energy and dedication into Pinball Magazine which is always a pleasure to read. - Kaspar Just got the copy in todays post. Well, I’m very impressed such a lovely publication and so nicely packaged. You should be very pleased of your work. I might have to purchase the previous editions now! - Bob, Pinballtoys.co.uk

Got mine a couple days ago, Jonathon. All I can say is, HOLY SHIT!!!! I don’t know why you don’t put a hard cover on it and call it a book. Seriously. - Bryan Kelly Got my copy 2 days ago here in Canada. My Diner pictures made it in the magazine and I’m very impressed by the quality of this publication. Wow! - Plumonium Another terrific issue...this magazine just gets better and better. Thanks for all your hard work - you’re truly a credit to the hobby and we’re lucky to have you doing what you’re doing.

Your magazine is like Playboy. Nobody actually reads the thing.

It’s all about the pictures....pure pinball porn ;) And...uh...am I the only one that thinks the magazine smells as good as it looks? :) - Beelzeboob Mine arrived Saturday. Great packaging as always, not a dent or scratch. Looking forward to reading it this coming week,.

Thanks again for all the hard work! - MattS I received my copy of issue #4 yesterday and I just wanted to say thanks for putting together such a wonderful and high-quality publication. I’ve enjoyed playing all of Mark Ritchie’s games and have an Indiana Jones as one of the foundations of my one collection, so I thoroughly enjoyed reading all that Mr. Ritchie had to say. The article about The Big Lebowski is also a very nice touch – I’m glad this game is finally shipping and the story behind it is a fascinating read. As always, I enjoy the magazine and look forward to your future publications! - Brian

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