Celebrating 10 Years of Club Penguin's Operation Blackout

 Remember back in 2012 when people thought the world was going to end because of an absurd misunderstanding of how the Mayan Calendar works? People were churning out books, songs and even Minecraft mods based around it, and yet on the 21st December, nothing happened. Which, being a major skeptic of the whole business in the first place, I wasn't surprised at all. Besides, as long as you didn't take the mass hysteria over the whole deal into account, there were absolutely zero signs of this so-called apocalypse about to occur during the "build-up" to it.

...Except in Club Penguin. For about a week, the apocalypse really was coming. And it was the most badass moment in the franchise of all time.

It's exactly ten years since the famous Operation Blackout mission occurred and ended in the now sadly defunct Club Penguin. For those wondering what the mission was about, this was when recurring villain Herbert P. Bear destroyed the E.P.F, captured all the members (except the player) and froze them, inserted himself as dictator of Club Penguin Island and then blocked out the sun in order to freeze the island over and KILL the penguins.

It was brilliant (if incredibly disturbing) moment in the normally family-friendly franchise, and I was just as invested as the other fans were. The story was well-thought out, as was the gameplay, and it was the peak of the franchise. And as for when you complete the mission...well, it's just worth seeing Herbert's plans fall apart as light finally returns to the island and both it and the E.P.F. are saved.

To celebrate the day in which the mission ended, I decided to draw two illustrations of myself and two random penguins. The first is of the island shrouded by darkness, while the second is of the moment light finally returns to the island. As with most of my drawings, they're pretty amateurish, but I hope my intention gets across in them.

I used the dark filter on my computer in order to play around with the colours for this one. Otherwise, they are all done by coloured pens and felt tips as usual.

As for this one, I didn't really need to use the filter at all and the colours are done in the same media as the previous image. For the sun's rays, I used orange felt pen.

My main regret with the images is that I didn't draw Herbert in them, but hopefully the change between dark and light gets across the moment in which his plan was working and the moment in which it fell apart and the penguins won.

There are plenty of other fan projects that other Club Penguin fans have done in response to the mission, which you can find online. There are also the many walkthroughs online so that you can witness the mission in its full glory, even if you were unable to play it at the time.