This year was a very memorable Fantastic Fest, but one of the most exciting things for us was producing the sword that was given to Jess Franco for his Lifetime Achievement award. Lars had came to us earlier in festival planning and said he wanted to do something very special for Jess. Most awards are bogus. Plaques…lame. Trophies…boring. Oscar statues…yeccch! Who needs em?! We both agreed that the only way to go would be to make a mighty sword to present Jess on his big day.

Lars and I looked at hundreds of sword examples online. We considered styles of swords ranging from Conan’s Atlantean sword to the friggin Tri-Blade, but we decided on a simple, more noble alternative. We decided to go with the weapon a knight would yield. We also based the grip of the sword on Thor’s hammer Mjolnir. The criss crossing lethers and embedded studs gave it a great texture as well as an awesome look. The Fantastic Fest pommel was created by Jim Rogers who also sculpted our Demon Scourge ring. Jim has now become our go to guy for all things metal. Maybe everyone in Spain should pitch in to commission Jim to make a gigantic bronze statue of Jess. He deserves it!

-Justin