Gotta Pat ‘Em All In Sean Dowling’s ‘The Pugemon Project’

2016 sees the 20th anniversary of Pokémon, and the world is geared up for celebration, with digital re-releases of Pokémon Red and Blue, the augmented reality app Pokémon Go, and now, this fan-made art book of all 150 original Pokémon drawn to look like... adorable pugs!

The project, by Australian graphic designer and illustrator Sean Dowling, is live on Kickstarter now with a host of rewards including posters, art cards and a softcover book of all 150 titled “The Pugédex”.

The project features all of your favourite Pokémon, including Pugachu, Pugmander, Squirtpug, and presumably the best of the original 150, Pugiwhirl, in a gorgeous hand-painted style, acting as dumb and ridiculous as real-life pugs always are every day of their lives.

As Dowling states in his Kickstarter video (which you should definitely watch if you enjoy large, cute dogs fidgeting on a man’s lap as he tries to talk), the project came from a single warm-up sketch of Bulbasaur as a pug, which led to him eventually doing most of the work before he realised he was close to hitting 100. With that in mind, the Kickstarter isn’t so much to pay for him to finish the project as it is a form of pre-sale for the people who reacted so enthusiastically to his project.

Stretch goals for The Pugémon Project include various custom-made display boxes for the “Booster Park” of art cards, a larger page count for the Pugédex, and a hardcover edition instead of the planned softcover.

If you want to be the very best, like no-one ever was, check out this Kickstarter and hopefully we can get a second volume so we can see the Legendary Beasts of Raikou, Entei and Suicune, pug-ified.

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