Commander Battle and his Atomic Sub

Today's Free Comic is from the American Comics Group and takes back to the Communist infested Fifties as we follow the adventures of Commander Battle and his Atomic Sub...

Created by presidential order less than two years ago, The Atomic Commandos have become a task force of vast importance in international affairs. Acclaimed by all lovers of democracy and freedom, The Atomic Commandos are marked men -- for the forces of Red Communism have vowed to destroy them at any cost! So it's anchors aweigh for high adventure and breathless daring as we join Commander Battle and the Atomic Sub!



[ Commander Battle 05 ]

You know what's a hard job? Being the Commander of an Atomic Submarine.
I mean in addition to all the crazy atomic math you gotta know to keep your sub from becoming a nuclear criticality, you also gotta deal with some nightmarish battle scenarios.

Consider Commander Battle's situation below:



[ Commander Battle 06 ]

He's got Ray Gun wielding Vikings attacking him with a basketball sized leak in his hull.

Probably not the best situation to commence to ciphering a calculus equation. :)

Enjoy!

Digital Comics Review: Graphic.ly's Adobe Air Client

Graphic.ly is a place for all people that, like us, love the art and story telling that lives within the pages of a comic book or graphic novel, and enjoy nothing more than sharing that enthusiasm with their friends.

It's important to note that our review is of the ALPHA version of the software. Once it's been delivered to you, Graphic.ly makes no bones about letting you know there will be bugs in their current release & we did find a few (largely in setting it up after the install but Graphic.ly was very helpful in getting us up and running).
You will need to have Adobe Air installed to run the software.

THE LOOK:

Graphic.ly is pleasant to look at and easy on the eyes with a faded neutral color design. This is good, if publishers/developers want us reading comics on screens for any length of time I'd hope that they'd consider the condition our eyes will be in once we're finished. After all, we'll need them for more than just viewing digital comics.

The layout of the main page is clean and very intuitive:

Like a blog that you might read, or a social networking site that you might frequent, your profile info is on the left along with news & updates with comics you can buy on the right (this feature has been turned off in the alpha) and updates from your self and as anyone you've "friended" (another feature that seems to be turned of) inside of graphic.ly streaming down the middle of the page.

Across the top of the page are additional navigation links taking you to different areas inside of Graphic.ly: your full profile, your comics collection, news feeds, and more.

THE COMICS:

Graphic.ly's user interface is really very nice and where Graphic.ly shines as a digital comic book experience. There are lots of ways to customize how the information is given to you. Here is a look a the "collection" area where you'll find the comics you're able to read:

Visually...

List...

Once you've chosen a comic to read Graphic.ly runs a bit like HULU in that many of the features "disappear" into the background and allow you to focus on reading the comic book it self as it transitions to a full screen mode by default (however you can resize the window which is nice for customization as well as machines with smaller screens such as netbooks).

Click on the comic you want and it automatically downloads for you while you're waiting. Click on the title and you can get information about that comic, or read it. If you've read a comic on the iPhone or another device then you've all ready gotten a sense of how Graphic.ly's reader works accept that Graphic.ly has lots more room to play with regarding screen size, enabling them to put up some very nice graphics that enhance the digital comic book reading experience:

WANTED #1 (TopCow)
Here we have a full 2 page spread view, which Graphic.ly gets too each time you click the arrows through reading one entire page (panel by panel - see below).

Once you click the left arrow, while on the 2 page spread view, Graphic.ly begins providing another layer to the experience and breaks the page down by giving you each panel, one panel at a time, until you've read the entire 2 page spread and then it moves on to the next set of pages in line.

The comic book page, as a whole or broken down into panes all look really nice. The images are clear and crisp, as good as (if not better in some cases), any comic book page printed on paper today. As a bonus, in this mode there are specific features just for enhancing the digital comic reading experience including bookmarking pages, tweeting or updating facebook on pages you've read (including snippets of the page/panel it self), and leaving a comment/message attached to that page where other people logged into Graphic.ly can see and read it.

NEWS:

Every comic book fan boy needs news. Who'll voice Nightwing in the BATMAN:Under The Hood animated feature? Where will the up and coming Green Lantern film shoot? Who's publisher of DC Comics right now? All of these items have their place and are a part of the comic book experience, an experience that Graphic.ly understands as they've added a built in RSS feed reader and even preloaded it with a few choice feeds that my interest you:

The use of Adobe Air really makes these features not only smooth to use, but they really pop: each one standing out and demanding your attention.

Overall, not a bad way to read comics if I do say so my self, particularly when you take into consideration that this is simply the Alpha release with several features turned off and I'm sure a few new features waiting in the pipeline.

WISHLIST:

While I haven't gone over any of these things with Graphic.ly (although you can, in the "feedback" area of the software) per say it would be nice to be able to import comics not on their servers into the software so that you can read them. Say from a certain free digital comic book publisher?

Have any of you been able to give Graphic.ly a try? Would you like to? What would your ideal digital comic book reader have in the ways of form, functionality, and features?

Have a nice weekend,

Caine

Reinventing the Crisis

I am DYING!!

DYING I SAYS!!

As I am writing these lines... I am waiting for the Justice League: Crisis on 2 Earths DVD.

I can't finish one of my half a dozen Blogs already in progress.

I can't even write a line without getting back to Crisis on 2 earths.

I have been watching the preview that was included in the Batman/Superman: Public Enemies DVD wayyyy too much.

And I was watching the preview... there is one thing that is driving me crazy.... CRAZY!!!
No... no waiting... although YES waiting for the release of the film IS driving me crazy.

But what REALLY is driving me crazy is that goddamn habit of always wanting to reinvent the wheel.
WHY??

Why always try to reinvent what was fine to begin with?? Why always try to fix what isn't broken??

Why do they always try to redesign the characters?? and even worse... recast the actors who were doing an awesome job on the various animated series that was produced by Bruce Timm??
Why??

I can almost understand when it comes to the design work.

I have seen it in the past on various production.

Whenever you get a new designer/director on a project... the new guy pretty much ALWAYS look at what was done before him thinking "this sucks... I will fix it and make it 1000 times much better" or some such equivalent.

It never fails.
It is even worse on shows where there was a change of director halfway through the production for some reason.

At least a few times I had to redo designs/storyboards that were already approved by the first director... only to have the second director go "this sucks... everything sucks... lets redo all of it".

In most cases.... I would explain it with one very simple word...
EGO.
There is a lot of egos in the art community.

They HAVE to try to put their mark on the project.

So they will try to "fix" the project by trying to redo it in their style.

It makes no sense... but there you have it.

In the case of the designs of the Timm animated projects... they had developed through the years and AWESOME style. And though the years... they had refined the style close to perfection.

So I am always scratching my head whenever they decide to put everything they have spent years perfecting in the garbage bin, and decide to redo everything from scratch.
Makes no bit of sense to me.

And even worse for the voice acting.

They had some awesome voices for Batman, Lex Luthor, and most of the cast.

So why not use them actors who were doing a GREAT job to begin with???

Why always try to look for other actors to do a job, when they ALREADY had the people to do a GREAT job??

I don't get it.
Anyway.... so as you read it... I should have watched Crisis on 2 Earths half a dozen times already..... unless it was sold out for some reason.

So far.... word is that it is great.
Which makes me even MORE DYING to see it... if that is even possible.

So I will not wait one nanosecond to see it.
I will go get myself a copy as soon as I leave the studio.

So odds are.... next week... I should tell you about my experience watching Crisis on 2 Earths, and if it’s as good as they say.

We shall see.

Exciting Comics

My wife is sick this morning, so no long intro today as I'm getting her and my daughter ready to go to the Doctor. Enjoy today's comics. - Jim

[ Exciting Comics 31 ]

[ Exciting Comics 34 ]

Lost Universe: The Patriot

Here at Flashback Universe we’d like to start discussing comics in the past tense, in addition to our present and future tense articles. To that end we’re continuing a new feature we’re calling Lost Universes. We’ll discuss properties, imprints, lines, and characters from comic book universes that are no longer actively putting out books such as Valiant, the Ultraverse, Comics Greatest World and others. More to the point, we’ll be examining what made those publishers and their lines interesting, unique and great...

Today while narrowing in on the "comics boom" (bronze & iron ages) we'll be examining a unique phenomenon of the publishers in the LOST UNIVERSE: The fact that only one of them published a book centered around a patriotic character sporting the stars & stripes (or another nations equivalent). For such an iconic look, and powerful archetype filled with stories of characters standing up for all mankind to do what's right in the name of the nations we've built over time & those behind the flag being held to a higher standard as they represent "the best of us" doesn't it seem weird that only one publisher put out any books like these? Just one?

When you consider that lots of publishers were publishing one or two, and the bigger publishers had many more, the lack of such a strong dominating genre, which was being ill represented on the comic book shelves by these publishers, may have played a factor in one or two of their demise don't you think?

Then again, the one publisher who did publish a patriotic book also met their demise so who really knows how big a factor such a decision might play.

A bit of perspective:

• DC: 23 patriotic styled characters (plus a team)
• Marvel: 21 patriotic styled characters (plus a team)
• Image: 5 patriotic styled characters
• Wildstorm + Imprints: 6 patriotic styled characters

Lets examine this a bit further by taking a look at some of the LOST UNIVERSE publishers who didn't put out a patriotic book...

THE ULTRAVERSE
In the Ultraverse the government was largely represented by an organization known as ALADIN and their primary agent was WRATH.

There were nine regular issues & a giant size published of WRATH, all of them filled with twisted mysterious government secrets that WRATH was charged with protecting. The entire run put the man behind the mask (a genetically altered soldier by the way) at odds with his orders and kept the book really messy story wise as plots twisted and intermingled full of guest stars that would nearly overshadow the main character at times.

As you can see, WRATH does not wear the iconic colors or emblems of any nation and wouldn't be considered a patriotic character by any stretch of the imagination.



VALIANT
The Valiant universe, probably the largest of the LOST UNIVERSES, had plenty of government poking around in it's many titles. I think the closest thing they had to a patriotic character were the ARMORINES.

The U.S. Government took X-O Manowar as a threat. The Armorines were created by Dr. Phillip Zahn to deal with this threat. After they got the go ahead on the project from Senator Ackerman, Colonel Gardner recruited eight soldiers to function as the Armorines. Four would be trained as the field agents with the other four acting as their co-pilots from the base. Gunny Lewis, an aging war veteran, was chosen to be their field leader. Ackerman, however, made it perfectly clear to Gardner that he wanted Lewis out of the program as soon as the others were properly trained to function without him.

The Armorines are also not "star spangled" and if memory serves the standard Iconic American Dream type stories that one would find in a patriotic book were not to be found in this one.


COMICS GREATEST WORLD
Since the CGW series took place in three major cities, there's plenty of government here (or lack there of depending on your story view). The closest thing that CGW has for a patriotic character are the PIT BULLS.

The Pit Bulls aren't really even government. Instead they're a classified strike team of police officers set aside to deal with the costumed/powered ruffians of Arcadia (one of the CGW setting cities).

While they do have blue suits they are not flag wearers and the members are not iconic who represent the best of us as most patriotic superheroes often do.

MORE
To be fair I did leave out a few publishers that did publish patriotic character centered books like; AC Comics (Miss Victory & Yankee Girl) but AC Comics is technically publishing again from their website, Archie Comics ( Captain Flag & The Shield) who are technically still publishing as well, & Fox Features Syndicate (U.S. Jones & V-Man) who were not part of the "Comics Boom" but are golden age publishers.

TEKNO, CHAOS!, CROSSGEN, BROADWAY, & DEFIANT were all comic book publishers who didn't put out a patriotic character book (although I'm betting TEKNO'S would have been interesting if they had).

Who did?

AWESOME ENTERTAINMENT
Awesome Entertainment published The Fighting American/Agent:America & whether that did or didn't play a part in it's demise this blogger can't say for sure but AWESOME was the only LOST UNIVERSE publisher of the "Comics Boom" to put out a patriotic character centered book.

Was it a sign of the times (bad girls, big guns, trench coats, mutans & meyham) that made introducing new Patriotic characters more passe than Omnipotent, or Dark Vigilante characters? Would it be chalked up to "tone"? Maybe the smaller publishers where trying to do something a bit different than the big two? Maybe Captain America had that corner of the comic book shelf taken care of? Maybe the creators who went to work for the other publishers had all already done their Captain America story?

Did we cover your favorite lost universe in this post? Did we cover your favorite character (patriotic or not) from the Comics Boom? We want to so please let us know what you think about this article, this series, or anything else that may be on your mind concerning the Flashback Universe.


Have a great weekend!

Caine,

1001 (Saturn) Knights

"An obvious copy of Iron-Man"

It is what I was told when I showed my roommate at the time an early version of Saturn knight.

And to this day.... I am still scratching my head at how it can have been perceived as an "obvious copy of Iron-Man." I could almost... almost have understood such comment from the color version since it had a good chunk of yellow in it.... but from the penciled version???

I don't get it.

It was also called "an obvious copy of Guardian".
Other then the energy glow that can surround both characters.... again I fail to see it.

The script of the first Flashback Universe comic required of Saturn Knight to have some sort of force field. Since I knew that I would be doing the colors using my "friend" Photoshop... I figured that I could use the "outer glow" feature to give our character a cool force field... and a cool effect.

But Saturn Knight was never meant to be another "Iron-Man" or "Guardian"... it was from day one always meant to be our very own....

Nova.

Jim and I are HUGE Nova fans. 
And Saturn Knight was always meant to be our Flashback Universe counterpart to Nova... just as Nova was meant to be Marvel's counterpart to DC's Green Lantern... Hal Jordan.

In retrospect... I guess a simple way to describe the Flashback Universe in the early days would be;
"What if Nova was the flagship character of Marvel and a founding member of the Avengers"
Since Saturn Knight is our flagship character that we used to establish the look/feel of the
Flashback Universe... and we made him a founding member of the Vanguard.

Originally... Jim meant to call him "Captain Saturn".
I can't recall why... but at some point... we went with the name Saturn Knight... after the name of a regular poster on Newsarama from about 4 years ago.

I made a rough early design attempt... which allowed us to get the ball rolling and discuss what Saturn Knight should look like. For example, in this early design we could see the character's eyes... but we decided it would work better not seeing the eyes.

To Jim's credit... HE was able to recognize the drawing for what it was: a rough early attempt that served no other purpose then to get the ball rolling and start the creative process. It was a first step to figure out what Jim had in mind when it came to the look of the character. And also the look/feel we wanted to give the Flashback Universe's characters in general.

After a few versions... and much color attempts... we settled on a few versions of the character that we both kind of liked.

So we moved on to designing the rest of the Flashback Universe.

Although Saturn Knight had nothing to do with Iron-Man, we did come up with our
Flashback Universe counterpart to Iron-Man with the Artifact. When Jim mentioned this character.... I just knew that we had quite literally our "iron" man. Although a strange thing occurred. I wanted to give him a rust covered look... and when I did so... it made me realize why DC's Robotman was colored orange.
Probably to give Robotman some sort of rusty look.

It had never occurred to me until I colored the design of the Artifact. 



And as we started adding more and more characters that we would need not only for our first issue.... but also that we would need to populate our Universe..... it was now time to design our villain for our first issue.
I am not sure why Jim wanted her to be the grand-daughter of Captain Nemo... but one thing was clear... she would be our Doctor Doom.

So Doom was my starting point.
So of course... she would be wearing some sort of armor... and she would have various dots suggesting some sort of rivets of some kind.... and let's not forget the cape.

Also since she would be a Saturn Knight villain.... I asked myself... "Who is Nova's counterpart to Doctor Doom???

One name came to mind....
The Sphinx.

So I decided to give Lady Nemo some sort of Egyptian motif. Being Royalty... I wanted her to have some sort of Egyptian "crown".

So in short... Lady Nemo would be a "female Sphinx/Doctor Doom" amalgam.
In retrospect... I am surprised that I did not make her armor "gold". Maybe I had already designed our character Sandwalker with a similar Egyptian motif?? Could be.... this was over 4 years ago... the specifics are a little fuzzy in my memory. So odds are, I made Lady Nemo a different color to keep her distinctive from Sandwalker.



She was later compared to Marvel's Jocasta.
Funny how a female version of Doom can end up being called a copy of Jocasta. Although I have seen this many times in my career... it never fails to surprise me.
I guess that any metallic lady could end up being compared to Jocasta.

The funny part is that such comment has inspired me for an upcoming comic that we are working on.
No I won't spoil it.... you guys will have to wait and see. ;)


Once we had a truckload of characters in stock.... we looked at our first character... Saturn Knight.... and now that we had designed a lot of them characters... we had a clearer picture of what we wanted to do.
So we went back to the drawing board and decided to redesign Saturn Knight.

Once again... we made various attempts.... and we tried pretty much every color combination we could think of... until we decided on the FINAL version of the character.

In the end... no we did not make 1001 version of Saturn Knight.
I once counted as we were in the design process and we had about 127 different versions... so we made over 127 versions of Saturn Knight. That is counting the different designs, and all the color variations that we made....

Until there was only one left.

The Curtain Closes on Mister Crimson

Today is a bittersweet day, as we present the conclusion of the Mister Crimson saga with 3 final screens. I would like to thank Seth and Diego for the hard work on this series. When I first saw it on Zuda, I knew it had amazing potential, and I'm glad that they were kind enough to let Flashback Universe be the place where they could complete the story.

See how Mister Crimson ends here .: