Ice Storm 88 and Heavy Metal

So on my very last day of work after Bob/Papyrus/Sphinx, we were hit by one of the biggest Ice Storm in history.

One of my co-worker who was a huge Playstation fan.... and an even BIGGER Lara Croft fan.... wanted me to go to his place to try out the game TombRaider.

Although we knew that there was a storm coming, there was no way to know at the time how big a storm it would be. So we left the studio and went to his place.

He lived outside the city and we had a good bus ride to go to his place.

On the way, it was getting dark, and we were seeing explosions in the distance on the horizon.

We thought that it might have been lightning bolts or something like that we were seeing hitting the ground in the distance. But we later learned that it was actually transformers exploding all over the place.

It was very impressive, it was almost like being into a war zone.

As it turned out, where he lived was one of the areas that was hit the hardest by the storm.

So the next day, we decided to leave the area and went to my place.

We were fairly lucky since at my place, it took about 24 hours to get the power back.

In the area where my co-worker lived (who is now not just a co-worker, but a good friend).... it took about 3 weeks to get the power back. So he crashed to my place for one week. Then another week to some other friend's place. And the last week to his sister's place.

That first day when there was no power at my place, me him and the other friend, all 3 of us went downtown to try to find some restaurant to eat and hang out at.

But to our big surprise, downtown was deserted and there was snow all over the place. It was very impressive to see.

Anyone who saw the movie 12 monkeys, remember the scene early in the film with Bruce Willis all alone in the city with snow all over the place. It was exactly like that. Well almost exactly like that.... minus the bear and lion and other animals that are free in the city in the movie. ;)

Little did we know that downtown had been completely evacuated. Until we saw some cops who told us that we had no business being there.

But we finally found a restaurant just outside of the "quarantine" zone. So we pretty much spent the next 2 weeks there from morning to late in the evening until life started again.

I had not heard from Heavy Metal yet.... so one day at the restaurant I decided to call to see what was up with Heavy Metal.

I had applied to work on Heavy Metal 2000 while I was still working on Papyrus. I had met a producer and I had shown her a truckload of my work and should have known something was fishy when I first met her.

I first showed her my "official" portfolio. She quickly went through it and said.... Do you have anything else to show??

Usually the portfolio is enough for most people. But I was prepared. I really wanted this job, so I showed her my "back-up portfolio". Again she went quickly through it and asked.... Do you have anything else to show??

As I said.... I was prepared so I took out a 2 inch stack of various artwork I had done. Once again she went quickly through it and asked.... Do you have anything else to show??

But I was REALLY prepared and took out another 2 inch stack of artwork.

That was it.... she did not ask for more.

I felt like I had just won a game of chess or something with me pretty much countering every move/excuses she might be trying to come up with NOT to hire me.

So at the end of our meeting, she asked me to leave her a CV and some art samples to give to the Heavy Metal producer. Once again, I was ready and had a CV and some samples to leave her.

So back to the restaurant, I decided to call to see what was up with Heavy Metal, but not being that much of a fool, this time I took no chances and called the Heavy Metal producer directly.

I introduced myself. Told her that I had already met a producer previously who was supposed to have given her my CV and art samples. It turns out that she had never heard of me and never saw my CV or my samples.

I later learned that the first producer I met was keeping some places on Heavy Metal free for when some of her favorite guys in the studio would be available. So she had no intention of telling the Heavy Metal producer about me.

So this time I scheduled a meeting with the Heavy Metal producer. When I met her, all she looked at was my portfolio. She asked for my CV and some art samples to show to the director. But not just any samples. She hand picked some artwork in my portfolio and asked me to make a copy of those for her.

She seemed very impressed with my work.... especially my work on Bob Morane.

That is when I started to realize how working on Bob Morane had changed my career. That having Bob Morane in my CV would be a great help in getting me some work.

Not many people are impressed when I tell them that I have worked on Arthur.... but when I tell them that I have worked on Bob Morane.... they take me more seriously.

Not long after my meeting with the Heavy Metal producer, I got an appointment to do a test (the last test I would do for quite some time).

A character head rotation to draw, a couple of poses to draw, and a BG to clean-up if I remember correctly.

I was told that it should take an hour or two to do the test.... but my "other friend" had already started working on Heavy Metal, and he told me that no one did the test in 2 hours. Most did not even finish the test. I don't know if I was mislead about the test deliberately or simply by mistake. But I just ignored the 2 hours time limit.

So I spent the whole afternoon doing the darn thing. I would have worried that I was taking too much time, but since I knew that no one actually did the test in that little time, I just ignored that part.

I handed in the test and went back home.

Some time later, I would get a phone call telling me that I was hired on Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2 which later became Heavy Metal; 2000.

And that is how I was hired on the design team of Heavy Metal: 2000.

Next time, I will talk about working on Heavy Metal.

Until then.

Mister Crimson Episode 12

Mister Crimson Episode 12
In which our hero faces death from above.

Check it out here!

Free Comics Monday: Super Lawsuits

Before I introduce today's Free Comics, I would like to thank everyone who has checked out Planet X at Zuda.

I would also like to ask those you who voted for the comic to select it as a Favorite. I've been told that having a high number of favorites might help us win.

You can do this by simply clicking the little plus mark underneath where you voted.

For those of you who have not yet voted, please feel free to check out Planet X at Zuda. :)

/end plug

Now on to the Free Comics with The Black Terror!

The Black Terror. - Damn that dude had a kick ass costume did he not? Who is to say how far he would have gone had DC not gotten all Lawyered Up.

Check out this interesting article about all the Super-Lawsuits DC had going to take out characters they viewed as Superman ripoffs.

From io9...

Superman's powers include super-strength, super-breath... and super-lawyers? The iconic DC Comics character has been known to go after plenty of other strongmen in court, crushing any characters with more than a passing similarity. The most famous super-litigation was the 1951 case where the Man Of Steel killed Captain Marvel, the Superman-esque character who gets his powers from saying "Shazam!" But the world's most litigious hero has gone after plenty of other peers, and here's our history of super-lawsuits.

Actually, I don't know for sure that the lawsuits DC started had anything to do with the demise of The Black Terror - the timing seems right though - if there are any comic historians, please feel free to chime in. Until then, feel free to download his adventures here!

[ Exciting Comics 38 ]

Here we have an issue where the Black Terror fights a Robot with a Knife and a Gun! If you don't download this comic, consider yourself permanently banned from the FBU blog!

[ Exciting Comics 45 ]

Enjoy!

The WayBack Universe

Let's talk a second about Public Domain Characters and Golden Age Comics. So does Pierre. The guy over to the left here is the Gray Ghost, the first Golden Age character he ever drew for the Flashback Universe. At the time I wasn't sure I wanted a Golden Age Flashback Universe, but I'll show you how the character AND the FBU idea evolved in a second.

First let me answer a reader's email:

Where can I find a list of all the Public Domain Superheroes?

Wikipedia used to be a great source for a complete list of all public domain comic books characters, but as with all useful wiki pages, some jackass put [citation needed] on the page, and now it's gone.

Now the best place to start is the Golden Age Comic Book site:

For characters outside of comics, you can begin here: the index of Public Domain Resources note: Wikipedia has a similar index on this page: Wiki: Public Domain Resource but it's rather long and hard to wade through, and it might be gone next week, so I wouldn't depend on it.

This is such a confusing issue partly because American Copyright law is a mish mosh that changes depending on the time a character was created AND because it's hard to verify exactly whether companies really took the time to copyright/trademark their characters correctly the first time.

Witness this discussion at Wikipedia over the Nedor Superheroes:

...The above report on Nedor characters may or may not be accurate depending on the actual circumstances of the company when it ceased publishing. It is clear that Ned Pines did renew copyright on most of his characters' first appearances, despite widely reported statements to the contrary. Also, Pines sold one of his companies, Popular Library, to Fawcett Publishing, who in turn, sold it to CBS, and today, the Nedor characters would be owned by either Bertelsman AG or Warner, if the comic books they appeared in were published by Popular Library. If Ned Pines used different companies to publish these books, they may be in public domain.

So, given all that, when Pierre came to me with an idea of working on some Public Domain heroes into our Flashback Universe, I was a little hesitant.

First, how would we know if they were really public domain?

Second, I've heard that even if you use public domain characters, it's hard to then turn around and do anything else with them (like a movie for instance) because other companies are scared of public domain characters.

Still, I liked the idea of working in the Golden Age setting, so we decided to create our OWN Golden Age universe, which we smartly dubbed the WayBack Universe.

The first stab at this was to create a super group of characters similar to the Invaders. If you've read the Paladin comic, you've already seen a reference to these characters. In that comic we call them the Intruders, but in other places, they have been called the Insurgents. I'm going to say that because their missions were classified by the government, an *official* name was never recommended. ;)

One of the coolest characters in that group is the Golden Age WildCard:

Another favorite of mine is the Crimson Cossack (there's a big story behind this pose that I won't go into here...)

Not seen in the Intruders picture is probably one of my favorite WayBack characters - a character who sort of started as the Gray Ghost and changed into something much cooler I think - The Purple Puma.

And of course heroes are only as good as the villains they face, so we've created quite a few WayBack Universe Villains as well...here is a group we call the U-Bolts.

And here is a another group shot with a few familiar faces in the mix...click to enlargify.

We have several more characters, and hope to have a complete comic featuring some of them in the near future. (I just need a story... :D )

I'll keep you posted. :)

- Jim

Pierre Speaks: Between Projects

I was about to jump straight to talking about my working on the Heavy Metal 2000 feature film.

But then I realized that I should talk about what happened between Bob and Heavy Metal.

In some studios, there were enough projects that as soon as you would finish working on a project, you would get started on another one.

When I was working on Bob, we had various meetings concerning upcoming projects. From those meetings, there should have been at least 15 projects coming up after Bob.

Not really what happened.

Out of those 15 projects, there are just a few projects that ended up being made. And most of those that were made ended up being made in other studios.

That is one of the reasons that I tell people not to rejoice too early when they are offered to turn their project/comic into an animated series. Many things can and will go wrong with such projects. So until you actually see the project on TV.... wait and see what will happen.

The Nexus TV series that never was is a good example of that.

The same with movies.

Invincible is a great example of that. Having a big studio interested in your project is not a guarantee that the project will end up on the movie screen. It just mean that they MIGHT want to make a movie using your project.

The same thing happened with Bone.

That is something that I repeat wayyy too often in various discussions. So if I already mentioned it in a past Blog.... forgive me.... but it is something that comes back often. And I guess I am getting old and have a tought time keeping up with ALL the times I mention this.

While I was working on Bob, there was another project in the studio called Papyrus.

Sadly, Papyrus did not have a layout & posing team as strong as the Bob Morane one.

So at some point, the studio came very close to losing the contract on making the layout & posing on Papyrus.

What they ended up doing was take most of the Bob Morane team, and have them work on Papyrus to raise the quality of the show in order NOT to lose the contract.

Since I was teamed with a guy named Norm DeRepentigny, him doing the layouts, and me the posing, and together we were cranking up a truckload of scenes, we pretty much finished the last Bob Morane episode between the two of us.

In the end, everything worked out.

The layout posing team from Bob were able to increase the quality on Papyrus and made sure that the studio would not lose the contract. And Norm and I finished the last episode on Bob.

After Bob, I worked on the last 2 episodes on Papyrus.

After Papyrus, there was another project lined up to begin called Pirate.

Naively, the artists from Bob who had literally saved the Papyrus contract by increasing the quality for the show thought that they would be the ones working on Pirate.

Also the people working on Bob had been working for the studio longer then the Papyrus people.

But the person supervising the Pirate project was someone from the Papyrus team. And what he ended up doing was take his buddies that were working with him on Papyrus. He took the very people who almost lost the Papyrus contract just because they were his working buddies.

And those who had saved the Papyrus show, who had been with the studio longer were told that they could go home once Papyrus was finished.

Many were okay when that happened.

But not me.

First, because I did not want to work on Pirate to begin with.

But also because I knew that being with the studio longer and saving the Papyrus contract was no guarantee of being hired on the next project.

So it was no surprise to me when that happened.

But as fate would have it.... Pirate was not ready once Papyrus was finished.

So everyone, even the supervisor and his buddies who were supposed to work on Pirate were sent back home. ;)

Ironically enough, I was the last one to leave the studio because I was asked to do some last minute designs for a 3D project called Sphinx. Which ended up never being produced... at least as far as I know ;). It was decided to produce another 3D series instead called Excalibur.

Ugh!

Excalibur (and Sphinx come to think of it) was one of the projects we had seen the demo for in one of our meetings, and it was one of the worst.... if not the worst.... of all the demos we had seen. So don't ask me why,,,, other then because the series had a known name for the project and a known artist who had done the designs..... I am not sure what motivation there was behind that decision.

So now that I was a free man. What were my options??

I had applied to work on Heavy Metal 2000 while I was still working on Papyrus, and as fate would have it, the very day that I finished working, we were hit by one of the biggest Ice Strom in history.

Yes, I am refering to the Ice Storm of 88.

So I decided to take some time off while waiting for an answer from Heavy Metal, and waited for the Ice Storm to pass.

So next time, I will talk about what I did during the Ice Strom, and how I got the job on Heavy Metal.

More soon.

Mister Crimson Episode 11

Mister Crimson Episode 11
In which our hero meets a giant robot!
Check it out here!

Free Comics Monday: We Invade Mars!

Today we invade Mars! (Not only will it be good for the economy, but we need their oil too.)

[ Man of Mars 01 ]

I would also like take this opportunity to direct your attention to ZUDA where we currently have a Retro Sci-Fi project entered in the November Contest.

Planet X: In a 1960s that never was, Dylan Gunn, agent of Directorate: PLANET X, fights the enemies of the free world across a solar system out of pulp fiction dreams. His current mission: neutralize the Spider-Queen of Mars!!

[ Click Here for Planet X ]

Fans of 007 Movies and/or John Carter of Mars will dig this comic as it's influenced by swinging spy action of movies as In Like Flynn and GoldFinger and the Martian landscapes of Edgar Rice Burroughs and C.L. Moore.

beginSpiel...

Now listen guys. I don't ask about lot from you. You don't hear me plead for donations or bitch and moan because no one clicks on my google ads do you? So the least you can do is go and vote for my Zuda comic.

Look - if I win that Zuda contest, it will be like Don Quixote smelling sulfur at a windmill, okay? I'll be full steam ahead about making more Digital Comics. So, if you want to keep Free Comics Monday and Flashback Universe *agoing* then get busy with the clicky clickies.

/endSpiel.

And here is this weeks second free comic - my last issue of Planet Comics.

[ Planet Comic 73 ]

Enjoy!