Pierre's Designs for Scourge of Atlantis

Hey guys, I know that normally Pierre takes the Wednesday shift here at the old Flashback Universe Blog, but Pierre is working on a big Bob Morane article and collecting art for this week. In the meantime, I thought I would show you some of Pierre's character designs for our Zuda entry - Kharon, Scourge of Atlantis!

In an earlier post, I've mentioned how Kharon evolved over the course of the project to his current incarnation, but here's a glimpse of some of the other characters in their early stages. - Jim

First up is the main villain of our story - General Karnath

Here is Karnath in full battle armor. Karnath is the original soldier's soldier. He's fought his way up to the rank of General by following orders and surviving every conflict he's ever encountered.

Assisting Karnath in making decisions in the camp is Causta the Cleric. Causta is the voice of reason in the Alantean camp.

One of the places Pierre outdid himself on SOA was in the design of the soliders...here is an early sketch

Here are some sample helmets...

And here is what we finally decided on going with...

I think we actually decided to go with various helments and shield patterns, but some of that is based on the rank and duty of each soldier.

We came up with a detailed ranking/symbol system...

Some of you old school Flashback Universe fans may see a similarity between these symbols and the Saturn Knight symbol. Trust me - that is intended. :)

Finally, here are some early versions of the Lilliks. At first Pierre made the very ape like.

But eventually we decided to go with something a little different. Notice in this early version the Chief is wearing brown.

I think I decided that brown made him look a little too primitive, so we switched colors to purple...

I eventually decided that was *too* close to Runewraith and The Yeti - again, an intentional similarity - but I decided to switch to green to change it up just a bit.

Hope you enjoyed this - and look for Pierre's Bob Morane post next week!

- Jim

Mister Crimson Episode 28

Good news for Mister Crimson Fans - Diego Tripodi has another comic up for view on Zuda this month: Doorman Bill



Synopsis:
Life stopped making sense for a lonely man named Bill. Disenchanted with his life as a college doorman, Bill makes an unexpected decision to leave behind his job, his home and his city, and sets out on a trip to Pennsylvania for no reason but to make a journey. Early in his trip, Bill loses everything he has and ends up on a lonely road. With no money and no possessions, he will try to survive and reach his destination by travelling with people he finds along the road -- from heavy metal musicians to clowns and bums.

Join Bill in his strange adventures on his journey to the Keystone State.

I encourage everyone who is enjoying Mister Crimson to go check Diego's excellent art and story today! :)



And speaking of Mister Crimson - here is today's installment!

Mister Crimson Episode 28:

Wherein our a decision is made...

Read it here. .:

Free Comics Monday: Young Heroes

Okay, before you get to downloading this weeks Free Comics, I have an announcement.

Pierre and I are proud to announce that we have an entry in the March Zuda Competition!

If you are a fan of fast action Sword and Sorcery Comics, (like Mike Grell's Warlord) then I encourage you to go check it out and vote for our comic! Remember, If we win, it means we get some money which we will no doubt spend making more Flashback Universe comics, which, you know, we give away for free on the net, so your vote sort of helps pay for Flashback Universe. :)

Okay, enough hard sell here are today's Free Comics!

Today I tried to pick something that I thought might have a similar flavor to our Zuda entry, which actually was really hard because there weren't a lot of Sword and Sorcery comics back in the Golden Age. What I was able to find was Young Heroes from American Comics Group!

This is sort of a neat comic in that it chronicles the adventures of heroes from different times in history with some interesting young analogues to Robin Hood and Daniel Boone.



[ Download Young Heroes 35 ]



[ Download Young Heroes 36 ]

- Enjoy!

Bronze Age Spotlight: Deathlok

Deathlok the Demolisher - Of the many wonderful characters created during the Bronze Age, I'd have to say my favorite is Deathlok. (I know - this may come as a shock to those of you familiar with my devotion to Woodgod.) I think the reason is because Deathlok, more than any other character, is a mixture of the various elements that typify the Bronze Age.

In 1974 Artist Rich Buckler, who had worked at both DC and Marvel quite a bit and was ready to create his own character. His choice was a Colonel Luther Manning a soldier who dies in a war in 1983 only to wake up in the terrifying future of 1990 to discover he has been turned into Deathlok, a cyborg assassin by the evil Harlan Ryker as part of conspiratorial project called Alpha Mech.

While his face is decayed and disfigured (from years of being dead no doubt) his arms and legs have been replaced with cybernetics, making him the Army’s first bionic soldier. He has also been gifted with an almost omniscient AI in his head which he commonly refers to as 'Puter. Deathlok was originally going to be called Dedlock until five minutes before Rich’s pitch meeting with Roy Thomas, Doug Monech convinced Rich to use Death instead of Ded because he (rightly) thought it sounded better.

In the first issue, Deathlok frees himself from the Army’s control and to fight Ryker. For 12 issues of Astonishing Tales Deathlok fights against Ryker’s army and other futuristic foes until issue 36 where Manning's mind is restored into a clone of his original body and the cyborg body of Deathlok is sent spiraling into a Time Portal by a foe called Godwulf.

A note here - I used the term cyborg to explain his appearance, and I think this makes good place to examine the popularization of the term. In 1972, Martin Caiden wrote a novel called Cyborg. In 1973 Cyborg had been adapted into a top-rated TV movie. In 1974 Universal studios licensed Caiden’s novel to create the 6 Million Dollar Man as a regular series on ABC. At this point, Cyborgs were all the rage, so it should be no surprise that someone would eventually base a comic character on the idea.

Interestingly enough, the 6 MDM almost killed Deathlok as a concept at Marvel. At the same time that Buckler was developing Deathlok, Marvel was thinking about licensing the 6 MDM for a comic book. This license would eventually go to Charlton. When this happened, Roy Thomas gave Buckler 12 issues of Astonishing Tales to use as a vehicle to introduce Deathlok to the world.

Outside of his 12 issue run in Astonishing Tales, Deathlok made a few random appearances in other Marvel series (Marvel Two In One, Marvel Team-Up) His last appearance in this incarnation was Captain America 286-288 in an J.M DeMatteis penned arc called Deathlok Lives.

As a concept, Deathlok was reintroduced in the 90's under the skillful guidance of Dwayne McDuffie. This version of the character was visually similar to the Bronze Age version, but what had been removed was the dystopian mise en scene. And while this version ran in his own comic for longer than his bronze age counterpart, I don't know that he was more well liked by the fans. This was an era when Darkhawk ran for 50 issues, remember? ;)

I think the main problem with revamping Deathlok in the 90's is that so much of his intrinsic appeal lies in those characteristics and themes which dominated the 70's bronze age. When transplanted into the 90's much of the zeitgeist that gave birth to the character was largely gone.
For instance, during the Bronze Age, we saw Monsters become lead characters with such titles as Dracula, Werewolf by Night, Man-Thing, The Beast etc. Because they looked so different from the usual lantern jawed superheroes, monsters as heroes definitely had a much greater *cool* factor about them, and Deathlok's horrifying appearance definitely put in him in this same category. This was an artistic decision made by Buckler who said he did this on purpose. In TwoMorrow’s BackIssue 25, Buckler explains it like this…

…I deal in reconciling opposites – So while the 6 Million Dollar Man was a good looking guy, I took that all away from Deathlok. I made him a monster, and instead of being friends with technology, he was enemies with it…

I think Buckler succeeded in this goal by contrasting Deathlok's grotesque features with his sleek and shiny legs and arms and utilitarian costume/uniform. While the colorful costumes of Nova or Iron Fist looked like they could come off the rack at the Marvel Mall, Deathlok's costume had a lean design that was practically Soviet Issue. A very important artistic purpose was served with his costume as without leggings or sleeves, his uniform helped draw attention to his metallic limbs.

A small, but important detail of Deathlok's appearance that also has ties to the 70's counter culture is the American flag that graces his costume. Prior to this, American flags or stars and stripes on a costume had been an easy way to indentify a character as a patriot and champion of the American ideal. On Deathlok, the flag imagery takes on an ironic, cynical tone - THIS is what has become of the American dream - assembly line monsters with laser guns. What's interesting is that even when it's used in this manner, the flag is still a sacred symbol to many people. Thus, it's probably no surprise that when Deathlok tears off the flag and stomps on it in Astonishing Tales 28 that Marvel was flooded with letters from upset readers.

Deathlok's apocalyptic world with its bleak portrayal of the future and distrust of all things corporate is another feature that directly links the series to the Bronze Age. Physically, the setting may draw from the ruined wasted earths of Omega Man, Soyent Green and Planet of the Apes, but I think its spirit is firmly tied to the disillusionment of the 70's counter culture generation. Buckler says he drew inspiration for this dark future from the climate of cynicism and distrust that had started with Vietnam and culminated in Watergate. He wasn't the only writer working these themes, as Marvel villains of this era became less Stilt-Man and more Corporate lackeys of Roxxon. However, while Spider-Man or Man-Thing might only find themselves at odds with The Man once and a while, Deathlok's entire world was one in which The Man had run amok.

Somewhat at odds with the title's socio-political themes was the character's use of a gun. During the Golden Age, comic characters using guns was widely accepted with everyone from the Bucky to Batman driving dirty. However in the Silver Age, as the villains were no longer soulless soldiers of Axis, guns disappeared in comics. (This was also most likely a result of the sanitizing of comics that came with the introduction of the comic’s code.)

It wasn't until such movies like Dirty Harry and Death Wish started popularizing the concept of vigilante justice that you began to see the return of non-western gun hawks in the Marvel universe. Still, the idea of Spider-man picking up a gun and shooting Electro most likely would not have gone down very well, so stabbing and shooting ones foes was pretty much reserved to anti-heroes (The Punisher) and heroes removed from our time (Skull The Slayer, Deathlok, Killraven). Even in the 80's the only heroes to use guns were The Paladin and Rom. However, by the time the gun happy 90's rolled around, guns were as much of part of characters outfit as shoulder pads and leather jackets.

I think it starts to become easy to see how the 90's Deathlok might not have been able to compete against the Deathlok of the 70's in the hearts and minds of readers. Much of the character's world, which was integral to the concept, had been dropped. And the few aspects they kept (cybernetics, guns, monstrous appearance) were now so commonplace in comics that poor cutting edge Deathlok was lost amongst a sea of Cable/Punisher rip-offs. (Hey, who remembers Gunfire?)

And speaking of Cable, I've heard people say he was inspired by Deathlok, but I think that's just another case of common influences. (Like how the Heap inspired both Man-Thing and Swamp Thing) To me, Cable is Deathlok if you strip away those elements that made Deathlok human. And this is where the McDuffie version of Deathlok was successful over all the Cable Clones, in that McDuffie never forgot the human element of Luther Manning. However, I don't think that was enough to make the character work in the 90's. He was reintroduced in name only during Marvel's weird little M-Tech line of comics in 1998. And a few other versions have been talked about at Marvel since then, but outside of an appearance in the Beyond! mini-series, Deathlok hasn't really been seen since.

Still in this era of Corporate Bank instigated economic upheaval, Guantanamo Bay, and revolutionary genetic advancements, I could see someone working with many of the same themes Buckler did and create a new Deathlok. And as long as they remembered to make the character a result of his dark future and not just a part of it, they would most likely succeed.

Have a great weekend!

- Jim

Pierre Speaks: Working on Arthur

I left Marsupilami to go work on the Arthur Christmas Special.

The Saturday before I started working on Arthur.... there was a HUGE scandal that hit the animation industry called the "CINAR Scandal". I will get back to the scandal in a later Blog.

So on Monday morning when I started working on Arthur.... the atmosphere in the studio was not a happy one.

Many were worried for their job and their future. It was the beginning of some dark times for animation.

Since I had worked on "The Busy World of Richard Scary", there were some changes made in the studio. Once a week all the designers would meet with the director to discuss the show they were working on.... in this case the Arthur Christmas Special.



Ironically enough.... it seems that it is something that was started by the "Big Shot" who took over Marsupilami.

Strangely enough...... we had no such meeting with "MR Big Shot" on Marsupilami.

Ultimately those meetings became a thing of the past since it would be too time consuming. It would mean half a day wasted on such meeting for everyone.



It used to be that only the supervisors would meet with the director.... so everyone else would still be working while th meeting was held....but now with everyone on the team attending the meeting.... that would mean more questions.... and too often more useless questions that made the meeting go on forever and ever. So it would end up too time consuming and would not really help in the end.



So after some time.... it went back to only the supervisors having meetings with the director.

At the time.... little would I know that Arthur would end up being the series I would have worked the most on.



I worked on the Christmas Special as a character designer.

Then I worked on the series as a character designer. then once the design was finished.... I worked on layout & posing for the rest of that season. Arthur won 2 Emmy Awards for that season.



Then I worked on some licensing for Arthur.

Then I worked on a new season as a layout & posing artist.









And finally last summer, I worked on storyboard corrections on Arthur.

Although I much preferred to work on a series like Bob Morane.... I must admit that I had some fun working on Arthur. I did not expect too.... but I had some fun with some of the people I was working with.... and heck I even had fun drawing the little guy.

But while I was working on the storyboard corrections..... some days I would end up drawing Arthurs ears a thousand times or something like that. On some boards sometimes you would have to redo lets say Arthur's ears, or some other detail throughout the whole board.



So at the end of the day after drawing Arthur's ears a thousand times.... you get a little sick of drawing them ears.



Sadly as the years went by, they would hire less and less people to do the same amount of work with less and less time.

For example they would hire half the amount of people, give them half the time they used to give them, but expect them to do the same amount of work with the same quality as before.

That is something that happens not only in animation but in all TV productions in general.

They try to cut down their cost as much as they can to maximize their profits until the quality becomes so crappy that people stop watching the show, and ultimately the show gets cancelled.

But so far.... the quality on Arthur has been good enough that they kept on producing more shows..... at least so far.



I don't know if they will make more Arthur episodes.... but we can expect that if they do make more episodes.... the people working on the show will probably have less people, less time and less budget to do the same amount of work... if not more.

Sadly that is how it works wayyyy too often.

Also as time went by... part of the production like layout & posing was no longer done here.

Although that is not just on Arthur... that is something that happened pretty much in every studios in Montreal.

AFAIK.... there no longer is any layout & posing done here in Montreal. :(

Which is sad.... I loved working as a layout & posing artist.

Why is layout & posing no longer done here???

About 10 years ago.... a layout & posing scene paid around $65 or $70 per scene. Depending on the project or the studio. But at the same time, it would cost about $3 to have the same scene done in China. And $3 that was the price paid to the studio in China. The Chinese studio would then turn around and give only a part of that to the artist actually doing the work. I wish I could say that they were giving $1 to the artist.... but it probably was much less then that.

Already, pretty much all the animation done in Canada was actually done in China. But more and more.... so was the layout & posing.

And it got even worse when India got into the game. At some point, many animation studios in China closed their doors since even they with their extremely low wages could not compete with what the studios in India were charging.

How do you compete with people offering such extremely low prices??? Sadly I don't have the answer to that one.

I don't know about you, but here in Canada.... NO ONE can survive by earning $1 a day. NO ONE.

Anyway.

As I said I have no idea wether there will be more new Arthur TV episodes.

For about 5 years now whenever there is a new season of Arthur being produced, we expect it to be the last season of Arthur.... and so far there has always been a new season after that.

So who knows.... maybe there will be some new Arthur episodes produced at some point.

We will have to wait and see. ;)

Mister Crimson Episode 27

Mister Crimson Episode 27
Wherein our hero explains his predicament...

Read it here .:

Free Comics Monday: The Shield

Here is another Bob Morane rendition of a classic Golden Age Character by Pierre Villeneuve - MLJ/Archie Comics The Shield.

Some of you may remember that JM Straczynski is supposed to be using some of the MLJ characters in his upcoming Brave & The Bold run. From Newsarama...

Using the book as his platform, Straczynski will be taking on and introducing the group of heroes commonly known as the “Archie heroes”, that is, the super-hero characters that were generated by Archie Comics beginning in the ‘40s (and who have had various incarnations in the decades since). Among the more famous of the characters are The Shield, The Web, The Comet, The Fly, The Jaguar, and The Black Hood.

Having recently read the first volume of The Twelve, I'm not sure what to think of that. On one hand, It will be nice to see new renditions of these characters. On the flipside, I hope JMS doesn't follow the same path he has trod in such comics as The Twelve or Squadron Supreme. While there are some interesting things in both comics, the grim and gritty portions are getting a little stale.

Anyway, enough soapboxing - here are two awesome Golden Age comics featuring The Shield

[ Pep Comics 10 ]

[ Pep Comics 11 ]

Have a great day!

- Jim