Progress Report: Black Axe

Here is a sneak peek at the first seven pages of Black Axe # 1, with art by Fabio Nahon.

Fabio is truly a maestro when he's got his mitts on an old-fashioned graphite pencil.  Those are seven seriously nasty pages, son.  No doubt.

Progress Report: The Lunar Colony Auditions

Some random panels from The Lunar Colony Auditions, my third collaborative project with Jeremiah Goldson (after Rogue Agent Zed and Monica Furious: SuperDestroyer.)

Scenes from early in the story:

(Note: The script called for scenes where The Hulk and The Thing have a slugfest underwater, so I have no idea why Jeremiah is drawing images of a punk rock gig at a small club.  Weird.  Which one of these characters is going to yell "It's Clobberin' Time" or "Hulk Smash?")

I'm not sure why I insist on working with this Goldson character on a repeated basis.  It's pretty obvious that he doesn't have a lick of artistic talent at all.  Hmmm.  I guess maybe I'm just a total sadist.

If you happen to be the sort of charitable, altruistic individual who likes to humor no-talent hacks as they draw comic books with their toes, check out Jeremiah's work in the Hypersmash titles Rogue Agent Zed, Monica Furious: SuperDestroyer, and The Lunar Colony Auditions.

But don't blame me if you hate the art.  I tried to warn you.

Progress Report: Rogue Agent Zed

A lot of folks have indicated their great anticipation for the release of Rogue Agent Zed. I’m in the same boat! All of Jeremiah's preview art is breathtaking. I just want to reassure everyone that he continues to work hard on the book, and we are closing in on the finish line. I've seen some of his later pages and they look great. I would love to share all of them with you -- but they contain some blatant plot spoilers, and I can't figure out a way to post them without ruining parts of the ending! Hmmm. Here, let me show you a couple of works that don’t seem to compromise the integrity of the story. These are some more recent panels from Jeremiah, showing some unfinished pencils and offering a little insight on his work process.

We have been working on this book for four years now, and believe me when I tell you -- the project has truly been a labor of love for the both of us. Hope you enjoyed the quick snapshot, and let’s hope it will help sustain us all until the final product hits the stands soon!

Progress Report: Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy

THE DRAWING TABLE
As we've seen in the past, Scott Arnold is a crazy bugger who has an unhealthy obsession for taking photographs of his poor, unsuspecting Drawing Table (as demonstrated here and here.) It's been an interesting progression as Scott has shown us the first panel of the very first page, then the pencils for the first ten pages of the book.

And now, in it's full glory, here is Scott Arnold's most recent snapshot of his workspace. (He tells me that there are 24 pages stacked on there. Ah, I don't know. Personally, I would question anything this man tells you. But your mileage may vary.) Let's take a look!

Woo. Pretty nifty.

Twenty-four pages. That is some serious progress.

Oh, hey! Here's a novel idea! Let's take a moment to respond to some comments from the public!

Here's a message we received from young Aaron Trites, who provides useful feedback for the marketing team at Hypersmash Studios:

"Roel,

For maximum enjoyment I would recommend having the pages either stapled in the traditional pamphlet format or bound together as a graphic novel, rather than having them strewn about on a desk. Oh, and add words to the pages too."

Hi, Aaron! Thanks for the input! We'll certainly give your advice all due consideration!

Okay, so Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy is clearly humming along. I'll try to keep everyone posted as we approach our impending publication.

Progress Report: Rogue Agent Zed

In our previous posts, Jeremiah was kind enough to lend us artwork from his earlier projects to give us all a taste for the scope and magnitude of his talent. But this post will be the first one to highlight multiple sketches that he's created for a Hypersmash-specific title (in this case, Rogue Agent Zed.) Let's go ahead and take a look at the character designs he's worked up so far.



These first two images are of our protagonist, Rogue Agent Zed. I really like these portraits. He appears confident, capable, and imposing. All in all, he cuts quite an impressive figure. I would say that he looks like this, oh, about half the time. The other half, he is drunk, or maybe completely incoherent due to some massive drug intake. (Please note: despite his well-documented ability to save the world from utter destruction on a regular basis, Rogue Agent Zed is not a good role-model for your children. End note.)




The lovely gal that Jeremiah has sketched to the far right is Agent Wyatt, who is the co-lead in the story. She is sane, reasonable, and very professional. For these reasons, and many more, we should all pity her for being assigned to work with Zed. Poor, poor Wyatt.













When Zed isn't wearing a jacket, we notice that he is a scrawny little thing distinctly lacking in the muscles and physique department. Which is okay. He doesn't succeed on the basis of his physical attributes. Instead, he relies on his intellectual gifts and his uncanny insights.

And the occasional violent use of very big guns. (A reminder: once again, not a role-model. Thank you.)











Every story needs a bad guy, and Jeremiah was kind enough to provide a sketch of one of our antagonists. I don't want to say too much about him, in the interests of preserving some of the story's suspense so I guess I'll withhold all vital information (specifically his name and occupation) while strongly encouraging you to pick up a copy of the first issue to see how he ties in to the story! (Man, I can be such a shill sometimes...)











Hope everyone enjoyed that brief glimpse into the world of Rogue Agent Zed. Jeremiah told me that he can't wait to dive into the project, and he's already made arrangements with his work schedule so that he can devote more time to the project. So hopefully it won't be too long before we start seeing pages for the book. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see how great those will turn out (prediction: very great...)

Progress Report: Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy

THE DRAWING TABLE
As I mentioned before: because he lives up in the frozen, barren wastelands of Canada where I can’t keep an eye on him, sometimes Scott likes to send me digital pictures of his drawing table to prove that he’s working on our story. He’s crazy like that.

So.

That's a photo of the first ten pencilled pages of Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy. (Click to enlarge and see the art in its natural, massive glory.)

Yowza.

I've mentioned to Scott, whenever I look at the photo, I see eleven or twelve pages on that desk. He assures me that (as much as he would love to take credit for it) there are only ten there. I guess that I have to take his word for it, since he would know best exactly how many pages he's drawn so far. I mean, he's not accidentally drawing pages without realizing it, right? Right?

Yeah. So apparently, I'm just not very good at counting. (Which does not bode well for the fact that I am a Harvard Financial Officer. Huh.)

As a tease, I should mention that I have also seen the first five pages of the book pencilled, inked, grayscaled, and lettered. I have to say -- they look really sweet. Scott has managed to outdo himself once again. I fully intend to post those pages on the blog as a full preview of the comic in due time. That's right, I'm emulating the exemplary business model of schoolyard drug dealers across the country: I'm hoping to convince you guys to buy the book when it eventually comes out by giving away the first five pages for free! Can you feel the anticipation building? I sure hope so.

(You know, when I first posted a pic of Scott's drawing table, I had no idea that it was going to turn into a series. But we're all about rolling with the punches here at the Hypersmash Studios blog. Be like water, my friend.)

Okay, things are hoppin' around this old juke joint! In our next post, we feature Jeremiah Goldson's design sketches for Rogue Agent Zed. And this time time, he's not taking a leak. (That should really be the tagline for the book: "Rogue Agent Zed is back. And this time, he's not taking a leak!" That one's a keeper, right there.) See you soon!

Progress Report: Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy

I thought that today's post would be a great time to look at Scott Arnold's excellent designs for the cast of the Hypersmash comic, Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy! Allow me to introduce this lovable bunch:


This is Marcus Joseph Marshall, also known as the teenage crime-fighting hero, Rocket Boy!

In real life, I'm a little old-fashioned so, at first, I wasn't all that crazy about his sideburns. But then I gave it some thought, and decided that I'm basically out of touch with the youth culture of today, so it's fine if he has a hairstyle that I don't really understand.

(Click on each image to enlarge.)







Here's a model sheet for Marcus, in and out of costume. He's got a fin on his head and a jetpack strapped to his back. That, my friends, is pure, classic Superhero Design 101!

(And please note: in case you are wondering what to get me for my birthday, I have just added "Rocket Jetpack" to my Amazon wishlist. Hint, hint. Thank you in advance!)






Here we have a look at some preliminary colors for Rocket Boy. Both Scott and I have taken a couple of shots at picking out his costume colors. We haven't really settled on anything yet. Stay tuned.






This is Jodie, also known as the power-packed dynamo, Lightning Girl! She's your typical college sophomore. She runs track, practices yoga, and has brilliant instincts as a tutor. Oh, and she flies around and shoots lightning bolts out of either hand. Like I said, typical college sophomore.

In a tribute to surefire comic book logic, Jodie hides her secret identity by letting her hair down and putting on a pair of transparent goggles when she's in superhero mode. Foolproof, right? (Take that, Clark Kent!)

Here's the first sketch Scott ever sent me of Lightning Girl's costume. I liked it, but I thought she needed a chest insignia to help make the costume more dynamic visually. And I also pointed out that those big, mitten-type gloves seemed a little impractical if she wanted to do something esoteric like -- oh, I dunno -- write down some notes, or use a keyboard while surfing the net, or something.

And Voila! Problem solved.

Chest insignia, brilliant.

And big, clunky mittens -- gone.

Spiffy, no?

(Note: Scott has a decidedly different approach to designing a costume than fellow Hypersmash Studios artist, Jason Hoagland.)

This is Owen, Rocket Boy's best friend. When the comic gets published, we'll make sure to experiment with some grayscaling options to properly indicate Owen's skin tone.

And what kind of a superhero comic book would we have without a good villain? This is the mad scientist known as Dr. Straitjacket! Jason came up with the cool name. And it was Scott's idea to indicate that our doc would probably perform some type of radical home surgery on his own brain. (I think both ideas are awesome.)

And, of course -- Madbots! Everyone's mad about Madbots! Indestructible combat machines, they pose a challenge for any hero that has the misfortune of running into their path.

Madbots!





And there you have it! I hope you get the same jolt of excitement that I do when looking at Scott's work. I can't wait until we can finally publish copies of this book and get it into the hands of you, the faithful reader. This has truly been a labor of love, and I think that it's a story people out there will really enjoy.

Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy one-shot (52 pages) by Roel Torres and Scott Arnold is scheduled for release from Hypersmash Studios in 2008.

Progress Report: Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy

THE DRAWING TABLE
Because he lives up in the frozen, barren wastelands of Canada* where I can’t keep an eye on him, sometimes Scott likes to send me digital pictures of his drawing table to prove that he’s working on our story. He’s crazy like that:


Interesting bit of trivia: until I saw that shot of his sketchbook, I always assumed that Scott inked his work digitally. But from the image above, it’s pretty obvious that I was wrong. As usual.

Second bit of trivia: If you look at the center of the table, I believe that may be the very first panel ever drawn in Hypersmash Studios history. Pretty cool!

*Toronto is considered a frozen, barren wasteland, right?