Here are four different portrayals of Rogue Agent Zed.
First up, Scott Arnold, my collaborator on Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy and Spiders and Stardust: A David Bowie Tribute Anthology:
Next, Marco D. Carrillo takes a shot at illustrating Zed.
Marco and I worked together on Battle Team Omega and Astro Crusader:
Then we have Zed's original artist, Jeremiah Goldson.
Jeremiah and I have worked on a handful of projects together including Rogue Agent Zed and Monica Furious: SuperDestroyer:
Not surprisingly, it's been a long time since I've been interviewed. Back in 2008, baseball historian Scott Simkus contacted me about a dozen essays I had written for Bill James. Scott and I ended up having a great conversation, and he ended up posting our chat on his blog. It was a very cool experience, but not exactly one I planned on repeating. (In general, it seems a lot more natural whenI'mtheoneaskingthequestionsanddoingtheinterviewing.)
But recently, John Michael Helmer of ComicBookInterviews.com contacted me to see if I would answer some questions about my experiences as a comic book creator. Of course, I told him, "Yes!" I was more than happy to chat with him.
For those of you who aren't familiar with ComicBookInterviews.com, it's a great site that features a ton of conversations with comic creators like Freddie Williams II (Captain Atom, Robin), Steve Rude (Nexus), Ron Fortier (Terminator: Burning Earth, Green Hornet), Steve Keates (Hawk and Dove, The Spectre), and Walter Koenig (Chekov from Star Trek)
John asked a lot of thought-provoking questions, and I tried to answer them to the best of my ability. Hopefully the end results aren't too much of a disaster. Many thanks to John for his time and efforts in promoting my comics, and also the work of so many other deserving indie comic creators out there.
(Oh, and at the end of the interview, John mentioned that he wanted an opportunity to talk to the artists who work on the Hypersmash books -- Scott, Jeremiah, and Marco. So maybe we'll see interviews with some of those guys as well!)
UPDATE! --
Speak of the devil, here's the interview with Scott Arnold, artist for Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy! Nice job, Scott!
AND ANOTHER UPDATE! --
But wait -- there's more! Here's the interview with Marco, artist for Battle Team Omega and Astro Crusader! Well done, Marco!
I think one thing that comes through clearly in these three separate discussions is the deep love everyone shares for making comics, and the comic book medium in general.
Wow -- with three different interviews on the site, Hypersmash is pretty well-represented, right? Thanks again, John!
Working with Scott Arnold on Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy was an excellent experience. Scott was the perfect collaborator -- patient, enthusiastic, and bursting with talent. So it wasn't a surprise to me when I found out that he transitioned from Hypersmash Studios to producing published art for Image Comics! How cool is that? And believe me, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy! You can check out the series here.
IN THIS ISSUE: It's a good-natured romp as Marcus and Jodie start dating -- while teaming up to fight crime! What happens when they get recruited by the legendary super team known as The Liberty Patrol? And are they ready to face the terrifying menace of Dr. Straitjacket and his Madbots? Find out in this exciting, pulse-pounding first issue!
SERIES SUMMARY: A teenage Romantic Comedy with superheroes (imagine "Say Anything" crossed with DC Comics), Rocket Boy and Lightning Girl are a pair of teenage college students who try to juggle the demands of fighting crime with the difficulty of studying for mid-terms -- all while keeping the romance alive in their relationship!
Making this comic really was a labor of love for me and Scott. We're thrilled with the results and we hope you are, too!
Click HERE to order your copy from IndyPlanet today!
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 hereand 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.
Scott Arnold is a machine. A machine, I tell ya. He's shown me the pencils and inks for Page 25 (25!) of Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy, and they look really, really great. We both feel it might be his best work so far. Awesome.
Of course, he's put me in a difficult position because I am dying to post the art on the blog so that I can share it with all of you. But, unfortunately, that's not going to happen. Grrr.
Here's the scoop. Just taking my enthusiasm into account, I would love to post everything Scott has sent to me. But -- trying to keep the Big Picture in mind -- it's not sensible to post 25 free preview pages of a comic book. It oversaturation, and it's counter-productive.
Um, yeah. So we're not going to see a lot more of Scott's pages on this blog.
I'm sorry, guys! Gah! Total bummer.
So, in a creative way to allow us to showcase his art, Scott was kind enough to put together a GIF for us. I have to say -- in my opinion, this is probably the coolest feature on the blog so far!
Scott takes us step-by-step through his artistic process for every panel of the comic. Here, we can see the amount of time and effort it takes an artist to create a finished product. We can watch the lay-out, pencils, inks, grayscales, toning, and lettering as they develop. Check it out!
This is the most exciting post we've had so far. Thanks to the talent and hard work of Scott Arnold, I am very proud to present: a full preview of the first five pages of Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy. Enjoy!
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!
"The script reminds me of the X-Files, written by a mid-80's William Gibson, commissioned by Marvel Comics." --Jeremiah Goldson, giving a pretty fitting description of our collaborative project, Rogue Agent Zed.
Hi, everyone. Thanks for stopping by. Just wanted to take a couple of seconds to do some housekeeping. Let's hit some bullet points:
1) First off, I think I've successfully activated the Comments function for the blog. I know a couple of you folks let me know that you tried to leave comments unsuccessfully. Yeah. That's my bad. I am a blogging neophyte, and I'm "trying to build the plane while it's in the air," as I like to say. I apologize for any frustration you may have run into, and I'll do my best keep an eye on the matter. (As always, please do try to remember that I may not be all that clever, but I really do mean well...)
2) I want to thank my pal (and comic blogging uber-stud) Kevin Church for featuring Hypersmash Comics in one of his recent online posts. It's a nice shot in the arm, and it's always good to have a guy like Kevin in your corner. Make sure to visit BeacoupKevin.com on a frequent basis to get his refreshing take on the world of comic books. And Battlestar Galactica. And the Pet Shop Boys.
3) Jeremiah's cool quote that led off this post is taken from something he wrote recently. He had a couple of interesting insights on our project and -- in an exciting development -- he snuck in the first ever design sketch of Rogue Agent Zed. As he's urinating. Which, uh, I like to think off as a metaphorical representation of the story's irreverent spirit. Or something.
Anyway, here's our first look at our hero:
Yup. That's our Zed.
4) Also, Scott Arnold sent along a sketch for a character from the comic he's not assigned to draw. Because, I would argue, he's easily confused. So let's all humor Scott and check out his nifty drawing of Velocity Hawk, the fastest member of Battle Team Omega, which is scheduled to be published in 2008 (written by Roel Torres, drawn by Jason Hoagland And Not Scott Arnold.): You know, it's pretty easy to forgive Scott for his (numerous) faults because he draws such pretty, pretty pictures. Dammit. Man, that's a rockin' sketch. I seriously get to work with some tremendous talent.
5) Jason is also keeping busy, and we've gotten together frequently over the last couple of weeks. We watched the Celtics play on opening night, and as we were keeping track of the game, I showed him some reference designs he requested (including an architectural sketch of our fictional high school, and my concept for a small-town flea market.) In return, he showed me a lot of his recent artwork, but -- because he bought a laptop and he isn't sure that his scanner is compatible with the new computer... I don't have any recent scans of Jason's work. You just have to trust me when I say that I've seen firsthand evidence that he's working hard and making progress. And I'll see what I can do about getting our hands on a functional scanner to capture his stuff.
6) Some of you might have missed the recent series of interviews I did with the three current artists of Hypersmash Studios -- Scott, Jason, and Jeremiah. I decided to embed those discussions at different points of the blog, in order to break up the predominantly visual posts with some text-heavy ones. The drawback was, if you read through the blog at one point, you might not have had a chance to come across them. So, to amend that, you can click right here to read some infomative responses from Scott, Jason, and Jeremiah. Personally, I enjoyed learning more about each of them and it was also very cool to have someone else's voice represented on this blog for a change!
7) I would just like to mention that I don't plan on being prolific in terms of updating this blog. I would rather wait for moments of genuine progress that I can share with everyone (as opposed to posting just to make noise and turning myself into a general nuisance. Like usual.) Expect updates when I get my hands on some new artistic content -- design sketches, character pin-ups, thumbnail layouts, or finished pages. Oh, and I will also post once we get some solid information on how to order copies of the actual comic books. Definitely. See, those will be exciting moments that will hopefully help generate some positive momentum for the projects -- and that is really the only purpose of this site. I suspect that if you good folks check out the blog maybe once a month or so, that should work out just fine. Cool? Cool.
7) And finally, if I ever write anything as groovy as these final 10 minutes from the classic movie "RNRNM", I will dominate the known universe for extended stretches at a time. Check out the YouTube clip and see what I mean. (Warning: just when you think it can't possibly get more awesome -- it gets more awesome! Enjoy! And yes, you can thank me later.) --RT
Hypersmash Studios proudly presents: the first finished comic book page in our short, unassuming history. It's a notable development, and I'm a little bit at a loss for words...
It's pencilled. And inked. And grayscaled. And lettered.
It'sfinished!
Without further ado, posted for your consideration, here is page one of the upcoming Hypersmash book, Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy (Story: Roel Torres, Art: Scott Arnold.)
Wow. That is so sweet. What a lovely four-panel composition. I can barely contain my excitement when I look at that page! Nice job, Scott!
The assembly process continues. We are gradually moving towards our goal of publication. Ideas have become scripts. Scripts have become sketches. Sketches have become layouts. And now layouts are becoming finished pages. We are producing tangible, concrete results, and it is very gratifying.
The first page is done. 49 pages remain. There's no stopping us now!
Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy one-shot (52 pages) by Roel Torres and Scott Arnold is scheduled for release from Hypersmash Studios in 2008.
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.
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.
It’s important to match the right artist with the proper project. You don’t want to work with an artist who has a style that clashes with your script, no matter how talented he is. It becomes distracting and detrimental to the story. As a writer and aspiring publisher, I’m always conscious of trying to play to an artist’s strengths and hoping to let them do what they do best.
There are a lot of comic book artists out there who can draw amazing fight sequences (featuring ridiculously muscular superhumans flexing as they punch each other out in their capes and spandex) with great flair. But when you ask them to draw a scene where two college students sit around a table and eat lunch, they can’t pull it off. And that can be a problem.
Scott Arnold can draw everything with ease. Equally comfortable portraying quiet moments from real life as well as the most absurd scenes you can imagine, he’s a fantastic choice to draw a book full of everyday acts and natural conversations.
Scott has a playful quality to his art that makes his characters instantly likable. His lines are so clean and relaxed, that they really help propel the story with a strong sense of natural momentum. It’s a great fit for a comic like Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy, which is basically a teen romantic comedy with a little superhero action thrown in.
I think Scott Arnold is the perfect artist for Lightning Girl Loves Rocket Boy.
Please take a look at some of Scott’s sequential pages, posted below. He often uses material from his own life in an understated and thoughtful way. And once you’ve enjoyed these samples, don’t hesitate to see more of his art over on his site.
