When Marco signed up to work on Battle Team Omega, he asked whether he could re-design the look and costumes of all the main characters. I immediately gave him full approval without hesitation because I knew from looking at his portfolio that he had a prolific and stylish design sense. Let’s check out a few of the highlights:
Velocity Hawk:
Korrgar Rex:
Silverbolt:Danger Ace:
Devil of Destruction:
I am completely knocked out by the designs. I really love the Danger Ace costume, in particular. (Somehow, it looks both retro and modern at the same time.) And it's great that Marco also happens to be a talented colorist -- because it's nice to see them in color!
In addition to his excellent design sense, Marco is also the fastest artist I have worked with, and that is truly an invaluable skill. The book is speeding towards completion (note to self: remember to find a letterer to put words into comic), and I'll keep everyone posted on the news as it approaches publication. Stay tuned.
"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
I wanted to take a moment to examine the visual evolution of an original Hypersmash Universe character -- in this case, the speedster known as Velocity Hawk. Sitting in my office at Harvard, I have a stack of designs with literally hundreds of variations of the hero, with some interpretations looking wildly divergent from the others. This is Jason Hoagland's approach to creating a character: he strives for perfection. And it's a fascinating process to witness firsthand. (Click image to enlarge.)
This is intended to show the chronological development of the character's look. But you'll have to forgive me if the order isn't completely accurate, because it can be pretty hard to keep track of all the changes.
Jason and I are both fans of the iconic Japanese hero, Ultraman. At this stage of development, the costume borrowed heavily from that influence.
The original art for the costumes above are done in color with markers, trying out different color combinations for each one.
Some logo ideas.
Because he's a speedster, it's important to take Velocity Hawk's footwear into consideration.
Can't forget the gloves, the back, and the side of the costume. That's a very nice model turnaround sheet, isn't it? And this is what the character looks like today. more or less.
Man, Velocity Hawk has a killer booty. Huh. Who knew?
And that wraps things up for now. In a couple of posts, we'll have a more abbreviated look at Jason designing a different character -- our Valkyrie Warrior, The Myth! Hope you enjoyed this exclusive first look.
And coming up next? A look at some of Scott Arnold's rockin' sequential work. Definitely check back for that because Scott does some amazing work on those pages (which isn't surprising in the least, since he's one talented dude!)
Danger Ace: 
Danger Ace: 
