Saturday, March 30, 2013

Starbolts #187: Adventures in Time and Space



Hail!

This week's comic. Hahaha! I had entirely too much fun writing it. I was having lunch with my creative consultant and over the course of the meal, we discussed Doctor Who. With us being Whovians, we developed a continuation of last week's comic by showing a Doctor Who parody this week. And MAN did we get some crazy tropes from the classic and new series in here.

Obviously, the Professor looks like the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker. BUT! His mannerisms is like a combination of the 9th and 10th Doctors. Mark, my creative consultant is to thank for the staircase gag. Classic era Daleks couldn't go up stairs and kids in England back in the day hid behind couches whenever the daleks appeared on screen. SO! We needed to do two jokes in one. It works really well.

The only problem I seemed to have was trying to create a "TARDIS" parody. So, I picked a phone booth from around the same time as the police box the Doctor's TARDIS looks like. I also freely admit to humming the theme song while putting the sprites in the panels.

Speaking of Doctor Who, today (March 30th, 2013) is the premiere of the second half of series 7. Will be watching that! I do wonder if I am going to keep this  Professor guy around. We'll see. He may have one more use. See ya next time! Allons-y!

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Starbolts #186: Death's Cold Embrace



Before I get into this week's comic, let's discuss the last two panels as there's a bit of a story behind it. I had this conversation with Mark, who some of you may know is my creative consultant and person who I bounce ideas off of.

Here's the convo:

Me: Do you think it might be too early to save Jenna?
Mark: Nah. Though, this may be a good opportunity for something interesting.
Me: What?
Mark: Well, Manta's traveling from reality to reality, right? What do you say we create a parody of the Doctor?
Me: The Doctor? Dude, there's been 11.
Mark: I say base the appearance on whatever Doctor you'd like. I have a preference for the Fourth Doctor.
Me: Okay. But, he won't be a time lord. He'll be a member of that race we introduced last week.
Mark: No problem. He'll be a running gag anyway. After this bit, I don't see us using him much.
Me: Okay. One scarf wearing interdimensional entity coming right up. 


And thus an idea was born. There's your sneak peek at the creative process.  Though, in hindsight, I could have made the scarf a BIT longer. Hm. Nah. Instead I just gave him a monster fro. Look at that mess. Wow.

As for Death? She is relentless! She'll be seen again. It was nice to write her and such. However, in the end, Manta chose to embrace life. I could have put that in the last panel, but, it'd ruin the mood.

See ya next time!

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Starbolts #185: A Hero's Journey



Hail!

First and foremost, thanks go out to Linkara for allowing me to use Lightbringer once again in the comic. I know it is a brief four panel cameo. But, I'd like to think of it as a send-off since I don't think I'll be able to use him again once Lewis finds a new writer. I've enjoyed the Lightbringer comic as it brought a fresh take on the superhero genre. It's a great story and while the art changes every now and then from Lewis's style, to CR's and finally to Sergio's, it's important to note that the hero of the story is very memorable. I wish whoever takes over the reins good luck!

As for this week's comic, I had to make subtle jabs to DC and Marvel. Come on. This was an opportunity that was too good to miss. DC changes reality and shakes up the universe more times than I or anyone who reads comics can care to count. Marvel? Well, Marvel Comics is Marvel. There's not much you can say about that.

The holes in reality are here, it seems. How much ya wanna bet one of those invading starships will  want to explore that anomaly? And how much ya wanna bet that ship will be destroyed once it gets near it? We'll find out soon enough!

Right now, Manta has to deal with the Aquan personification of Death. This is gonna be a fight!

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Starbolts #184: Driving Forces



Sometimes I think I torture my characters too much like I did here. Here was Jenna and then at the last possible second Demonstorm swipes her away. Is it being a jerk? OR is it adding drama? It's probably a little of both. Still, the team figured out how to unify the artifacts and is now on his way to find Jenna and fix reality. Will he keep his new look? It's hard to say. There's a lot of yellow in that armor. Sufficed to say, M'anta is now Supermanta!

The story is progressing and will more than likely reach its finale in Starbolts #200. So, keep an eye out for that. It should be fun, exciting and chocked full of action. In other news, I've completely revamped Super Norad's sprites. If you saw the end of the Avengers vid I did, you'll see the new model. I'm working on Nor-Mad as well. I found a template I can use for humanoid robots and it's been working rather well. =)

Enjoy this week's comic and remember, waking Garazo up may be the last thing you ever do!