Busy, Busy, Busy

It's been a month since my last post. Why, you ask? Well, three things:
• The Devil's Candy Store and the San Diego Comic-Con 2008
• WildClaw Theatre's second season promotion
• The First Fear



There will soon be a new website for The Devil's Candy Store as we venture into the selling of exotic contraband from impossible worlds. We are working with author, LA Banks, and using her Vampire Huntress novel series as our first impossible world. Tony Swatton of Sword and Stone building the vampire killing sword, Madame Isis, and its sister dagger, both to be displayed in San Diego this July. We'll be auctioning off the one of the kind hero sword and you can pre-order the dagger.



Craig Elliott, a Devil's Candy Store artist, is designing some Vampire Huntress based jewelry for the show and will be one the concept artists contributing to our limited edition book featuring characters, Damali Richards and Carlos Rivera of the Vampire Huntress series. Other artists planning to be in the book are:
• Dave Dorman
• Craig Elliott
• Tom Baxa
• Peter Bergting
• Cyril Van Der Haegen
• John VanFleet
• Eric Battle
• Alex Wald
• Ray Frenden
• and me



A new website is in the making for WildClaw Theatre as we gear up for our next set of productions and a couple of benefits. The first benefit will be June 22nd at The Four Moon Tavern. Stay tuned for the Pagan details.



And lastly, I had an excellent story consultation with Charley Sherman on my comic book (and possible play), The First Fear. The story is finally coming together into a solid narrative. Yeah, baby!

Mythic Creatures at the Field Museum

Chicago's Field Museum has a new temporary exhibit, Mythic Creatures, that examines man's fascination with mythic creatures and looks at where these myths may have originated.

March 19 to September 1, 2008

From the Field Museum website:

"Since the dawn of time, creatures of the unknown have fascinated cultures the world over. From medieval fire-breathing dragons to the magical powers of the unicorn, mythic creatures have captured the imagination. Now, examine the legend and the science behind some of the most fascinating creatures ever invented. Enter the fabled world of dragons, journey to the depths of the ocean and soar above the clouds to uncover the origins of the powerful, dangerous and magical beings that have been a part of the human experience for thousands of years. Preserved specimens, cultural artifacts and works of art highlight the surprising similarities and differences in the way people around the world have envisioned these myths. Today, mythic creatures continue to live on in the everyday lives of many cultures—and now they live at The Field Museum."


© AMNH / Denis Finnin

The First Fear Lives

It has been an exciting 2008 so far. I started with ConceptArt.org's Revelations art orgy in Seattle, did 8 large paintings and a big sculpture for the play, we opened The Great God Pan, in connection with that I interviewed Clive Barker and seem to be starting a biz relationship with Weird Tales magazine. Sue had her baby! We got a visit from Donna. The Devil's Candy Store is ramping up again. And...

I'm back on The First Fear story. I have a beginning, middle and end. I have a cast of characters and I have scenes. I have themes and character arcs. I will soon have sketches and dialog. All the research and all the sketching and thinking and writing came together this weekend.

What did it? Imagining how I would do it as a play in a little blackbox theater with a small cast and limited resources. The blessing and the curse of a comic book is it's limitless potential. You can have millions of characters, endless scenes, thousands of costume characters and it can go on for decades. A two hour, low budget play is quite another story. I've always worked better under restraints (or is that - in restraints?) and thinking this way is just what I needed.

more soon...

Revelations Symposium

I'm excited! I'm going to the Massive Black/ConceptArt.org Revelations Symposium in Seattle this January. Four days immersed in making art and watching some of the best in the business doing it. Can't wait. Gotta go, there's a pencil and sketch paper waiting for me to come over and play.

Wizard World Chicago - Pre-show Press

Alex Wald and I were interviewed for a nice little piece by Michael Bonesteel of the Pioneer Press. Just in time for the old Wizard World. This link will take you there.

Inca Vampyr

The End of the Incas

Here is another iteration of a First Fear postcard sketch. The first pass is below (June 29 entry, top sketch), but I needed to go for something more dramatic. The mural in the original sketch was intended to give a place and time, but it is completely inaccurate to the time period in scale and intent. These postcards are meant more for mood and those in the know will recognize the Intihuatana Stone that she is standing on and place the mountain setting in Machu Picchu.

Currently no one knows why the Incas disappeared, in spite of many theories. Mine theory is simple - the Incas knew too much and were wiped out by aliens and their monster guardians. At the moment, the year 2012 plays heavily into the plot of The First Fear. Hmm...what did they know?

Con Job - Sketches

The summer conventions are coming and I am getting give-away materials ready. All of the family visits have made it tough to get these puppies done, but I'll get there. Here are some very preliminary sketches for some postcards I would like to hand out.

The concept is depictions of First Fear monsters at various points in human history.


The fall of Machu Picchu.


WWII battlefield.


September 11.

Baby Octopus Sketch

Working up some quick sketches for First Fear concept designs and did a marker piece from a cool photo reference. Looks like I'll be working on some big splash pieces for Wizard World. I have three in mind and in the works: a crowded, future Chicago, urban setting; an exposed crashed spaceship trapped in melting arctic ice; and a scene from the past that explains the disappearance of the Incas from the royal estate of Machu Picchu.

First Fear Thumbnail Wrestling

Wisdom teeth be damned, I'm moving full speed ahead now. I'm working out thumbnail sketches to take the script into the visual stage and using PostIt notes to do this. Those of you who think this is left over from my consultant days would be partially correct. I actually started doing this at the law firm, Freeborn & Peters, in the early 80's when I was creating my Ralph the Punk comic on their PostIts and copy machines as a lowly temp. (These were the days before they invented ways to track copy usage with key codes.)

I like the ability to move the sketches around easily as the story telling comes together (or falls apart).

First Fear - Mayan Bloodbath

Finally some news relating to The First Fear comic book. The script has now taken a shape that allows me to start drafting page layouts. Core story elements are falling in place and artwork will begin showing up again in this damn blog.



One sequence that is coming together well (and probably be the first to be seen here) is the Mayan Genocide story arc. It distinctly places our protagonist in a rather bloody light. This one will have it all - blood sacrifice, monsters, alien starships, and jungle temples lit by massive bonfires.

In other exciting news, I will be working with an amazing colorist on these pages. I won't name him just yet, I think we'll let the work do the talking, but I am thrilled at the prospect. His most recent work in the comics field is on an Eisner Award-winning book which should be going to press literally any day now. As soon as I can tell ya more, I will. Shh...

Engel

I've added another song to the First Fear working soundtrack - 'Engel' by Rammstein.



Here's the English translation:

Angel

Who in their lifetime is good on Earth
and will become an angel after death
you look to the sky and ask
why can't you see them

First if the clouds have gone to sleep
you can see us in the sky
we are afraid and alone

God knows I don't want to be an angel

They live behind the sunshine
separated from us, infinite expanse
they must cling to the stars (very tightly)
so they won't fall from the sky

First if the clouds have gone to sleep
you can see us in the sky
we are afraid and alone

God knows I don't want to be an angel

© 1997 Edition Rammstein from the Sennsucht album.



I've seen Rammstein a couple of times now, once at Metro and another time on the Southside in a huge metal sports hall. The Metro show was interesting, because Chicago prohibits pyrotechnics in most venues and the band had to play sans fire. On the next tour around they played at the most out of the way joint around, but they were outside city limits and lit the place up with flames, firecrackers, and pyro from every possible angle and limb. Rammstein is both impressive and disturbing for their way with the audience. The Germanic rally atmosphere is pretty overwhelming and the irony is unfortunately lost on some of the skinhead fans. Scary on many levels.

Now We're Cooking

I started writing The First Fear in June, 2006. Today I finally broke through the myriad of story drafts with an intro I could work with. I have several intros and lots of background, but never really bought into my lead character nor the way I was telling the story to the reader. Until now.

I had been writing tons of exposition and scenes, but no cohesive story to hang a hat on. Or draw for that matter. I have devoured Will Eisner's books, Scott McCloud's theories and other writing tomes, but the one that really hit me hard was Alex Toth's critique of a Steve Rude story. Everything I was writing introduced the lead character waaay too late and took forever to establish the core of the story and where it takes place.

But now I'm in a happy place (for however brief that will be, it's good to find at least one happy place per project.)

The First Fear Ad

I'll be attending a small Comicon tomorrow in the western suburbs with Alex Wald and Dave Dorman, among others. I needed something to show for the work done so far on The First Fear, so I whipped up this screensaver.


The text reads:

They have always been with us.

Immortal.
Forever.

We have always been afraid.


And that's just the way they like it.

The First Fear
A graphic novel of horror and escape.

3D The Old Fashioned Way

I have been working on my First Fear main character, Alvamara, and just wasn't getting it. So I broke out the handy clay and began some raw sculpting to get a better sense of light and shadow for her. It's not exact, but it gives me a tool to use when working out my sketches.

Alvamara

My work on The First Fear script has lead me to some interesting places. At this point the story opens with my own Norse myth revolving around an alien mountain lair near the coast of Norway. It involves Loki (AKA The Sky Traveller) and my lead character, who now has a new name. As I said in a prior post, Shakti (from the Indian goddess) is currently being used in the comic book world so I have named her anew.

The vampire protoganist of The First Fear is now called, Alvamara. 'Alva' being the feminine form of elf, which means eternal and 'mara' which translates to 'demon/evil spirit'. The 'eternal demon' works quite nicely for me.

First Fear Script - Thanksgiving Draft

People have been asking where I'm at with the First Fear comic book. Well, I'm actually at a pretty exciting place with it. I have been working on a new draft of the script and a much better story is coming together.

I had written a complete storyline and in looking at the whole I wasn't satisfied. It was a wall of cliches and fun scenes, but not much of a story. An 'interesting premise' entertainment does not make. I also wasn't happy with the lead character and tone of the piece.

A story about monsters can take many routes these days. Is it gothic horror? Buffy the Vampire Slayer - scary/funny/ironic/hip? Hellblazer social commentary/character study/bloody violence? Saw/Hostel/Chainsaw - all gore, all the time? Well, none of those appealed to me nor was I capable of writing one well. What is coming out now is historical science fiction meets Ms. Indiana Jones (as Cthulhu) covered in blood. Think of a bloody immortal running amok through Erich Von Daniken's Chariot of the Gods.

I had originally named my lead character, Shakti, but a new, high profile line of comicbooks with Indian heroines has put a kabosh on that one. Damn.

Writing in a hospital can also put a new spin on a project. My father, who is 89, fell last week and broke his hip. I have been spending about 10 hours a day with him and writing in his room when he sleeps. At least today, on Thanksgiving, I got to feed him pureed turkey and pumpkin pie and still pop home for a great dinner that Julienne slaved over.

And It Begins Again

After many interruptions I have begun to seriously work on The First Fear again. Here is a preliminary sketch of Shakti, the lead character. Lots to be worked out, but it suggests the direction I would like to go with the character.



"We are called the First Fear. Humans knew fear before us, but we were something different. Not of the natural order. Otherworldly. A new kind of fear."

Research 'Til Your Eyes Bleed

What? No drawings? Not yet, they're coming, but Ray's comment on research gave me an idea for a post. And here it is -



Research for The First Fear:
• The Lost Tomb of Viracocha: Unlocking the Secrets of the Peruvian Pyramids
• The Atlantis Encyclopedia
• Machu Picchu
• Forbidden History: Prehistoric Technologies, Extraterrestrial Intervention, and the Suppressed Origins of Civilization
• The Alien Files (5 DVDs)
• Arctic Mission (5 DVDs)
And, of course...
• The Occult History of the Third Reich (3 DVDs)
• Plus, every History Channel 'Lost City...', 'Crop Circle...', 'UFO...', 'Wacky Theory...' episode.

And we're just getting warmed up.

The Story Begins to Come Together

After having a few 4 AM epiphanies, The First Fear storyline is beginning to become whole. Or whole enough that I can start looking at the overall structure for things like: flow; exposition; and dynamics in character growth, action and plot reveals. At this point the visuals will be challenging as the story spans both locations and time. It currently moves from the Arctic (thousands of years ago) to Machu Picchu (hundreds of years ago) to Europe and WWII (decades ago) to potentially a Nazi-run present-day/future, complete with alien technology and occult rituals.

Much of the story is now motivated by the question of what would happen if anyone with a domineering, non-inclusive worldview actually found an advantage that moved a global conflict from tit for tat to a brutal takeover? I want to take legends like the Spear of Destiny (whoever had it was supposedly invincible, and it is rumored that when the Allies recovered the artifact from the Nazis, Hitler died in his bunker two hours later) and expand that advantage to technology. Technology that is alien in origin. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

It is at this point in a project that one can either be elated at the flow of ideas or overwhelmed by the immensity of it all. Especially if you're planning on doing it all yourself (concept, story, art, production, new software, etc.).

I'm excited.

First Fear Sketches - 1

I have been working on introducing an important character to the story and, as I said before, the events in the Middle East have greatly affected my thinking. This introduction actually takes place in WWII and, of course, involves the standard Nazi occultist. But these sketches revolve around the character of a boy who will have an intimate connection to the lead character, who is a vampire.



This child emerges from the rubble of a destroyed town. Smoke still rising and corpses still warm. And later in the scene, the child has to drag a bloody body across the town square. I never thought I would write anything like this, but it's where the story is currently taking me. We'll see how much stays through the final edit, but for now I'm trying not to edit anything.