Online for your perusal...

Well the comic preview has been submitted and on display at my end of year exhibition at college.
The opening went well with a decent turn out of people (out of the corner of my eye I kept checking to see if they were browsing through the comic).

As a companion to the exhibition I posted the website online. It's not only the comic but also an early indication of where I would like Interactive Comics to lead into. Regardless of my dreams for a mash-up between Comics an Animation, I though it best to share the site with everyone.

You'll find it at: http://art.tafe.vu.edu.au/sbreese/judas/

From here on I'll be posting some of the production art (as promised) but also hunting for funding.
The next part of the script is also being edited and re-edited and should be ready for illustrating in January. Wish me luck, and if anyone knows a patron who wants to support a new form of art I'm right here waiting...

Cheers!

Next up, Production Sketches!

Suce, shown here in a black and white inked sketch; is just one of the characters of the Judas Khemical story. In the next few blogs I'll cover some of the process behind going from rough pencil sketch to finished art. But for now I'll leave you with the delectable Suce.

Demonic in appearance, but canny enough in the cut and trade of the world that she could probably beat the Devil in the Soul Trade. Behind every stranded Alien and underground empire there's a brilliant and beautiful woman.

Credit where it is due in the Strange New World.

Every idea needs fertile ground to grow. That can come from a job on the side, friends and lecturers. Patient and loving Family members. Inspirational creators and fellow collaborators.
It's not a good ideas to forget these folks and I'm not going to start now. So thank you to everyone who has been interested of at least humoured me while I've tried to draw them into my strange new world.

Time to roll a Seven, Judas.

I'm really happy with Judas' narration on this page. When the audio gets added to the ICR (the Interactive Comic Reader) you'll be able to hear the sense of twisted pleasure and dark humour he gets when he says "But I'm broken..."

For a while I was torn between drawing a close-up of his mouth smirking, but I like the rhythm between panels that I got from zooming in on his eye. As your gaze focuses on Judas, the other panels move from the darkened hive of the Factory to the tunnel's promise of escape.

I'm going to hunt for funding so that I can finish the first story arc more easily. And answer some of the questions that the Preview raises. Why was he so beaten up at the beginning? Is it too late to find Xemos? Who has sent the Cyber-Swat Troops after him? If Judas is a Simulant why doesn't he follow orders? And who named him Judas anyway?

The Six Billion dollar mortgage.

Page Six starts with the mobile city state, New Utonia. I once described it to someone as "a model toy big enough for God to play with". Basically everyone wealthy and important enough gets to live at the penthouse level and everyone else gets crammed in underneath.

But even if you live in a pod with twelve other strangers. Spending half of your time in virtual reality just to stop the sense of claustraphobia from killing yourself (or everyone else around you). It still doesn't come cheap.

Citizenship to New Utonia is mortgaged at a genetic level. Six Billion credits have to be paid off individually by you and/or your descendants. If you die with no progeny to pass on the debt, then your genetic structure is forfeit. The management will decide if you are worth re-shelling into another body or just grown in pieces for replacement organs.

If you're really obstinate about it and dared turn your death into a political statement; they re-shell you into a security simulant. That's basically the nightmare of being aware, amphetimised and paralysed. Your job is to stare at security camera footage and have the brainwaves of your reactions fed to a computer that ascertains whether or not to send the Cyber-Swat Cops around.

Reality TV for the rest of your life with no interaction or freedom.

On Page Five the Earth is in pretty bad shape...

Any post-apocalyptic story needs to be after a disaster. Mine is set after a global environmental upheaval that occurs at the changing of the Mayan calendar. The Mayans had a lot of things worked out and some alternate historians surmise that the Mayan civilisation was coming to the collapse of a highly advanced society. A point where knowledge was being lost instead of increased.

Whichever theory you subscribe to, it is undeniable that their building, architecture, writing, astrology and astronomy were quite advanced. The Mayans measured time in not only days, months, and years; but also in Worlds. If the theory is correct then the world ends in 2012.

Then the New World begins. A new world that in my story heralds a shift in the permutative forces that make up our reality, allowing for esoteric energies to become as recognisable as scientific laws. By 2071 these energies are beginning to coalesce and focus. Opening this little science-fiction saga into other future pathways.

Page Four - meet Cougar Fernandez

Or as the caption reads "Gunpoint with the delightful Cougar".

Cougar Fernandez is a biochemically augmented bounty hunter. A mature and dangerous woman who is likely to bring you back in little packages if you give her any grief. Funnily enough I was unaware that Cougar is the fifties slang word for an attractive older woman on the prowl, but it fits.

Three is the magic number...

The simulant gestation tank in the first panel was based on the organic shapes of orchids and tulips. I've had that set in my head for more than a few years now. So when I saw Geoff Darrow's magnificently detailed pod designs for The Matrix I was both blown away and gutted. Even though there is a visual similarity I figured "bugger it, that's how they always looked in my head -that's what I'll publish".
I'm just glad that my brain was on a similar wavelength to Darrow. I consider him to be right up there near Syd Mead when it comes to concept art.

This page also introduces three major characters. Xemos Heck, the stranded Martian tourist. Fae, the ambassador for the Faelien species, and Suce, the enticeing and devilishly brilliant business woman. And 'the Makers' from the first panel? I'm not telling yet.

Attack of the Second page.

I was pretty pleased with how the Cyber-Swat troops in the first panel turned out. One at your doorstep would be imposing enough. With three coming you know it's not a good idea to stick around.

Enough talk - bring me the comic!

The next posts will show the completed interior pages and credits page for the preview.
It's not quite the same as hearing the dialog play with the page's soundtrack, but that day is coming. So far the preview can be read as a Flash based pageflip of a pdf slideshow.

Of the two I prefer the slidshow, each page lasts onscreen for ten seconds and is accompanied by a looped soundtrack. Still, I haven't given up on the magic of Flash or Java riddled XHML.

That's enough talk for now, you saw the cover at the last post. Now here's the first page...