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Halfway there to the finish line for Chapter Five! Here are the pages I've completed so far:
Okay, I've been seriously neglecting this blog. While I have been working on the latest DRC chapter, and a secret project, and a DRC app, thats no excuse. But while discussing the nerd shattering news that Disney will be releasing Star Wars episode 7 in 2015, I was suddenly struck with an idea so awesome I had to drop everything so I could fart this out of my head and into this blog before I hurt myself.
The next set of Star Wars movies can't rehash old stories. I'm not interested in another rise of an Empire or a fall of a Republic. The entire story structure has to be different. Maybe even a smaller scale would be better.
Episode 7 should take place on a post ROJ (Return of the Jedi, c'mon keep up) galaxy where instead of there being a galaxy spanning Republic or Empire, each planet has its own government. A traveler shows up and must abide by the local rules and customs ("no droids in these here parts!"). Think of America in the old west days.
Instead of having a huge Jedi Council and only two Sith, its the opposite. There are only two Jedi and a huge gang of Sith that pillage from planet to planet like a wolf pack. Or Pirates. Think of the Reavers from Firefly/Serenity.
The two Jedi are an old Sensei like Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamil could still pull this off) and his young female Padawan. The girl Padawan could be played by someone like Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men First Class/Hunger Games) I can already see a movie poster with her posing with a green lightsaber and an army with red sabers behind her. The jedi live secluded in some farming planet where the population is low and they just hang out and meditate and do other Jedi stuff.
Until:
The Sith Pack shows up to the planet and terrorizes the local farmers. Picture the girl Jedi confronting them, taking them all on with cool light saber kung fu while the wise Master Skywalker easily dispatches a few Sith on his own. These Sith are weaker. With the rule of two if one got too powerful he would take over and kill the others. Maybe there is someone behind the scenes artificially keeping the rule of two from working so that no Sith gets too powerful and he can have a biker gang of Sith that terrorize the planets. Maybe the guy behind the scenes wants to use them as an excuse for a stronger government. (At some point it turns out to be more than he can control and one one the Sith becomes too strong and kills him)
One of the up and coming Sith kill poor old master skywalker. The padawan is upset, but is soon guided by Lukes ghost (CGI could even make it a younger looking Luke). She escapes the planet with the help from a handsome starship pilot and his large droid co pilot (think robot version of Chewbacca who can get in fights, loose an arm then screw it back on). The story arc will follow the Young Jedi girl as she tried to uncover the secret behind the Sith Gang (now that they know a Jedi still exists they are hunting her down) and deal with her feelings for the Pilot Stud while guided by Ghost Luke and ultimately becoming a Jedi Master for a young Jedi kid she meets somewhere along the way.
This is so perfect it must happen. Disney Lucas are you listening? Whatever idea you have it can't be as good as this! Its not too late to use this! You're my only hope!
UPDATE: Heres the sequence and types of planets they should show in Episode 7:
Start on a farming planet: Lots of open fields of grass and wheat with the occaisional sci fi farming equipment and alien beasts of burden. This is where we establish the relationship between Luke and his Padawan. There is a primitive market place where the townfolk trade their space fruits. This is also where the Jedi are confronted by the Sith Gang. Once Luke is killed and Jedi girl is clearly outnumbered, Pilot Boy saves her by whisking her off in his speeder bike. There is a high speed chase over open fields. As they speed along, Jedi girl glances at the cave she lived in with Luke briefly then goes back to blocking attacks with her light saber as they race back to Pilot boy's ship. They jump into hyperspace and escape.
Next planet: A mining planet. Its rocky and full of craters. The architecture has an Asian/Indian influence. The miners use large dinosaur/elephant creatures to do their digging. They come here because its a hub for a lot of activity. Easy to hide here and for Pilot Boy to use his connections in the black market to get the info they need. Pilot Boy also has a passenger who is a young boy with a cyborg arm. He keeps him around because he is also good at repairing the ship. Jedi girl begins to suspect the Cyborg Boy is also strong in the force. He seems to be able to communicate with animals: he has a pug like pet that only likes him and Jedi Girl. Also there is an incident with the Dino/Elephant Beasts. Because of some mistreatment they go on a rampage through the city. Our heroes narrowly escape getting crushed as they try to outrun the destruction. Cyborg Boy is able to calm the herd down to everyone's amazement. Ultimatley, Pilot Boy obtains information there that leads then to the next planet:
An Ocean City Planet! This is like Cloud City meets Kamino and Courouscant. Large oceans with small island cities covered in complex skyscrapers. They come here only to find out (cue Admiral Ackbar) "Its a Trap!" The same source that lead the good guys here also told the bad guys. Meanwhile the bad guy pulling the strings is betrayed and killed by the new bigger threat: a Sith that has become powerful and took command of the Sith Pack. The Sith are bent on either killing or converting Jedi girl. They arrive and chase our heroes through the narrow hamster tube corridors of the city. The good guys race back to where they docked their ship and fly out thinking they are safe- only to find their ship surrounded by mini Sith fighter ships. There is a space ship dog fight over the sea, which by the way is filled with killer sea creatures who eat any ship that falls down on them. Eventually the Strong Sith leaps onto the wing of their ship and demands they give up the girl or he with use his saber to dismantle the ship sending it to the toothy depths below. Pilot Boy thinks he's bluffing but Jedi Girl is already outside the ship on the wing in a lightsaber duel over the churning sea. She is outmatched by the Sith but through some contrived means, the Cyborg Boy is able to help her knock Strong Sith off the wing and into the sea. As the Heroes escape, we see the Sith underwater about to get eaten by a sea creature, until the Sith smiles and slices the crap out of it creating a bloody seafood stew in the bubbling water.
Cue Star Wars Theme
Here it is: the next chapter fully pencilled in (except for some buildings that you'll notice are just grids still- I have a special plan for those) spoilerific dialogue included. You can see the progress I made from the previous post. Next step: the coloring process!
Another sneak peek at the next chapter: Lady POTUS and a scientist watch as a robot rips through a herd of dinosaurs! I'll be posting more of the progress on the next chapter soon!
I did it again. I posted the work in progress for every page of the next chapter along with the dialogue. I've resequenced a couple panels and added in an extra page resulting in the longest chapter yet at 8 pages. This also improves the emotional impact of the moment where Eric says the line about the dinopocalypse and Molly is caught her with her guard down, tears in her eyes as she worries about her family and watches Nikki's reunion. This results in a nice panel where she is trying to hide her tears.
Back when I was doing the "art swap" I put together these reference pages that anyone who was doing a DRC drawing could refer to. A few minor spoilers are buried in there. Enjoy.
Okay, I couldn't wait any longer. Here's the result of the DRC/RGA swap out. My version of RGA, and Frankie Washington's version of DRC! Eventually I'll create a better parking spot for that artwork, but in the meantime, here they are side by side. I find it interesting how every artist can have their own take on the same subject matter. While his style is very different from mine, its also a perfectly awesome fit for DRC!
This week She-Hulk dominates my comic book stack, starting with Avenging Spider-Man #7. This is your basic Spidey-Team-up comic, so I don't pick it up every month, just on the issues that grab my interest. I was excited about this issue for two reasons: One: Art by Stuart Immonen. As I've said previously, hes a great illustrator- one of my favorites. And Two: Spidey teams up with She-hulk, and I kinda have a crush on her (along with Power Girl and Super Girl- don't tell my wife, she wouldn't understand) In fact, how cool would it be if they had She Hulk in the next Avengers movie as a full CGI character, like a green, slightly more clothed version of Dr Manhattan Anyway, this comic starts out on the right note: See above pic of Shulkie and Spidey wresting a giant sewer-fish. Thats dope. Thats pretty much the high point though. The rest of the story involves an army of cats, She-Hulk growing a tail, Spider-Man wearing a cow head, and a giant Egyptian Cat Goddess. Seriously. Now I expect some goofy fun with this situation, but it was less fun than I was hoping and a lot more goofy. I still give it 7 points for the art and for She Hulk !!!!!!!
X-Men Legacy #266: The cover had She Hulk, Rogue, and some strangling and hair pulling going on. Its an Avenger vs X-Men story. Rogue does her best to keep neutral on the AvX war when a couple of avengers (including She Hulk) show up to basically loiter on the school grounds waiting for Hope to show up. Their presence is provoking the students who, like Cyclops, seem to have fantasies of persecution. Sure enough, things get out of hand and Rogue starts boxing She hulk, until another avenger shows up unexpectedly right at the end. I give this comic: 7 points too !!!!!!!
Wolverine and the X-men #10: This happens before X--men Legacy 266. Cyclops and Emma Frost show up at Wolverine's school. They discuss their differences, and resolve absolutely nothing. In the end, two members of the shool join up with Cyclops, and an alien anti-Phoenix task force show up, and the side story about Angel going bonkers becomes more interesting. This is my favorite X-book right now. Also, 7 points!!!!!!!
Invincible #91: Seriously, why does the black Invincible have to have cheating-on-his-girlfriend issues? Seems a little stereotypey to me. Last time I'll gripe about that. The Dinosaurus/Viltrumite story continues, and there is a surprise ending. You know with Invincible, that usually means blood and guts. 6 exclamation points!!!!!!
The Walking Dead #97: Rick and his Posse have their first run-in with Negan's people. Can't wait to see him lay down the law on that big meanie. 7 points !!!!!!!
The Ultimates #10: The shocking ending from last issue actually happened. This is the aftermath. Things actually get worse. For the love of God, it is time for Reed and his Children of Tomorrow to get their butts handed to them by Nick Fury. Still hasn't happened yet. 6 points!!!!!!
New Avengers 26: Unexpectedly cool. I wasn't too excited to see a flashback story about Iron Fist. Turns out its kinda cool. Back in the days of Leonardo Da Vinci, there was a female Iron First who hosted the Phoenix force, thus tying into the present day AvX story. I like the idea of DaVinci participating in Marvel Universe history. 8 exclamation points!!!!!!
I've never seen a movie that lived up to its own hype the way the "Avengers" has. There were so many pitfalls Joss Whedon could have fallen into: getting too wrapped up in a convoluted story with all those characters, or not giving certain characters their due, or being derailed by all the different egos involved, or not flowing organically from the other movies that lead up to this. Not only did it not get screwed up, Joss Whedon knocked it out of the park. In a way, the story was very simple and straight forward: bad guy gets a hold of power cube. Good guys team up to stop his evil plans. A simple story was the right way to go so you focus on the important stuff: Making sure each Avenger gets their moment to shine, and filling the movie chock-full of wouldn't-it-be-cool-if moments. Seriously, they must have sat down and just brainstormed every cool thing that could possibly happen, and then worked it into the story. I couldn'y think of anthing I wished I had seen that wasn't in the movie. I was worried that Black Widow and Hawkeye would just be in the back ground. Didn't happen. I was worried Cap America wouldn't end up the leader. No worries there. Some movies like this become just about the special effects and action. In this case, even the dialogue was spot on. By the end I realized I had been laughing and gasping through the whole thing, and so was the rest of the audience. The reason this movie turned out so well was because, a true fan made the creative decisions instead of someone with a buisiness degree. Other movie studios need to learn that from Marvel. Get out of the way of the creative people and let them make their art. They know what they're doing. This movie was pure fun. Not dark and brooding like a lot of comic book movies try to be. It doesn't apologize for it. It feels like a comic book with a lot of larger then life moments. Unless you just hate cool things, you can't possibly be disappointed with this movie. And, stay for the post-credits teaser at the end. Both of them.
Here's my latest version of my Robot God Akamatsu drawing. I went over the last version with a softer, darker lead from a mechanical pencil, rendering more detail in the process. Next step: color!
