A little over ten years ago, I self-published my own comic book series. Doing something like that by yourself is insane. I could have employed half a dozen people full time with the amount of work there was, but there was only me.
Anyway, it burned me out on comics for some time, and I ended up going into the entertainment industry, where all I had to do was draw cool stuff, come up with cool designs, and collect a paycheck. Simple.
But I've always loved telling stories. So now, as the world is accepting digital art more and more, the possibilities of presenting digital comics or motion comics or hybrid 2D/3D comics are growing dramatically each year.
The hardest part of my first attempt was having to deal with the printers, distributors and retailers, plus coming up with all the money to advertise, print, ship, etc.
Now that's ALL GONE with digital publishing!!! The creator gets the bulk of the profits, as is appropriate,
instead of paying for everything while the largest slices of profit go to other sources.
So I've decided to give it another try.
These are some of the early concept drawings I've done. I've hired on some popular models from the Gybergoth/Alternative communities to dress up as the characters,
do photo shoots for me, and help me promote the book (a dream come true!) We're currently doing a fund raiser over at Kickstarter.com to make sure it all happens,
but we've been getting a lot of great responses to it, and new models have signed on, so I'm pretty sure this thing is going to be BIG!
Anyway, if you want to find out more, check out one of the links below:
Home page of Biotoxic Studios, my company. Here we update all projects I have a hand in. (It's new, so a lot is still being added - check back often!)
www.biotoxicstudios.com
Facebook Fan Page for my new project, CYBERTOOTH. "Like" it to stay up to date on the newest announcements! We JUST launched it, so be among the first to join!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cybert...06676142689835
And here's the link to our Kickstarter project page, where I've made a video talking about the series, the models, and the story line.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...rtooth-project
I'm not here to spam, but if anyone likes it and wants to support it, there are some really cool exclusive prizes, like limited edition art prints,
signed photos of the models in costume (professionally shot), original artwork, and other goodies!
Anyway, without further ado, here is some art from the series. Again, these are early concept drawings - I'll be refining things as I go on.
Like making Cybertooth look less like the Terminator!
All art is (c) 2011 Zak Hennessey (though many are far older since the concept has been in my head for 20 years...)
This first drawing is a concept piece from 2005, working with the original design from 1991 (only much better than I was able to draw as a kid).
The new Cybertooth will look a lot less Terminator.
This image is a more recent concept drawing, but it still doesn't feel right to me... I want something more.
I have ideas in my head, but launching the Kickstarter thing has taken up a lot of my drawing time.
Though now I'm free, until I have to get ready for the San Diego Comic Con...
Here are some other basic concept sketches I doodled one afternoon. I don't know about the dreadlock looking wires dangling from his head.
My thought was that when he pulled himself away from the machine he was hooked up to, he tore the wires and looked like dreads.
This is a reflection of the style the girls will be wearing (below).
This was one of my first concept drawings of the revised main character, Malady.
It's a far departure from her earlier designs, which I may or may not post... I'll have to think about it.
Her earliest designs are pretty... wonky... because I wasn't a very good artist.
Anyway, she is an Agent of Hecate, which is a secret Sisterhood of spies/assassins/infiltrators hired by large corporations or countries
to do jobs against other corporations or countries that require the utmost discretion, stealth, and deniability. Malady is one of the best.
Until she breaks the rules and her Sisters have to try to bring her down.
These were some early costume doodles I was playing around with one afternoon.
The character Malady is being portrayed by Cybergoth model Projekt Malice. Check out her FB Fan Page if you like what you see:
http://www.facebook.com/ProjektMaliceAltModel
Below are a few pics from her Model Mayhem page.
She was also the model for one of my Character of the Week entries, below. Sadly, I did not win that contest... don't even think I was 4th place.
The character below is Gunmetal Blue, another Agent of Hecate. She is charged with bringing Malady in to answer for her alleged crimes
and breaking of her Oath to the Sisterhood. This is an early concept sketch of the character.
Blue is being played by model Azalea D'vouxe. Below are a few images of her from her Model Mayhem page and my web page:
These are some random concept sketches of a few Agents of Hecate.
This character is Dr. Daidala. He's Malady's uncle and one of the lead creators of Cybertooth.
He is suffering from a disease that is destroying his body, so he's in a race to bring Cybertooth to life before he dies.
Which means he has to take a lot of risks - like stealing Cybertooth from the largest military technology corporation in the world after they fired him...
generally, not a good idea.
The character below is Torque, Dr. Daidala's assistant. He's a brilliant robotics mechanic and tech genius.
These are some more quick early sketches of the character.
He's being modeled after a local Denver DJ named "Uncle Nasty," who has been on the Denver radio waves for over 20 years.
Clicking on the image below will take you to the video. It's pretty cool. I made it myself with my pedestrian After Effects knowledge...
This was an ad I threw together to promote the series. It appeared in the back of the digital re-release of my original comic series,
LAZARUS: The Many Reincarnations. To learn more about that series, visit my web site ( http://biotoxicstudios.com/ )
because it would be too confusing to go into that in this post.
Here's a close up of my 2005 illustration of Cybertooth. Again, not the final look.
I'll have more concept art to post later, this is just the initial stuff.
We're going to be doing features on the models soon, including more photos, a video, and new art, so be sure to check back,
and I would again recommend "liking" our FB fan page, because that's where new info will appear first!
Let me know what you think!
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