Archive for July, 2009

14 items.

Friday Fandom – Tron, District 9 and the Book – again.

by Major Tom on July 31st, 2009
Posted In: Blog

Haven’t done FF in awhile, been just too busy. But there’s two movies out there that I’m excited about. The first is Tron Legacy. They just released a VFX test clip, and man is it awesome. Coupled with the fact that it has Jeff Bridges in it again, and I’m stoked. I loved that movie when I was a kid when it came out. It seemed to be right in the middle of the personal computer revolution, of which I was trying to embrace wholeheartedly. Plus, it was a cool movie.

I may have mentioned it already, but the second is District 9. D9 is a movie about aliens from a very different perspective. This is cool because Hollywood so often puts out the same retreads of themes over and over. D9 is about how aliens come but humans don’t want them. There’s controversy, the aliens are sequestered in a refugee camp – but they seem to want to leave, and there’s some mystery about what is really going on.

The producers have really capitalized on that theme. They’ve used Facebook and other web sites to flush out the story perspectives. A really amazing job. I really looking forward to seeing this one.

And the Marooned book… again.

Been doing a lot of figuring things out, and it looks like I’m going to go with something in between the two options I had posted earlier. I want to do more than a simple floppy comic book that I can provide with Ka-Blam. When I get to a book with more and more pages, Ka-Blam stops making sense. But there wasn’t enough interest in a super special book either.

I contacted a POD company that can do a quality book for me with a lowest enough minimum order. I think I can produce a pretty decent book in the $14-$16 range. Note, this is a *guess* at this point. If I can make it cheaper, I will. A lot depends on material costs, page counts and minimum order.

Here’s the early concept of the book:

  • I’m hoping for somewhere between 80-92 pages, so lots of comics included.
  • Starting from the first strip, going as deep into what’s current as possible.
  • All the earlier strips will be recolored to match the style I do now, and tweaked/updated as needed. The book will be the “official canon” of Marooned.
  • Will include a colored version of the bonus strip in the comic book.
  • Will include a new Marooned short story, most likely the story of Lian’s crash landing on Mars and her meeting the Dark Ones.
  • More from the Marooned Vault, so some concept stuff, some of the test strips I did, etc.
  • Something from Steve Ogden. Might be a short story, an illustration, maybe a Moon Town crossover, don’t know. It will be up to him.

When? I’m waiting on samples from the printer so I can put together my requirements for a quote. Once I have the final info, I’ll let you all know. Then of course, I have to put it all together. So likely some time in the fall. Stay tuned!

2 Comments

124 – Ten Minutes

by Major Tom on July 30th, 2009
Posted In: Comic Strip
124 – Ten Minutes

I had loads of fun doing this strip. As you can see I tried a few new things. The first two panels comprise what I call a “spacer joke.” It’s something Schulz and Watterson were masters at. For a Sunday strip it had to fit into a larger and a smaller format, so they’d do these one or two panels gags at the beginning of the strip that could be removed without harming the whole.

The best ones somehow related to or led into the main strip itself. I think I’d have to crown Watterson as the king at it. Secondly, you’ll see Asimov’s bubbles now in blue, matching his base screen color. It’s something I thought about doing for awhile, I’m not sure why I didn’t do it earlier. I like the way it came out.

Then there’s the proximity scanner display on Asimov’s screen. I have mentioned before that I’ve wanted to do more fun stuff with his display, and this was the first chance I got. When I thought up this strip, I immediately got the idea of the movie Aliens, where they are surrounded in the little room watching the scanner (and it turned out the aliens were in the ceiling.)

It was such a highly tense moment. I wanted to have a little bit of that tension of something unknown coming up on them – remember Ril has never been down here – but instead of the terror at the end, it’s Ril thinking the Crepno are super cute. (And the “so cute” line is something my daughters say all the time.)

Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it!

Previously on Marooned…

While attempting to send a message to Earth, John fell ill. He returned to the Martian sanctuary Vita to administer antibiotics, which made him worse.

Ugo has now brought him to the Volotrum (also called The Dark Ones), his only remaining chance to be healed. The Listener, an apprentice of the Dark Ones – and a human woman named Lian Fisher who crashed on Mars years ago – has agreed to try and heal him with her powers.

Meanwhile, Ril has convinced Asimov to track John to see what is happening to him.

New Readers

The current storyline starts right here, or you can read from the beginning of the strip. Be sure to check out the about page, which explains the story and the main characters.

21 Comments

123 – Marsquake

by Major Tom on July 28th, 2009
Posted In: Comic Strip
123 – Marsquake

Previously on Marooned…

While attempting to send a message to Earth, John fell ill. He returned to the Martian sanctuary Vita to administer antibiotics, which made him worse. Ugo has now brought him to the Volotrum (also called The Dark Ones), his only remaining chance to be healed. The Listener, an apprentice of the Dark Ones – and a human woman named Lian Fisher who crashed on Mars years ago – has agreed to try and heal him with her powers.

Meanwhile, Ril has convinced Asimov to track John to see what is happening to him.

New Readers

The current storyline starts right here, or you can read from the beginning of the strip. Be sure to check out the about page, which explains the story and the main characters.

8 Comments

Concessions

by Major Tom on July 27th, 2009
Posted In: Comic Strip
Concessions

As I said, no update today, unfortunately. But it is written, and I plan on trying to get it done today to post tomorrow and maybe get back on schedule. In the meantime, here’s a little sketch inspired by my day at the beach for my Wife’s birthday.

7 Comments

123 – Wallowing

by Major Tom on July 23rd, 2009
Posted In: Comic Strip
123 – Wallowing

Just a heads up that it’s possible there will be no strip on Monday. It’s a very busy weekend for me with my skating club’s big race which takes up the whole weekend, plus my wife’s birthday. I’m also busy with work. So, as much as I hate to miss a post day – I haven’t missed one yet – it might happen. Now back to your regularly scheduled robot sulking.

Previously on Marooned…

While attempting to send a message to Earth, John fell ill. He returned to the Martian sanctuary Vita to administer antibiotics, which made him worse. Ugo has now brought him to the Volotrum (also called The Dark Ones), his only remaining chance to be healed, where he has been speaking to “She-Who-Hears” about his predicament.

Meanwhile, Asimov and Ril got trapped in a sandstorm and had taken sanctuary inside Captain John’s ship. They have returned safely and are now awaiting the return of John.

New Readers

The current storyline starts right here, or you can read from the beginning of the strip. Be sure to check out the about page, which explains the story and the main characters.

14 Comments