[Capo]

Hi there- how's it hanging?

This thread features pre-production art for my 13 issue flagship maxi-series Gods, which I am working on for my proposed Cannon Comics line, to debut in my anthology title provisionally titled...




The gallery will range from rough thumbnails and detailed sketches to fully coloured sequentials and painted promo pieces. I welcome all comments, crits and suggestions. Obviously, the sequential pages are closest to visualising the final product.

The material is arcanepunk meets space-fantasy, and I have just begun beavering on the actual comic book art proper from my script for the entire series, which is itself completed and 'locked'. So it's my pleasure, and hopefully soon yours, that I introduce to you...





THE DAY OF DOOM...

Gods tells of the sudden manifestation of an immense stratoscraping mountain fortress on the outskirts of Valdor, capital nation of the high-tech medieval world of Aldar.

Dubbed the 'Slayers', the planet's deadliest soldiers have already been largely routed from existence by Aldar's military Protectorate, but their rag-tag remains- comprised of teams and individuals of wildly varying moral codes- are now called upon to help face off the Fortress's extradimensional 'Battlelord' legions.

The Lordmaster of the incursion is the demi-god Ryzar, long banished to but dim memory by Aldar's all-but extinct violence-shunning Lightlords, but returned to the world by a fifth column of black magicians within the Protectorate.

THE IRON REIGN...

The deity seeks to complete a long-delayed dark rite that will uproot the living from the physical world, forevering interring all within the steel trap of Ryzar's mind's eye.

The eternal desolation facing the soon-to-be figmentary prisoners of Ryzar's awareness is previewed in full to Eldridge Cyger- tearaway teenage son of Slayer Cade Cyger- when he stumbles into the being's off-world lair at the start of the story... an all-binding netherworld where one's every movement, word and thought is as predetermined by the Lordmaster as a shadow by its owner.

A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE...

The hostage provides Ryzar with an emotional lever against Aldar's most feared warrior. Over others, it wields a more rational defence: within its miles of protective granite, the being's final layer of all concealing-armor registers precisely as the background radiation of the universe... the Black Pillar that is Ryzar's dimensional shell harbours nothing less than the very universe itself.

ON THE SIDE OF THE ANGELS?

Somehow the Slayers, Protectorate and the last of the Lightlords must overcome their differences and unite to oppose the most terrible predator ever known... Creation itself.


First off, some concept sequential concepts here...





Hyperion battlecruiser concept (side view)



Hyperion color study




Forcefield projector station within first layer of mountain fortress interior. Like this one a lot, but it's going to mean I have to step up my game with the design of the mountain fortress exterior...

[img][/img]

[Capo]

Battlelord 'Straaken'- alien warrior concept

Battlelord Straaken is the deposed king of his small, ocean storm-beset homeworld Thoron.

Having escaped the planet with Janrak, the last of his otherwise massacred line, he contends with Ryzar that he will do anything to regain his throne and rain vengeance on those who conspired to usurp him.

Straaken demonstrates that he walks the talk by acceding to the dark god's request that he devour Janrak alive right there and then.

Naturally, like most of Ryzar's devoted legions, Straaken remains far too self-involved to realise the full implication of his master's goal to part all who live from their every last flicker of volition.



"Hell's he looking at us like that?"
"Ain't me he's looking at... sorry, Dyler- you're on your own!"

[Capo]

Final design and four prelim roughs for the 'Jackal' tank bikes that will feature in the second part of the Gods British comic book trilogy. These all-terrain attack vehicles feature two elongated, tilting treads that sprout climbing crampons, enabling their riders to storm even the sheer cliffs of the titan enemy mountain 'Ryzar'.

"They'll get you where you need to go, alright. What'll be left of you, anyhow."

[Tzan]

Nice work, I really like your comic style art.

[Capo]

Thanks a lot Tzan!

Apologies for the lined paper- these were done as sidebars to script notes, prior to figuring they maybe turned out interesting enough for display.

[Tzan]

A long time ago I wrote on lined paper and did sketches on it.

Then as I bought sketch books, I put my written notes and sketches there.
But if I wanted to share them it was hard to make copies because the sketch books were a large size.

So I finally switched to doing all my notes and sketches on blank 8 1/2" x 11" copier paper held in a clip board. I use a black .5mm Uniball pen.

I don't like lines telling me what to do.

[Capo]

Major Cade Cyger character concept (revised from the tan jacket number)

"Wait!! You'll wake the dale guardian!"



Concept sketch of Sergeant Daniel Foley.



"Jonesy!! Two on the pipe- lock it up!!"


Concept sketch of Gods druid Halsen Archard

'Yeah? Seems to me this is exactly the right time for one of my lame parlour tricks.'

Concept sketches and paintings of battlesuit for Gods antagonist 'Nargun'- an incorporeal demon from the planet Aldar's Dark Age. Interesting note about the lined note paper- most of these babies weren't really whipped up for public consumption or intended to be formal concept art, just side scrawls beside my script notes- but hopefully they're interesting enough for those who are big into pre-production stuff.












'No-one conquers death. Death conquers you.'
'And what's wrong with that?'


Medical droid 'Jeeg' whips across roiling battlefields either patching up the greviously wounded or putting them out of their misery, depending on the severity of their messed-upness. The Hypocratic oath doesn't get much of a look-in when half the dying are likely to Turn (into)...




...lifeless, soul-sucking Gaunts. You may know some of them.











Master sergeant Vansonn 'Vance' Hillbrandt performs the blunt, heavy-duty frontline wetworks that could be termed as mass personnel demolition.

Discovering his own culpability in running security for the horrific false flag operations of his nation's political demagogues, Vance finds himself poised to take his own life, until his protege Kara Flynn evinces he has no business getting off that easy.




Some more sketches, apologies for the lined paper- these were done as sidebars to script notes, prior to figuring they maybe turned out interesting enough for display.


Cade's battleblade is enriched by sorcery, enabling it to be �sawmilled� in the direction of incoming debris or enemy artillery, providing a defensive canopy of whizzing metal.





Odds n' ends





Infirmary med vorg; Cade Cyger's Diamondback Interceptor; Light Council twin-engine Skyraider; Slayer Rayken Shorde (close-up); thumbnail study of Theeldoran Library lobby.




Early sketches of Gods' protagonists' main junkbucket, the Starstriker







Starstriker in flight - test 'comet tail' effect for dogfights etc



Some more early vehicle concepts





Top tenth of the twenty-kilometer tall mountain fortress exterior of the great dark god Ryzar. The charge bolts of the summit's towergun have a range far beyond the cannon's already extensive visual range, winning the weapon little popularity with Ryzar's scattered opponents.

"Mag bombs ineffective- it's cycling up! Where's our freaking evac? Stiers!! You raisin' dust-off on that comm or making love to it?"





Some variations (plus defense screen craft designs) and close ups









Towergun studies






Concept sequential for orbital battlefleet flotilla (and destroyer brig).




Mountain fortress tunnel depot




Cephalopod nightmares the Krakenites.



Lt Stenguard Pasha. Uncanny sharpshooter, mop-up agent and freight haulier In these trouble economic times you have to be able to diversify.

[Capo]

Conference chamber; arboretum; altar chamber




Battlelord Nailen. Treacherous and slippery reptile. Always siding with whoever he thinks is set to become the winning side. To be four-armed is to be forearmed.




Rampart battlement




GDR Vice Defense Secretary Amber Weststar goes badass




Cade Cyger throws a mean right hook- so you gotta slip left. No- your other left.




Okay, he'll make it easy for ya- go on- pop one his kidneys.

[Capo]

Early concept sequential- note the cruder digital coloring, inking, speech balloons, anatomy, the way the- in fact, I'll leave you to it.




Admiral Tieron of the battlecruiser Hyperion.

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Captain Rayken Shorde- good guy, mystery alien swordsman and saboteur




Towergun firing chamber; targeting vestibule; personnel conveyor booth




Mountain fortress interior: sewer system; reactor waste caverns; mezzanine to ready room

[Capo]

Mountain fortress interior: Interspatial corridor conducers; courtyard; underpass





Mountain fortress: various engineering antechambers and tactical bays




Mountain fortress interior: power regulator hall

[Capo]

GDR Landstormer Armored Attack Vehicle




Janya Cyger- wife of Cade Cyger, has sided with Ryzar's denomination having resigned herself to the certainty of the entity's imminent mastery of all existence.





Global Defense Restitution (GDR) Jyrad T-S14 Copperhead Class Interceptor




Gurat-Holt NX-115 Hammerhead Gunship (lead interdiction craft Ryzar's Siege armies)





Lt Kara Flynn- wielder of the Scythedriver- or at least she will be come her revised uniform (second image)







Granger-Orbach G-3S Hummingbird Medical Freighter

[Capo]

Q9-R- TAC (Terrestrial Armoured) Counter-personnel vorg (automaton)





Cade Cyger and Nargun (on the same side?)





Time-faring Voidernaut Trooper


"This is a temporal quarantine zone. You may take your chances wearing these explosivests to go down the line and eliminate your earliest identified ancestors... or await the hour and face the arrival from the coming Dark Age of your final known descendants. We strongly recommend the former."



Aldarus Orbis Terrarum- International map of Gods' primary planet Aldar





Concept for Theeldor City as seen from cave of Mount Ryzar.

[Capo]

Concept sketch and painting of Gods' Lord of the Dead, Dargoth





"It may well be true that death as a fate is nothing to be afraid of. But Death as a person..."



Mt Ryzar power chamber



"I'm getting the feeling this 'free energy' supply isn't so free."



Early concept promo painting





Thumbnail sketches of Nargun, Cade Cyger and some Mt Ryzar fortress interiors




Gods' protagonists' leader is the Scryer, Elder white witch of the ancient so-called Council of Light. Now relegated to spectral form, her holographic projection rune allows her to command the field of battle from her lieutenants' gunship the Cerebus.



"'Thread that crossfire,' she says. Like she's got a body to lose!" - Cerebus Captain Lloyd Raines.


Assisting the Scryer is her triune of druidic adepts, the Light Council- borne in their shuttle Lazarus





Ryzar's Grand Vizier, Dr Jelial Quaril.



"The first rule of psychological warfare is to realise we're all our own worst enemy. Let the enemy to frag themselves up."



Close-up of Fortress superstructure




Slayers of Valdor, capital nation of the planet Aldar.


"It takes more than a whole mess of firepower to hold off a wave of Stormkings- but it helps."

[Capo]

More mechs here. The Battlelords- fanatical disciples of the mountain fortress lord Ryzar - have at their disposal a league of flying and ambulatory attack vehicles with which to rout the almost completely unprepared populations of the planet Aldar and the wider Gods cosmos...



"You hear somethin?"

[Capo]

Cade Cyger and Nargun

[Capo]

"On wings of fire seek fleshbound realm, 'tis sight profane face thy gilded glare."


Starstriker First Officer Bovasso- Reya Systems GR-1 FRAD Class Navigation Vorg.



You just flytipped the spent core into one of the holiest known relics ever, you nork! I coulda squeezed another half parsec outta that!"



Theeldor City overlooking Lake Jarede




"Barricade's history- we need to fall back to downtown!"
"Downtown? Where in hell've you been, Thompson?"

[Capo]

Dargian Leviathan Class SST-12 Battlecruiser.




"So much for the face your saved with all your bridge-burning, Tieron!"
"Ah- Commander Strathern- Dargians astern! Battlecruiser- and it's with the President!"
"Yeah, well 'scuse me if I don't break out the party poppers, Walden."


Rangar Pejoran- five-foot Kestarian psionic spy from the Breslen system.





"Ghan vok rankri smon dastra"
"Let's see if he flies as well as he spills his guts to incursors."
"Rang, how 'bout you just sit this one out okay- I got this."


Another promo pic





Captain Rayken Shorde of the fighting freighter Starstriker. A notorious industrial saboteur-for-hire and freebooter, Shorde nevertheless throws his weight behind the Hold's plight against the incursion of the Dark Gods into his adopted realm.

Shorde was condemned to be encased in his battlemask from birth, yet he remains oblivious that his mentor- for not entirely altruistic reasons- recently impanted his false memory that the 'casket' is but a recent and voluntary affectation.

Shorde's true identity could spell salvation or damnation for the besiged worlds of the Gods universe.


"Oh- uh... Hi, Ray. Didn't, uh- didn't see you there. Guess, uh- guess you need to get going, now that old jalopy of yours's good to hit sky, huh?"
"Be a while yet. Your mother�s well?�
�Huh? Oh- yeah. Yeah, she�s ok. Bit of chest infection, third this year so she�s a bit down... plus what with this whole end of the world deal'll n' all-"
�Good. Good.�

[Capo]

Court martialled demolitionist Dannick McQ is nobody's idea of a hero, but nobody could ever accuse him on not following through on an assignment.







"I know. But, see, working back from my list, seems there's still this thing hanging over everything since Outpost K. Kind of embarrassing, really- hate to even bring it up, but more than that I hate loose ends. 'Specially when it comes to someone's failure to discharge his duty..."
"Fragging hell, Dan- are you serious??"




Fundamental to Ryzar's conquest of the universe's oldest surviving planet is the lifeforce-shielded, endless labyrinth of rock encasing the dark god's Command & Control Centre. Every shard-laden turn among its stratosphere-scraping mesas leads to a warren of searing defense mechanisms and spectral sentries with which evolution never intended to burden the world.



"You have no cause to hide. We know you want peace. We seek only to bring you that gift."



Much of the ubiquitous and seemingly homogeneous debris roaming the cosmos is abundant with bounties of which man knows nothing, but the war machine of Ryzar's Black Legion knows plenty.





Ceremonial regalia adorning Mt Ryzar's processional avenue halls.







Gaunt processing chamber- from the realm of life, to the Great Beyond.



"The inside... is the same as the outside. There's nothing to separate them except our insistence. You understand?"
"Uuuuh... no."
"I really have been carrying you all these years, haven't I Drayton?"



Bax Harriman... reptilian scrap iron dealer- in truth, a sideline to the his sidearm dealing.

Since he won't let anyone else test his merchandise, he is very proficient with them- and very lucky... and hence not a lizard you want to cross, especially when you've got an army of undead fascist shocktroopers on your back.



Bax is is himself on the run from Arch Deacon Lest Radan's order of psychic monks, who have not taken kindly to a missed shipment of motor-razor mines needed to protect their monumentally valuable cache of Lost War relics.





'Hold' sharpshooter Stengaard Pasha can thread a bullet through the eye of a needle a mile off in a hurricane... but has still to sight a decent barber.






The Scryer, chief druidess of the Lightlord Council and leader of the Hold resistance against the millennium-gestating- and now full blown- Great Incursion into our dimension.



"You've lost it Scryer- it's force that'll win this war- not whatever peacenik hocus-pocus you've been cooking in your little hidey-hole while the world's burning!"
"A lot going on in there, isn't there, Major Cyger?"




The Incursion makes no bones about targeting and trapping fleeing civilians to boost the numbers of its Gaunt legions.




Ryzar's Tomb Palace




The Door of Dementia




GDR (Global Defence Restitution) nuclear drill boring attempt to infiltrate the Mountain fortress from below.




Those who 'successfully' resist being Turned by the Gaunts are swiftly deposited into the deeper pockets of Mount Ryzar's catacombs, where a possibly worse fate awaits them...

[Capo]

Lt Kara Flynn's overtures of diplomacy are blocked at every turn by the forces conspiring to return Ryzar to the world. Once the being is rendered manifest, she becomes less conflicted about taking up arms against them... but secretly using Cade Cyger's son as a decoy in order to conscript old- and soon evidently suspect- allies, soon begins to eat at her.



"I know feel bad about the kid, Kar, but you do know the saying 'an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.'"
"Well maybe that�ll slow up everyone tearing strips off each other for five seconds."


Overlord Nargun's battleblade Hailstormer is rather more open than other 'charged' weapons about where it draws its power from.





Rager on the hunt





Sequential inks




Ryzar's Sphinxes - fifty-foot tall walking bunker busters - are themselves able shrug off all but the most concerted aerial bombardment.




Dogfights in Battlespace..




Loosening up sketches




Mountain Fortress - recessed meridian staging city



"Two inbound on the south wall, Lord Nargun. "
"Then they're running out of ideas."



Wraith Queen.

Ryzar, ancientmost of the Elder gods, has been long in bed with forces steeped deeper yet in darkest prehistory.... a pact whose nature the being should have perhaps scrutinized more closely before undertaking a war dependent on their unquestioning obedience.

"Heed them raise their peaceful hand.... now I take my knife... fill the night with scare..."




Some of you may have noticed a bit of a horror vibe from a few of the images, but I figure the Mundar yaks are- unintentionally- the most disconcerting of this thread's menagerie of characters.





Rayken Shorde head studies.



"Cyger- I need you to put that... fruit... down."

"Ray, I'm starting to think I'll never remember when I last ate. These things may look like they came out the back end of a bullrat but they smell like the best thing to come off a tree since frikkin' Eden."

"'That's 'cause they are from Eden. Specifically, Lorn- first rock ever lumbered with the snot smears that ended up as you and me. Well you, anyway. Yam down one those things and inside a minute you'll curl up so bad, death by gut shot'll seem like the best Christmas you ever had."

"Figures- feels like I followed the scent here all the way from the ravine. Looks like whoever owns this boat's hauling enough to honeytrap half a planet-

"Well it's sure not for his own amusement. This spread doesn't exactly scream Evil Genius. Am I boring you?"

"'Rad counter's going AWOL that direction- buck gets ten whatever was stored at far end of this hold lately's what the guy took as payment."

"Cyger, I assumed that oak leaf didn't come out of a cracker. You... do know what AWOL means, right?"

"Mm? Uh, yeah. Sure. Sure..."





"Nothin' like a good shoot, huh, sarge?"
"Shuddup, Nichols!"


GDR (Global Defense Restitution) Shocktrooper




The Global Defense Restitution governing the planet Aldar fail to get the ragtag pockets superhuman Slayers on message over plans to tackle the Great Incursion.

With swathes of the population already scoured or Turned by the enemy, the claims of the 'battlefield'-suited renegades that the enemy's defenses include an all-destroying, impassable failsafe go unheard.

Not to be outdone, the GDR troops dig up a slew of old heavy plant long consigned to history for a reason.





Busted-down Grenadier Sgt Vance Hillbrandt fancies himself as the venerable leader-in-all-but-name of infantryman Major Cade Cyger's rowdy band of Slayers, and something of a surrogate father to the man himself.

While he's not exactly deluded, both the Lightlord High Priestess known as the Scryer and Defence Vice Secretary Amber Weststar soon prove themselves higher up the chain of command.

Conversely, Cyger possessed only the most threadbare handle on his own work-life balance to begin with. When the enemy take his own son hostage at the commencement of the invasion, he soon becomes anything but anyone's blue-eye boy.



"Hell�re you all still skulkin� around for? Hustle!"


Though spared the rigours of physical combat and free to ruminate in her garden temples within the Fortress, Battlelord Commander Cyviah bears the responsibility of warding off the telepathic 'attacks' (ie negotiation entreaties to her Lordmaster Ryzar) from the Scryer.



"No, seriously, Kate- Fenn may be Captain frikkin' Cro-mag but his baby is just too frickin' cute- I'm probably gonna have to have it for dinner."



Unsuprisingly Aldar's populations take exception to Mt Fortress's Gaunt troopers Turning to them to beef up their already considerable numbers. However the sight of one training an 'Iron Crucix' on you from the rafters can work wonders to convince of the upside of conscription.




Some early FX-test sequentials, undialogued. All a little testosterADD, but didn't turn out as far off from the kaleidoscopic grandeur I was aiming for as I expected.







Vale Kraths stalk the dustbowls between the happy foothills of Mount Fortress, delivering dimension-exiling stings aplenty to lost stragglers and beaten path naysayers.






Mount Fortress - Shield Projector Gate






Rayken Shorde - alternate costume design






GDR Infiltration Trooper






Rayken Shorde on jusk beast






Aldaran civilian evacuation transport






Salvaged sidearms - Valdoran urban resistance






Hyperion reconnaissance shuttles






Scryer's Hawkwing escorts, comprised of fugitive Slayer pilots






Shandaran Behemoth






Mine dwellers' security vorg





Another sequential art test...






Starstriker - augmented design.






Another sequential






Rayken Shorde clocks an admirer.






Siege Legion Lancer Destroyer





Various vessels





So there's a a guy in this story who gets turned into a cyborg for not pulling his weight. If you ask me it's win win, but he kinda has a problem with it. Dude's name is Wrench, formerly Science Director Garrett of the Black Lamp supersoldier project.





Rayken Shorde pursued (pencils for opening panel of 'Gods')





Cade Cyger's battleblade is part of him. And now he's gonna make it part of you. The dude's selfless like that.



'Uhhh... hey, Arch- mind getting your ass over here? I got absolutely no idea what the hell this is."



Odds n' ends part 2






Slayer Brig Holden wields a P-10 Sinesco Tribune Chargebow. His favouring of HEAP (High Explosive Armour Piercing) arrows compensates somewhat for his less than legendary aim. His more than legendary reputation with the ladies presumably enables him to sleeps nights, however... or not, as it were.





Fortress Core Shaft



"Just promise me you're not gonna wig out over the heights this time, Cade- I got a lot riding on this raid."
"Anything you ever not got a lot riding on? Just pass me the freakin' chute, already."

[Capo]

Central Theeldor City Highway Gyratory



Clockwise from left: Sanctum Guard Battlelord; Fortress Commander Falhurth; GDR Lance Corporal Tigson


GDR Tremor Tank


GDR Landstormer


GDR Raid Rover


GDR Raid Ranger


GDR Drop Harrier


GDR Crag Crawler

[Capo]

Siege CS-9 Overlander



"Like hell she makes two-fifty on a ninety grade! One-eighty tops when I ditch my gunner! Fraudulent activities, Falhurth! I'm reporting you to industrial standards!"
"Red indicator blinking at you? Top right of the dash?"
"What 'red'- well, yeah. What about it?"
"Got the mother in park, mister."