The Fan Art is Flowing!

I am on a fan art high! This weekend I learned my Secret Santa for the other Webcomic Gift Art Exchange I participated in was none other than Robert M. Cook, creator of Mansion of E, for whom I had the pleasure of being Secret Santa in the Comic Genesis Gift Art Exchange! Here is the very keen art he did for Forsaken Stars:


Check out all the webcomic gift art exchange fun here!

I'm also totally jazzed about a totally unexpected piece fan art from my dear friend Mari. It's sexy and cute and definitely captures Sera's take-n0-guff attitude:

You can check out more of Mari's wonderful work at her deviantART page!

I know I have a few Forsaken Stars pages to blog about, but I've got a serious amount of gift-wrapping to do, and as always more comic pages to bust out, so hopefully I'll get a chance to squeeze in some page commentary over the weekend!

Thanks again to the talented Mr. Cook and the sublime Mari for their gift art, and may they and you, dear reader, have a joyous holiday season!

My First Fan Art!

It gives me great pleasure to present the awesome and kick-ass work of Sergio J. A. Ragno III, creator of Red City http://redcity.comicgenesis.com and Gnerds2000 http://gnerds.comicgenesis.com; this is his gift to me out of the 2009 Comic Genesis Secret Santa gift art exchange:


I love it, and I hope he enjoyed creating this two-page piece as much as I enjoy looking at it. It's a special kind of awesome to see one's characters drawn by someone else, particularly by someone with such a great sense of style and humor. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I feel truly flattered.

BEAT.

And I can't wait for more! I'd love to see your fan art (or even fan poetry) for Forsaken Stars, dear reader! And don't forget to check out more of Sergio's stuff at Red City!

Fan submissions can be sent to forsakenstars [AT] gmail [DOT] com with the Subject Line Fanstuff.

Happy fanaticizing!

Forsaken Stars Monday November 30, 2009

Issue 1, Page 21
Three aqua-styled ships land in a valley on the world of Gana, beside a tower not unlike the tower of Babel. A cloaked, floating being strides out from the first ship to meet a rather dashing satyr. They quickly exchange pleasantries--"Welcome, Ambassador XTL," "Thank you Ambassador Kyle"--and turn to the tower and to the business at hand, namely the signs of the end of the universe.

We've been out in space for the last twenty pages, in what could be for some people a rather claustrophobic environment (I suppose that's why I never really gave Star Trek: Deep Space Nine a chance--not just sets that were too cramped and smokey, but the idea of a whole show wrapped around a single space station seemed the antithesis of a show named Star Trek.) so I thought it was time to cut to a lavish vista, a lush world, and hopefully tease you the readers with what you'll see in the next issue. We have the introduction of the Council of Others, a United Nations if you will of peoples from across the galaxy who came together to explore the mystery that is our Solar System, and why the refugees from said system have claimed that the One True God has returned to said system, particularly this tiny planet called Earth, and sequestered it from the rest of the universe for the last thousand years. And what's more, it seems that the tales of these refugees--since dubbed the Soulless--have a hint of truth in them, because there are signs and portents that the universe is crumbling. "The Thousand Years of Peace, of Heaven on Earth are over, and God is set to take his Chosen and leave this universe, presumably for Heaven Proper." Uh-oh. What does this mean for the rest of the sentient beings in the galaxy? The Council of Others is bound and determined to find out, and they are hoping XTL, a "Prophet Ambassador" is about to give them good news.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We don't actually see the interior of the Tower of the Council of Others until page twenty-two. So turn the page already!

Forsaken Stars, Thursday, November 26, 2009

Issue 1, Page 20
We see Sera in her Captain's quarters, surrounded by antiques and Wizard of Oz memorabilia. Mommy is going over Sera's accounts and she's coming in at a loss for the year, due to having lost a cargo shipment and having paid her crew bonuses for rescuing her from a Vidoru prison. She and her crew escaped in two different directions to confuse the indecisive Vidoru. Mommy wonders at the wisdom in this, since Sera is now without a crew, and without her second mate, Shon, whom Mommy teases Sera had feelings for. Sera denies having feelings for someone who is a "killer and a thief," but Mommy turns it around on her, accusing Sera of having stolen Azzi's ring. Sera rationalizes that Azzi must have stolen it from someone else, and reveals her big plan: return Azzi to the Ohm Megacorporation and return the ring to the family of the proper owner, whom she believes Azzi must have killed.

So lots of information on this page, and what I hope is another feast for the eyes. We have Sera in a lovely nightgown, palming the ring she swiped from Azzi and we have all this priceless clutter around her, from the Tiffany lamp to Dorothy's ruby slippers, from figurines to snowglobes, from miniature replicas, particularly Rodin's Thinker, to a tailor's dummy sporting something 19th century, all intending to give the air of serious collector, and yet someone unafraid to be girly. Driving that point is her dresser of parfums and jewelry chest, and of course the four poster bed. On the bed is a small panda bear, inspired by my own bear, Chicco, that I had throughout my childhood. (In retrospect, I should have made this bear the one that floats out of Azzi's space tomb on page three.)

We've also got a checkbook graphic showing the names of a few of her crew, and in the panel below that, we actually get a shot of three of her bridge crew--the Soulless Shon and Kurk, and the Delven Zuzu--keeping the Vidoru space pirates at bay.

Bridging the second, third and fourth panels is an oval-framed pencil drawing of Shon, Sera's second mate and insinuated love interest. I thought the pencils gave it an air of age and authenticity, like an old cameo, brooch or the inside of a locket.

I truly wish there was more room in the script to tell more of his and his company's story, but it's pretty packed as it is. I'm toying with a Tales from Forsaken Stars anthology series, but one comic at a time...