The DISCIPLES OF UMEX take the battle to the lands of Aiden in the kingdom of GEMSPIRE!  Fun to get these characters into action blowing things up!

Working a bit out of order- this page transitions us from 9 pages of introducing the DISCIPLES OF UMEX to them attacking Planet Aiden with a nuke strike… the actual hand of UMEX himself points to a map in his base, AXIOM FORTRESS

Moving back from the carnage on page 17, we now go to the one group ready to turn the tide- THE LORDS OF THE COSMOS at their base- DRAGONSPINE MOUNTAIN.  A combination of Egyptian and Masonic temples with a touch of Aircraft carrier thrown in for good measure.  A place fit for heroes!

More touring around the landscapes of Aiden after the Disciples of Umex have begun a planet wide reign of terror on the civilian population

Wrapping up part one of our tour of aiden… the Trench of Stench… Deathmoor Swamps… and to AXIOM MOUNTAIN… Home of the DISCIPLES OF UMEX…

We tour the planet Aiden- and the machine pipeline- the heart and veins of the planet, it’s resources the blood.  Golden plains of Gemspire… the Great Green… The Blackgem Fields … the Jade plateau….

More exposition as we meet Queen Tarim and King Yuril of Gemspire and their machine that acts as pipeline and resource harvester across planet AIDEN.  Really loved this page and some of the background royal court members.

So back in October, I did the first page of LORDS OF THE COSMOS while I was in Florida on a medical emergency with my wife- you can see that page here.

After 17 other pages being done out of sequence to introduce 40+ heroes and villains from the project and two big logos, lets get back on track to page 2- a focus on the planet AIDEN, as seen from a close up over the rings of the planet.  This was a challenge to get another exciting and non repetitive view of a planet- I used some NASA photos to get away from another wide shot of the planet- from page one and the logo design. I think this panel works to move the viewer over the rings to help transition into the atmosphere.

The pages shifts to a planet side wide view shot of GEMSPIRE CITY- capitol of the civilized people of the world of AIDEN.

I took visual cues from Alex Raymond’s gorgeous cityscapes from his seminal FLASH GORDON Sunday Comics work in the 1930’s. I also took some reference from 1980’s film version of FLASH GORDON’s version of MINGO City and 1984’s ARAKEEN City from David Lynch’s adaptation of Dune. I also threw some Greek, and Egyptian architectural work into the city and I hid the Penn State University Legal building (which looks weird as hell) into the many levels of the city.  All of these sources build the DNA for Gemspire from a visual sense, but I felt I kept it very original.  At the same time, the city had to look and seem functional and have some items that will be important to the story- the pipeline system and high docking bridges for the small flying vehicles you see around the top of the city.

So without further fanfare- enjoy this fantastic set of visuals from a world a million light years from Earth!