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.
Lords of the Cosmos Page 2 Pencils
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!
LORDS OF THE COSMOS: Disciples of Umex Pinup #8 – Pencils
The final Disciples of Umex character study, and also the last of the character pages for this project-
Umex’s top two inside the cult organization- the evil sister of Queen Prizym, the black magic worshipping OBSIDIA and the twisted traitor of the land of mystic creatures the cyborg terror known as CY-CORN.
This took three days from start to finish- it seemed like I had no direction, and then it just took off and I really loved the final result- below are my final pencils, and some in production sketches and then two of my tracing paper studies to capture my sketches for transfer to a final board… without further fanfare- OBSIDIA & CYCORN!
PROGESS ARTWORK
LORDS OF THE COSMOS: Disciples of Umex Pinup #7 – Pencils
This was a creation as I was making page, no names for the characters, just the flight crew for the Disciples of UMEX VTOL vehicle.
I based everything off the guy in the hazmat suit, which I had a great photo of a guy at an oil rig wearing one for a while I wanted to use as reference for something, then the rpg character and the engorged tick filled out the composition.
Without further fanfare- more villains.
LORDS OF THE COSMOS Posters
I just made these two posters of Aegeus and Umex- the principle leaders of the LORDS OF THE COSMOS and THE DISCIPLES OF UMEX. Enjoy, I wanted to make them monochromatic and bold to get that 80’s action figure fun vibe to the final artwork!
Disciples of Umex- VTOL Transport
This photo just came in from Planet Aiden on the Jade Plateau, A Disciples of Umex transport gunship has been offloading missle platforms to a hidden base to strike at civilian cities and shipping lanes!
It is without a doubt- this is why we need THE LORDS OF THE COSMOS! —
Part Command and Conquer (1996 or so) and art David Lynch Harkonnens from Dune (1984), I had to give the bad guys their own aggressive looking transport, and yet another background featuring a menacing base with some radar. More characters and locations from Lords of the Cosmos are coming soon!
LORDS OF THE COSMOS: Aegeus and the Lords of the Cosmos Pinup #7 – Final Pencils
So more Lords of the Cosmos- the final set of heroes as I wind down all the character design/intro pages. This has their two pilots- a Mantis and a flame thrower equipped sparrow with a helmet, and finally, our local hero “Greenman” who passed away in September of 2013. I had met Greenman at Sci-Fi Valley Con in Altoona,PA that year and he was absolutely crazy and a great person to talk to. I found out after he passed away that he had been doing hundreds and hundreds of hours of charity appearances for children all over the place- his motto was “it never hurts to help” and then I realized that he was indeed a true hero.
So the uninitiated can see what Greenman looked like in person- here is a photo of Greenman and I from 2013 when I did a sketch card of him..
When we started working on the writing end of Lords of the Cosmos one of my scribbled notes actually was “need to shoehorn Greenman into story somehow” that writing process has been chugging along with Jason P. and Dennis for about a year now, and the Greenman “shoehorning” has taken a few twists and turns. Originally we had him as some kind of nature communicator talking to birds and mice, this morphed into flying the Lords of the Cosmos transport plane around as an ace pilot, and then we finally settled on a story arc that we love for his character that places him in a role where he is always helping out- the technician/mechanic for all of the Lords of the Cosmos’s various gadgets, vehicles and automated base fortress- Dragonspine Mountain. I wont reveal more than that, but there is an awesome story arc for Greenman’s character as this project unfolds. I kept his outfit about 99% the same, except I took his logo off the hat, and added his Lords of the Cosmos logo to his chest area for his team “branding”. And to show his mechanic skills, he is of course holding a wrench with his two cohorts and ace pilots – Mr. Mantis, and Senior Sparrow (no we didn’t come up with killer names for those two yet). Anyway, I can imagine if Greenman was here with us, he would totally pose with a wrench with me to act out the scene in this artwork, I can also imagine that he would ask dozens of questions about his two co-stars and why he got stuck with them and not the girl on the dinosaur- which is a fair question. Anyway, Enjoy, and stay green folks!
Lords of the Cosmos- VTOL Transport
Well the heroes of LORDS OF THE COSMOS have to get around, so I was inspired by the US Marines OSPREY and the Air Force’s C-17 Transport to make this VTOL transport vehicle for the good guys to get around on Planet Aiden with as they battle the Disciples of Umex- there will be characters in front of this, but I really loved the vehicle design.
I drew inspiration from the 1984 film “Dune” for style. The classic Battletech Technical Readout manuals from FASA that I had as a kid in the 1980’s which had some great 2 pt perspective line art of robots and various vehicles gave me a direction for a final look on the page. Clean and simple, and I really loved the final image, it was fun to draw a some planes for a change!
LORDS OF THE COSMOS: Aegeus and the Lords of the Cosmos Pinup #6 – Final Pencils
As we wind down the character designs- The LORDS OF THE COSMOS get another female character AMAZONICA, and her Dino Steed, as well as the Cyborg Samurai (as yet, no name chosen!)
The composition on this was simple, yet effective, and I really feel that I am hitting a stride on drawing accurate and attractive women, so I was really pleased with how AMAZONICA turned out. Full disclosure she was inspired by the old 1980 Flash Gordon Filmation “Princess Aura” character who I loved as a young lad! You can see a production still from that show here to see what I was getting inspiration from. Does the tiara on Amazonica’s head look similar?
Anyway- This art really sums up what I like in a nutshell… “Girls, Monsters, Robots” … so It was a pleasure to put pencil to paper for this particular page. Below are the final pencils and my Samurai artwork segregated on tracing paper.
Final Pencils
Samurai layout on tracing paper
LORDS OF THE COSMOS: Disciples of Umex Pinup #6 – Pencils
“From the ranks of the Disciples of Umex… The Savage Flesh Eating Cani-Bull, The Mindless Sonic devastation of the Sound Golem Groanus, and the sworn enemy of Ironshell, the Giant Turtle of the Lords of the Cosmos, the Gigantic Cybernetic Dragon- Ragewing…”
So the latest round of villains- Canibull has been in my head for a long time with Ragewing, Groanus was always a blank slate. I used a friend who is a body builder for muscle reference on Canibull for a shifty crouched pose. He was my alternate take on Beast Man from M.O.T.U. and a Minotaur- the idea is he eats humans and controls Ragewing telepathically as a creature leader of sorts.
Ragewing really was an extension of how much my fans love my dragons and monsters- to do a technological/fantasy version of a “Lenox Dragon”. I used a Crocodile as the basis for the head and really struggled to get a pose in the composition that worked, I was pleased with what came out of my sketchbook here. This character is also my evil giant monster which is the antagonist to the good giant monster, Ironshell the Turtle, seen here. The basic concept of this entire project was that the Lords of the Cosmos are a set of toys from the 1980’s so if there is a good giant creature, there has to be a bad giant creature, Ragewing fills that mandate.
Groanus was the REAL challenge from the writers…
Description: “A twisted giant created by the diabolical DOCTOR SMOG, this tall and spindly beast is a slow moving monster of destruction created as a front line shock trooper to cause retreat in the battle of good versus evil. Stupid and slow, the beast is nonetheless lethal if not destroyed early. The sound emanates from his nuclear lungs and passes over his teeth of diamonds, causing a whistling sound that can rip ear drums and crack a man’s teeth.”
I kept drawing a tall muscular guy with a big mouth with a filter inside it, and it was so flat, I knew where I wanted him from a composition point of view in the middle top left, and it just kept failing on me. Anyway, I had to tune out, and then stop thinking inside the box, and get out- if a big guy wasn’t working, then why a human at all? So I used a dust mite, and a virus diagram both from online textbooks to make a non human unique character, and I couldn’t have been happier with the weird totem pole of tentacles, spindly legs and bizarre flower like face… a touch of H.P. Lovecraft perhaps influenced me here as well.
Anyway, below are my original thumbnail and final pencils- Enjoy!
Final Pencils
Thumbnail
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