The Cyber Controller: We will survive.

This simple quote above from 1967’s Dr Who Episode “TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN” sums up this set of cybernetic villains.  They take over and make humanoids like them via use of forced surgery to cybernetic conversion to their army of Cybermen.  And if this sounds like the BORG from Star Trek- yeah, they ripped off the concept in the 80’s for The Next Generation 20+ years later.

So as a kid in the 80’s I loved these guys- for a few reasons, cool design, neat appreances with Tom Baker, wierd voice modulation and the paramilitary look and military structure appealed to my love of toy soldiers and war movies.  Of course they were supposed to be a cybernetic army that was also constantly converting new recruits forcibly into Cybermen, but again, this was mostly in your imagination.  Thanks to special effects limitations and cheap BBC budgets you only saw a few of them on foot at any given time on the show- moving slowly and barely doing much.  My love for them translated into two pieces of art in 1987 a logo from the show and a group of three Cybermen in a corridor- see below.  Which brings us to 2013- and my 5 Doctor Who pinups- this is the fourth of five.

So here was my inspiration- in video clip form for this as I did research

1- The awesome anime of Dr. Who- Cybermen actually seem cool here and have a military force of attack ships and space cruisers, Ive cited this before- it was key to inspiring this whole project.  They understand what I wanted in Dr. Who!

2- 1967’s TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN intro to the CYBER CONTROLLER who kicks ass for the 60’s (see the quote above, and the cool voice modulation!) here

3- a look at Cybermen models over 45+ years here

4- A newer 2011 episode from Dr Who which has a little intro to the 12th Cyber Legion as a small aside here.  This showed them with ships and a military structure we never saw before, thus the name for this pinup.  This was like the Klingons in Star Trek the Motion Picture for a few minutes at the beginning, where you had this glimpse into a really cool environment for the villains you actually wanted to know about, but you as the viewer didnt get very much, and you were left wanting to know more.

5- Nazi tanks in Saving Private Ryan in this clip here  the last bastion of a rag tag losing army trying to make this happen on the run- of course the “bad guys” are still proud and dangerous even in defeat- and I love the powerful images of the officers looking out of the top of the big tanks as they roll in the background, so I lifted the idea.

So then I made a list of what I wanted in this piece

 1-Different models in the same pic- we never saw this on the show- and why not?  A rag tag army of cyber soldiers- why not mix ranks of old and new?

2- Cyber Tomb of frozen reinforcements

3- Cybermat attack “pets” the metal bugs they use like dogs to attack and scout

4- A vehicle/heavy weapon- and the impact they are a military force, and look like some kind of military organization, as opposed to a bunch of guys shuffling in a group.

5- Cyber Controller

 All five goals are here in the piece- the 1966/1967 models from the show and some from the 2006-2010 episodes- the kneeling guy is like a sapper engineer opening the tombs and running the cybermats while the new model Cyberman runs point with a heavy weapon I made up so they looked like actual heavy weapon soldiers- I made it like a minigun, but energy based with a back based reactor.  Cyber Controller from the 1967 video clip is running point from the top of the tank like the German Officers in the Saving Private Ryan Tank attack video clip- note the tubes coming from his head (something I also added into the Cyber Controller that was not seen on the show, but in my mind- makes sense!) as he “links up” with the troops, orbital ships, communications etc. A cyber-tank (with logo on the front) reminiscent of Warhammer 40k also fills the composition background.  I wasnt sure on the design for the tank and considered going ultra futuristic but hey, it’s cool and retro so I figured “why not? it’s working!”.  We as fans have never see them with any vehicles, which is lame for an army- right and it sort of fit the Saving Private Ryan imagery. Three Cybermats are present- can you find them?  And the Tomb of the Cybermen is the background as well as the back story.  The guys on the top catwalk are my nod to the metal miniatures I loved as a kid and my fascination with toy soldiers from my childhood- it’s fun to draw small toy sized images for me, I love to make them and look at them, and I think it’s fun for the fans as well to find them hiding in the background!  In my mind as I created this image I had the 12th Legion of Cybermen on the run from someone (Daleks, Earth, Sontarans?) from a string of battles they have lost and the 12th Cybermen Legion is now close to defeat- but they are going to get massive reinforcements here at a lost tomb of frozen Cybermen they have located to turn the tide once and for all. As Cyber Controller says- WE WILL SURVIVE.

Below is my initial 80’s artwork, a ref model sheet of the Cybermen, the first thumbnail, a composition study and layout with POV lines and the final pencils.  Enjoy!

Composition and Layout for Cybermen

 First Thumbnail on 12th Cyber Legion

Quick Reference to Cybermen Models from 1966-2013

1987 Jason Lenox Cybermen pinup in colored pencil

1987 colored pencil artwork from Jason Lenox of the Tomb of the Cybermen Logo.

The Master’s catchphrase: I am the Master and you will obey me.

So from the Daleks, to the Sontarans, and now Dr. Who’s arch nemesis- THE MASTER.  The third of my five Doctor Who pinups featuring the villains of the show that I liked as a kid- THE MASTER was a stone cold nemesis to Dr. Who- the Moriarity to Who’s Holmes.

Some thoughts- as I see Dr. Fan art piling up at shows, I notice while there is about an endless supply of portraits of the actors that play the doctor and static TARDIS phone booths, we never, ever see pinups of the Master, and there have been six actors to play this amazing villain.  This piece is a tribute to Roger Delgado, who died in 1973 in a bizarre car accident filming a movie.  Mr. Delgado had personality and just nailed the character- he really looked “evil”, and played it to the hilt from 1971-73 as the first actor to play THE MASTER.  As a nod to the new fans, I added the laser screwdriver into his right hand which is a post 2006 weapon of choice for THE MASTER. 

 Also we rarely see THE MASTER’S DARK TARDIS so I wanted to give a unique view of that.  On the show- it was just a repainted version of Dr. Who’s- thanks cheap ass BBC.  I wanted it to be black and lit with red and orange lights, and have some crazy architecture and geometry, note the off axis circles that are not parallel on the lit ceiling and huge screens for viewing the time stream. The final visual cue is the classic TARDIS control panel in the middle as the focal point – of course the MASTER’s evil version!  Also to really fan art this thing out- Three MASTER episodes are included in the background on the view screens- “Claws of Axos” ( A Delgado Era Episode) with the AXOS monster and golden bug eyed version of AXOS, “The Deadly Assassin”- featuring an incarnation of THE MASTER faced by the 4th Doctor who was a decaying corpse hell bent on mayhem on Gallifrey, and finally “Spearhead in Space” with the animated plastic Autons going postal on a street with their gun hands and plastic faces (Another Delgado Era Episode).  These are three things I’ve never seen drawn at all, except some portraits of the Deadly Assassin, which were generic as all heck.  So basically this piece is just full to the brim with obscure, yet cool Dr. Who villain/monster imagery- focused on THE MASTER.  Overall with all of these pieces from the Whoniverse- I wanted to make them epic, unlike the cheap ass BBC show always seemed to be.  Now- I avoided the standard Daleks, and Cybermen… more on them in my next few pinups…. as I wanted to highlight some of the lesser known creatures from the show, which while cheaply done and normally fell short on the execution, always had great designs, they just never translated well onscreen with low tech Fx and stingy BBC budgets.

My story for the artwork is this is THE MASTER’s first foray into time, and he is holding a weapon from his future- laser screwdriver, and seeing scenes of the mayhem he will cause and looking at something we can’t see- perhaps his own death or the Time War in the new WHO continuity inside the DARK TARDIS.  I also had a VOTE SAXON sticker as a nod to the new show, but I think Ill drop that in the inks, it isnt working visually.

Now originally I did a piece that highlighted the DARK TARDIS’s large interior on a lot, it is cool, but not dynamic, but I scratched it for a more dynamic interior view for the episode nods on the walls and cool lighting- I sketched it on a business card before dinner with my wife this week (she was 30 minutes late and I was killing time) , thumbnailed it at home after dinner, and nailed the pencils the next day- all 4 pieces are included below, and my source material from the show. 

So in the spirit of the MASTER here is another quote exhange from an episode…

FROM: Terror of the Autons

Rossini: Who the heck are you? Well?

The Master: I am usually referred to as the Master.

Rossini: Oh? Is that so?

The Master: Universally.

THE MASTER IN THE DARK TARDIS Final Pencils

THE MASTER IN THE DARK TARDIS Rough Pencils

THE MASTER idea on back of a business card

THE MASTER AND DARK TARDIS STUDY

ROGER DELGADO AS THE MASTER EARLY 1970’s

 AUTONS

DEADLY ASSASSIN ERA MASTER

AXOS MONSTERS

AXOS GOLDEN CHILDREN

“The Sontarans are the finest soldiers in the galaxy.” Dr. Who-The Sontaran Stratagem”

The second of my Dr. Who Villains Pinup series- I go back to the less popular, but still very cool villains- the clone soldiers- the SONTARANS.  Another legendary villain that was never rendered very epic on the small screen- millions of cloned troops but we normally never saw more than a few of them at once- and they never got to interact with the other main villains… you get the drift- another cool design, sorely underused and never reached it’s full potential… sabotaged by the cheap BBC production values.

My goal was to show the inside of one of the sphere shaped “capsule” ships with a major officer (Field Marshal) overseeing his wars against the Daleks and Cybermen.  The back story I made up was the Field Marshal has pitted  his enemies against each other.  The viewscreens show Dalek Soldiers running over Cybermen and a Cyber Controller on the main screen to build the atmosphere.  Simultaneously the other monitors show Sontaran Capsule ships and ground troops, as well as the TARDIS getting a small cameo- the Doctor, working against all odds to stop the nefarious alien plot.  I loved seeing complex images like this as a kid, and trying to piece a story together out of it.  I left enough hints and pieces for a young fan to cobble a tale out of this image while using their own imagination, sort of a fanboy “pay it forward”.

I wanted to go in a different direction from my Dalek War shot of damaged ground troops in action at a planet surface level to an “Eye in the Sky” of the overseeing officer with lots of cameos and a claustrophobic interior ship view. Inpiration for this came (esp the two foot pedals!) when I also saw a 2 second cameo of in the Dr. Who Anime that inspired this whole project here at the 10:37 mark I wanted to see this more fleshed out.  After I laid this out, I found the shot of the semi interior of a Sontaran ship with a bunch of screens (included below in my source materials) – I guess someone had the same idea I had, which made me laugh a bit… but I think I fleshed it out a great deal more- and gave the interior of the ship and the Sontaran Field Marshal a really sweet layout and environment to have inside the really generic ship they use! 

My first thumbnail was a generic “front facing” image, which I then turned in the rough pencils to a more dynamic and fun perspective which I fleshed out in the final pencils.

Anyway- enjoy this Sontaran Field Marshal in action, and look for some sweet inks on these pencils soon!

 Rough pencil concepts

Source Materials

So here I am done with the latest comic and…. a left turn on the horizon.

A new foray into “fan art” for a bit- I wanted to get some more appealing mainstream prints for people to buy from me at cons, and to get some additional attention to my work.  So in the words of my fellow artist Mikey Wood, “Sell out a bit!”- so here I am, selling out for fandom. Don’t worry, I’ll survive, with a few more bucks in my pocket to boot, and much more killer portfolio and better prints to sell at shows!

So where to start?

A rarely seen topic at cons and fandom in general- DR. WHO VILLAINS… and first off-The DALEKS!!  Despite the popularity of the show in the last 5 years, I really dont see the awesome villains from this show getting any really great artwork out there (ok ok, Bob Hack rules… but who else?)

Engaged in combat on a foreign world, battle damaged and fighting for the EXTERMINATION of all enemies of the DALEK EMPIRE the DALEK Army fights on to VICTORY!

Lest you think my new love for the Daleks and Dr. Who is not true, I give you this bit of time travel….

At bottom is my old school 12 year old Dalek art from 1987- whoa flashbacks!  And who says a child cant love fascist cyborgs?  Sadly, I bet the folks at conventions would buy this artwork, but that’s another rant for another day!

So back to the artwork at hand.

The middle piece is my 2013 thumbnail and then my final 2013 pencils, for the project… I really pleased with this whole layout and composition, but I must say drawing these guys is WAY harder than you think- those little balls on the skirt- what a freaking PAIN!!  But it looks how I wanted it to turn out!  Really looking forward to the inks on this one!  The theme for this was the Daleks in a “Saving Private Ryan” style attack, lets see these robotic mutant cyborgs actually in a battle for once!

Having not watched the show since the 80’s- Ive been catching up on the Daleks in their post 2005 re-launch, and needless to say, Im not pleased with their insane power up from the classic Pertwee/Baker episodes. In my humble opinion, the …super-powered/ forcefield/ taking on 5 million Cybermen with 4 Daleks is just silly. These guys are small armored tanks, but with an RPG, the right laser, Movellan Bomb or an anti-tank mine, you should be able to take one out- right?

HOWEVER….

I did find an amazing video here of an anime Dr. Who, it is the best Who Ive ever seen on screen, and it got me really inspired for this piece and a whole line of pinups of my favorite Dr. Who Villians!

Since all of the Dalek art I see online and at shows is not action oriented, and you rarely see a damaged Dalek, Im peeling it back to show one on the front lines, destroyed, even the little Dalek mutant inside is trying to get out from the wreckage- would the other Daleks save it? I found some awesome FASA Rpg tech specs from 1985 online (yeah I used to have that stuff back when I watched the show on PBS) on the inner mechanics of the Daleks to flesh it out, and added a Dalek Drone, Dalek on their floating platform, and a Heavy Weapon Dalek to fill out the image. Enjoy, Ill be working on this at Baltimore Comic Con 9/7-9/8 at table A-196 (hint hint!), so stop in and say “Hello”!! Jelly Babies are welcome.

2013 Thumbnail of new Dalek artwork

My 1987 Dalek arwork….