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New Zodiax: The Liberaider episode 100: A Real Life Crossover
A few key story points were introduced to the New Zodiax mythos in that single image: 1—it introduces THE DREGS, a group of homeless hackers who roam the streets of D-Town after curfew, 2—one of those Dregs is one of the New Zodiax and 3—it may very well be the first time a real life comics and pop culture podcast--FanboysInc's Inccast--has crossed over into the comics world.I had a brief discussion with the show's hosts, DW and NUB, and we discussed this landmark event.
JOE: So how does it feel knowing that a gang of homeless hackers bent on destruction listens to your podcast?
DW: Well we have fans of all shapes and sizes, so Im not surprised that some homeless hackers listen to us. We are very entertaining (lol). But it does bother me that they do listen to us while they cause havok...hope my DW rants don't fuel their anger (lol)
NUB: Oh man! Hopefully they learn the error of their ways, but still tune in every week!
JOE: More seriously, what do you think of the idea of real life personalities such as yourselves crossing over into comics?
DW: This type of crossover has been in comics before and I have always enjoyed them, as they were fun 1 shots or mini events. But this is a little different, meaning that with the explosion of the Comic Culture in the last 5 years, there has been an increase of general public awareness for comic characters.[ ie: Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Avengers and, of course, The Bat.] and we are seeing many crossovers from big screen to small to comics but not too many real life personalities. Which surprises me, since we are in what I call the "Geek Renaissance".
v This particular real life crossover is special for obvious reasons but it also spotlights another media outlet that has blown up in past years...the podcast. People like Adam Carolla, Joe Rogan, the Nerdist and Kevin Smith, to name a few, have brought this media outlet some great exposure. It too is growing in leaps and bounds! It gives us all a new outlet to get our news and entertainment, and to express our thoughts to thousands if not millions of people.
I feel safe in saying that this particular crossover, our team-up with the Liberaider, is the first of its kind; a real life podcast and personalities are being put into the 4 color pages. Kevin Smith has done something similar in his upcoming movie; "Tusk" but using a fictional podcaster.
I feel this crossover will bring something new that other events haven't done before; that is, it will use real life events and dialog within the comic and this will bring the 2 worlds together and become intimate for fans of our podcast and fans of the Liberaider. Readers will get a cool experience from reading this story. Knowing that actual, real podcast audio is part of the story only enhances the credibility of both worlds and makes for a smooth merge.
NUB: I think it's a fun idea when real life personalities cross into the comics-verse. Two instances I can think of are Jay Leno teaming up with Spider-Man several years ago, and Aerosmith was featured in a Shadowman comic published by Valiant comics in the early 90's.
JOE: That's right, I think President Obama and Stephen Colbert appeared in Spider-Man comics as well. But I'm pretty sure you guys are the first podcast to appear in comics, and you guys will appear in person later on in the story.
JOE: Do you guys have any recollections how this whole thing came about? I know DW, you and I have gotten into story discussions where we had some very good back and forth re: ideas.
DW: I met you thru NUB at NYCC a few years ago and well thats what got the ball rolling. We've had you on our podcast (IncCast) a few times now…
JOE: Which, aside from my stagefright jitters, is always a good time.
DW: we will talk once a week or so and go 2 to 3 hours throwing ideas around about art, designing, sharing stories about our own history with comics and just shoot the sh*t. (lol)
During this time, I approached you to do a special limited edition print of our likenesses to be used when we travel to cons; from that we talked about your future plans within the Indie comic world, what I wanted to do with FanboysInc in the future, and that spurred some AWESOME brainstorming together for this team-up. It was a match made in heaven from the start. We shared plots and possible story lines for our (DW and NUB) characters and how they might be incorporated into the world of The Liberaider. At first it was gonna be a cameo, and then, like many times when we talk, it goes even further as we get more ideas and get inspired by what each of us say to each other. BOOM! It really started to take shape-- you said "lets use the podcast as an element within the comic." DUH!! No brainer. its never been done and damn how cool and fun this would be...
So here we are. I look forward to seeing where this story will go and where it will lead The Liberaider and FanboysInc. JOE: Me too!
Liberaider Montage Colors by Steve Firchow!
Celebrating the 60th episode of THE LIBERAIDER with this AWESOME colored piece by me, Sandu Florea, and the mighty Steve Firchow. Steve is a comics giant, who has worked on X-Men at Marvel and tons of stuff for Top Cow. He is currently Art Director at WBGames. Check out his work at www.stevefirchow.com. I am so happy with how this turned out--I am still looking at it and noticing details I hadn't seen before.
Liberaider 2 Pin-up Inks by JAY LEISTEN!
Jay Leisten is one of the best inkers working today, he is a regular inker of Greg Land on so many X-MEN projects, and has worked on THOR and NIGHTWING, among others. When this one arrived in the e-mail my head exploded and I had to call him right away and get all fan-boy gushy on him.
Liberaider 1 Pin-up Colors!
Here's the LIBERAIDER 1 image, colored up in MONSTER fashion by Andrew Covalt!
Liberaider by Hembeck!
This was a real treat, an illo of THE LIBERAIDER from my buddy Fred Hembeck.
You know you're somebody when Hembeck draws your character!
Liberaider Pin-up Pencils!
Continuing our celebration of the 50th episode of THE LIBERAIDER with this penciled piece by me. Depicts the cyberspace sleuth Benjamin F and his alter e-ego, THE LIBERAIDER. The grid you see is actually blue guide lines I printed on the paper which won't be part of the final image.
Liberaider Pin-up Inks by Sandu Florea
Continuing our celebration of the 50th episode of THE LIBERAIDER--it's this week!!-- Very excited to show off this piece inked by comics giant Sandu Florea! Sandu has worked on Batman and Detective Comics with Tony Daniel, as well as several X-Men projects like X-Men: The End. In my eyes, Sandu is a master of line and black design, and it is a privilege to work with him.
Liberaider Pin-up Pencils
Continuing our celebration of the 50th episode of THE LIBERAIDER, here is a montage pin-up I did recently. Pencils by me! My pencils look like chicken scratch lately, as I usually ink my own stuff, but I have a special guest inker working with me on this one, so I had to look my best! Very excited about it!!!
Approaching the 50th episode of THE LIBERAIDER
We are fast approaching the 50th episode of THE LIBERAIDER, so to celebrate, I thought it would be fun to show this pin-up, penciled and inked by me.
Sketch Card By Artist Sherry Leak
Here's a great image of my character Solitara Bronze, who appears in BOLD BLOOD. It's a sketch card by artist Sherry Leak. Thanks Sherry!
Megahurtz on Panelfly
Megahurtz® is the epic tale of a killer cyborg in a futuristic dystopia. Created by Joe St.Pierre and Dave Chlystek, the first issue is available for the first time in full color thru the Panelfly app!
Visit www.panelfly.com and check it out today! It's FREE.
Bold Blood Ogre's Lot EXTRA
Bold Blood Ogre's Lot EXTRA
Here are some development sketches for Than Wrennish and Ironor
Bold Blood Ogre's Lot EXTRA
The first scene establishes he's been dissed by luck.
The second scene shows he's been dissed for being a half-goblin.
The third scene shows that in Ogre's eyes, he's been dissed by his own friends, who think he can't handle himself in a scrap.
The last straw occurs when HELMUT, a second rate warrior who lucked onto a magic sword gets all the props and our hero is virtually unknown.
Disrespected by the world--you'd be pissed too!
Joe
Bold Blood Ogre's Lot EXTRA
It's one of those "Zone" drawings I'm always chasing as an artist, just being wide open to let the work speak thru me. For me this drawing is a perfect example of the style matching the character matching the moment. OGRE looks like he's about to explode here.
BONUS - The Creation of MEGAHURTZ!!!
I remember working on that first spread, pages 2 and 3, the introduction of MEGAHURTZ. Megz' design, the weird head, the bodily proportions, are pretty out there, so I felt it was very important to visually describe him as clearly as possible for storytelling reasons.
We needed to show you, the reader, that you are not looking at a forced perspective, or trick shot of any kind. THIS is what this freak looks like!
Sketches are by me, final pencils are by Dave.
--JoeBOLD BLOOD on your IPhone!
It's now available as an app for your portable devices! Download Issue #1 for FREE! Issue #2 is only 99 cents. Just visit Panelfly.com.
Fans of War Craft, Conan the Barbarian, JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Moorcock's Elric, Dungeons and Dragons, Magic The Gathering and other fantasy ventures will surely get a charge out of Bold Blood!
