Zooniverse Minicomic #2

It is official! Helen Maier and I now own a publishing house!  
We took the plunge through our new Australian company Zoonitoons, printing two comics:- Zooniverse mini #2 and a reprint of issue #1. Launching them at the Armageddon Comic Expo in Melbourne. Halfway through Saturday we recovered our printing costs.
We are sincerely grateful to everyone who supported us by buying copies! 

Introducing Zooniverse minicomic #2 . . . a little bit of Australian comic history
This issue collects some my pre-Zooniverse comics published in Melbourne around 1983-84 and nine illustrations I did for the UK at the same time. All of the artwork in this issue was rescued last June after 15 years mouldering in a Queensland garage. Back in our possession we were shocked to discover the poor condition of what remains. Luckily we found a few old bromide copies and although most of the out-of-print mint copies I had of Australian comics containing my work were nicked a decade ago by our light-fingered ex-employees, a couple of original comic magazines survived. It was important to get this work scanned and printed before the originals deteriorated further, becoming unusable. 

Please keep in mind that all the line art was done before computers, using brushes and metal nibs dipped in ink bottles!

The Cover of Zooniverse mini comic #2 Available at www.zoonitoons.com

The cover for Zoonimini #2 is a huge coup to finally have this art printed after waiting almost three decades. It was originally done, when I was 21 years old, as a wrap-around cover for Inkspots issue #5 back in 1984 (the year Helen and I met). Unfortunately the comic magazine was abandoned by it's publisher and the original art was either lost or stolen. All that was left to work with was a single twenty eight year old bromide. I was so happy to finally scan it and digitally colored it! Seeing as we were getting posters printed we have an A3 version that will be available for purchase on the Zoonitoons' website. The poster includes the 3 zoons that were cropped out so that the Kren Patrol could be featured on the above cover.

Here is how the Inkspots cover looked back in 1984...

Unprinted wrap-around cover for Inkspots #5

The stories inside Zoonimini #2 include "Sproat Fanbunder & Spleen Sphincter: the infamous repairmen" which was originally printed as a two parter in Reverie comic magazine issues #6 in 1983 and #7 in 1984 (I did the second installment while working on the original Zooniverse series). Below is the front page for the story, the original art was never returned from the printer, so I assume that puts it in the stolen category.

The front page for the "The infamous repairmen" in Zooniverse mini comic #2

Below is the cover for issue #7 as it was printed in 1984. I had to do the colors by hand separation, which meant a separate piece of art for each CMYK color, it was tricky to guess the right combination of values to make a subtle color. I no longer have this original art or my mint copies of Reverie, so I relied on the help of fellow veteran cartoonist Ian Thomas to send me a scan of the cover which I repaired as shown above. Without Ian's gracious help this art would have been lost forever.

The original Reverie #7 cover featuring "The infamous repairmen" from 1984

The story for the infamous repairmen on the surface seems to be a flippant and shameless plug I did back then for the upcoming Zooniverse comic, but it is actually deeply personal allegory for my childhood. With Spleen representing my father, Sproat my mother, Snok as me and the Clone-a-gram as my art (Zooniverse). My two younger brothers don't make an appearance but they were essentially treated the same as me, so Snok could easily represent them too. I'll leave you to figure out the rest should you get your hands on this story. 

The first appearance of a Clone-a-gram from "The infamous repairmen" 1983

The second story in Zoonimini #2 is "Sacred Stripture". For this one I set myself a ludicrous challenge. I wanted to combine old illustrations with my recent "History" animation so that the story looped between the comic and the animation. The animation shows the Sacred Text scrolling in the background and the comic is the Sacred Text! I had to turn the old illustrations from 1983 into a Holy Stripture, within less than a week due to the printing schedule!

Below is the introductory page. I had trouble incorporating it into the story until woke up one morning realizing that the artist portrayed in the image is the Notator:- the zoon who wrote the Stripture! I've always loved this image which at the time summed up my personal feelings about being an artist. It was a bold experiment before I found my "Zooniverse" style. I was choosing a direction here, the pig drawing was an old comfortable look that I'd used for my earlier "TimeTree" comic. The spooks were an entirely new style of mine that has never been published and the "Notator" character was halfway between my previous Asphyxiation work and the emerging Zooniverse technique. Again, the original art was never returned from the printer, and presumed stolen, so I scanned and restored the image from the printed cover.

The front page for the "Sacred Stripture" in Zooniverse mini comic #2

The image above was originally published in 1984 as the cover for Fox Comics issue #4 shown below, I'm pretty sure that I did the art in 1983. Obviously I've flipped it for story flow, but I've always liked that the original cover made little sense until the back cover revealed the artist character...

Original wrap-around cover for Fox comics issue #4

"Sacred Stripture" includes new art that I took from the "History" animated loop, I also made new panels with assets created in Flash (below left). The Rector and his innocent Supplelicant are recent artwork, the rest (below right) was originally done in 1983 when I was twenty years old for two publications in England. These random images were pre-Zooniverse and gave me a chance to experiment with inking styles while creating strange environments over which the publisher pasted badly photocopied code for the Spectrum (an early home computer that was released in the UK).

Old and new art combined in "Sacred Stripture" the second Zoonimini story.

Below is the second book of "Astounding Arcade Games" which was published exclusively in England in 1984. I had finished the art a year before for issue #1 and the publisher reused my art without my permission for the second book, this time cutting images up to make it look like new work. The cover below is a mash up of two pieces of art, and no I didn't color it. I once possessed a mint copy of the first book but it's long gone now so I can't verify it's exact name.

Cover for Astounding Arcade games for your Spectrum issue #2 printed in the UK

I now have the original illustrations in my care and used most of them for the Sacred Stripture. I scanned them shuffling them around until some semblance of a theme came into view. I now have a Zooniverse based Holy Scripture to form religions and philosophies off with Zoons misinterpreting and misquoting the texts. This is going to be fun!

Spak's back story

[Edit 2021 - The shockwave file is available HERE at my Patreon]

The Loop De Loop animation challenge for this month was "Mad", so I had to do something on Spak! 
[SPOILERS AHEAD...]

Due to commitments coloring Rex Vectar, another comic of mine, for Clubhouse Comics and the Australian government making me run around for a week so that bureaucratic boxes could be checked, I ended up with only four days to produce this entire loop, including writing the script and editing the audio with Helen Maier's wonderful musical score. Somehow I got it done and two days later it was screened at the Loop Bar. I was overjoyed!

Spak in happier times. Still from the animation.

This animation deals with a some of Spak's back story: how his lover died 2100 years ago.
In the early stages of the War Between the Sexes, the four races of the Motherhood Empire escaped their domineering male counterparts to live peacefully on their fem-constructed worldship, they called Girlaxia. Being a single sex meant that clonebirthing was the Foremothers only means of reproduction, but biologically many femzoons needed male companionship and sexplay, so they created the Plastoid race, a genetically obedient population of synthetic malezoons. Using their own DNA the Foremothers batched male duplicates of themselves in living plastic, the game was to find their copy. Girlaxia was so enormous that it dwarfed giant gas planets so often the copies never met, some found each other and formed deep friendships, but quite a few bonded.

Althra was clonedbirthed into flesh from her own ancient genes when Spak was over 900 years old. (Plastoids are non-biodegradable by the way). The two copies found each other and fell in deeply in love.

A moment of horror. A still from the animation.

Spak and Althra were both Scy-Borraine warriors, fighting side by side during the height of the War Between the Sexes. When Girlaxia fell they were still holding back hordes of fleshmales on the planet Asu-Assala. Plastoids don't eat or sleep, Althra simply couldn't keep up. Overwhelmed she was skewered and paraded around until Spak could reach and protect her shredded corpse.

Above is the original panel from issue #3 of the Zooniverse series from 1986 (Entox is in the foreground by the way). I traced a lot of this comic art for the animation, trying to keep it as acurate as possible. The image on the left is the original painted art that I've scanned and not adjusted in any way, yes the paints have survived for twenty six years. The image on the right I scanned from the comic so that you could see how it printed. For the animation I took my color cues from the printed version. The deeper red suggested a bloodbath without me having to stoop to showing gore.

Spak seethes. A still from the animation.

I love the above image, the moment when Spak cracks!
I made a last minute decision to include the image below in the animation. Meeting the deadline, meant that I had to work all night. The image was traced from my 1991 roughs for page 30 of the unpublished book Age Old Enemies. I'm glad that it has finally seen the light of day!

Spak takes his revenge. A still from the animation.

 Above is another panel from issue #3 of the original Zooniverse series. It shows Spak during his banishment on Asu-Assala by the Plastoid Society who decide to hide until the Foremothers return. Spak is worshiped as the Dead God Krantrak by the locals, who Spak ritually kills.... it's an even longer story. Again the original paints on the left, the printed version on the right.

Missy Mossy

[Edit 2021 - The shockwave file is available HERE on my Patreon]

I've just completed a new animation for Loop De Loop.
I recommend that you watch the animation before continuing reading this post....

A still from the Animation for Loop De Loop for the theme "Play".

If you've had a look and my animation, here is some background info....
The Voidhauler Captain first appeared in his bath of Kloob Fluid in issue two of the original Zooniverse series. His job is to lug uninhabited planetorbs across the void for attachment to the Animoid Rimworlds. It's boring work as most of the flight is done on auto pilot, so the driver has to find ways to occupy his time. This Captain plays with puppets while inebriating himself by sucking on Kloob Fluid fermented by his own perspiration.

The Voidhauler driver from issue #2 of the Zooniverse series.

In 1990 I composed a Missy Mossy poem and dearly wanted to see it in comic form.
Now, twenty two years later I have gone one step better by animating it.
Here is the poem as I originally wrote it...

The Missy Mossy poem as I wrote it when I was 27 years old.

So what is Kloob fluid made from? Kloobs of course! A race of sentient plantoids. Their berries are pressed into a juice that is sold through illegal markets. I've been working on a story where the Kren Patrol infiltrate the trade on killing Kloobs for their tasty and highly addictive juice.

A Kloob, poachers are pushing their population towards extinction.

Liquid Information

Mere hours ago I completed the third Zooniverse animation. [Edit 2021 - Moved HERE to Patreon]. It explains a little more about Liquid Information, the way that data is transferred in the Zooniverse. I've incorporated images that I've had banging around in my folders for a while now that were prepared for Age old Enemies. It's really gratifying not only to see them in color but also to see them move.

Coasting along a tranquil sea of data at the Halls Of Record. Still from the animated short.

Here is the original art I worked from, I followed it as closely as possible. This page was one of a few that revisited the Halls Of Record, the artificial planet that was made by the mono-sex race of women called the Shadan. One of the original four mother races who created the Plastoids, synthetic male counterparts which include Spak and Entox from the Kren patrol. Three thousand years years later the Shadan have renounced the mere concept that they ever needed male counterparts.

Original unpublished art from Age Old Enemies. Ink, brush and nib.

Spak animated!

[Edit 2021 - Posted HERE on my Patreon because Loop De Loop removed their old content] 

See Spak animated!!  This month's theme was "Idiots" so he had plenty to say.

Spak introduces the Animoid Rimworlds in his own eloquent way.

 Helen Maier composed the music.
I'll tell you more about this piece after the screening when the votes are counted.

Lifeworks: Book Twelve

"Lifeworks" was intended to be the last of the twelve albums that I had planned. It was an origin story telling about how a scientist deconstructs his body into a cloud of living sub-matter and reforms it into the Zooniverse.

This highly symbolic cover was printed with a summary for part 2 of Lifeworks in 1994. Colored here for the 1st time (Click to Enlarge).

In 1993 fellow Australian cartoonist Gary Chaloner approached me to contribute to his publication Cyclone Comics Quarterly.  I had been trying to get a publisher interested in "Lifeworks" a few years earlier, so I jumped at the chance to have a deadline to work towards. A total of twenty pages were published in issues #3 and #4 in black and white, unfortunately Cyclone ran out of funds and I never had a chance to complete the story.

The Originie, the first child of the Zooniverse. Painted with gouache on board in 1994

Above is one of two covers that I prepared for Cyclone, unfortunately both were rejected, this image of the Originie has never been published. The Originie, the first Zoon, reappears in my first Zooniverse animation shown here on LoopDeLoop.

Story overview:
Lifeworks was tricky conceptually and I would write it differently today. It was intended as an analogy for my own creative relationship to the Zooniverse concept. The scientist in the future who turns his body into the living Zooniverse shares my name, and has successfully created a microscopic test Zoon from his own matter, called the Originie. Young, energetic the Originie is kept safe in a sphere hung around this future Fil Barlow's neck. The Originie has the ability to form his own playground inside the sphere from the same pre-matter that he is made from.

Based on a dream I once had, an assembly of virtual characters appear to witness the actual birth of the physical Zooniverse. The scientist Fil pulls his soul out of his body, which is able to form a face on a soul sensitive screen behind him to prove that he is still living (see top cover), his body is encased in a protective, computerized ball and stripped down to a sub atomic pre-matter, the soul re-enters this new etheric cloud to form it into what ever it desires.

The Originie safely inside his sphere, which is now inside the larger ball, realizes that a big change has happened to his father and gets so upset that the Zooniverse, being sensitive to extreme emotions, has no choice except to release him. Disaster strikes as the Originie is blinded by the piercing light of the proto-Zooniverse, and he runs screaming, his panic calcifies the pre-mater around him creating the Birthbone. The Zooniverse puts the Originie to sleep to save itself. Millions of paraspan pass before the Originie reawakens, horrified to find that he is blind, ancient and trapped by the calcified roots of the Birthbone.

A being called The Observant was created by the dreaming Originie to be his eyes upon awakening, but so many millennia have passed that there is no life left to observe in this ancient end of the Zooniverse. The Observant is now so old he can barely serve the Originie, but sets out to find some sentient being who can shed some light on the current state of the Zooniverse.

Zeroy marooned from page 14 of Lifeworks published in 1994

The Observant discovers Zeroy who has been marooned on an isolated planetoid. For the last eight paraspan Zeroy has been waiting for an event that opens up a wormhole allowing him to return to his own Nebulaxy.

... and here the published comic ends.

Zeroy bids farewell to the Kren Patrol this is the last time they are together and their last printed panel. Page 20 of Lifeworks published in 1994

Age Old Enemies: Book One

After completing the six issues of the Zooniverse comic I had planned to follow the three members of the Kren Patrol in a series of twelve albums. Upon leaving the planet Crastalla Spak, Lokki, and Entox, are besieged by Void Pirates who capture and sell them into slavery. The twelve albums follow their individual struggle back to freedom.

The first book I had planned was "Age Old Enemies", where Althra, a Shadanese agent from the Halls Of Record is sent to find out what happened to Zeroy and Larote's secret expedition. She goes to their last known whereabouts, the planet Crastalla, where she finds Larote Quoke, who has gone native and is leader/god of a village of Insectoids. Althra learns that Zeroy and the Kren Patrol went missing eight paraspan ago. Her journey leads her to Spak who she frees from sex enslavement and madness.

Althra is nabbed by Arachnoids.  This art was originally done in 1991 and colored recently.
(Click to enlarge)

So here's what happened to the book....
The timing seemed perfect, it was 1987 I had completed the first season as character designer on the animated ALF series and had met French publisher Guy Delcourt while in LA. He invited me to stay a few days with him in Paris during my return trip to Australia. In Paris, Guy discussed interest in my next Zooniverse book should he approve the story. So upon my return home I commenced work but was interrupted by the second season of Alf, and another trip around the world (this time with Helen), and back to Paris and Guy, I showed him some of the pages I had finished and left the first page in his care (doh! I guess I'll never see that art again). Back in Australia I completed inking up to the 16th page, and decided to send the finished pages off for review. Upon seeing the pages, Guy suggested that I show him roughs of the remaining 30 pages rather than allowing me to commit to finished art that he may not publish.

So I roughed the remaining pages at the same size as a French album. I sent them off to Guy. His response was that it was too hard to read, so he requested that I write a script.

I began scripting the entire 46 page book from beginning to end with my brother Thomas, who could type and use a computer, skills that I had yet to learn in 1991. Together we finished the tome, a process that took so many months that I probably could have completed drawing and inking the book within the same time. So in the end I held the script in my hand, but I had no passion for the project, all of my energy had been invested into what I considered to be a novel, the story was complete and I was creatively dry. I decided not to send it to Guy because I had no interest in illustrating the script.

I realized an important fact about my technique, I like to improvise and work by blending images and words, too much planning kills the spontaneity that I thrive on.

At this point it was early 1992, I was broke and disillusioned, there was a recession happening and I got a call to travel up North to Queensland to work in their film industry. To date, my work for "Age Old Enemies" remains unpublished and unseen, except for the panels on this blog.

Style shedding at the age of eighteen.

Zooniverse would have looked very different if an illustrator, six years my senior, hadn't photocopied my entire body of work up to that point. I was 18 and so painfully shy that I sat quietly all day as the professional artist, a person I deeply admired, stole my style one page at a time. I was too polite to protest, too shocked to speak, swallowing my silent panic as I watched him copy the equivalent of two phone books in thickness, of all of my Zooniverse designs and concepts up to that point. The next illustrations that appeared printed in a glossy magazine, stamped with his credit and signature, were in the style I had painstakingly fostered through my teenage years. If I were to use my own style again I would be seen as an imitator of him. Below is Lokki in the Zooniverse style that never happened ... 

As you can see, I was myself a derivative, heavily influenced by Vaughn Bode and Rene Goscinny (Asterix). The professional Illustrator had actually done me a favor. I shed my artistic skin and let him take the style as his with my sincere blessing. I'm happy to report we are old friends to this day, and I'm sure he is unaware of what he took from me and what I sacrificed.

I had to start again, and decided to throw my creative stone further out than I was comfortable so that no one could follow me, at least not in the 1980's. I learned to risk and to keep designing until I felt uneasy, as soon as a drawing went so far that I started hearing a voice say, "I can't do that!". I knew that I had arrived at the Zooniverse. Every character, and incidental in the comic series was an "I can't do that!" moment for me. Risk had become my standard. Below is a page of unused character designs, now aged 20, each night ended with me curled up in bed inventing pages of characters.

This page was drawn while I lived with other cartoonists at a studio called Ghaspp my bedroom wall was shared by Mandate, a gay disco in St.Kilda. Even with earplugs would go to sleep with the throbbing base permeating every fiber of my mattress. Someone was having a good time and it was never studious little me.