It's here!

Yep, finally the wait is over, you can go to your local comic store and buy the chapter one of Zooniverse!  The serialization begins in issue #9 of Island Magazine published by Image Comics: Here's the official page.
Shown below is the original 1986 eclipse edition on the left against the new fully rescanned, recolored and larger Island version on the right...

A comparison of the old and new editions.

It's been a long haul since my first post in may of 2011, but I've finally reached a huge goal. This blog records my efforts trying to relaunch Zooniverse with limited funds and resources. I've tried everything I could think of, animation, self publishing, iPad app, commissions, online sales and Patreon. Now I have a color comic sitting on my desk and it looks better than it did 30 years ago! I couldn't be happier and I owe it all to Brandon Graham giving me a second chance at the comic industry. Island is his brainchild, a Heavy Metal magazine for Image. I began collecting Metal Hurlant and Heavy Metal in 1977 when I was fourteen years old. All those artists, all that inspiration. Corben, Moebius, Bilal, Forest, Caza, Druillet, Claveloux, Mezieres and Franquin so many visions that would help me escape the mundanities of urban bleakness. I dreamed of submitting comics to Heavy Metal, and Zooniverse was my thank you to all those who inspired me. They had set the benchmark and at the tender age of twenty one I did my best to meet it. Thirty two years on and here we have Island, a brand new comic magazine that I can be a part of because Brandon found Zooniverse inspirational when he was growing up. It feels so destined.

Still, there is a lot of work ahead and I am happy to do it. Currently I'm halfway through recoloring chapter two (the original 2nd issue). Helen Maier has gracefully agreed to return to her old job helping me color Zooniverse so that deadlines can be met. She is doing the first pass of coloring (flatting) on chapter three. I've completed a brand new Gatcheralis story for Island issue #10.

I have moved my attention away from this blog and onto Patreon where my posts are financially compensated which has helped greatly. At Patreon I've done one hundred and fifty posts and published thirty two PDFs for the higher tiers which has taken the place of self publishing. Three of the PDFs are old Zooniverse comics, one of which has never been published before. I will always release free posts for important announcements so it's worth bookmarking and checking out occasionally. Thanks to my patrons I am preparing a new Zooniverse animation. It's a short test, but I would like to do more in the future.

Thank you for all of your encouragement and support as I complete this blog and move on.

The 30th anniversary of Zooniverse

I'm days away from completing the recoloring of issue one from the original 1986 series for Image Comics, due to be relaunched this year in Brandon Graham's Island Magazine. Each part will be released as I complete the six chapters. It's amazing timing because it marks the 30th anniversary of Zooniverse. We didn't plan it that way, but I had dreamed about having a collected edition published for the anniversary.

I'll let you know more information closer to release.

Downloadable Zooniverse Comics!

Over the last few years I've been searching for a way to make my comics available for download. Here's the best solution so far, it's nice and simple itch.io. You can choose your own amount to buy starting at $1+, and I can set their percentage for hosting, 10% seems fair to me.

Buy it below or click on the image above.

Zooniverse at Image Comics

When working on projects I prefer to stay quiet until everything is officially announced, a habit I picked from decades of working in Hollywood. This is one announcement that I've been holding my breath for, now I can finally talk about it ...

At the 2015 Image Expo, Brandon Graham and Emma Rios revealed that Island Magazine will begin it's ongoing publication this year!
[Read more about it here] 

Promo for Island, a comic magazine. Click to enlarge

The line up of artists and stories is impressive, it's an exciting project and one that I'm immensely proud to be a part of. The Magazine will be a larger format (Heavy Metal magazine size) than the regular US comic and my original 1986 Zooniverse story will begins it's run in about six months. Give or take.

Here is a look at the panel that was included in the middle top of Brandon's promo above. I'll be recoloring the whole series and finally do justice to the old art.

A panel from the 1986 Zooniverse comic digitally recolored.

Now where does that leave my self published Zooniminis? I'm still publishing them, I'm currently up to issue #4 and I intend to keep going as artwork is completed for Island. I love the format. I have to decide whether I publish them in black and white to complete the run or print exclusively in color once my stock is sold out. Which is considerably more expensive.

Which brings me to my Patreon account. It's like a tip jar, tip me as little as $1 a month and you will have access to my creative world. I have completely committed to comic work, I don't have a day job, this is my only source of income and it doesn't pay well, in fact it's like living on a knife's edge. But it means that I'm always doing something interesting, every day and you will be part of an exclusive club, my patrons get to see work no one else will have access to. Plus you'll have a  ring side seat  on all of the projects that I'm working on, with 8house: Yorris and Zooniverse due out later in the year, what could be more enticing.

Zoonitoons App is Live!

For those of you who have an iPad, good news!
We have finished our Zoonitoons app and it's FREE!
Click this link to preview (even if you don't have an iPad this link will give you an idea),
or search "Zoonitoons" in the Entertainment section of iTunes.

Yes we hope to release it on other platforms like android, but we are starting with Apple. One step at a time. This is the result of six months working with two programmers, my brother Tom and his friend Paul Sagor who is an app veteran. Please support our venture, as this is where I will be releasing my NEW Zooniverse comic which I am feverishly working on.

My comics are formatted to the iPad screen because I'm not impressed with the whole pinching to enlarge a full comic page. I find zooming in and out disruptive to the immersion of reading a story. I've also noticed that readers tend to leave the page full size and don't zoom in, scanning the pages without taking time to enjoy the art. It seems like a waste of artwork to me, so I've prepared everything to fit the screen. I've done this more with the upcoming issue which is called "Kick Off".

Superficial Surgery is the free comic we are offering through our Zoonitoons app.

I will continue to release printed comics, but the app makes the work much more immediate and accessible to the whole world. Postage out of Australia is expensive and slow, printing in color is costly and printers are a bit of a hassle, so this is a preferred alternative.
I hope that you enjoy it.

Second Edition Printing!

Finally, 50 copies of the Second Edition Zooniverse Mini Comic #1 and #2 are in my hands! 
If you would like your own copy, details are here:
http://www.zoonitoons.com/hub/comics
 
Those of you with First Editions are now collectors, only 50 copies are ever printed for each edition (because that's all we can afford to do right now).  
So congratulations and thank you for supporting my work!

Box O' Zoons! Edition #2 hot off the press.

One of the most important edits was to fix Snok's gag line. The number '6' was left out of his dialog in the first printing. When I originally created my font I didn't have numbers but decided to block out the text anyway. After the font was completed I went back over the comic adding the numbers but I missed this page and ruined the gag!! If you have a First Edition copy and there is a '6' that's because I've added it by hand, but I often forgot to do it, so sorry about that.

The fix on Snok' line.

There is also the addition of a new page in issue #2 which was intended to be my animation submission to this month's Loop De Loop's theme: "Black and White", however I was unable to complete the animation in three weeks. It focuses on the Temptors who try to distract the Notator from finishing his sacred comic. So ironically life imitates art. The Temptors made it into print at least, but animating them would have been a nice tie-in.

The new page on the left in the 2nd Edition. There are 30 years between the art on the two pages.

I wanted to be as faithful as possible to my original designs of the Temptors and the Notator, I was 20 years old when I did the art as a one-off with no story concept or even names for the characters. Three decades later, I found myself over simplifying their shapes which were complex and hard to imagine from different angles. So I spent a few days sculpting their heads, the results helped me understand how the shadows fell across their unusual shapes.

Sculpts of the Temptor and Notator.

I then made a series of study sketches, practicing drawing them and prepared turn-arounds for the animation.

Temptor turn-arounds with shadow studies.

Once I realized that I wasn't going to make the Loop De Loop deadline I spent the last weekend coloring the scene up, it looks sumptuous now, I'm really happy with it! I intend to animate the sequence and all of the assets are part of a new Zooniverse comic that I am currently working on for Brandon Graham's new venture. You will see the colored version in good time, but not yet.

Meanwhile I am more than halfway through Zoonimini #3 which begins the reprint of the original Zooniverse series. I intend to release issue #3 and #4 together. So please know that if I ever go quiet from social media it's because I'm busy, so don't despair I always resurface with new material!!

Zoonimini's for SALE!

I've been working on the next wave of Zooniverse comics, but before we get into that....

You can buy Zooniverse comics directly from me!
See details here http://www.zoonitoons.com/hub/comics
or email me through my company info@zoonitoons.com

Internationally the cost for both issues is $20.50 US Dollars which includes postage in a padded bag. (within Australia the cost is $15). There are 30 issues left and I will sign and draw a tiny original zoon on every one. I also will Art Bless (TM) each copy with my creative fingerpalps as I pack it lovingly into it's bed of transportation bubbles.

If you just want a single issue the international price is $14.20 US Dollars ($8.50 within Australia).

You can own these!!

Now if you wish, for an extra $12 USD ($10 within Australia), I will also include an Original Zoon Sketch for you to own and care for!

An Original Zoon Sketch

HOW IT WORKS:
Email me at info@zoonitoons.com and let me know what you wish to purchase and I will reply with a Paypal Payment Request. Once I receive the payment I will send out your package. Simple.

I should also add that my publications won't be available in stores, only through my company, and that they are limited print runs, so this is the only way to purchase them. Your money goes straight into the production of the next issue, and is greatly appreciated!

The journey begins!

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

I've just finished a new Zooniverse animation based on the theme of "future".
[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD]

Tubba taking a bio-break. Still from the animation

This sequence was taken from page 11 of the Zooniverse movie script that I wrote back in 2005. A few years earlier, Helen Maier and I would have weekly meetings on the Fox studio lot in Los Angeles, with long time friend Richard Raynis who Produces on the Simpsons animation. His office used to be Shirley Temple's bedroom in the little house built for her amongst the giant sound stages. It is now the Simpson offices where the writers meet each season to hash out episodes. Richard, Helen and myself would throw around ideas and brainstorm for the Zooniverse movie, I would bring storyboards that we would discuss and rework. However once Helen and I became full time on Tutenstein our meetings were permanently interrupted. Sometime after I was laid off I began work on the script on my own so that I could maintain a clear vision, keeping Richard and Helen's guidance and suggestions in mind of course.

The Zooniverse script from 2005, and the Zoonimini #3 mock up from 2012

One sequence that Richard wasn't too keen on was the one I've just completed for my latest loop. He felt the '2001: a space odyssey' theme was overplayed and cliched. As much as I agreed with him I was disappointed to throw out a whole sequence that appealed to my sense of humor and one that I had so lovingly storyboarded back in the year 2000. I'm happy to have finally completed it, simply for my personal amusement if nothing else.

Panels from the Zooniverse movie storyboards drawn in 2000

The three Surveyor characters were designed back in 1999. The Zooniverse movie was to be fully CG and I began models for all of the main characters, I also sculpted a CG version of the Surveyor's spaceship, which I've dusted off and have been rendering shots and then hand tracing over them in Flash.

The original sketch of Tubba from 1999

Last Saturday (10th of November) I mocked up the third issue of the Zooniverse mini comic this is a huge breakthrough for me, I haven't been able to focus on roughing out a comic for years, let alone settle on a Zooniverse story to begin new work. I had too many places to start from, I did a coin toss which ended up at the movie script. Then I gave three choices to fans on my Facebook Zooniverse Comic page, the decision was unanimous, they chose:-
Option 2: "How the Kren Patrol met up (which is based off the movie script)". 

So there you have it, Zoonimini #3 will be the movie story, and one sequence from the script (yes I kept the 2001: Space Odyssey sequence) is now my latest Loop De Loop animation for the "future" theme. The new Zooniverse comic has begun... with a bum. Somehow it seems appropriate, like I'm mooning Hollywood or something.

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!

The beginning of the Talsark Wars

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

For those of you familiar with the original Zooniverse series, the Talsark Wars may ring a bell. I always intended to reveal what the wars were about, but never had the chance.
Now in my latest animation I can at least introduce how it all began.

A Talsark Temple priest educates a tender young Supplelicant. A still from the animation

The Talsark Wars are an old idea so I'm glad to finally have it in existence.  Basically I wanted to invent a ridiculously stupid reason for starting a war and decided to make it over a pencil. The more established and historically rich Inner Rimworlds and the crassly resource rich Outer Rimworlds were basically itching to fight each other over something and the apparent theft of a pencil was all that was needed to set it off. In truth Poader Glister just put it absent mindedly in his pocket. As you do.

Poader Glister, from my sketch book for the movie version of Zooniverse I was working on in LA

Poader Glister is an aging pop star from the Outer Rmworlds, he was doing a quick flit of the Inner Rimworlds tourist attractions, mainly for publicity. He just happen to inadvertently start a war. Poader represents all that the Inner Rimworld inhabitants hate about the Outies, he's tacky, rich and cultureless. I had a lot of fun creating him.

Rough sketch for the animation

 Helen and I are currently in the last two weeks of a Government sanctioned Business Course (NEIS). It has been grueling to say the least, it's eating so badly into our creative work time that I barely got this month's loop done. However I was able to knock out some character designs in class, yes I can draw and listen!

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.

The Birth of the Zooniverse

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

Last month's Loop De Loop animation challenge theme was "elements" which gave me the opportunity to animate the birth of the Zooniverse.

The scientist who becomes the Zooniverse. Still from the animation.

The animations were traced from comic panels from Lifeworks. For more background on the origin story go to this earlier post.

Zooniverse Minicomic #1

Zooniverse is back in print!! Here is the cover which is artwork I did back in 1986 while still working on the original series.

Cover of Zoonimini issue #1 artwork from 1986

The Zoonimini's are intended to pave the way towards the 200 page collected album of the Zooniverse series! They will elaborate on concepts I was unable to cover in the series. This first issue reveals the Animoid Rimworlds in relative position to the Hub for example.

Also included is the comic story "Zoons at the Ozcon" which was included in the program given away at the 1997 Australian Comic Convention held in Sydney. "Zoons at the Ozcon" is a very biting commentary on the activities of earlier OzCons that I had attended. Not much has changed so it seemed more than fortuitous to relaunch this comic, fifteen years later, at the first OzCon to be held in Melbourne.

Zoons attend an Australian Comic Convention in 1997

Included in this story is a timeline summarizing most of the animated shows that I've been Lead Character Designer on. The left page below was from the original comic, but I've created a new page that updates the timeline to include shows after Extreme Ghostbusters.

A sampling of animated TV shows that I've been Lead Character Designer on. From 1986 to2008

Our intention with this first issue was to introduce a new readers to my work both in comics and animation. With subsequent issues of Zoonimini's we hope to put all Zoon related material into print most of which was never seen beyond the shores of Australia.

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.

Preparation for war

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

The latest animation has been posted on Loop De Loop for the theme "one".
For this loop I've returned to the Spirit Realm focusing on the behind the scenes preparations for the Talsark Wars. Soulbeings wishing to experience combat are congregating around the Gatherers. Two opposing sides have been created for the conflict, the older and more historic planets of the Inner Rimworlds verses the younger and wealthier Outer Rimworld planets. The twin Gatherers are ancient beings who rally souls for incarnation, they are neutral and care little for the outcome of the conflict ahead. The Gatherers only concern is to attract participants to the correct side before incarnation.

The Outer Rimworld Gatherer calls for Incarnates. Reworked from the animation assets.

Tensions and ill-content have been building up for the last few hundred years between the Inner and Outer Rimworld who are now about to erupt into multiplanetary conflict. These coarse emotions have been carefully fostered by the poisonous whirlpool of hatred fed by the Warweavers who mindlessly do the bidding of "The Empty". The Warweavers are transformers stepping down the will of The Empty knitting it into the fabric of the Zooniverse' Spirit Realm. These unintelligible beings originated from beyond the Zooniverse. Their whirlpool draws unwary soulbeings into their influence. These soulbeings incarnate bringing the poison to the Physical Realm, often lusting for power and fostering greed they become liars and misguiders seeking positions that hold the greatest influence over the masses.

The War Weavers do the bidding of "The Empty". Reworked from the animation assets.

War is nothing new to the Zooniverse, and many Soulbeings have killed and murdered for their various causes in past incarnations. These beings have become burdened with painful Karmabunkles and Lymphets which are molluscs native to the Spirit Realm that feed off negativity adhering to the bodyform of beings who have acted destructively towards other Zoons during incarnation. The burden of these feeding molluscs add up over life experiences to the point that multitudes of souls are weighed down, unable to move without pain.

Sketch of a Spiritbeing inflicted with Karmabunkles and Lymphets.

To remove their invertebrate burdens these souls need to balance each selfish destructive and hateful act with ones of sacrifice and love, which the molluscs dislike and detach. One way is to offer themselves as innocent victims in the upcoming wars, where the deed they did to another Zoon will be done to them. The Gatherer of Victims is the where they congregate to prepare for their life of sacrifice. 
 

The Gatherer of Victims. Reworked still from the 'One' animation.

The Mother Gatherer is not shown, but souls wishing to dedicate their incarnation to help build up the populations for all the participants in the wars will join her call. This path is viewed as one of the higher devotional sacrifices.

Observing the whole parade of souls choosing their roles for the conflict are Lokki and Alia. They are already incarnated at this point, but while their bodies sleep, they return to their true form to assess what is to come. Lokki is concerned that such a vast spectacle can be halted by his own actions. He is the only Zoon who is destined to stop the war.

Lokki and Alia ponder the future. Still from the 'One' animation.

These well respected souls have yet to meet in the Physical Realm, but they will fall in love as they have done before, marry and join the Pacifist Army as the Kren Patrol.