The Female of The Species . . .

Have you guys been reading Atomic-Robo.com? I hope so. Brian and I put a lot of work into it. Well, Brian did. I just gave him a laundry list of stuff to include on the website while I slaved away on Atomic Robo pages.

If you haven’t been checking in on Robo.com regularly then you may not be away that we follow Some Simple Rules when putting a story for Atomic Robo together. I would go read that before continuing with this blog. I’ll wait.

. . .

All set? Good, lets move on.

So I’m a bit more than 1/3 of the way through Vol.2.1, (that’s Volume 2, Issue 1 for anyone who might be confused). I’m equal parts excited and nervous about this one. Because I sort of wrote it. Not that Brian had a vacation –much of my dialog was just filler garbage such as; Pg16 Panel 4: as Robo dispatches the first Nazi Sturmwolf he said something funny and/or ironic. Brian then went on to stretch my version of Issue 1 into 2 issues, and from the fist full of character and scene ideas I gave him he came up with the outlines of another 4 stories.

But still, I feel like I’m a lot more responsible for the direction of Vol.2 than I was for Vol.1. Vol.2 is a bit more serious that Vol.1, and since a lot of people seem to think that Atomic Robo should be little more than an extension of Brian’s work on 8 Bit Theater I’m concerned with how it will be received. But then again, I tend to think these people are idiots. That’s like saying because Star Trek TNG and Battlestar Galactica have the same Executive Producer and Head Writer they should be the same show.

I digress. Brian and I have become a truly symbiotic team in the last year. My art feeds off the imagery in his writing and the sketches and layouts I send back to him seem to have an equal impact on where he takes the story. Early on we realized that we didn’t have the material for a contiguous 6-issue story for Vol.2. Nor did we want one, since we had several different things that we wanted to explore against the backdrop of WWII. But we also didn’t want to do 6 unrelated stories either. So what we will have instead are 3, 2-issues stories. Somehow we are trying to craft them in such a way that you can pick up any issue in any order and enjoy it –just like Vol.1 so far.

I thought it would be great fun if, for at least part of Vol.2, we introduced our own 1940’s gun-toting, leather jacket wearing, crime fighter. And then I thought it would be even more fun if he were a she. You might at this point attempt to point out that there were no women masked vigilantes back then. To which I might respond there were also no tommy-gun wielding robots.

The motivation for this gender bender was two-fold. For one thing we are planning on introducing a female antagonist around this same time in the story and she is a walking stereotype, so I thought some balance was called for.

The second reason was because I realized that aside from Frau FuckYouUp we had no women in Vol.2, despite an earlier idea to somehow incorporate WASPs. This sort of bugged me a little. Not that we need to have women in every Robo story –its not like I draw them for the dudes who read our book. But Robo does seem to have attracted the attention of some women who just like Brian and I, are in love with the idea of comic books, but are disappointed by most of what they see. (Refer to that Michael Turner cover I Robofied a few weeks back.)

What these ladies liked was that A.) we included women in our Action Science teams, B.) that they were written in the same way as the men and, C.) they weren’t wearing Kevlar bikinis or standing around in improbably/impossible poses that managed to show both “T” & “A” all at the same time.

So because we really appreciate the fact that women who are not our wives or girlfriends are reading Robo we give you The Sparrow. These are just the preliminary sketches, so when you see her again she’ll be a lot more refined I hope.

Because in so many comic books a woman who is not a prancing slut is automatically a raging dyke I wanted to keep Sparrow feminine yet still believable as a woman of action. One lesson I learned as a young boy was that the less you show the sexier something can actually be. I thought Michelle Pfeiffer’s Cat Woman kicked shit out of Halle Berry’s Cat Woman. Power Girl fails to even register as offensive to me –she’s just retarded beyond measure. And every guy who tries to tell me “it’s a joke”, she’s “meant to pander to the Fanboys” is pretty much a fanboy themselves, and I’m pretty sure they have masturbated to Power Girl more than once. (Once is okay.) I mean really; Cat Woman and Batgirl from the 1960’s Batman television show? Julie Newmar and Yvonne Craig; Totally hawt.

Adam West; not so hawt.

Before I ramble too far away from my point I’ll just say that Sparrow wears clothing that make sense. In large part I have my wife to thank for the direction Sparrow is taking. Dorinda has zero tolerance for juvenile manboy bullshit, yet she has equal scorn for self-righteous “feminists”. My wife is an old school woman. You’d better hold that fucking door for her and tell her she looks pretty or she’s going to punch you in the throat and steal your goddamned wallet. That’s pretty much where I’d like the Sparrow to end up.

Okay, moving on.

I’ve gotta love the Comics And . . .Other Imaginary Tales blog. Because they seem to love us. Check this out: “Comic books have a new definition and it is Atomic Robo. The actual individual issue this month was very good, fun story, great dialogue, clean art, outrageous adventure, but I’m talking about the entire series. This book makes me smile when I pick it up and when I read it. Fast paced, Indiana Jones type adventures, a Robot with more emotional context then most humans and just flat out enjoyment. One little snippet of dialogue this issue that was great is Robo says “Tell me it’s not cyborgs.” His team member’s reply “Then I’ll have to lie.”, which is funnier in context. There better be a trade of this series, because it needs to be on my bookshelf.” You can’t beat that sort of praise. Thanks Comics And . . .!

I’m not sure how to segue into this link. It’s a funny little list of how creators of any sort (writers, artists, actors, etc.) should treat their fans. We are all fans of something, and most of us have taken it beyond the point of reason at some point. I myself was the BIGGEST Star Wars fanboy until Lucas cured me of that particular illness with Jar Jar Binks. I had a good laugh –especially because there was a little truth in everything this guy said –even when it hurt my little Fan feelings. Pretty much by making The Sparrow a woman we’ve broken one of these rules, but fuck it. There are a few outraged replies for folks –Clearly the list hit a few nerves with other people as well. My favorite note was on continuity however.

Saving the best for last, lets look at some art & design stuff. Our kick-ass letterer Jeff Powell is redesigning his website. I think it looks gorgeous.

My pal Lindsey did this one. I LOVE the girl’s hair! Super-cure all around.

And because I’ve go nowhere else to put this, here’s a new self-portrait I did. I really wanted to capture the sagging chin, Frankenstein forehead, and artist’s love-handles that are constantly pushing my pants down these days.

RANDOM SPLENDOR! (I really need to clear out the file so brace yourselves.)

I can’t even begin to imagine why you would need to hire someone to paint this . . .

Yeah Robin shut up! When you grow up and become Nightwing you’ll make your own lame wardrobe choices.

Technically they were all visually based on monkeys, not apes.

Yay pointless American deaths!

Rope you say? No, continue. I’m fascinated. This is my fascinated face.

I have glue-sticked this to the back of my sun visor in my vehicle, right over the “you drive a tippy-truck” warning.

This is for all my Creationist friends out there . . . oh wait. I don’t have any.