4 September 2009
Ever since the beginning, there have been cover drawn and designed that were just not used. This is a showcase of just a few of those items.
Alternate Cover DWP #17
Digital Webbing Presents #17 featured the first Warmageddon story, "Travesty." Shane Nitzsche provided these layouts of a version of the story events for a potential alternate cover. After some back and forward this drawing was taken to completion and even colored. Ultimately, it was not used because Kri'lang just never appeared to be as menacing as we all wished. The finished art was used as the back cover to the Art of Warmageddon Year One.
On the left, is a cover layouts for a future issues of Digital Webbing Presents featuring Warmageddon. At one point, we considered running Warmageddon as a regular features of Digital Webbing Presents. However, that plan was shelved when DWP went full color with issue #19 featuring Sherman Danger.
This cover is an homage to the "Song of Red Sonja" from Conan the Barbarian #24. Song of Red Sonja begins with Red Sonja dancing on the cover as Conan and crew cheer her on.
The idea here was that Kri'lang the Executioner would take the place of Conan and Tiegre would take the place of Red Sonja. the background would be filled with the Warmageddon Senior Council. Artist Edwin Rhemrev was contacted to put together this cover, however the effort was soon abandoned.
When we put together the Foundation collection for Warmageddon stories, we revisited this idea once again with artist, Jake Bilbao. The Bilbao version has Kiara filling in for Red Sonja and the entire composition is flipped. The foreground contains: Li'l Myke, Python manning, Izzy, Gunnar, Kri'lang, and Kiara. The background is littered with Tiegre, young Penny, Lefty, Marcus, Ulmragha, and THF.
Of course, the Bilbao version as well as the Foundation collection can be picked up at BullCityComics.com.
 After the move from Digital Webbing, there were plans to continue future Warmageddon stories in comic book sized format (rather than magazine format). The design on the right was one of the designs considered.
The design is very similar to the final design used for the magazine -sized Warmageddon Quarterly. However, the biggest differences are:
Pricing
The pricing information for this issue would have been in the bottom right corner right above the URL. The URL in the bottom corner was kept in the final version, but the price was moved to the top.
2 Cover Features
On this cover you see the art by Shane White on the Asar cover and then the lower art by Mike Hawthorne for the Zombie City story. The goal was original to have rotating features with Tiegre, Asar, Zombie City and Izzy & Gunnar rotating into the cover slots. Scheduling conflicts ultimately cancelled those plans.
That's all for this week's looking back.
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28 August 2009
Diving back into the archives we have some artifacts from Warmageddon Illustrated.
Warmageddon Illustrated #1 is still available at BullCityComics.com and featured a interview and art gallery by Frank Cho. Wizard Magazine picked up on the Frank Cho gallery and the Red Sonja like character on the cover. They ran a short blurb in their magazine and we pulled a quote from that blurb and used it for our first Warmageddon convention banner (below).
Gearing up for the upcoming Warmageddon Illustrated #2 and #3, we created a banner using cover art for each issue within the number for the issue. Issue #1 featured Tiegre. Issue #2 featured Asar. Issue #3 featured Rowan. The art for all of these is by Shane White. Warmageddon illustrated was cancelled after issue #1 so issues #2 and #3 never shipped. The covers to issue #2 and #3 may look familiar as they were used as the cover to issue #2 was used as the cover to Issue #4 of Warmageddon Quarterly and the cover for issue #3 was used as the Retro Cover: Into This Jungle Adventures #2.
Last but not least for this week, is the unfinished back cover for Warmageddon illustrated #2. Since this issue was cancelled by the publisher, Jamal stopped working on the colors. Looking at the cover, you can see that Issue #2 was to include Sharleigh featuring Tiegre, Dragon Tales featuring Izzy and Gunnar, Adventure of Roc Island featuring Asar, and Skin Deep featuring Asar.
Warmageddon Illustrated #2 was cancelled well into production as we normally finish the back cover as the last part of production. If we'd almost completed colors on the cover (as noted by only Asar's hair remaining for coloring), we were near the end of the production cycle.
Asar by Jason Whitley, Tiegre by Robert Rath, Gunnar by Hannu Lipponen, Ulmragha by Nando Pinto
What's interesting about the above image is that the Tiegre story was originally scheduled to appear as the first full color Warmageddon story in Digital Webbing Presents #26. Jamal had colored the first 2 pages before we decided to go with Dorian's in that issue. The panel above is mostly likely taken directly from those colored pages. Maybe we can dig out those pages for next week.
TAGS :
Asar, Digital Webbing, Fernando Pinto, Frank Cho, Hannu Lipponen, Izzy and Gunnar, Jason Whitley, Looking Back, Promo, Red Sonja, Robert Rath, Shane White, Tiegre, Ulmragha, Warmageddon Illustrated, Warmageddon Quarterly, Wizard
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21 August 2009
Warmageddon has been around for over 5 years now. We were combing through the archives from the early years and presenting images from the by-gone era here under the Looking Back tag.
Up first, the original Warmageddon logo.
The original Warmageddon logo only appeared on the cover of Digital Webbing Presents #18 featuring Travesty. The logo was designed by Jamal Walton. We loved the flames and the metal effects, but ultimately with a logo you want it to be easily read from a distance. With the current logo, all the letters are the same size and the descender on the G has been removed. The current logo is also readable from a distance.
Next, some promo material from Warmageddon Illustrated #1.
Here's one of many postcard designs that were created in the months leading up to the release of Warmageddon Illustrated #1. Warmageddon Illustrated #1 was published by Digital Webbing in Fall 2005. We're not sure if this particular design ever saw print as there were lots and lots of iterations to this design with similar images and differing text. What we wanted to showcase was the cover by Shane White, (of course) FRANK CHO, and all the creators that worked with us on the first issue.
 Something that never saw print is this Warmageddon bookmark design. The sole reason that this bookmark never saw print is simply that all the bookmark printers were charging more for the 2" x 6" and 2" x 9" bookmarks than we were paying for the 4" x 6" postcards. The price was in fact almost twice as much for 1/2 the printing and was simply was not worth it for a giveaway item.
The great thing about revisiting this material is that there were lots of great ideas that we may dig out and actually use (like this bookmark now that we've found a cheaper bookmark printer).
In fact there's so much great stuff that has never been seen that we will be using every Friday from now until we run out of the material to showcase it. So join us next week for more Looking Back.
TAGS :
Digital Webbing, Frank Cho, Hannu Lipponen, Jason King, Jorge Vega, Looking Back, Mike Hawthorne, Mike Imboden, Promo, Robert Rath, Sengkry Chhour, Shane White
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22 September 2006
It's done! IT'S DONE!
What's done? No, issue #3 is not done. However, the cover colors for issue #3 is done. Thus we bring you, the completed cover for issue #3.
 Now that the cover is finished that means it will be available in the store for PRE-SALE soon. We will take pre-sales through October #13. What is special about pre-sales? Well, we offer the book for the reduced price of $4 (you save 99˘). We do this to award those that suport the book. Also doing pre-sales all retailers can purchase the books at 60% off cover (rather than the usual 50%). So be sure to let your friendly neighborhood retailer know about Warmageddon!
Now that the shilling is out of the way, let us tell you what remains incomplete in issue #3.
The only thing that is incomplete is the cover story. The cover story features Tiegre, Kiara, and the cannibal craziness of the Blood Countess. The story is by Jámal with layouts by Robert Herzig and pencils by Dominic Vivona.We are absolutely loving Dominic's version of Tiegre (left). He depicts her as majestic, beautiful, and powerful. Every page is really a treat and so far we have 5 finished pages that are awaiting scripting and lettering and 2 pages that have been approved but not received. That means we are 1/2 through this 14 page story and Dominic has stated that he will be finished before the 27th. That means we will be well on our way to meeting the deadline for having this issue printed and in our hand by SPX (13 October 2006).
That means it's time to turn to looking at issue #4. For those that have followed Warmageddon since the beginning, this cover may look familiar. This was to be the cover for Warmageddon Illustrated #2. It is now appearing as the cover of the final issue of Warmageddon Quarterly Volume 1.
The final issue of Volume 1? Yes.
Do this mean no more Warmageddon comics? No.
Is this the end of Warmagedon Quarterly? No.
How is it the final issue, but not the end of Warmageddon Quarterly? Well, you see, we made the decision to follow the publishing format of Heavy Metal magazine. they published one volume a year and then start a new volume for the following year. This means that starting in Spring 2007, we will release Warmageddon Quarterly Volume 2 #1. We are currently preparing the line-up and cover artists for 2007.
However, I am getting ahead of myself so .... back to Volume 1 Issue #4. For far in issue #4 all I've mentioned is the 30 paged feature of Asar drawn by Caio Reis. Below is a yet another panel from Caio which features Asar's ship, the Wyvern.
In addition to the Asar tale, we will venture once again into Zombie City for a tale about the Zombie King. Written by Richard Nelson, this story will be drawn by Grant Perkins AKA Paradox Aka THA DOXX.
Grant (art above) has a quirky cartoon style that some have compared to Steve Musgrave (see the Thomas, Son of Marcus strips on the back of WQ 1&2). So stay tuned to see more from this story as Grant turns in pages.
The really astute followers of Warmageddon are now thinking "What about Dario?" Dario Carrasco of Panday Studios was originally scheduled to draw the Zombie King story, but due to schedule conflicts we'll have to place him on another story. Fortunately, I have just the right story in mind. Look for more in the new year. Dario is currently working on a Fist of Justice story for Digital Webbing Presents #32.
TAGS :
Asar, Blood Countess, Caio Reis, Dario Carrusco Jr, Dominic Vivona, Grant Perkins, Robert Herzig, Shane White, Steve Musgrave, Tiegre, Warmageddon Quarterly, Zombie City
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7 July 2006
With issue #2 hot off the presses, it now time to start thinking about issue #3. Normally, we don't talk about an issue until it is ready for print, but with this issue and future issues, we are going to discuss it from start to finish as we work on it.
 Issue #3 is scheduled to feature our longest Tiegre story to date (16 pages). We say is scheduled simply because the line-up is always changing. The story is titled "Forest Kirby" and is to be drawn by Italian artist Robert Herzig.
Also in this issue, we have Cease and Desist by Mike, Buz and Ken. This is a story that has been complete for over a year. The story (6 pages) has been constantly moved around from issue to issue and it will finally appear in issues #3.
Asar and Noel Tuazon makes a return engagement in the Golden Egg which finds the barbarian pirate on Rahnarok island. This is the longest story in the issue (18 pages), but does not receive cover treatment.
Last but not least is Izzy and Gunnar. They are making a  return engagement with Slimed (12 pages) after being missing in issue #2. This story was originally scheduled for issue #2, but was moved due to time pressure and lack of space in the issue.
That gives is a total of 52 pages (18+16+12+6) for this issue. Now let's talk about where this is stands.
The cover for the issue was pencilled and inked by Mahmud back in February (or so). It features Tiegre, Kiara, and the Blood Countess. Jamal needs to start working on the colors for this cover.
Issue #3 cover by Mahmud Asrar
On the Tiegre story we've seen pencils for the first 6 of the 16 pages, but Robert reports that he has finished the pencils for all 16 pages. We have 16 finished pages for the Asar story with more on the way at any moment. In fact the writer, Richard Nelson, has revised the script with the low rez version of the pages sent by Noel. This story is ready for lettering. We've seen 5 pencilled pages and all 12 layouts for Slimed. Artist, Hannu Lipponen, is currently on vacation, so we don't expect to see anything more from this story until later this month. That's about it as Cease and Desist is finished (as I mentioned) before. I hope #3 to be ready for Baltimore Comicon in mid September, but definitely by October as this is the FALL 2006 issue.
This is also the time where I begin looking ahead on the book. My plans are to treat the book as true magazine so after issue #4, we will start the new year with Volume 2 Number 1 rather than the standard #5. I'm jumping the gun though, so let's go back to issue #4.
Issue #4 will feature an Asar cover by Shane White. Asar and Tiegre are going back and forth on covers for the time being. The scheduled stories (with credits are) are:
Issue #4 cover by Shane White
Asar and the Adventures on Rock Island and Snake Valley (36 pages) by Caio Reis.
Zombie City: Zombie King (10 pages) and ...
some 6 paged story (maybe a Roc Island Epilogue)
From #4 Caio has begun to work on the pages. I've seen 6 pages of layouts. Zombie King exists as a finished script that I searching for an artist to draw. The 6-paged story is in limbo as I have no idea what will fit in this slot.
Asar layouts by Caio Reis
What else is there going on?
Richard Nelson is working on the scripts for 2 more Asar stories. We have the rough outline for the next Tiegre story (clocking in at near 30 pages) and the next Izzy and Gunnar story.
What's next?
We have to begin work on the schedule for next year as I want to try to have issues 4 and Vol 2 #1 completed at the same time. That means it's time to go hunting for a cover artist!
That's about all for now. I'll be back on Friday with a weekly update on the state of the comics.
TAGS :
Asar, Baltimore Comic-Con, Blood Countess, Buz Hasson, Caio Reis, Izzy and Gunnar, Ken Haesar, Mahmud Asrar, Mike Imboden, Noel Tuazon, Robert Herzig, Shane White, Tiegre, Warmageddon Quarterly, Zombie City
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