QUANTUM CHRISTMAS CARD FOR 2015!

I know it's been a terribly long time since we've had a post here on Quantum Comics Blog, and for this I blame life simply getting in the way.  I've had a lot of things going on, things that I've had to deal with personally, that have kept me away from the drawing board for an inordinately long time, and to be honest they've cost me a lot of the momentum and motivation for the work I'd been doing.  This has been to such an extent that I finally decided to shut down or put aside all of the work that I had been planning and come back to it later. For the coming year I'm also looking at starting things anew with different work, or fresh approaches to old work, and doing some major re-thinking of the ways in which I do things.  But we'll get to all of that when the time comes. For now, it's time at last for the most awesome holiday event of all, THE QUANTUM CHRISTMAS CARD!

Of course the holiday season would not be complete without a pulse-quickening panorama of pixels.  For this year we return to a prior theme with a twist.  Exactly ten Christmases ago I commemorated the release of the first Tim Story-directed Fantastic Four movie by bringing together the greatest heroes of all time that I didn't create with the greatest heroes of all time that I did.  That was the year the Fantastic Four and my own Environauts faced each other in a sizzling snowball fight!  This year in the Cineplexes there was a movie with the name Fantastic Four on it, which was in no way a reflection of the brilliant creation of Stan "The Man" Lee and Jack "King" Kirby, and whose very existence I mostly ignored.  For the Quantum Card this year I decided once again to bring together the phenomenal Foursome and the ne'er-do-wrong Nauts--and not any bogus Hollywood makeover of the FF, but the real, genuine, no-screwing-around, honest-to-goodness Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four!  To make it even more fun this time I decided to throw in the arch-villains to boot!  Our 27th Card, then, pits both teams against the baddest of all the bad guys:  the Environauts' most mortal enemy Graeme Grimstead and Marvel's greatest figure of evil, Dr. Doom himself!

I hope this year's Card meets with your pleasure as you clobber and flame your way into 2016.  Until next year, Nauts to you.

QUANTUM CHRISTMAS CARD FOR 2014!

And we're back for the holidays after a long absence which will be explained shortly, I hope to your satisfaction.  It's time now for the 26th annual unveiling of the most awesome holiday event of all:  THE QUANTUM CHRISTMAS CARD!  And here it is.

Making his fifth official Card appearance is Nature's Child himself, Jon Wilde, a.k.a. WILD JON, accompanied this year by boyfriend and lifemate Thomas "Tom" Tierney, who I believe is the first supporting character ever to appear on a Card.  As we look in on Jon and Tom on Christmas morning, we find them in the middle of opening their goodies--or at least some of them!

Now, as for what's been going on the past few months.  We were supposed to have had The Adventures of Lucky Vega fully up and running after that first sequence of strips.  But I've had a lot of personal things going on that put the strip in a stall, and after that loss of initial momentum I started to reconsider some things.  I was happy with the strip as I had it, but I started to realize that I wasn't completely comfortable with the comic-strip format, those tight bands of panels in which I was drawing the story.  I found I wanted the story and the artwork to have more room to be more expansive, as in a regular comic book page.  At the same time I found my heart wasn't really in the idea of starting the whole thing over yet again.  At length I reluctantly decided it was time to change my major project for a while and come back to The Adventures of Lucky Vega more refreshed and really ready to do it up right at a later date.  That left me with the question, to which project should I switch?

For the present state of my personal life, I decided that I should go with the simplest thing I have.  Not simplistic, just simple and comparatively easy to accomplish while trying to negotiate some other things I have going on.  There was only one choice, and it's something as imaginative as you would expect and as sexy as you would like!  As for exactly what the new major project will be...   I've already dropped a big hint, though you'll have to come back for further news to learn exactly what it is I'm up to.  

Meanwhile, please feel free to forward and share this cosmic Card to your friends and loved ones as always.  It's about giving.

Happy Holidays, everyone, from Quantum Comics Blog.  Ho-ho-ho!

THE TURN OF THE STONE

The Adventures of Lucky Vega is still on its way back to full production.  In the meantime I still have a couple of other things to show you.  As we've seen in prior posts, sometimes I reconsider the look of a character.  Until the characters are "official," i.e. appearing in an actual story, they remain "open" for fine-tuning and tinkering.  Here, then, is the update on a Lucky Vega supporting character and future Environaut, Lionel Marshall, who upon acquiring his super-powers will become the stupendous Stone!  

 

As originally conceived, urbane and erudite gay Lionel, a college boxing champion, was purely African-American.  In response to the evolution of my own family--an awesome melting pot of blacks, Italians, Jews, and most recently Asians that reflects the present evolution of America itself--I decided to reconfigure him a bit.  Lionel's official identity is African-American on his mother's side, Irish-American on his father's side.  But he's smart and brave and strong to the core.  I wanted to have one more pass at giving him the perfect look, and this time I think I've really got it.

Coming up next:  One more thing I wanted to see and show you, related to a recent post.  Then we'll be on hiatus for a while with the production of a new set of Lucky strips.  Keep watching, everyone!

BY SPECIAL REQUEST

This post of Quantum Comics Blog is in response to a request from a fan-friend of mine who wanted to see Draco Rex and his best mate Baslysk together.  I thought that was a great idea, so here it is.

ALL-STAR ON THE RISE

One of my storytelling role models, Stan Lee himself, openly admits that he has never liked one particular type of character:  the super-hero's teenage sidekick.

You know, all the teenaged Buckys and Robins and Aqualads and Kid Flashes and so forth that have been running around in costumes alongside adult super-heroes since the early history of Batman--Stan never cared for them.  We know what the rationale behind all those characters was supposed to be:  they were meant to give the pre-teen boys who were supposedly the core audience of comic books a reference point, a character with whom to identify, a character they were supposed to imagine themselves as being.  (In Batman's case, Robin was also meant to lighten him up and make his stories seem a little lighter.  Of course that doesn't work any more; the accepted characterization of Batman today is "Dirty Harry in a Cape".)  But anyway, all those sidekicks started a tradition that has persisted in one form or another all the way into present-day super-hero fiction.  

Now at Marvel Comics in the 60s they did it a little differently and had the teenagers themselves be the heroes:  the Human Torch, Spider-Man, the old X-Men.  And they went at their teen characters very differently than DC did.  Over at DC, the sidekick characters--as well as the Legion of Super-Heroes, who were independent teen heroes--were smiling, scrubby-dubby, authority-respecting figures, practically Mouseketeers in costumes.  (That's not true of them any more; we're talking 1950s-60s here.)  The Marvel teens were another matter.  The Human Torch was all hormones and attitude; he ran away from the Fantastic Four at the end of the third issue and was always into cars and girls, only sometimes in that order.  Spider-Man had more teen angst and adolescent anguish than a character on the CW Network.  The X-Men, born with powers that manifested at puberty and feared and hated by common people, were teenage alienation incarnate.  That was the only way that Stan Lee could handle teenagers as super-heroes.  He never liked the idea, and in the book Origins of Marvel Comics he went so far as to call the costumed teen sidekick "a cloying, simpy extension of the hero's personality."  

Stan deemed it irresponsible for adult super-heroes to take costumed kids into battle with them; he thought they had no business putting youngsters in danger and expecting them to battle murderous villains.  No wonder that when Stan and Jack Kirby revived Captain America in The Avengers #4 they killed off Bucky in the backstory, and for years Marvel confined the character to period stories, flashbacks, and time travel stories.  (That tradition has in recent years Soldiered through its last Winter, I'm sorry to say.)  I shudder to think what might have happened if Stan had been writing DC Comics back in the day.  I have this mental image of the Justice League of America weeping over the graves of the early Teen Titans.  Fare thee well, Robin, Kid Flash, Speedy, Aqualad, and Wonder Girl!

But still, the idea of super-heroes with youthful proteges is with us.  It's something we associate with DC a bit more than Marvel.  And it's something especially beloved of gays who read comics.  The reasons why are not hard to understand when you consider that the teen years are the usual coming-out time for young gays, and that this period of life exerts an especially powerful hold on the gay imagination.  So in building the universe of Quantum Comics I wanted to try my hand at having at least one teen sidekick.  I created him for the World Champion.  You remember him, I'm sure, from an earlier post:

Well, the Champ has a sidekick who, in the best tradition of gay comic-book-fan wish fulfillment, is rather more than a sidekick.  After a lot of tinkering with both the character and his look, here's how he came out, so to speak.  Introducing...the All-Star!  TA-DAA...!

Josh Beatty is one of those unfortunate gay youths who encounter hatred, hostility, rejection, and threats of violence where they should never have to deal with them:  in his very home!  When he overhears his own father, a construction foreman, telling Eric's mother that if he ever learned that one of his children was a homosexual, he would thrash that child within an inch of his life--or more--and toss him out like the garbage.  Newly Out but shocked, heartbroken, and fearing for his very life from own father, Josh waited for his chance to escape from a home where he would never feel safe again.  He ran away and never looked back, living in shelters for gay youth until at last finding a haven with an advocacy group that worked with teenage gays and lesbians thrown out by their families for being who they are.  With their help, Josh became an Emancipated Minor and got job training, and when he was old enough he finally got a position as a barista at a gay fitness club in West Hollywood. It was here he met and was instantly in awe of Olympic Gold Medal gymnast Travis Roykirk--just in time for Earth to be invaded by the Ardemian Rief Clan, the event that resulted in the origin of the Environauts!  It was during this upheaval that Travis used the Samson-Vega Patch on himself and became a near-superhuman to help defend Earth.

After the crisis was over and Earth was saved from the invasion, Josh and Travis met up again and Josh learned that his idol/crush was moving on to get re-trained in combat skills with his newly enhanced body.  Fearing he would never see Travis again, Josh begged the hero/athlete to take him along and let him be trained as well.  He wanted Travis to be his mentor--and more.  Travis found he didn't want to say goodbye to the young boy who so admired and so obviously wanted him, so he accepted.  So, as Travis returned to his own mentors for the battle training that would make him the costumed World Champion, Josh accompanied him and was groomed to be the Champ's partner in life and more.  And this, then, was the origin of the boy the world would come to know as the All-Star.  

Next in Quantum Comics Blog:  A little something I'm whipping up in answer to a fan's request.  And as the spring and summer roll on:  More of The Adventures of Lucky Vega!

DRAGON WITH A MANE

While we're looking forward to more of The Adventures of Lucky Vega, I have a number of other things for your entertainment.  Remember a while back when I did a quick pencil sketch of Draco Rex, King of Dragons, with longer hair?  I decided to take that idea back to the old sketchbook recently, and do it up more comprehensively and put color to it.  (And take the mousse out of the hair!)  What do you think about this?

FRIEND OF THE DRAGON

While we're awaiting the continued Adventures of Lucky Vega, I have a few other things to show you. To start: Here's a brand-new character that I whipped up as a companion for the mightiest warrior in all space and time, Draco Rex. This reptilian rapscallion is called Baslysk, and he is actually a replacement for another character. Therein lies a bit of a story, as always.

Draco Rex was originally conceived--or originally willed himself into existence--as a supporting character for the Environauts. The strength and presence of the character made it clear that Draco would never be content to be anyone's supporting player; he was a star and nothing less. So I undertook to flesh out his background and where he came from, and as I did so one more thing that occurred to me is that as a mythic hero he was going to need a faithful companion. Every great, conquering hero of the mythic type needs a loyal and trusted fellow traveler, someone who always has his back. In the comic books mighty Thor had Balder (who is conspicuously absent from those movies). Orion of The New Gods had his pal Lightray. The TV Hercules went about his legendary journeys with a sidekick named Iolaus. A character to tag along with the deathless Draco seemed like a good idea.

My first notion for Draco's companion was a character I called Loren Python. As personalities go, Python would be most distinctly different from the mighty King of Dragons. He was a wrestler by vocation, with the power to lunge, strike, and pin an opponent with the speed and strength of the snake for whom he's named, and the ability to tap people's nervous systems with a touch, inducing unbearable pain or euphoric pleasure at will. Python preferred to use the "pleasure" side of his powers, and he loved best to use it on...women! In the matriarchal society of Varonia where Draco comes from, Python--who, being a Quantum Comics hero, was excruciatingly beautiful--was every woman's favorite stud, and he loved nothing better than to serve them. He never slept alone and frequented more than one bed in a day. When he wasn't wrestling, or traveling and adventuring with his best mate, Prince Declan Draco, he could be found servicing some maiden or maidens of the realm. Python made Sam Malone look like Sheldon Cooper.

I opted not to use Python eventually, not because he was a bad character--in fact he was a very clever, fun character--and not because he was so egregiously heterosexual, but because he was also too much of a character for a supporting role. He was a lead character in a supporting player's skin, as Draco himself had started out. I decided at length to put Python away and find some other use for him, perhaps try him out as a gay character on his own at some point. Meanwhile, that left Draco without a faithful companion. What to do, what to do?

The answer came from somewhere else in the reptile family. The Basilisk lizard of South America is a relative of the Iguanas. Basilisks have a distinctively look, with prominent, fin-like crests on their heads and backs. They are among the fastest of the reptiles, so fast that they are famous for running across ponds on their hind legs to escape predators. This knack for running on water is said to be why Basilisks are called "Jesus Lizards". Where that actually comes from is that the first time a white man saw a Basilisk do that, he hollered, "JEE-sus!" and the name stuck. I didn't have a super-speed character in the Quantum Comics universe, and modeling one after the Basilisk seemed a wholly unique way to bring one in. So I sat myself down and designed a reptile-inspired speedster with scales and a crest on his back and one of the prettiest costumes I think I've ever come up with, and there he was.

Baslysk, one of the noblest warriors in the realm of Varonia, was honored with a bath in the mutagenic Dragonblood, from which he emerged with dorsal scales and a dorsal crest--and the power to move faster than the eye can follow. He can run across large bodies of water and up and down the sides of buildings. Blink and you'll miss him--but if you're his foe or the enemy of his realm, he won't miss you. He's a messenger and explorer by trade, and a chrononaut (time traveler) at the side of the Prince when called upon. Unlike the pulchritudinous Python, Baslysk is very much a man's man, honoring women as all men under the rule of Queen Tiamat must, but not bedding them. He's for men only. That's the one boundary he doesn't skirt (pardon the expression). If you ever chance to see a green and black blur out of the corner of your eye, relax; that's just the blazing Baslysk en route to perform some deed of bravery like the large-living lizard guy that he is.

SUDDENLY HE REMEMBERS...

This is the last of the Adventures of Lucky Vega strips that I have completed for the time being.  But a great many more are waiting in the thumbnail-sketch stage to be penciled, inked, and lettered for your entertainment in the weeks and months to come; we're nowhere near finished!  And you can rest assured that Quantum Comics Blog will not just be coasting until the strip resumes; I have some other goodies to show you in the weeks ahead.

Meanwhile, we leave off with Trey Blaisdell remembering what he's supposed to be doing this morning, which has nothing to do with the young waitress that he picked up last night, in whose apartment he's just woken up!  As Trey hurriedly tosses on his clothing (for now) and speeds out of the apartment, he leaves behind a girl that neither he nor we will ever see again and--though he can't know this now--speeds away to a future of wonderment and adventure such as he's never imagined!  We'll all be sharing in that wonderment soon, so keep coming back for more.

ENTER TREY

We take our leave of Lucky himself just for a moment to have a look at what's going on in a little apartment in North Hollywood where another member of our cast is just waking up.  Roger's big brother, Warren Blaisdell III, commonly called just Trey, has not had an easy time in his young life.  He is what people used to call "a wayward youth".  Make that VERY wayward.  He wants to do better than he's done so far, but as we're about to see in our next strip, his wayward impulses still get the better of him.  In The Environauts, when Trey acquires his super-powers, he'll be called Cirrus. You'll also note that his wayward impulses are decidedly heterosexual ones.  For our gay visitors, take heart:  The Adventures of Lucky Vega will have gay characters and gay material as we roll along.  We now just happen to be introducing a very straight boy.  Keep an eye on Trey as our story unfolds.  As you'll also see, he's more than worth keeping an eye on.

OTHER BUSINESS FOR DR. VEGA

We're about to switch scenes in this first Adventure of Lucky Vega.  In this strip we set up a scene transition away from Lucky and company for a moment--just long enough to introduce another character in our cast.  It seems Lucky's pal Roger has a big brother who's been set up for a job interview with Esteban, and Dr. Vega turns his attention at least for a moment away from the mind-boggling mystery of the cybernetic attacks to the potential newest member of his payroll.  We get our first inkling here of whom we're about to meet in our next strip.  Stay tuned, as they say...

MENACE IN THE MACHINERY!

Rejoining The Adventures of Lucky Vega for the new year, the maddening mystery of who has been attacking the data infrastructure of the world continues--and Dr. Esteban Vega doesn't know what he's going to do about it, at least not yet!  Lurking in the future is an evil so vast, so all-consuming, that the assaults on corporate information technology are only its first expression.  What is about to attack the Earth and all mankind is something far more deadly than it appears, as we shall see...

THE PHANTOM HACKER!

Resuming The Adventures of Lucky Vega:  When we left off, Esteban Vega was so upset about something that he was unusually critical of Lucky's testing of the Vega Shield.  As we see in this strip, he has plenty to be upset about.  Who is attacking the IT infrastructure of high-tech companies?  Who is it that works with such mysterious and sophisticated methods that he strikes and disappears like some kind of cybernetic ghost that no one can trace?  And could this be only the merest hint of a super-science threat so strange, so awesome, so terrifying that only the genius of Lucky Vega and his father could possibly be a match for it?  I'd bet on it...

25-YEAR HOLIDAY TIME WARP!

The Adventures of Lucky Vega will resume soon.  But first, Quantum Comics Blog is proud to present something special for the holidays.

We’re about to see the always-anticipated unveiling of the annual QUANTUM CHRISTMAS CARD!  But this is a very special year, as 2013 marks the 25th year that I’ve been creating these heroic holiday offerings.  Think of that:  25 YEARS!  For the occasion, before we see the latest edition of the most wondrous Card of all, we first take a look back two and a half decades into the past.  Presenting once again: the first, THE ORIGINAL J.A. FLUDD CHRISTMAS CARD!  Yes, it's a souvenir of that time before the discovery of fire when I would physically print these things on card paper and mail them in envelopes with postage stamps.  It features heroes of the universe in which I first started creating characters, dating back to high school!  (Yes, that far, believe it or not!)  Some of the concepts of this earlier, pre-existing universe still survive in altered forms in my present work.  For this historic occasion, then, a peek way back into history!  Then, after this little time warp, scroll directly down below this post for the official unveiling of this year’s Card!

QUANTUM CHRISTMAS CARD FOR 2013!

It’s QUANTUM CHRISTMAS CARD time again! Can there be a more awesome holiday event than the annual unveiling of the cosmic Card?  Short of the appearance of Father Christmas at Macy's Parade, methinks not!  But this year's Card marks an extra-special occasion, for it is in fact the 25th annual Card!  Our tradition is now a quarter of a century old!  Bear in mind, since not everyone has known me or looked at my work for 25 years, only a very few people have actually seen the Card every year since I started.  And for some years there were actually TWO Cards, one of which went only to gay men and heterosexual women.  It's true.  But this is the 25th year in all that I've been creating these heroic holiday offerings, so for 2013 I wanted to do something really memorable.  So in the midst of production I made a critical decision and called out to the assembled Quantum heroes:  "Okay, lads, costumes off this time!  We're making it a SWIMSUIT EDITION!"

Everyone got on board for this, even Cirrus of the Environauts, who's very straight-but-not-narrow and prefers to strip only for his very fortunate girlfriend.  His little brother Aquarius, who's a model on the side, cajoled him into it.  "Come on, Trey, the Boss says costumes off.  Take one for the team…"  Wild Jon, Draco Rex, and Seastorm (making his debut this year) were game for it on the spot, as their standard or preferred outfits are either very revealing or almost nude anyway.  The World Champion, who publishes a men's fitness magazine, doffed his duds without hesitation.  The Serpent (also appearing for the first time), whose ambition other than to be a hero is to be one of those "octagon fighting championship" guys you see on TV, duly shed his suit; you know those guys do their fighting in nothing but their boxer briefs anyway.  (And this is supposed to be entertainment for straight men…)  And the also straight-but-not-narrow Satellite, another hero making his Card debut, has one of the best costumes ever but was willing to take it off for the entertainment of any ladies watching.  And so, here we have the 25th official Card in all its glory, and the tradition goes on.

As always, the Card is free to share with friends and loved ones as you desire, with my compliments.  Cheers and greetings from Draco Rex, Wild Jon, The Quantum, Idol, Seastorm, Cirrus, The World Champion, The Satellite, The Stone, Lucky Star, The Point, The Serpent, Aquarius, and their creator.  And may you all have a historically happy Holiday Season!

THE SECRET OF THE SHIELD!

Continuing The Adventures of Lucky Vega:  In this latest strip we learn the purpose of the fantastic new technology whose rather creative testing by Lucky and Roger we've been watching.  It turns out to have been made for a lot more than sparring inside of holograms!  

Now we're starting to get into the "meat" and "juice" of our story.  In the weeks ahead, we'll learn to what other purposes Lucky and his friends will put the Vega Shield and the other super-high-tech innovations of Vega Enterprises!  It promises to be a wild ride!

GET LUCKY AGAIN!

I know, I know, it's been a while.

By way of explanation, I haven't posted anything new in The Adventures of Lucky Vega for the past several weeks because I've been sidetracked by other work and other projects--one of which is this year's mind-boggling Quantum Christmas Card.  And when you see that, I hope you'll think our little hiatus was well-justified.  Also, in the set of new strips for Lucky that I had completed there were a few panels that I wanted to take back for re-drawing because, frankly, I wasn't satisfied with them and I didn't want them going out the way I had them. However, work on the strip is back in progress, so it's time to pick up where we left off.

Next week the Holiday season begins in earnest and I expect to be with you through it with not only The Adventures of Lucky Vega but some other things I hope you'll enjoy seeing almost as much as I enjoyed doing them--including that Christmas Card!  So keep on coming back, hear?

DECISION BY DISTRACTION!

So how does Lucky and Roger's test of the Vega Shield in the Immersion Room finally end up?  The arrival of Lucky's father decides the outcome of their contest.  But will Dr. Vega be impressed with any of it?  He doesn't exactly seem happy to see what's going on.  Time will tell what's going on with Poppa!

ENTER...DOCTOR VEGA!

As Lucky and Roger continue their very creative test of the Vega Shield, they haven't yet noticed that they have an audience.  Dr. Esteban Vega, Lucky's Dad, doesn't seem very impressed with what his son is up to.  Is he just annoyed at the way Lucky is using the equipment or could something else be going on?  Future strips will tell!

WHO GOES THERE?

And now, the start of another reveal and the first little plot twist for the first story in The Adventures of Lucky Vega.

ART AND TECHNOLOGY

Don't let me hear you say you can't get ideas when ideas are all around you all the time.  Sometimes they're even sitting right in your hand.  Case in point:  Since the lead characters in The Adventures of Lucky Vega don't have super-powers (this is pre-Environauts, remember), I wanted them to have some clever weaponry.  One idea that I came up with was the Vega Shield, the reveal of which we saw last week.  But energy shields are a very familiar idea; I wanted Lucky and his posse to have something that was distinctly theirs.  It then occurred to me that a very clever idea was right at hand--right there in the very materials that I work with as an artist!

Some of you fellow artistic types are probably familiar with the way some inking and coloring pens are made these days.  Some of them are actually two pens in one, with a different kind of point at each end.  Typically, one end will be a marker-type point and the other will be a brush-like point.  In a flash of inspiration I imagined a weapon that would be kind of like one of those pen combinations.  At one end it would be a light sabre, typical of the weapons used as the Jedis and Siths in Star Wars.  But at the other it would be a particle beam weapon, comparable to Star Trek's phasers and any of the myriad other such beam weapons in popular fiction.  This was the birth of the Vega Duoblade!  Problem solved, unique weapon created!  See, you just have to look in the right place for the right idea.