WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG...

We interrupt this comics Blog to bring you a message from another dimension, whose boundaries are those of the imagination.  There's the signpost up ahead; it's J.A. Fludd in...The Twilight Zone!

LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE BOYS

The central characters of the Quantum Comics universe are, how shall we say, fantastic “for” a number of reasons.  They are Earth’s most celebrated and loved adventurers, the Beatles of the heroic world:  the Environauts.

The origin of the Nauts, as they’re often called, takes the origin of another very famous comic-book quartet and turns it upside down.  Lorenzo “Lucky” Vega, super-rich super-science genius and the smartest kid in the world, takes his three best friends out for a submarine ride to test an experimental technology that catalogues the sounds made by marine life.  While they’re out there, they discover something that has never been recorded before--because it belongs to no ocean on Earth!  It captures them and tries to transform them into the vanguard of an alien invasion.  The intervention of an alien female (whom we’ll be meeting in the future) saves the boys, leaving them still human but super-powered--and making them the only thing that can save mankind from conquest by oceanic beings from another world.  (Meanwhile, Olympic gymnast Travis Roykirk is battling the same invasion, a battle that will result in his becoming the World Champion.)  Lucky’s brilliance and the four friends’ powers make them the explorers, discoverers, and protectors of Earth’s future; the world’s leading super-science heroes and pillars of the superhuman community.  These four boys are the pioneers of everything that is “super”.

The Environauts are so famous and so popular that in the Quantum Comics world you can’t turn on your TV or computer, or open a magazine or look at a newspaper, without seeing, hearing, or reading something about them.  And going out in public?  Remember how the Beatles couldn’t do a thing without being swarmed by screaming girls?  Imagine mobs of screaming girls and guys hurling themselves at you wherever you go.  It can make the business of saving the world even more complicated than you’d expect.

This group shot is the result of my latest tinkering with the team uniform.  As you can see, the Nauts wear the same suit in individual colors with individual symbols as well as a team symbol.  (There’s also an equally sleek-looking “dress” version of the suits, which I’ll have to show you sometime.)  Earth’s greatest heroes are (from left to right) openly gay, biracial Lionel Marshall, aka The Stone, who can transform his body into super-strong, invulnerable living marble; Roger Blaisdell, aka Aquarius, who becomes a figure of living liquid and does all manner of watery power stunts; team leader Lucky Vega, aka Lucky Star, with the power to become a body of living plasma, as in a neon sign or the Sun; and Roger’s big brother Warren “Trey” Blaisdell III, aka Cirrus, who becomes a body of living water vapor and charged particles, a human storm system that can produce all sorts of weather effects.  The powers of the Environauts are meant to reflect the spheres of the natural environment through which life has evolved.  Life as we know it began in the ocean and moved onto the land, certain creatures took to the sky, and man has uniquely begun to reach into space.  So the Nauts are figures of Ocean (Aquarius), Land (The Stone), Sky (Cirrus), and Space (Lucky Star).  

We’ll have individual posts for each of the Environauts in weeks to come.  In the meantime, let’s hear it for the boys.

THE ADVENTURES OF LUCKY VEGA #1 COVER

The first 8 pages of The Adventures of Lucky Vega are now in the queue to be inked--as is this cover image.  I tried numerous different cover drawings before settling on this one.  When it's inked, the upper part about the "Kirby Krackle" will all be black with stars and meteor trails.  

Meanwhile, in the weeks ahead I'll be showing a number of character designs that reflect the intended long-term future of Quantum Comics, even beyond The Environauts, which is where Lucky's adventures eventually go.  Some people have seen these designs on Facebook already, but I'll be featuring them here as well, and you never know what other surprises I'll be coming up with.  So don't be a stranger; keep those visits coming to Quantum Comics Blog.

THE ADVENTURES OF LUCKY VEGA: "INTERFACE" PAGE 8

Paloma is down, but she's not nearly out.  Lucky does not immediately press the advantage he's gained.  "Are you all right?" he asks.

Paloma replies, "What have I taught you about being afraid to hit 'a girl'?  Against some opponents that could cost you.  In fact, that could cost you now if you're not careful!"

Lucky says, "You're the teacher!"  As Roger looks on, Lucky shuts off the energy sword of his duo-blade and swings it around to its other business end.  And from the targeting laser that the other end emits, we get our first inkling of the truly clever and versatile way that the duo-blade lives up to its name!  Our mock combat has just gotten even more interesting...

THE ADVENTURES OF LUCKY VEGA: "INTERFACE" PAGE 7

See what Lucky is doing with his gloved hand in Panel 1?  You'd think he was about to fire a line of webbing, but this is the wrong character and the wrong universe for that!  What he's really doing is activating the emitter in his glove for...the Vega Shield!  It's a personal force field whose original purpose we will learn as our adventure progresses, but for now Lucky and Paloma are field testing it in their mock combat on the Vega Estate grounds.  So far it's proving pretty effective--which is to say, effective enough to use as an offensive weapon with which Lucky gives his teacher a swat and sends her flying!  Lucky scores the first fall in the battle--but will he really be able to get past Ms. Reyes and break the Saturn-shaped pinata, emerging triumphant in her challenge?  We'll see...

THE ADVENTURES OF LUCKY VEGA: "INTERFACE" PAGE 6

And the battle for the Saturn-shaped pinata, the challenge having been laid down in the previous post, is on!  With the energy swords of their duo-blades at the ready, Lucky and Paloma have at it!  FZZZAP!  Roger looks on as the duel is joined, narrating in his thoughts.  Lucky Vega--smartest kid in America, maybe the world.  My best friend.  Anything scientific, he can do it.  And he's as rich as a small country, probably richer than some big countries.  He and his Dad are out to create the future.  They invent things, make things happen.  And I get to see it first.  What scientific surprises is Roger about to witness this morning and in the adventures yet to come?  Keep following along and you'll get to see them too!

THE ADVENTURES OF LUCKY VEGA: "INTERFACE" PAGE 5

We left off with Lucky facing a challenge and here it is.  The lady facing him, also with a duo-blade, is Paloma Reyes.  She is the head of security for Vega Enterprises and Lucky's self-defense and martial arts trainer.  Esteban hired her to keep an eye on Lucky years ago, after Lucky went through an abduction-and-ransom experience and was traumatized.  If you think of The Adventures of Lucky Vega as a latter-day Jonny Quest, Paloma is Race Bannon.  We'll learn more about Paloma as we go along.  What we need to know about her for the moment is that she is essentially a fearless woman.  In fact she loves danger and challenge and faces risky, perilous situations with a smile on her face that can be positively unnerving.  It's almost scary the way nothing ever rattles her.  She's an expert at all forms of armed and unarmed combat and can drive or ride anything, especially if it's male and gorgeous, as we'll see--though she loves her job with the Vegas and considers Lucky and his father off-limits.  They are among the few hot-looking single men whom she will not take to bed! 

Another young stud who is exempt from Paloma's voracious appetites is Lucky's best friend, Roger Blaisdell, the blond lad who also makes his first appearance on this page.  Lucky is an only child (another thing we'll be going into); Roger is kind of a surrogate brother for him.  Roger is a drama major and a semi-professional surfer; he's working as a lifeguard while he's in school.  He is Lucky's closest confidant; he and Lucky tell each other pretty much everything.  One day, Lucky and Roger will be half of a super-powered hero team, The Environauts.  (And we'll be meeting the other two as we go along--one of them, in fact, is right around the corner in this very story.)  Lucky will be the team leader, Lucky Star; Roger will be his lieutenant, called Aquarius.  It is here in The Adventures of Lucky Vega that we begin to learn that Roger always has Lucky's back.

Lucky's challenge from Paloma is simple:  All he has to do is use his duo-blade to break the Saturn-shaped pinata that she has mounted behind her, using the skills she has taught him and the technology at his disposal (not all of which we've seen yet, so keep following along!)  Oh, and to do it...he has to get past Paloma.  If you're thinking this will be easier said than done, you've obviously been paying attention!

THE ADVENTURES OF LUCKY VEGA: "INTERFACE" PAGE 4

Segueing ahead from the Prologue (see the previous two posts), it's now the "Tomorrow" that little Lucky Vega dreamed about on hearing his father talk about the future he wanted Lucky to help him create.  That "Tomorrow" is also literally our tomorrow:  morning on the great Vega Estate in Manhattan Beach, CA.  But our Lucky is not so little any more:  He's 21 years old look at how he's grown up!  The weapon you see him handling here is called a duo-blade.  It appears to be a light sabre of the type that the Jedis and Siths used in Star Wars.  It's one of Lucky's father's inventions and there's a little surprise to it that George Lucas and company didn't think of; among the pages immediately to follow you'll learn just what that is!  Meanwhile, Lucky seems to be challenging someone to some kind of duel.  But whom would he be facing--an invader in his home (while he's dressed like that!) or someone else?  Keep following future posts and you'll see!

THE ADVENTURES OF LUCKY VEGA: "INTERFACE" PAGE 3

Finishing the Prologue for the first Lucky Adventure, our little future hero is getting a bit sleepy.  Esteban, who has just shared his vision of the future with his son (see the previous post), asks Lucky, "Would you like to help Poppa make that happen?"  Though he's starting to nod off, Lucky is still awake enough to be enthusiastic.  "Yes, Poppa...!"  "Then it's off to bed with us for now," says Esteban, picking up his little boy and carrying him out of the observatory.  "The future is coming, Lucky.  The future is always coming."  And as Lucky finally nods off to sleep, he still sees the vision of the universe beckoning before him.  He softly murmurs, "Tomorrow..."

And "tomorrow" is where Lucky Vega is always looking!

THE ADVENTURES OF LUCKY VEGA: "INTERFACE" PAGES 1 AND 2

Original page art for the very first Adventure of Lucky Vega has gotten under way.  The first Adventure is called "Interface," for reasons that will become clear as the story unfolds.  (Wait till you find out what incredible super-cosmic menace our young Lucky is going to have to face right off the bat!)  What you're seeing here is the artwork for the first two pages--or, more to the point, the revisions of same.  I did a first pass at these and a cover drawing earlier, and what happened then was what happens when you're a perfectionist and never satisfied with anything:  I got to thinking, Can I do these better?  So these pages are a "Take 2".  They are part of a Prologue that I created, set about 17 years before the time the main Adventures begin.

On these pages, Lorenzo "Lucky" Vega (we'll also learn later the origin of our hero's nickname) is about four years old when he's spending the evening at an observatory with his father, Dr. Esteban Vega.  Now Esteban is one of the coolest guys in the world.  Imagine a Steve Jobs type with that kind of money and that kind of computer/electronics empire behind him, and all the resources that that entails, who has committed himself to a vision of helping the human race perfect itself and pursue its destiny of leaving Earth and venturing out to live among the stars.  That's Lucky's Dad--or "Poppa," as Lucky calls him.  Here we see Esteban giving his little boy a glimpse of the wonders of the universe and telling him the future he foresees in which a better human race will embrace the Cosmos from which it came.  Lucky, who idolizes his Poppa, is properly awestruck.  Here's Page 1:

And Page 2:

For the original versions of these pages, I penciled in the heavy, flat blacks to be inked later on.  (You can guess that these would go in the shots of space, for example.)  For the revisions, to save time ("work smarter, not harder") I saved these areas for the inking.  We'll see the rest of the Prologue in the next post, then start to move on to the main story. 

THE REBIRTH BEGINS...

This is the first post of the all-new Quantum Comics Blog.  Some years ago I had a Website called Quantum Comics that I created as a launchpad for a line and universe of comics of my own creation, with my own characters and my own stories.  For reasons of health, I wasn’t able at the time to keep up with the work and maintain Quantum Comics in the way that I wanted and make it the thriving concern that I had meant it to be.  But I have adhered to the ambitions that informed my work then, which have been with me since I was in school.  I have continued creating and planning.  I have refined my work, added to my ideas, and modified my methods.  And of late I have recommitted to a goal of recreating Quantum, better than it was before.  In this Blog you will see the works of Quantum in progress.  You will see characters being born and a universe taking shape.  I hope you will find you are seeing wonders coming into being.  Wonder is one of the most critical, key things that Quantum Comics is about.

Everything in Quantum will be based on a set of indispensable and uncompromising core values.  The values to be reflected in every hero (and many of the villains!) and every story are...

ADVENTURE
WONDER
INTELLIGENCE
HEROISM
BEAUTY
ROMANCE
SCIENCE
FUN

Oh, and one more value, never, ever to be parted with, is PERSONAL VISION--the deeply held personal vision of the creator.  This is because it is my own deeply held conviction that the best art AND the best commerce come from people doing what they believe in.  I expect that in the weeks and months to come we’ll be talking a good deal more about all the values of Quantum Comics, and my position on all of them.  I hope you’ll look forward to it as much as I.

All the stories I have planned for Quantum--and there is a universe of them that can go on for many years--will be designed to address a set of questions.  In the original Quantum Comics I called them THE BIG QUESTIONS.  They can be expressed in this way:

How will we be affected or changed by the discovery that we are not alone in the universe?
How do we use science and technology to broaden our horizons and improve our quality of life without destroying ourselves?
How do we nurture our connection with the living Earth and the creatures that share it with us?
What do we—or should we—believe about our origins, our destiny, and our place in the universe?
How do we overcome prejudice and superstition and embrace the diversity that is essential to our survival and growth?
What is the responsibility of the best and the brightest, the exceptional and the distinguished, to the world as a whole and the common people in it?  How do the exceptional and the common learn to respect and value one another?

 

The central project that I have planned for the return of Quantum is called The Adventures of Lucky Vega.  It is the prequel to the master comic of the Quantum super-hero universe, The Environauts.  To understand the premise, you might say The Adventures of Lucky Vega is about Challenging the Unknown before characters begin to acquire super-powers and things start getting Fantastic.  In the midst of seeing the work in progress for Lucky, you’ll also get to glimpse the future super-heroes of the Quantum Comics universe.  There will always be something beautiful and wondrous going on here, as there will be in the eventual comics themselves.

I hope you’ll be a regular visitor to the Quantum Comics Blog.  When I launched the original Quantum it was with the slogan “There’s a saga born every minute!”  This will be where the sagas are born again.