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...

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.

THE TRUE TEST!

As Lucky and Roger's workout in the Immersion Room continues, we start to discover the extent of the inventiveness of our young hero and his father as Lucky reveals a new technology and challenges Roger to help him test its effectiveness.  What is the true purpose of the Vega Shield?  Is it merely a defensive weapon, or is the vision of the brilliant Dr. Esteban Vega much broader in scope?  Future strips will tell the tale about the Vega Shield and many other things!

A FRIENDLY DUEL

As Lucky and Roger have at it in the Immersion Room, they are surrounded with holographic tableaux of outer space scenes that were suggested by a lot of the things I watch on TV.  I'm a science-documentary buff, and I spend a lot of time on channels like Discover, Science, and History, watching programs on subjects including astronomy, astrophysics, and space travel.  I can't get enough of shows like that, and I incorporate some things that I see on them into my storytelling.  I'm always on the lookout for ideas, and science is one of my favorite places to look!

IMMERSED

Lucky, who is capable of virtually anything scientific, is about to try out some of his new super-high-tech innovations with the help of his friend Roger.  The Immersion Room is not quite a Holodeck such as you see in Star Trek.  Its tableaux are not solid like the ones aboard the Enterprise.  But Lucky has something planned for this room this morning, as we shall see...

STARTING THE PROGRAM

And now we begin The Adventures of Lucky Vega in earnest.  As we open the first story, young Lucky is about to do something both awesome and fun.
 

THANK YOUR LUCKY STAR

With a Webcomic version of The Adventures of Lucky Vega now in thumbnailing, I decided it was time to have a set of final master drawings of the lead characters of The Environauts, both as they will appear when they acquire their super-powers and become Earth's most awesome adventurers, and as they'll appear in the prequel.  With this post, the coloring of these model sheets is complete.

The powers of the Environauts reflect the spheres of the natural environment through which life has evolved (or will evolve as man advances), from Ocean to Land to Sky to Space.

The unquestioned leader of the Environauts, Lorenzo Roberto Miguel Vega, mainly called Lucky Vega and known in his super life as LUCKY STAR, is the "Space" character and the embodiment of science and the future.  If you can imagine the elastic leader of another very famous comic-book foursome as a 22-year-old Latino, that's Lucky.  Unlike that character, however, Lucky is not quite so verbose, much more emotionally open, and has an aggressive edge to match his scientific brilliance.  Lucky would have been the youngest of three children if his older brother and sister had survived; the third time Dr. Esteban Vega and his wife Rosita tried to have a child, they finally got "Lucky".  Young Lorenzo, the heir to a computer and technology-industry fortune larger than the budget of the United States, is every bit his father's son.  Esteban Vega, a genius at computers and everything scientific who had a vision of perfecting the human race for its destiny in space, was determined that his only boy would be a man of pure science, free from all superstition, dogma, prejudice, and magical thinking, and embracing higher human principles (not invented supernatural authority) as the source of all human virtue.  That's how Lucky was raised  (which came between his parents when Rosita turned back to the Catholic Church, which Esteban absolutely rejected) and that's who he has become.  Lucky is either personally capable of anything scientific, or able to summon masters of any scientific discipline to his aid.  His scientific genius and resourcefulness are virtually super-powers in themselves and the potential undoing of many a villain.  Lucky is filled with wonder at the incredible things he encounters in his adventures, things that would overwhelm or terrify most other people.  Confronted with aliens, monsters, mysteries of the universe, and strange new technologies, Lucky smiles and uses his favorite expression:  "This is amazing!"  Lucky's amazement is always greater than his fear, which makes him the greatest of heroes.  The ironic thing about Lucky is that for all he has and for all he is capable of doing, at heart he wishes he could be "a regular boy" and wants nothing more than to have the things in his life--friends, girls, sports, fun--that regular boys have.  Lucky is attracted to older women and in love with his college physics professor, Elise Hall, whose ex-fiance, Graeme Grimstead, becomes Lucky's most personal enemy and the arch-foe of the Environauts.  The most touching part of his relationship with his three closest friends and partners is that while he affords them a life beyond their wildest dreams, they in turn are his touchstones to a life that he would otherwise never know.  The bond of loyalty and friendship between Lucky and the others is actually the greatest "power" that the Environauts possess.

Lucky Star can become a living, incandescent body of plasma like that in a neon sign or the Sun.  In this form he can fly as fast as 300 MPH and emit beams and bolts of plasma energy, or give off powerful electromagnetic pulses.  Like a star, he is also a strong source of heat and light.  His corona can melt weapons and projectiles that come near him, and he can dissipate the discharge of energy-based weapons or attacks from energy-powered opponents.  His one vulnerability is to strong magnetic fields, which can disrupt him and force him back to human form, but he's working on that.  Lucky is always working on something, which always keeps his friends' lives exciting and interesting.  When Lucky Star calls his friends together, they know they'll soon be heading into something awesome.