Issue 3 & Scheduling

As I write this I'm hard at work on issue # 3 and with only 11 panels left to do, I'm hoping to get it done and published on Tuesday, June 5 - am also really trying hard to get it done by then as I want to change it to be a first week book.

When I published originally in April, I did it as soon as I heard from the Library of Congress that the copyright was secured, but after doing the comic for two issues, I really think it would be cool to pull it up and start the month with it.

I'm also really enjoying issue # 3 as it's truly the first book that I'm enjoying creating - don't get me wrong, I loved doing the first two, but 3 is where I really start to go into hints about the larger universe I'm creating. Starting with 3 and moving on for the next 5 issues after that I'm focusing on one character at a time and each issue serves to set up a character or concept that will play a role in my comic for several years to come - in fact, some of that is revealed won't even be fully explained for a few years - but everything that is hinted at will have a deeper meaning in the future.

Issue 3 also starts to see the inclusion of another aspect of the book that will play a huge role, Mythology - that is something I've always loved, especially Greek mythology, and for issue 3 that's what I touch on as Crossbow finds herself face-to-face with Diodarius, a character who I've hinted at in issues 1 and 2 and who will have a major impact on the team.  

Issue 3 is also the first one where I really feel comfortable with the coloring and lettering - and boy was that a learning process!  Everything up to about 2014 I did with pencil and paper - but now with doing the comic online with layers and shading, the first two issues were a struggle at times and I don't know that I really got it right, but with 3 - at least for the coloring, I think I'm in a good place (and hopefully got it right, or at least closer to right)! 

Creation

I have a cousin who is reading the comic and he asked me about my inspiration on creating one of the characters, and that was a tough question to answer.

I created most of the founding members back when I was in 5th grade.  It was around June and the end of the school year and I was in class thinking about comics or super-heroes no doubt, as that was mostly what I thought about and, as near as I can remember, the idea for Titan came to me first.

By the end of the day, I had thought up Crossbow, Cat, Magno, Phantom and Mr. Roboto (M.R.) - of course Master Mind came a little later.  To be honest, I don't really recall what prompted that and I don't know that they were inspired by anything - they just sort of appeared in my mind.

I ended up thinking about them over the next couple of weeks and then when my family went on vacation for the July 4th week, that was when I drew them for the first time.  I thought up Master Mind sometime later that summer, but it was before school started again.

I'm sorry to say that I don't even know the exact day that I created them, back then I only wrote the year on my artwork and not the exact date, so I'm just relying on what I can remember.

Some of the characters that I created later I do remember the inspiration for, more so with the later ones I created.

Then there is Diodarius, who everyone will meet for the first time in issue 3, although he's been mentioned already.  I actually created him back when I was about 6 or 7, but at the time I called him Wonder Boy.  In fact, in my mind I called him that up until around 2013 when I started to write up the stories for the series, but decided to change the name then.

Issue 2 Deleted Scenes

When I was coloring issue 2, I decided to leave some scenes that I had originally inked out and I thought I would share them.

The first deleted scene was when the team was on Cat's world and approaching the citadel where Cat was being held.  This scene shows the back of Titan as he's approaching the entrance, but I wasn't really happy with the way it came out.

The second scene comes from when the team is back on Earth in their meeting room and they are checking out the crystal that is floating there.  I just was never really happy with the artwork in this scene, so I just changed the wording to make the other panels work without this one.

The final cut scene is from the ending when the heroes are zapped with a mysterious energy and are blown back.  Here we find M.R. (Mr. Roboto) flying through the air, but since that was already shown in another panel, which was very similar, I thought that this scene just wasn't needed.

Cat's Language

I originally created the language for Cat's galaxy back when I was in High School.  I might clean this up at some point, but here is a scan of the actual page I created that showed his language.

Cat's Galaxy

When I did issue number 2, I spent about 2 hours doing the scene that showed the worlds of Cat's galaxy, but when it uploaded to YouTube, the image distorted and I learned a lesson, no labeling things with red letters on a black background for YouTube videos!

Here's an image that hopefully is a littler clearer to read.

Second Issue is Live!

The second issue of the Ultra-Elite Team went live tonight!

Issue Number 2

Issue 2 coming soon!

Here's the cover to issue # 2, it goes live at 6 PM on Tuesday, May 22!

Issue 2 Coming soon!

Here's a sneak peek of issue # 2 - which will go live on YouTube on May 22!

What's in a Name and Setting the Pace

In creating my comic, I did come across a few challenges.

The first was the name of the team - in my stories (and my heart) it the Ultimate Team - that was always what it has been since I created it.  All of my original notes and artwork had that on it as well.  However, something that was unknown to me - sometime since I last dealt with my creations- over 15 years prior (before picking them up in 2012) Marvel Comics had created their Ultimate line.  

Now, as I've come to understand (and if I'm wrong, someone please correct me) their line is not group name but more of a way of telling stories and getting to the essence of their characters, whereas my was the actual team name.  To be honest, I was a bit hear-broken as I didn't want anyone to confuse the two or to think I was choosing a name to mimic an established concept, so around 2015 I changed the name of my team to the Ultra-Elite Team, although I did copyright the Ultimate Team as an alternative name for them, I don't plan to use it as much - although it might sneak into the stories here and there.  

The other challenge I faced was "where to start the story?"  I thought about starting at the beginning, maybe the characters' origins and going from there, but I found that too off-putting.  When the world is getting to meet my characters for the first time - I want them to (hopefully) like them and want to learn more - and I thought that perhaps starting with unknown characters' origins might be a bit much for characters that nobody knew.  

Instead I decided to start the story about two weeks after the Ultra-Elite Team formed.  This way people are coming in right from near the beginning, but not getting bogged down with a lot of back story.  As for origins?  Well, yes they are written - my plan now is to do them starting in issue 13, I'm hoping by then that people will be liking my characters and anxious to learn more.

To do this I decided to keep issue 1 a little light on story (something I debated a hundred times over and still not sure if that was the right decision) and just kind of introduce my characters to the world.  Starting with issue 2 we delve into the stories deeper and we hit the ground running with that one - with at least one new character introduced every issue for a least the first two years.

Creating the Story

So far I've mostly talked about the artwork in getting the comic up and running, but I thought I should talk about the story too.

I started to create these characters when I was in the 5th grade (sorry to say I never wrote down exact dates of creation, just years) and I worked on stories with them for about 11 years.  However, my problem is/was that I never wrote the stories down on paper, I only had them in my head and just a few random notes, but not anything to record what the stories were.

I did always remember all of the characters' names, origins, powers and personalities, but that was about it. 

In 2012, when I started the journey to get me to this point, I pull out all of my old artwork and the few notes I had and I started to plot out the overall story that I wanted to tell and before I even published issue 1, I already had the first 24 issues written.

I took some of what I remembered and combined it with some new ideas; incorporating things that I had learned over the years that I didn't know in 5th grade and the stories that I'm about to tell are the result of that.

A couple of interesting things came around because of that. One that is really fun for me is how each new hero joins the team.  When I was kid, I just created the characters and never explained how they joined the team - they were just there!  When I started to plan the comic and plotting the story out I realized that aspect had always been missing, so I'm creating those points of introduction for the first time, each of which is totally new and fun for me.

The other thing was the realization that it's my universe to create and I can change things as needed.  For example, in my original stories Master Mind was not a founding member of the team, she was actually the first person to join the team.  When I started writing in 2012 the idea came to me to make her a founding member and my first thought was that of "you can't do that, she wasn't a founding member" then instantly realized that my characters are new to the world and no one would know what the original ideas had been and it was my chance to take the story in a direction that will hopefully be exciting and enjoyable to others.