Phantom, a little magic and a lot of humor

Phantom has become a bit of a favorite of some of the people reading the comic and he is a character that I focused on a lot this year. 

I thought I would share a little about how he ended up being the character he is today, a sort of 'behind-the-scenes'.  

As I mentioned before, it was about June of when I was in fifth grade that I created the characters; and I created all of the founders on the first day.  For the very first time, I'm going back into the archives and revealing some never seen before artwork.

When I created Phantom, I didn't really create a back story for him.  I created his name and powers (real name came later), but that was about it.  Honestly, of the founding members - he's the one I put the least effort into creating any kind of story for him.  I planned all along that his powers came from his cape, but never bothered to determine where the cape came from and he was just kind of always there.

The picture below is technically the first time I drew Phantom:

As you can see, he didn't look much like the way he does now.  I actually didn't like how he turned out and I crossed out the picture, hey what can I say?  I was 11 at the time!  This actually comes from a large sheet where I drew just the founding members, before I "officially" drew them for the first time in July of that year.   I say officially as the individual drawings are the ones that I did and remembered, I had forgotten about this test sheet until I found it again about six years ago.

The picture above shows the evolution of the design.  When I next drew him (left most), my plan was that he would always have his cloak around him and we'd only rarely see his costume, which is why it is only a color guide.  In time I decided that that I didn't like that idea and that's when the costume started to evolve more into what you know today. 

Then there came a time where I walked away from my characters, for over twenty years they lived in my memory, and I did visit them for time to time, but I hadn't drawn them for ages.  In the picture above, you will see the last time I drew Phantom (left most) for a long time.  This was on a poster, done in marker, that hung fading on my wall for all of those years.

In 2012 I got the idea that maybe I could share my characters with the world and maybe, just maybe, someone else would like them too.  I began the long process of rewriting stories, fleshing out backstories and trying to draw again for the first time in about 15 years!  The middle image is when I drew him next in 2013.  At that point I wasn't happy with the artwork and the last image is when I drew him in 2015 (yes, you'll see the artwork is a lot different than the monthly comic - when I'm doing it on just paper, my artwork is much better!)

As for the story?  Well, it was between 2013 and 2015 that I finally came up with the origin for his cape's power and a new secret identity and it was in this time period that I decided to make him bisexual.  I had written stories for many straight characters, and I have a few gay characters, but I didn't have any bi ones.  When I was fleshing out his backstory, which I had basically neglected years before, I figured this would be a way to make him more unique and interesting and expand the kind of stories I wanted to tell and it just worked well with his personality.  Of course, his personality pretty much stayed the same from when I originally created him.  I did think about changing his name to Pharoh before I launched the comic, but that idea only lasted for a few months.

Oh, what about Phantom Queen (his twin sister) you ask?  Well, here's the interesting thing about her.  When I created Phantom, I hadn't even thought about a sibling.  Then three years later the idea for her popped into my head, and basically designed her as she looks today, I didn't really modify her costume any as she was created when I had already pretty much finalized Phantom's costume.  She is unique in one way though, while Phantom and the others have their future's mapped out in my head (I know how all will end up), with Phantom Queen I don't have any idea yet as to her 'final fate'.  While I made up her back story years ago, I'm still creating her future as I write the character with no endgame in mind for her. 

There is a lot more story to tell of Phantom and his exploits in the future - stay tuned!

Issue # 29

Issue 29 brings an end to the Earth-Hopping adventures of Titan and Phantom.  In this issue they get to Alternate Earth 14, a world where the Roman Empire (in the classical sense) never fell and where organized religion was outlawed.

This led to the creation of the Godboy, a sum of all religious energy and dogma for the religions that never formed on that Earth.  The island of the Godboy has an emotional effect on the heroes and they decide to return to their own Earth where Phantom discovers something about himself that he decides to keep secret - but for how long?  You can read it here if you'd like: Issue 29

When I was creating the draft for the Earth-Hopping storyline I had several ideas that I wanted to touch on, and originally the Roman Empire and Godboy elements were going to be on two separate Earths, but I decided to combine them partially to save space and also because I thought I worked well together.  

My original intent was for these stories to be back up stories in the regular issues, but then I realized that it would be going on too long for Titan and Phantom to be away from the team; while they were only gone a week it would have taken about ten months of real time to cover that!  Which is why I decided to move it a long a bit. 

The other part that the story has touched on is Phantom being bisexual and how that plays a role in his life.  When I originally created the character, that was not an element that I had built in, but when I was getting ready to launch the comic almost 30 issues ago, I wanted to make sure that my universe was diverse in several aspects and decided right before issue 1 came out to make him bi, and this is something that comes to light during this storyline and will play a role in the future. 

It also deals with Titan being straight and for the first time he hints that he has feelings for Crossbow in a subtle way, which will also be explored in the future. 

On a creative note, this issue marked a turning point for me.  Originally this was supposed to be the back up story in issue # 28 (which was running long), but I started to run out of time and to have computer problems (as mentioned in a previous blog) so I decided to make this a stand alone issue.  This is also the last issue that I created on my old computer and the last that was penciled and inked on paper before my old computer stopped functioning.  

Enjoy the issue, and perhaps one of the most bizarre final panels in comic book history!

Issue # 19

With being gone from the blog for months, I have to get back in the swing of things and have a lot of ground to cover. Sorry it will be a little run together for now, but at least I'm getting some content out there again! Next up is issue # 19. This one was set largely in Egypt.

Here we learn the origins of Phantom and Phantom Queen. While Phantom was one of my original characters that I created a long time ago, Phantom Queen actually came about a few years later, but in this series that I'm publishing I introduced her much soon!

This issue also ties in a little bit with the Biblical Moses and also contains a revealing scene when we introduce the human that Cat has been merged with the whole time he's been around. Of course that person, Rick King, emerges from Cat totally naked, but I can't show that in a comic meant to be PG-13, or can I? Well, either way I drew the panel as he appeared and then blacked it out, maybe some day I'll have to reveal it as it was originally drawn!

For now you can enjoy all the issues on Webtoons or you can click any of the links off the prior issues to read on Youtube! Now that I'm back (at least somewhat) I'll be posting more often!

Waves of Creation

As I mentioned before, I started to come up with my characters while I was in fifth grade.  I don't remember exactly when, I think it was in May or June (I know it was near the end of the school year), but I didn't draw them for the first time until our family vacation over the July 4th holiday.  On the first day I created Titan, Cat, Crossbow, Magno, Phantom and Mr. Roboto (M.R).; Master Mind was created a little later.

I'm sorry to say that I never wrote down the dates of creation of any of my characters, as a kid I never really thought that was important, instead I considered the creation of the characters in "waves" and I know which wave each one is from, and that's about as close as I can get to the dates. 

The first wave for me started when I created the characters in 5th grade and that wave went about 4 years (grades 5 through 8), that's when I created a lot of the characters you see here and many more who are yet to debut.  The second wave was basically the next 4 years (grades 9 through 12).  Besides all of the founding members, others from this wave include X-Ray Boy and Spider-Star.  

You might wonder why I broke it into two waves when they ran straight through without interruption?  The reason is the way that I created the stories for the characters.  In the first wave I created a lot of them with their origins and backstories in tact.  However, in the second wave I was more concerned with just creating the characters, their names and powers - but put very little effort into any origins or backstories at all.  Echo is a character created during this time period, as well as most of the IPG.

Then I graduated from high school and worked for two years before going to college and during that time I thought about my characters and created about 5 new ones and redesigned a few costumes, but never put anything down on paper.  I consider this the third wave of creation - and it's shortest one.  As my first semester at college came to an end for the winter holiday break, I decided to draw my characters one more time.  I did a two-part poster and that's when I drew the new ones I had created.  I can't give any examples of them yet, as they haven't debuted in the comic yet.  

After those posters were done (I also can't show them yet or it would reveal too much) I didn't draw the characters again for a long time.  I spent the rest of the 90's drawing posters of the DC Comics universe, some for myself and some for my brother and I drew the last one around 1998 or so.  Then I stopped drawing for a while. 

Then in 2012 I got the idea to do my own comic book business and see I could get a following for my characters and started to practice drawing again, learning to do digital artwork (boy was that a change from pencil and paper) and reworking the stories and origins from years ago.  This is what I consider my fourth wave of creation, and what I consider myself to be in now - I've already created dozens of new characters to mix in with my existing ones and really open it up and see where it takes me.  One of the characters from this wave is Semeulke (pronounced SEMI - ULK).

I don't know how long this wave will last or if it will change into something else, I guess only time will tell....but I know this, when all is said and done all of the characters from all of the waves will have come together to tell a massive storyline. 

PS. I should add that I created the character of Diodarius when I was about 6 years old, but he was more of a stand alone character at that time and he didn't get pulled into my Ultra-Elite Team stories until many years later.

Personalities

While most of the world still doesn't know my comic exists yet, I thought I'd write a little about the founding members personalities:

Titan - he is set up as the leader of the team, but as time goes on he realizes that Crossbow is really the co-leader.  While he sometimes seems to not know what is going on, Titan uses the ploy to misdirect people as to how focused he really is.  Titan seems to actually always know what is going on and while he's not afraid to take chances, he also always has a trick up his sleeve or some secret he's keeping for one reason or another, he is never one to show his full hand at any time. 

Crossbow - she is quickly proving herself as a the co-leader of the team.  She is a take-charge, no-nonsense leader who is not afraid to do what it takes to get the job done.  She also had trust issues, in that she doesn't trust the rest of the team yet.

Cat - he is solely on Earth, and part of the team, looking for action and adventure.  He has no concept of friendship or human relations and so far has not exhibited much interest in learning, causing him to come off as somewhat distant and cold. 

Magno - prior to being a hero, he was best friends with Titan and followed him onto the team.  Magno has serious doubts about if living the life of a hero is right for him, but for now he's going along with his friend. Magno is generally friendly, but fairly reserved when dealing with the others.

Phantom - he is having the time of his life being on the team.  He has magic powers, not all of which he's mastered yet, and he's having a great time learning as he goes. Phantom is very friendly to others and sometimes seems playful in nature, or it could be he just has a unique way of viewing things.

Master Mind - She has incredible power, and while is not afraid to use it, she insists on only using her powers to help others.  She is friendly toward the rest of the team, but runs a little on the shy side.  

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.

The Ultra-Elite Team Debuts

The Ultra-Elite Team makes its public debut today - April 24, 2018!

I originally created the team years ago and while I wrote many stories and drew them quite often it wasn't until 2012 that I decided to do something with the characters and that took me on a path to drawing again for the first time in years, and here we are!

Today the world gets to meet Titan, Crossbow, Cat, Magno, Phantom and Master Mind as the founding members of the team as the go up against the mysterious villain, G'Ion Detheon and his main assistants, Savage, Chains, Twister and Twirl when they launch an attack on New York City along with their Shock Troopers.  

This is the beginning of a new online monthly adventure (and I promise the artwork improves as I go)!

Below is a link to the first issue: