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 8 is Up and Running

Issue 8 went live tonight, here's the link:

Issue 8

In this issue we follow Cat about 7 Billion years into the future in the final chapter of the Time-Tossed story, which ultimately sees the team brought back together.  

We also see a little more about Vapor and get a glimpse of some other characters that will play a roll in the future.

Lastly, there was only one deleted scene - but you should read the issue before continuing on.

In one part Titan calls for the team to take a break, in the deleted scene I sketched out the team walking away from the meeting, but when I was inking the book I felt that it running a little long and decided that the scene really wasn't needed, so I never got around to inking it.

About Last Issue...

Last issue was an interesting one in the way that it came about and it was a little break from the time-traveling story that has been going on, even though it was part of the Time-Tossed story line.  It is the only part of the story where we went to different dimensions instead of going through time.  I guess that might be a hint about the final part (yes, Cat is traveling through time).  

  

Each of the three different dimensions that Titan went to came about in a very interesting way, and I promise you, all of them will be seen again in the future!  

The first one introduced the Ultimate Team, originally that was the name of my comic and the team, but as I mentioned before, I changed the name so as not to have any confusion with the Ultimate Line done by Marvel Comics.  The team, as they appear in this issue, is how each of the characters originally looked - I used the original costumes for about three years, then over time they got into the costumes that we see them in now.  This was super fun for me to draw as I hadn't drawn them like this in over 20 years.  The interesting thing is that when I was first writing this issue, I hadn't planned for this section, it was just going to be the other two parts, but then the idea came to me to make the original designs for the characters their own separate dimension and here we are.  Of course, this might be a bit of foreshadowing too as all of the characters from this section will eventually appear in the regular comic as well, in their updated costumes.

The next section features Commander Foofoo, now this one is a bit interesting for me and the way he came about.  I have a much younger brother and when he was very young we told him the Rabbit Foofoo nursery rhyme.  I expanded on that in turning Rabbit Foofoo into more of a hand puppet that would pay him surprise visits from time to time, this went on for years.  Then when he was in elementary school, for one Easter our mother made arts and crafts rabbits for the kids.  Well, I took one of them and put a G.I. Joe action figure backpack on it and that became Commander Foo.  Of course sometimes when my brother was playing G.I. Joe I would have Foo join in, perhaps to his amusement or annoyance - I'm not sure which, maybe a little of both, and Foo would take over the mission.  When I was writing the issue, I just pulled from the characters we created years ago and tried to capture the attitude that Foofoo had in the stories; my brother feels I captured it perfectly.  Here is the original Commander Foofoo:

The final part features the Terminators of Evil, this was never actually a separate set of characters when I originally created them in the 1990's.  They were originally from a story that I wrote that was more of a what if/imaginary story posing the question "What if the heroes grew to resent having to protect the people?" and I came up with this group.  Way back then the membership was Titan, Cat, Throttle and Crossbow, but when I was writing this issue, I decided to take Crossbow out of it for now and bring Magno in.  Of course this is not to say that this dimension's Crossbow won't appear in the future, but for now it worked better this way. Here's the original drawing I did of this Titan back in 1992:

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.

Titan Through the Years

A little trip down memory lane!  I was in 5th grade when the idea of the characters started to come to me.  The first one I created was Titan, but he looked a little different then - here's how he looked the first time I drew him:

Of course that was the best I could do at the time - artwork wise that is.  In my original drawings he looked this way for 2 years, when I decided to modify his costume, and came up with this:

While this was starting to look more like what we are used to now, it wasn't quite right and the following year I came up this this costume:

This is the costume that I settled on and basically the one he has warn since.  As I mentioned, for over 10 years I hadn't drawn at all and while I had the idea to launch the comic in 2012, I didn't actually attempt the drawing part of it until 2013, below is the first time I tried to draw Titan in over a decade:

Clearly I needed some practice - so by the time we get to 2018, he's looking like:

I'm happy with the way he turned out over the years!

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.

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.

Issue 1 Deleted or Altered Scenes

When I started to work on my comic again in 2012 my artwork had deteriorated since I last drew some years before and it took me a while to get the artwork back to where I wanted it to be.  I actually started to produce issue 1 in 2016 and to complicate things it took me a while to get comfortable doing digital artwork as everything I had ever done prior was done on paper or poster board.

Here are the first two panels I created for the first issue back in 2016.  I wasn't happy with the way they turned out, the color was not vibrant enough and the explosions in the back - well, that just didn't really look like an explosion.  Originally the opening scene was going to be Titan flying over a desert-like area dotted with towering rock formations, but I decided to do away with that scene entirely.  

The two pictures here are after he was done flying, but before he attacked the building.  These are the first two panels I ever colored in digitally.

The last deleted scene was one that I altered only when I was inking the final pages.  Near the end of issue 1 you see a woman with pink hair (who you'll meet in a few issues) running in to see her father.  In the original scene I drew, her father was seated on a throne, but I felt that it would look better if he were standing in front of a star backdrop.

Never inked, the below picture is the original scene for the issue.

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: