CATHEXES

Hey all,

I have no idea if I've posted about this in the past.

Let me take you back in time. I had only just been discovered by Roger Mincheff, and was doing pinups, covers, art direction and the odd sequential piece for Spacedog/Top Cow. Then Ben from Phospherescent Comics contacted me asking me if I'd be interested in working on the latest Watch miniseries called FISHER: CATHEXES. He said I could do any issue. I read all three issues and asked if I could do issue 1. He replied that Paul Abstruse was doing issue 1... So much for being able to do any issue. He then asked me if I would do issue 2. My problem was that while it was a solid scirpt, I just couldn't bring anything to it that the Matrix hadn't already done (basically it was a huge gunfight in a building foyer and then an office building). Nicola Scott went on to do a stuning job of the issue, and I envy her vision.

So I was assigned issue 3. My main objective was to crank my art up a notch before inflicting it on the Americans. While this may make FISHER: CATHEXES seem like the experimental half sister, it really became a huge catalyst in my future style. It was also the first time Annette and I worked together and the last time I used flat blacks instead of my tonal greys. I really gave it my all, and I think it's the best job I could have done at the time.

It was a tough storytelling job.

Christian Read the writer, described the Fisher's headquarters as a janitor's closet. I posed it to Ben that it might need to be larger than that as it is eventually the site of two special forces teams, a gang of superheroes, two hostages and the Fisher himself. A grenade goes off and *doesn't* hurt the hostages either! That's some janitor's closet! I drew sketches of what Paul had drawn and showed Ben that there was a wall that had never been drawn. I suggested that wall could actually be the opening to a huge chamber (see page 2 & 3).

Christian also had some great ideas for action set pieces between pages 9 and 11, but I shuffled them around so they escalated more dramatically. I had a lot of fun here. The Fisher flipping upside down shooting the guys in the head, page 11 with its 19 panels!

The last few pages were tough as there is a LOT of dialogue. I thought I offered dialogue balloon placements for the splashes, but maybe I didn't or maybe they were lost? Who knows. It was a long time ago, and it looks great now. In the final fight with the supers, Christian had about three heroes burst in. I mentioned to Ben that there should be seven as that's was Crow Jane says earlier. So I also had to design 7 cool new superheroes (man, I wish you could see all the detail on page 15!). Another tough thing was how to kill all these people in the Fisher's lair. Christian came up with the idea of the grenade blowing them all up, but I thought you need a little more to kill all these supers. So I came up with the idea of the central support pillar.

I pitched all this to Ben with a deadline of when I needed to know by, and he pitched it to Christian. The deadline came and went and Ben instructed me to proceed with my ideas. I think it works really well. Enjoy!

http://www.phosphorescent.com.au/pc/comics.pl?type=summary&product_id=156043#156043

(click on the READ IT ONLINE orange/red tabs).

All three issues are there. I'm not sure how Phospherescent are planning on making money on this, but hey! Don't look a gift horse and all that...

As for what I'm doing these days:

HEROES: I just got the word that I will see more HEROES work after the next 4 issue story arc.

ZERO G: I received the script for issue 2 yesterday. Alex Zamm has stepped it up big time. I have to hand in my notes by the end of the week and then it's all systems go by the following weekend.

EMPEROR: Now with ZERO G imminent, I have to finish the last 4 pages of this. I will post what I can.