Trans Morphic Occultism

This is a copy and paste from an posting from my own blog, http://www.jamiegambell.com - 

"Good morning all.

Today is the first day of my Christmas break from work. I have just over two weeks to wallow in the wonderful mud of humanizing relaxation.

But first...

I've been working on the idea for The Hero Code for several years now. At the start of this year I began working on character designs.

I began working with Dan Smith in March to create a world of some twenty-three characters, and began to really map out the series. I always had it down as a big series, a contained universe built from the ground up. A history spanning series.

It was also to be an organic series, adapting and changing as time went on. I had a start point. I have an ending point. The middle would take care of itself.

One of the characters who I saw being in the series from the start was The Occultist. I kind of Steve Ditko style mystic, part Doctor Fate, part Doctor Strange.

I have 22 pages of this characters origin completed, art wise, and a further 48 pages of script. It was a story which was great fun working on.

An early sketch of the Occultist, art by Karl Altstaetter, from January 16th, 2010

I had an unused Omnitarium logo which I was going to have Bernie Lee re-work (something we had emailed about a while ago) to become the character's logo.

Logo design by Bernie Lee (2009)

A month or two ago I was flicking through Previews magazine. I saw that Dark Horse Comics was releasing a one-shot entitled The Occultist, written by Tim Seeley, with art by Victor Drujiniu and Jason Gorder.

A little searching on the web told me that this one shot was announced by Mike Richardson at a panel in San Diego this year.

They are very different characters.

I am a believer in transmorphic resonance, and in collective telepathy when it comes to information - we register more than just perceived visible spectrum and aural wave-lengths.

I really do think that this is just a coincidence - a synchronicity. Ideas are powerful things, they give off a lot of unperceived energy, which is shared in the collective information field.

It has made me re-think the formatting and release of The Hero Code, though. I am working from a limited budget, after all.

The Coming of the Occultist, set just before World War II, will probably now be released as a web-comic serial, to be collected in print at a later date.

The Theatre of War, set during World War II, will also probably fit into this format, or even be released as a complete graphic novel.

Both of these stories were part of the stand alone pre-history of the series, which filled in some details about the Hero Code universe and the character of the Occultist.

The series will now start at a time when the new heroes in the series are beginning to emerge. The Occultist, as a character in this world, has been missing, presumed dead for some 60 something years.

It does move release dates back a little. I will probably aim to release the first issue in the summer of 2011, and the web-series will start around this time, perhaps a little before.

Good luck to Dark Horse with their book. If anyone from that company wishes to contact me, I am always available."

Covered! pt 3 - the second option!

Here is another run at the cover mock up - let me know which you prefer, or if you have any suggestions, thanks!

Covered!

Here is a sneak at the cover for Hero Code The Coming of the Occultist, issue one. Art by J.C. Grande.

Stories as far as the eye can see!

Good morning everyone.

Plans are coming together for the series very nicely. At the moment we have no less than three story lines in the Hero Code Universe being worked on.

Firstly, a web series, The Coming of the Occultist - with art by J.C. Grande, is nearly a third of the way complete. This will kick off the web comic story lines, focussing more on the past of the Hero Code Universe.

Secondly, the ongoing series' first story arc, The Menace of the Mannequin - with art by Jonathan Rector, is starting to be worked upon. The script for issue one is with Jonathan, and he is starting to plot out the first section of this story as I write.

Finally (for now), a mini-series, The Theatre of War - with art by Dan Smith - has the first script complete and with the artist, with work hopefully starting up on this soon. Telling the story of the first recognised Super Hero team in the universe.

Last weekend I was in attendance at the Long Beach Comic Con, with copies of my first series Omnitarium. It was a great weekend, and I met lots of new and cool people, so thank you to everyone who came by to visit, and especially to those who complimented and picked up the book.

The next convention I'll be at is the Amazing Arizona Comic Con. I'll be there with a whole group of fellow creators, and co-creators from the new Samurai OGN series, which premiers at the show. Details about that book can be found here.

At Arizona, I will be hoping to have preview copies of the Hero Code available. The plan at present is to have the book contain the first 22 pages of The Coming of the Occultist, a 6 page preview of The Menace of the Mannequin and a 3 page preview of The Theatre of War.

Going Live!

The site is now out of the testing phase, and pretty much live. There will be some changes here and there as we go, and plenty more being posted as the series comes together.

A meeting yesterday with some of the KnK crowd (krowd?) has had me thinking about formats and arcs. There is the option of jumping straight in to the meat and potatoes of the series, and having two or three mini-series filling in the back story of the series - or that of just going full at it from start to finish.

There is a certain amount of disconnect between the opening two, shorter arcs with the rest of the series, and the very first story line was pretty much planned to be either a one-shot or a mini-series (it simply grew and grew and proved to be too much fun!) so that will go out as such, and I will think about the opening of the main arc of the ongoing series until that is completed.

Work has begun on the first mini-series in the Hero Code universe - a working title of The Coming of the Occultist. I would like to get way ahead in the series before I start to post anything here, and would like to have the first issue completed before the end of the year, but I will try to get some sneak-peeks up on the production pages of the site shortly.

Have a great week, everyone!