I started out by doing some concept material. Not much, just to get the looks for the main characters down:
Once we got these going I did a refined version so the people doing the covers would know who I was basing each of the characters on:
I like to base characters off of real people if I can; it helps to make each one unique in character. It's so easy, when drawing comics, to just draw one body and head type for males and females. I don't want to fall into that trap so I look to actors or sports figures to help them become individuals. I won't necessarily try to always make the characters in the comic look just like the actors but I'll try to nail down the general idea. Also included here is the uniform idea for one of the two major groups in the story.
Next it gets a little more fun. Ship design. These are for a ship we see briefly in issue 1:
The FTL nacelles are a little too Star Trek like, so they'll be changing, but you get the idea. Last up for the concept stuff is a page from my sketchbook. My editors gave me a hint about something coming up in issue 2 so I did a page full of sketches. Not sure if any of them will make it through the process, but I had fun doing them.
Actually, now that I've read the script for issue 2, I'm pretty sure none of these will make it through. Oh well; maybe they'll still show up later.
Here's pages 1, 3, and 5 of issue 1:
The first issue comes out in March (early March I think). Okay, now back to work...
