New Moon Prints by Grant Perkins

At Supercomicon it was decided that we’d like to see some alternative views of Moon from other artists with styles vastly different to what we’ve already seen. These are going to be available as prints at MCM, along with some new artwork completed by myself and Ivanna Matilla. It’s always best to keep things fresh.

This is the first example of these alternatives from the irrepressible Grant Perkins. No one lays down an alternative view of a character better than Grant Perkins. It gives you lines and framing you never imagined from your own work and gives you new ideas for all the Moons still to come.

We’re also expecting work from Boom’s Steed and Mrs Peel’s Yasmin Liang. For now that’s your lot but based on the response to those there’s a very real chance that we may well recruit more of the best from the small press – maybe one or two of the big guns to bring you new and alternative versions of our favourite law enforcing satellite.

There’s far more news on it’s way – it’s our feeling that everything needs a complete refresh every 2 years and we’re moving very quickly towards that point so expect news regarding exactly that in the next few months.

Moon: Build Up to a Comic Book Cover: Part 1

Welcome to the first stages of a very effective comic book cover (we hope). Some years ago I saw something very, very similar between two major characters of some very famous toy brand that had been put out as a fairly successful British comic book. The image seared into my head as one of the strongest images I’d ever seen. As such I have shamelessly sought to use it’s basic premise on the pages of Moon 2.

Covers are probably the most difficult part of the whole process. Something that effectively says what’s going on inside without giving the game away, grabs attention from a distance and holds up well under scrutiny. All this and it always has to carry numbers and titles (and maybe a review and occasionally -though not ideally – a barcode). It takes a tonne of thought and trial and error and has been the focus of my attention for some time.

With the artwork for Moon 2 complete we are beginning to move into the final stages of production (finally). This is a relief and I have to say I’m proud of the content – more so as I see the lettering and colouring come into existence. It’s at this point it becomes easier to figure out what artwork sums up all the takes place inside.

This is stage 1: Pencils, inks, lifted from the page by Photoshop and the basic layer of Moon image (applied on external and high detail images of Moon) to finish off what is effectively nothing but a neck in a suit up until this point.

These lines are with Iv and she will no doubt lovingly finish them off ready for the final page – something I personally can’t wait for. Stage 2 Next week.

Major (but awesome) Spoiler about the Avengers Villain

Back in November, we wrote an article about whether or not Thanos was secretly the true Avengers movie bad guy. It was thrown together with ideas of Whedon’s natural layering of threats in previous projects, Marvel’s cavalier attitude to plots and introductions of unusual and exciting characters and Thanos himself being cool as all hell and associated with cubes. The whole article effectively gave reason after reason as to why it should be true then I crapped out in the last paragraph and said no probably not.

But word is beginning to spread that ol’ purple radiator face does indeed make an appearance in the Avengers movie. Also, that shots showing Loki working alongside the Avengers (Oh Loki, when will you ever learn) suggest that things go awry and that a dark force more powerful than the God of Mischief intervenes. This, I believe, ain’t Thanos but we have recieved a comment from someone fortunate enough to see the Avengers Assemble claiming that Thanos is right there at the end of the credits. Other sources are saying he’s perrenially involved in Loki’s plot though not the prevailing threat of the film.

Nevertheless, if Thanos is in the all important final reel at the end of the credits then Marvel is beefing him up for something. Io9.com was mentioning the other day a veiled reference by a Marvel Exec about a feature involving a Raccoon and a tree and Marvel Galaxies saw Thanos versus Nova, Gladiator et al just last year. This points to an incredibly promising possibility. That Marvel intend to move their new features further out perhaps than anyone would expect and push out a Galactic movie. Guardians of the Galaxy: the Movie anyone?

The worst part is we had Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning right in front of us just this weekend and all I talked to Andy Lanning about was what ink to use and I spoke to Dan and his lovely wife about embarrassing myself in front of Simon Pegg at a Star Wars Con I was working at. I was priding myself on my restraint after embarrassing myself in front of Quitely a year ago (something Dan brings up whenever he can and will glefully tell you if asked) but this time fanboy bloghead would’ve actually helped!! Mother f…

Lost Jedi Sketch 3: Ba Na Newlon 2

Just a quick sketch of Jedi Master Ba Na Newlon. Matriarch to a new generation of (doomed) Jedi she is a wanderer. The love of curmudgeonly old Jedi Crusader Rial Shif she arrives just in the nick of time – in true Jedi style. Her quick thinking, decisive action and understanding of what is truly important leads a disparate band of wastrels to apparent safety. Frankly I’d love for Lost Jedi to happen just to be able to see Ba Na Newlon’s tale.

Lost Jedi: Early Sketches 2

Some characters become significantly more interesting unexpectedly. Originally a secondary character brought in to resolve a plot and create a background for what I thought was a more interesting figure. No so. Ba Na Newlon has consistently shaped up as an increasingly fascinating character and more than that, a saviour of many Jedi. A matriarchal figure in the plot, Ba Na Newlon is a stable hand in the middle of chaos.

Potentially the most well rounded and most fascinating character of the bunch – her journey might be one of shortest however is recognisable to anyone who has ever known a driven matriarch (not necessarily with force powers).

Moon and Ray : Scrapbook of a Career

Moon and Ray have the promise of being the greatest agents in the history of the Agency. Ray was one of the finest new recruits back in the 70s. With the successful arrest of long-time hibernating crack pot Spring Heeled Jack, loose once again on the streets of London, using a carefully placed set of trampolines and a long range paintball gun – the chief of the time decided to team the young Barton with their most experienced agent. The rest as they say, is history. In future more of Ray and Moon’s adventures will be revealed – whether it be dealing with Space Nazis on Icy Tundra or postal tea ladies at Buckingham Palace – there will always be a place in the hall of fame for Moon and his long time partner Ray. All he has to do is survive the events of Moon 2….

John Carter from Mars: Proper Trailer

We here at Beyond the Bunker have decided to champion John Carter (alongside other sites such as Ain’t it cool). Somethings going awry here. According to AIC the mysterious story of John Carter of Mars wasn’t offered properly to potential audiences. Effectively a cross genre historical sci-fi epic it’s set a little before the time it was written (namely the late 1800s) on the mystical and mysterious planet of Barsoom (Mars). It’s also a forerunner of all of modern science fiction – bow down you puny mortals – so if it looks like old ideas that’s because this is where it came from. This fan trailer apparently nails it.

John Carter is a western hero employed by the Yankees in the American Civil War when we meet him (yeah -see) as has been revealed by the late arrival of a panic driven 10 minute preview (not seen here) released by Disney when everything appeared to be going south. One thing leads to another and he finds himself on Mars trapped in a conflict between two warring species.

Created by Edgar Rice-Burroughs, John Carter of Mars was serialised as Under the Moons of Mars in the pulp magazine The All-Story from February to July 1912. Disney have released the film to mark it’s centenary. He, and pretty much all of the associated characters also appeared in Alan Moore’s The Extraordinary League of Gentlemen: Volume Two. Disney was trying to bring back a literary classic – and one that inspired Star Wars and it’s like decades before there was anything close to it.

So you mother-loving philistines – get out there and watch it. While the spineless mainstream critics are scavenging around what they see as a blood spattered carcass feedback on a lot of forums are that it’s pretty good. So why not save director Andrew Stanton’s career and go and take a look?

It’s important you understand that I haven’t yet – too broke – but given the chance I’d support what is quite frankly a laudable attempt to bring back an obscure – but never the less important – literary classic of science fiction.

100,000th!

We don’t mark stuff like this very often but the BTB hit counter ticked over the 100,000 mark today. For a young site, entirely run by 2 people, it’s a good number and we’re very proud of it.

Thank you for all the support that has been shown to this site since we opened our doors just over a year ago, we’ve grown massively and we continue to grow every day. Please keep telling your friends about us, checking back for new content and (if you can afford to) buying our comics. In return, we will continue to put out as much content as we can over the next 100,000 hits. More Practitioners, more comic and movie articles and of course much much more Moon.

Here’s to the future, Bunkerites!

Dan & Steve
xx

Moon: Seven II

Just a few more sketch works of Moon’s first nemesis. Agent Seven wants nothing more than money to fulfill his job. That, and to cave in Moon’s stone head with a giant club hammer. The combination of the two proves irresistable when the contract on Moon is up for dibs. As for what happened to Agents 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Who knows. Seven remains the lowest number among the Bingo Mole ranks. Are they really called Bingo Moles? No. No, they’re not. We’ll call them soldiers. How’s that?

Sketch week!!

Not all of the work we do at Beyond the Bunker makes it up on to the site. These are the delirious, subconscious scratchings of an artist fighting to finish our title, Moon 2 in time for our proposed deadline. Still, I took a minute to knock this up to show – I dunno – some of the stuff lying around the work space at any given moment. More random pieces of artwork will be appearing here very soon. Please keep an eye on Wednesdays for Beyond the Bunker Classic as well as some scraps to illuminate the edges of the work we do here at the Bunker.