Monday, March 8, 2010

Science fiction heroes? It has to be NARC!





The 3D science fiction scenario ... the archetype gay hero in action ... put the two ideas together and you get the perfect expression in 3D art, and especially if the NARC universe is the setting, and Jarrat and Stone are those heroes.

So here's NARC Raven 9.4, Jarrat himself -- and here's the scenario: a Blade Runner type setting where technology has been slapped on the outside of ancient buildings to ungrade them. Like the spaceport area, city of Chell, planet of Rethan, in the first book of the series. (Mel Keegan's Death's Head ... and if you don't know what all this is about, please, please find out soon! Just follow this link and all will be explained: this is a gay science fiction cult classic from way back that's still running, still developing, still delicious!)

So Jarrat has arrived at a rendezvous point: show up alone, show up unarmed. It's dangerous and he knows it. He's on edge, jittery ... Stoney ins't far away, and monitoring him every second. You know that. He hears a sound from above, behind ... that door just opened. The contact he came here to meet just showed -- comes down the steps. Not alone, and armed, leaving the NARC at a perilous disadvantage. He's angry and tense. The meeting goes well enough -- he's unhurt and in the same place when it breaks up. He leans back against the wall while he waits for his pickup ... looks like he's had a good scare, heat's going a mile a minute -- and, Jarrat and Stone being who and what they are, Stoney knows everything. Last image: that smile tells you Stone just arrived -- or maybe half a dozen Blue Ravens in armor!

Tomorrow, I'll render the scene from Stone's perspective. It's delicious to tell a story in images. Especially these images. I have to fess up. I love my Jarrat and Stone.

For months now I've been thinking through and planning a comic strip, which would be told this way, with the addition of narrative panels and dialog. The only thing stopping me getting into it is the time it takes! It would take at least an hour per day to do it really well, maybe more. It's a time-hungry hobby ... and the time I put into that project would be taken out of this blog -- which is the other downside. The blog here is looking gorgeous and I'd love to keep it up, so...

The comic strip is developing slowly, while I chew my way through piles of other work!

Join me tomorrow, for Stone's perspective on this scenario.

Jade, 9 March