The Madman From Planet Zatar!

So, Saturday, Oct. 1st was 24 Hour Comic Day! I went into it with the absolute determination that I was going to finish this year! But, I didn't. However, I did beat my total from last year AND I still intend to finish it and get it published.

This particular story has a very sentimental meaning to me. The title may seem a bit cheesy, but that's mostly because my friend Todd and I came up with it when we were 12! The story is based on a 4 minute, spontaneously invented, action-adventure Super 8 movie we made at a Special Effects workshop at Arizona State University!

It's the 35 anniversary of the year we made our miniature epic and I wanted to celebrate it by doing the long dreamed of (at least by me) remake of our movie--which as far as I know, no longer exists ANYWHERE but in my head. Todd and I had discussed remaking it once, back in 1979 when I was in Arizona spending the summer with my mom, but it was never to be.

We lost touch shortly after I went back to Texas and I eventually learned, unfortunately years after the fact, that my friend Todd had died of a rare illness. So I wanted to remake "Madman", not just for me, but for him too!

I used a youthful, cartoony style for my graphic novelization for two reasons: one, because I figured it's be faster. And two, I wanted to pay homage to the two 12 year olds who starred in the original film. ^0^

Several things that will be in the comic reflect aspects of the original film--one was the use of a fish-eye lens for a "feverish" POV shot, to show how insane the 'madman' himself had become. (This was based on the paradigm established by the original Star Trek series.)

Another feature of our play-acting was elaborate stunt fighting. We fancied ourselves as amateur stunt-men and were constantly flipping each other around the playground during 6th grade recesses. We got pretty good at it--although it may account for some of my back problems now.

So this is a portion of my graphic novelization of "The Madman From Planet Zatar"!

Dedicated to my friend, Todd Johnson 1965-2005.

I've posted the first few pages, but the remainder will ultimately be used as part of The CLAW's anthology comic book.