There will be another...

As Jerry heads over to France, I find it appropriate to revisit our favorite Frenchies (are they French?) LES FORMIDABLES. Included below is the very first sketch Bill did of DR. DESTRUCTION and Les Formidables... back when he was exploring how to draw the Dr's eyes, hair, and potential toupe. Needless to say, Bill's instinct filtered the best elements into the final Dr. Destruction and Les Formidables design.

Additional images are from the recently released Lucha Libre TPB.

Of all the characters in our Lucha Libre Universe, King Katch has definitely gone through the most drastic visual changes from inception to his existence as a comic character and designer toy. Below I have included King Katch's look from the first rough rendering Fabien created in reaction to Jerry's character description through to the final pose we all agreed for the King Katch figurine.

Visually, this is where it all began.

Jerry and Bill were working on the LUCHADORES FIVE comic short. Bill did a rough sketch of the whole team (as can be seen on the lower half of the included L5 image). There was something magical happening.

I told Jerry that Bill's first sketch was awesome and that we NEEDED to find a way to make toys. Bill was still working on finding the definitive style for Lucha Libre. But even in this cuter chibi style (and with Dr. Pantera and Diablo Loco's mask designs still not finalized) you could tell that Bill and Jerry were on to something.

Gobi, one of Bill's best friends, saw it too. He had a childhood idea of a dude with a cactus head (many of Gobi's early ideas come from childhood). After a few discussions with Jerry, he began tweaking his cactus head concept into a Luchador and TEQUILA was born.

Shortly after, I told Jerry to help me create a pitch sheet for both the Luchadores Five and Tequila. I was really commited to making these dudes into toys and decided we could e-mail bomb our favorite toy companies and a videogame company called Behemoth.

We got some really nice replies from the majority of people we approached. Mark and Brian at Super7 were super nice. They shared some words of encouragement and got me in touch with GoHero's Steve Forde. Steve was a cool dude and he gave me a pretty good sense of the process of making vinyl toys. His enthusiasm had me even more convinced that the idea of making our Luchadores into toys was the right one.

I even made some headway with Behemoth. Behemoth had just released ALIEN HOMINID for the Gamecube and Xbox. I really felt like the spirit of that game had something in common with what we were doing. I heard that the Behemoth guys were thinking of doing a multiplayer game so I was trying to convince them to do one with the Luchadores Five and Tequila. Both Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin got back to me via email. They really loved the designs I sent them (I sent the 2 'pitch' jpegs below and a few final pencils images of some of the other characters from Luchadores Five) and were going to talk to their investors about the possibility of collaboration.

They got back at me a few weeks later and said the investors didn't feel comfortable investing in a game that they couldn't have full ownership of (which I totally understood) but wished us well on our endeavors. That multiplayer game ended up becoming the amazing CASTLE CRASHERS. I assume they were already in development with Castle Crashers when I approached them. Whatever the circumstances, it was a great honor that those guys loved our designs enough that they considered collaborating (even if it was for just a second).

With all the genuine enthusiasm I was getting, I knew we were on to something!

Included below are Fabien M's final pencils and colors to the Tikitis comics chapter included in Lucha Libre 7. As can be deduced from the jpegs, Fabien digitally inks the pages directly from his finished pencils and colors the page in Photoshop. There's a great benefit in working with illustrators that have the ability to color their own work.

Bill (with the help of his girlfriend), Gobi, and Fabien all do their own coloring. As can be seen in this comparison between Fabien's pencils and colors, the color placement has a huge effect on how the reader's eyes are encouraged to move across the page. The overall tone also suggests time of day, atmosphere, and emotion to the work.

The majority of American mainstream cartoonists have their work inked and colored by other job specific artists. That way of constructing a page ensures they are produced on a rigid monthly schedule but the purity of the work loses something when you have so many artists visual touch on the work. Each artist that contributes to the work has a huge influence on the final digestable product.

Part of my fascination with comics is its potential for singular purity. A skilled cartoonist can create a universe on a few paneled pages to be consumed and digested by another individual. The cartoonist's adept choices in character design, line weight, panel-to-panel progression, panel composition, page composition, and color all have an implicit effect on the way the reader interprets the universe.

Here's a wonderful look at the cover of the Lucha Libre Vol. 1 Comic collection (in stores now) from color roughs to final cover design.

After several thumbnail tests we fell in love with the graphic layout that LUCHADORES FIVE artist Bill came up with for the cover. Crucial elements like the main characters, urban backdrop, and werewolves were all included in the design. Unfortunately, the tone was a bit off. Humor was a huge part of the Luchadores Five story... but from the original image you'd think this was a straight up superhero tale.

I suggested that Bill silly it up a bit by imagining that this dramatic aerial pose was the result of all five heroes jumping out of the back of a truck. What we were seeing was the few seconds of dramatic air time the guys were getting before plummeting to their concrete demise. Bill brilliantly illustrated the concept with the perfect expression on El Gladiator's face. He also added a visual motion cue by having Red Demon's shoe flying off his foot (but notice that the shoeless Red Demon still manages to keep his cool pose!).

I love the final illustration. There's a lot of information being conveyed to the viewer (like the distinct personalities of the 5 main characters) and it stays cohesive.

Once the illustration was done, Jerry when at it with the Logo placement. His original approach was good but took away from the sense of motion Bill's image captured. With a little perspective manipulation to the logo everything turned out just right.