Main Menu

Rogue Trooper: Origins

Started by ming, 26 July, 2012, 02:09:10 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

ming

The Dave Gibbons Rogue Trooper concept art arrived yesterday, along with the early text pitch outlining possible directions for character development.

I'll post the text up soon, but before I do I'm running it past Gerry Finley-Day (via the ever-helpful Pat Mills) to see if it's something he put together or if it has some other origin.  It would be nice to know who to credit for this - if not GFD, then who?  Steve McManus?  I guess it really doesn't matter in the long run; the text is a nice snapshot of the development of a classic 2000AD character - still some way off from Rogue as we know him, but a number of important elements are already in place.

Anyway, here's some art for now, and I'll post up the text later - with or without input from GFD (I'll pass along any comment I get from him, though).

I'd also like to add a few words from Staz Johnson, partly as he gave us such a great GFD Rogue strip in Prog 2011, but mainly because I love the level of enthusiasm:

Rogue Trooper became my favorite 2000AD character almost from the moment the strip first appeared, in fact, my fascination with him dates from before the strip actually started. When I saw the pin-up that Gibbons drew just prior to the launch of the story, I thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I was in hospital, recovering from a rather nasty motorcycle accident when the Rogue strip first appeared, & for a week or more I had nothing to read but that one issue of the prog. Unsurprising then, that the sketchbook I had by my hospital bed filled up with sketches of Rogue, & various other 'future war' characters of my own invention, totally inspired by (read as 'ripped off from') Rogue. Perhaps that is part of the reason I feel such a connection to the character. Another reason being that I simply loved all of Dave Gibbons designs for the strip, from Rogue himself, the Norts, & those super cool gigantic tanks.

Working on the character was something of a dream come true, & even though I did 'drop the ball' to some extent in my first attempt, I was happy with the work I did on the GFD story.

Anyway, I could go one & on, but suffice it to say, that for me, it was a huge honour after spending years drawing Rogue for fun to finally get an opportunity to work on him for real.








Bolt-01

Thanks for sharing, Ming.

For an intergalactic despot- you're a good guy.

hippynumber1

Brilliant that someone from this board got these, well done!

ming

I posted a scan of the piece from the 1983 2000AD Annual here (some light reading for you while I get ready to drop the text piece):

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=918292&Aux=39101&From=gallery&GSub=133359&GCat=48189&UCat=0

(I could just post the image here, but it'd have to be a little on the large side to make it legible.) 

If I have time later, I'll dig out the section from TPO as well.

Colin YNWA

That's all very cool. Its strange how familiar that piece looks, I assume just from having it in the 1983 annual.

Really looking forward to hearing the blurb thiug, thanks very much for sharing you lucky evil tyrant you.

Spikes

Superb stuff! Sorta wish id gone for it now!  ;)

(Nice to see the piece from the Annual reproduced as well).

opaque

I didn't know it was even around, who was selling it if you don't mind saying? Wasn't on Ebay was it? :P

ming

Quote from: opaque on 26 July, 2012, 05:21:56 PM
I didn't know it was even around, who was selling it if you don't mind saying? Wasn't on Ebay was it? :P

Yeah, eBay for these; I wouldn't have seen them (probably) if not for skullmo bringing them to everyone's attention (http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php/topic,36407.0.html).  Ian Senior was the seller, but not under his usual Destiny One moniker.  Someone bid on *every* item in the last 5-10 seconds of the sale; luckily my first and only bid was enough - it would have been a shame for the most important items to vanish as suddenly as they appeared.

ming

Here's the text - happy reading, folks!  :)




Hopefully this is legible at this size; if anyone needs a larger copy just give me a shout.

Frank

Thanks for posting, Ming.

The strip never quite got over the loss of 'the quest element', but some of those other ideas- like The Monk- demonstrate how many rotten ideas writers need to have before they strike gold. Underscores the need for good editorial too.

Fatboydale


JOE SOAP

#12
Quote from: bikini kill on 26 July, 2012, 09:41:46 PM

The strip never quite got over the loss of 'the quest element', but some of those other ideas- like The Monk- demonstrate how many rotten ideas writers need to have before they strike gold. Underscores the need for good editorial too.


The ideas aren't completely jettisoned though. You can see how the Monk developed into the Bio-Chips but what's good is how he pursued and continued to develop the core idea of Rogue's 'conscience' dialogue - now with his dead mates - as being central to the character. It's that unique internal/external chatter thing which the name Rogue Trooper always evokes for me.

One of the original suggested titles being Universal Soldier must be more than coincidence though?

Skullmo

Thank's Ming that is brilliant!

I love the pitch, every idea in that is GOLD!

They even reused the name Wardog (ugh).
It's a joke. I was joking.

Colin YNWA

That's great, you can see the germ of the idea but it goes to show how much work goes into beating original concepts into shape.

Ming you said earlier that you were trying to establish the author of it, assuming Gerry Finley Day but trying to confirm that. Did you manage to?