Rogue Trooper: Origins

[Syne]

Beautiful pieces of history. Very nice!

I like the idea of the organic "monkey" grafted on, especially the idea that it could take over proto-Rogue's actions against his will. It would have made for a very different story from what we ended up with, of course.

The nihilist in me also likes the idea of a lone infantryman just "wandering around, riddled with guilt" through a warzone filled with only slightly less confused combatants. No epic quest for revenge, just a lost dude with a domineering AI sunk into his back. Werner Herzog could have written the square balloons.

[ming]

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?

Still waiting to hear back from GFD (via Pat or otherwise) and I'll also try and get word to Steve MacManus...  Watch this space.

[Proudhuff]

Great stuff there Ming, they even suggest Universal Soldier!!!

[TordelBack]

That was a fascinating read.  It does gel quite well with Dave Gibbons' comments on his original vision in that recent interview. 

[Leigh S]

Love the regenerating stuff - they should have kept that.  I also love the less clear Souther/Nort angle.  I think if theyd gone with both of those, the strip might have avoided a few of the "comparatively simplistic" crits that Rogue gets when up against Dredd, NEmesis et al.   

The organic monkey is cool, but a bit too close to MACH 1 in concept I think.  Still, when are Zarjaz printing the Rogue Trooper vs Sgt Sigma mega special?

BTW hoping kinda it is GFD who did it, if only to break the commonly held belief that his typing was terrible!

[Zarjazzer]

Wow this is great stuff cheers for putting it up ming.

[ming]

Time for an update.

I've spent some time digging around to try and shed some light on the origins of the concept text (and roped in various poor sods* to help with the leg-work) and finally seem to have the answer.

Initially, I thought Gerry Finley-Day might have been responsible as the text seems to be early in the development of the character and he, as far as I'm aware, was responsible for generating the Future War strip that became Rogue Trooper as we know it.  Running the text by Pat Mills led to some doubts about this as Pat couldn't pick up GFDs speech pattern in the text (he kindly passed it on to Gerry anyway; still waiting to hear back).  An extremely helpful board member very kindly got the text to Steve MacManus, who cast further doubt on the GFD angle and ruled out his own involvement: There's a phrase in here that neither Gerry nor I ever used. The phrase is: "doesn't half".

Another venerable member of the forum then stepped in and got the text to the last of the prime suspects, Dave Gibbons.  Here, we hit paydirt: "Yes, I wrote that. I've no idea how these Rogue bits and pieces got away from me but good luck to whoever's now got them!"

Great to know who to credit with writing the text; Dave Gibbons himself.  At this point it's unclear exactly what aspects of this concept text came directly from Dave and who much came from collaborative meetings between him, GFD and Steve MacManus.  Who contributed what might remain slightly murky, but if anything else relating to the text emerges I'll post it here.




* can be named and shamed on request; the only reason I've left the names out is to avoid them being bombarded by similar requests to contact creators... Not that I think they'd be unwilling to help.

[Skullmo]

Time for an update.

I've spent some time digging around to try and shed some light on the origins of the concept text (and roped in various poor sods* to help with the leg-work) and finally seem to have the answer.

Initially, I thought Gerry Finley-Day might have been responsible as the text seems to be early in the development of the character and he, as far as I'm aware, was responsible for generating the Future War strip that became Rogue Trooper as we know it.  Running the text by Pat Mills led to some doubts about this as Pat couldn't pick up GFDs speech pattern in the text (he kindly passed it on to Gerry anyway; still waiting to hear back).  An extremely helpful board member very kindly got the text to Steve MacManus, who cast further doubt on the GFD angle and ruled out his own involvement: There's a phrase in here that neither Gerry nor I ever used. The phrase is: "doesn't half".

Another venerable member of the forum then stepped in and got the text to the last of the prime suspects, Dave Gibbons.  Here, we hit paydirt: "Yes, I wrote that. I've no idea how these Rogue bits and pieces got away from me but good luck to whoever's now got them!"

Great to know who to credit with writing the text; Dave Gibbons himself.  At this point it's unclear exactly what aspects of this concept text came directly from Dave and who much came from collaborative meetings between him, GFD and Steve MacManus.  Who contributed what might remain slightly murky, but if anything else relating to the text emerges I'll post it here.




* can be named and shamed on request; the only reason I've left the names out is to avoid them being bombarded by similar requests to contact creators... Not that I think they'd be unwilling to help.

What a brilliant tale this is generating!

[Bolt-01]

Ming, and the red hand gang- great work. This is the sort of thing that shows the board at it's best.

Mac-Mac for all!

[SmallBlueThing]

Yep, this is exactly the reason i come here. Brilliant work ming, and man thanks.

SBT

[Proudhuff]

seconded well done Ming, This shows what The Board can do!!

[Colin YNWA]

Fantastic stuff. Thanks Ming. It also kinda ties in with some of the comments he made in the video interview that surfaced recently and was posted here the other day.

Very cool to see how much input he had into the process at the early stage. Also ties very nicely with the design sketches you bought too. Nice bit of history there, well done to all involved.

[Mikey]

Great stuff Ming, thanks for sharing it. Loving the detective work too, and that the various creator bods have been happy to help out.

MOAR!

M.

[Skullmo]

Hey Ming, Which are did you win as i see this is up on Ebay now:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ROGUE-TROOPER-DREDD-2000AD-Original-Concept-Development-Art-by-DAVE-GIBBONS-/200783942484?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ebfa7d354

[Large48]

Good job Gibbons didn't say they are mine I want them back!