You can now find the Rogue Trooper fan strip, Witnesses of War in the Fan Thrills section of the website.
As the cred box says, the script is mine and the art is Rotts?. We would welcome your criticisms and/or votes. If the comments are too harsh to voice on this public forum, please use the send mail facility.
We hope you read and enjoy it.
Generally Contrary.
(Thanks to Wake - he's only been back 10 minutes)
Link: Witnesses of War
O what a lovely war!
Great Souther on Norty action.
Link: A Helm's Tale
Enjoyable stuff (Mine Nort Gotts!) also liked Rotts grittier artwork. But... BB reference... AIEEE!
very kewl but i always thought the soutern lot had arrows pointing down and the norts arrows pointing up...its a bit confusing for us non total rogue luvers...
Three replies. Thanks PVS, Oddboy and Judge Dreddz.
Blimey, thats low.
Have you any idea how long me 'n' the General worked on this?
Three replies.
Even if you didn't have an opinion, you could let us know you've read it.
Rotts: Had a baaad day today, and was looking forward to reading a thread full of interesting comments.
Three replies.
I enjoyed it. The comedy commentator and the fiendish nort weapons were very GFD. (I also liked the "lobbing the bio-wire grenade through the bunker door as it closes" bit, even if I'm not sure it?s an authentically Rogue Trooper thing to do).
In parts I found it a little hard to follow, which possibly could be something that?s made worse by the horizontal format.
Hi Arthur, how are the burns? :)
The horisontal format was t get the whole page visible in the screen at the same time, thereby avoiding the need to scroll that I have noticed on 'whistler'.
In hindsight, some of the text should be larger, (bio data for starters) and with a little more experience the landscape format would work better.
Rotts
Well written, the art is good 'old school' style.
Liked it.
Where does it fit into rogue's timeline?
What materials (board/pen/brush etc) did you use?
Sorry, I had read it, just havn't got round to a detailed critique.
Here's a short one though: I enjoyed the tale and the consideration you showed to get it all on screen without scrolling. Pretty much agree with Art. Liked the bit where the guy talks about screams and you think "aaah, that's sad" and then you realise he enjoys it. Heh!.
I've got a couple of Rogue tales that I'm working on at the moment - maybe we could add them altogether for a "Class of '79" style fanzine. It'd have to be called ROGUE'S NADS of course.
Of course you've come across the worst thing about any artistic endeavour. You slog your guts out working on what you think is an earth shattering, saviour of sequential art type story only to be met with "S'okay, I s'pose"... Don't let us get you down!
It is set during the hunt for the Traitor General.
I'd be more than happy to see a Rogue Trooper fanzine. Are you volunteering as editor Mr Tips?
Okay, heres what I use: Bog standard pencil (hb) and then a variety of cheap markers. All on a WHSmiths ?5 A3 pad. Nothing fancy, 'cause I cant afford it. The worst thng I have to watch for is bleed on the faces from the ink. I have used quite pricey paper/pens before now, but the end result is the same and as the home for this strip is digital, I'm not worried about the decaying paper.
And special for this strip, I pencil toned on the 1st generation photocopies.
Mr Wake deserves a special mention for making sure it fitted in the screen, and that the shading didn't look too cr@p.
Rotts
If you mean edit in the traditional Perry White/J Jonah Jameson sense i.e. alternate my time between chewing on cigars, calling my bookmaker/ex-wife and chewing out my underlings while my mighty organ is miraculously produced then ... "Yes".
If you mean something more creative, collecting together a group of like minded artists and writerss to pull together a 64 page ROGUE'S NADS special that celebrates (via the comic strip, articles, interviews and posters )aspects of the original Rogue Trooper (and maybe the War Machine) but none of that Tor Cyan, Friday bollocks then I'm afraid the answer would be... er... I'll wait and see how I get on with drawing my ROGUE TROOPER strip first.
I don't have the persuasive powers of Art or PVS...er.. Cosmic Ray so I doubt I'd be able to get artists to contribute. My negotiating skills consist of "Aw, go on, please".
I'd love to interview Gerry Finlay Day (is he still alive?) and/or Dave Gibbons though.
As well as Gibbons, it's a pretty sepctacyular roster of artists that worked on Rogue.. Dillon, Kennedy, Wilson, Ewins... tasty. And Grennie's views regarding his recent tales might be interesting.
I'm actually getting more interested as I type...
Art - we definately would a 'Hardware' page. I know they're fictional, but they're guns, aren't they?
I believe Mr Rennie is the expert there, he even managed to explain why gunnar fires laser beams but ejects cartridges.
Does Gunnar do THAT?
Never noticed in all my years.....
I feel bloomin' thick now!
Rotts.
I would definately like to be involved with a Rogues Nads fanzine.
Add my name as well. Not sure what I can do. But bugger it if you need a hand and I got the time :)
Yer Slips
am i wrong about the arrows then ?
JDz: I based the uniforms mostly on Dave Gibbons' first episode, and that had the Southers up an the Norts Down. That gives the impression that the armies are moving into each others territories.
Rotts
Yup - and the Norts are a dastardly lightning bolt, vicious and jagged, while the Southers are represented by a much more gentlemanly straight arrow, a fair play attitude to war.
Just read the strip- great work guys.
You've captured something of the esssnce of the original Rogue Trooper.
Took me back to being ten again.
I'm up for contributing some art to a 'zine- a star scan etc.
And has anyone got access to any images of the hopper aircraft as drawn by Colin Wilson and there after Cam Kennedy online?
Cheers,
B.
I believe I have got the story where Gunnar comes back somewhere. I'll have a butcher's tomorrow.
Arh yes- You Only Die Twice.
Great story- alas, don't have it to hand in any shape or from anymore.
IIRC The Colin Wilson hoppers appear in The Marauders.
Cheers,
B.
"Southers up an the Norts Down. That gives the impression that the armies are moving into each others territories. " ya know thats been confusing me for YEARS...
I just spotted this.
Really liked the strip. And I for one thought the horizontal format was great, though some of the lettering could have been bigger.
Rotts, the art is getting better every time, liked the shading here.
Generally C. Nice script, but you can't half see your, err... left wing tendancies. And I don't mean that in a bad Pat Mills kind of way.
Forgive my ignorance of war Poetry, but is that your own, or, as I suspect, adapted from another?
Good work, when is the next one?
Nice work Rotts. I'm reminded (yet again) of the eary artistic stylings of Mike McMahon.
Rac: Next for me is another Whistler (if I can just sort that last page) then I'm being dragged back into service for Cosmic Ray before The good General and I get stuck into something which has nothing to do with 2000ad!!
Jared: You are far too kind. The mighty McMahon droid is definately something to aspire to, but I've a loooong way to go.
Rotts