10 September 2009
These week in looking back, we're taking you way, way back and featuring the very first Warmageddon concept art. Way back in the beginning Jamal ran a web site called ComicsPortfolio.com and was able to contact artist who put together portfolios and ask them to do concept drawings. A lot of really interesting drawings came from these artists, however, the downside is that it was really informal and we don't really have names for all the artist.
So hop into the WayBack Machine and let's get started.
When Jamal contacted these artists, he gave them a simple concept and let them run with it. In this case is was female human warrior versus an orc in a swamp. The artist is Hillsman. I'm not sure if that's a first name, last name, or just online username. Coincidentally, these characters look very much like Trivun and Kiara who are featured on the cover to Warmageddon Illustrated #1.
Next up we have a war bot and a goblin duking it out in a swamp with art by Walton (not Jamal). Goblins were a subspecies of orcs that were essentially dwarf orcs. Along the way as we developed Warmageddon, these tiny creatures got left behind.
George Todorowski is up next with the heavily armored dwarf battling the heavily armored battle chicken. The battle chicken soon evolved into the more humanoid chicken that would become the bwangs. This is one of our absolute favorites of all the early Warmageddon art.
A giant meets armored human in this next piece by Starnes. If the human is a normal sized character, then this giant is HUGE, at least 18-20 feet! Warmageddon giants have been greatly reduced in size as the tallest would still be under 10 feet.
Here a female elf battles an orc in a forest with art by Kinjo. This piece of art has a style very similar to the current World of Warcraft comic book published by Wildstorm. The art for that is by Mike Bowden.
Last, but no least, we have a female elf with cybernetic bwangs by Juan Chav. This is the earliest appearance of bwangs. The problem here is the use of magic by the elf. Warmageddon is not known for it's magic usage as Jamal and Mike (Imboden) were very careful to avoid relying on magic to explain things. Like every thing in early Marvel could be traced back to radiation, every thing in Warmageddon can be traced to some pseudo-scientific solution.
And that's it for Looking Back this week.
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