Stuff that didn't make it into Juliet Prime: Part I

Welcome, unsuspecting peasant, to...the Hall of Discarded Ideas! [cue evil laughter] Ah ha ha ha ha ha! 

Back in 2021, when I started working on plot ideas and concepts for my graphic novel Juliet Prime, I didn't have a clear idea of the events that were meant to happen in it. So I decided to make a list of every type of scene I wanted to see in a comic, and put it in. Most of the things on that list ended up in the finished book, but quite a lot didn't.

In the next few posts I will detail those rejected ideas here. Mostly because this is a web log — a time- and date-stamped record of my artistic doings. I also find that it helps to never fully discard your comic ideas. Just because these things didn't fit into my story doesn't mean they won't fit anywhere else. Hold on to them! They are probably more interesting than the slop being served up by 'Hollywood' these days, anyway.

Here's the first dropped idea that I wanted to make mention of.

 

Early on, I developed the conceit that the main characters Juliet and Seymour were time-travellers. I thought it would be interesting if, in this story set in the year 2112, that the protagonists were from another era. I thought this might go some way to explaining why their appearance isn't so 'futuristic'. Juliet is dressed like she's from the 1800s and Seymour has a striped rugby jersey redolent of a British public school boy. You could safely predict that no one will be dressing like this in the 22nd century and you'd be right.

A year after I first created these characters, there was a Blackadder special called Back & Forth. The Blackadder series was notable for showing iterations of the same characters in different eras, but in this one they actually travel through time, resulting in scenes like Blackadder going back to the reign of Elizabeth I and punching Shakespeare in the face. I could do that with my characters, couldn't I? Juliet goes back in time to meet the Roman emperor Diocletian and...? Some stuff happens?  

In the end though, I couldn't think of a way to make this idea fit in, and I didn't really want to write a time-travel story. Juliet and Seymour are not time-travellers, nor are they under the delusion that they are. They are just two kids in the future who dress like they're from the past.

~to be continued~ 

Mayday – a forgotten character

Have you ever created a character intended for all kinds of comic strip shenanigans, only for nothing to come of it? 

Back in the late ’90s, I created a character called Mayday. I wanted to do a comic strip with a female lead. I was heavily influenced by the series Æon Flux, which was airing on SBS at the time and which I watched religiously, even though I didn’t understand most of what was going on. I had never seen anything like it before (or since). I wanted a world that matched it in bizarreness, if not in subject matter. I sketched out the character, but couldn’t think of any plots, so I put aside that idea. Not too long after that I got into anime. In 1999 I created a character called Juliet Prime and began making comics and stories about her instead.

Mayday was very much a proto-Juliet. They both had similar designs — short in stature with short scruffy hair. They were also both heroines who were out to defeat a totalitarian. Like the early Æon Flux shorts there would be no dialogue either.

She also had a little walrus who followed her around. The setting was a Soviet-looking brutalist hellscape populated mostly by hominids and itinerant salesmen. That’s all I really remember about this proposed comic strip.

There are no drawings of what Mayday looked like, so I did this mock-up to show you, to the best of my memory. The walrus I coloured purple here because Rotor, the walrus character in the Sonic The Hedgehog comics, was the same colour.

Also, my niece has a little walrus bath toy that is also purple. Coincidence???

If you’ve read my book Freefall O’Malley (and if not, what are you waiting for?!), the above drawing of Mayday might look familiar to you. That’s because she never completely disappeared down the memory hole. In designing the character Anna Yamaha, I (probably unconsciously) borrowed several elements from how I remembered Mayday to look. So she never really went away, she was just floating around in the back of my mind, waiting to be found again.

Juliet Prime 25th anniversary

I first drew my characters Juliet Prime and Seymour (no last name) 25 years ago today. Usually when you create a character you don't imagine drawing them many years later. At the time, I was a 20 year old uni student who got the idea to start a comic strip about some sort of evil corporation taking over their fictional island homeland, and these guys were the protagonists. 

The first strip was drawn the next day, and I tried to follow a schedule of producing one full-page colour strip, nine panels to a page, on the first day of each month from then on. As you can imagine, this deadline often got ignored due to assignments.

Incidentally I visited my old uni campus two days ago and walked through building 13 where I used to have multimedia classes, and where I used a battered old scanner to scan the early Juliet strips which I would also photocopy, hand out to friends, and pin up on noticeboards around the campus. This was nothing new in the early years of the internet. A few of us had our own web pages on Xoom or Geocities or something, but scanning things in the classroom was tedious and slow (especially if you had to do it on the QT lest anyone notice it was for non-course-related purposes), so it was often more practical to just stick something up in case someone might see it. I remember dubbing off some of my songs I had recorded onto cassettes, putting them in plastic sleeves and taping them to trees in nearby Alexander Park.

 

Over the years, the focus of these characters shifted a little. Before the Juliet Prime graphic novel came along in 2023, there was the original comic strip in 1999–2000, a full-length comic in 2002, another full-length comic in 2006 and the beginnings of a third around 2011, all of which were also called Juliet Prime. The hidden colony scene is taken from the 2002 comic, and the villains being clowns comes from the 2006 one. The 2006 comic ended with Juliet being forced by the clowns to walk a tightrope while juggling bombs, a cliffhanger ending that was never followed up.

 

One good thing about planning the 2023 graphic novel however was cherry-picking the elements from the two previous comics that worked and fit the structure of the intended new story. Thus, Juliet cutting off the arm of the colony gatekeeper that had turned into an eyeless green monster, seemed an obvious bit to keep in! It's the only part of either of those two comics that was included. 

The designs of Juliet and Seymour haven't really changed much over the last 25 years, although some things took time to evolve. Eventually you reach a point when they get suited to their costumes and hairstyles and so on, and just look strange when drawn any other way. At that stage you can call the designs final. Depending on the number of characters, it can often be confusing telling who's who in a comic, so it helps drawing them wearing the same clothes all the time, even though that doesn't really happen in real life.

Still, if you've created a character that's many years old and you still want to draw them, it can be interesting trying out other art styles, colour schemes and ways to keep them interesting for you. Of the artists I follow on Instagram, I might see Tintin hanging out with Indiana Jones one day, and a Simpsons character painted as a realistic human the next. Personally I enjoy re-creating well-known images with my characters. In the above image you can see Juliet and Seymour on a high ledge just like Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis in Ghostbusters.

To finish, here's one last photo edit featuring Juliet — this is the uni lecture theatre where I did my first drawing of her during a Film & Video 3 lecture on April 30, 1999. And I'm pretty sure that's where I was sitting, too! I always used to sit on the left side, five or so rows from the back, in an aisle seat. Those aren't the original seats. I remember them being red. And they seemed a lot closer together then, too. It's like visiting your old school. You swear it used to be bigger...

So, what did I draw in 2023?

I'm back! I'm sure you expected more than three measly blog posts from me in 2023. What can I say, drawing, colouring and printing a 128-page colour graphic novel took up a good chunk of my time. Here's what the front cover looks like:

And in this artistic yearly wrap-up, here are some of my other drawings from 2023, in chronological order. 

 

Violet, a character from my 2020 graphic novel The Snarley, riding a bike in a rural setting. Exercise in drawing characters not seen in their usual environments.

A frog craftsman in his workshop.

Mona Lisa, an Indian film actress. She appears in my unreleased graphic novel Limelight from 2021.

Wonka in Picasso style.

A Roman emperor with a metal detector.

Steam locomotive.

Feather, a character who appeared in Airbury Academy and Limelight, among other things.

Fremantle sheds.

Watercolour drawing of a frog. That's a bowl of nachos in his hand, if you can't tell.

Watercolour tanuki, inspired by Studio Ghibli's Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko. This is, of course, the 'Reiwa' version.

Tintin and Juliet Prime investigate the 'poison of madness'. This year was 40 years since the death of Hergé.

Spike and Violet in a Norman Rockwell parody.

Juliet and friends going carolling. I was going to write some lyrics above Seymour's head, but I couldn't be bothered. Now, get lost!

Welcome To The Twenties

Welcome to the Roaring Twenties, folks. Here's a watercolour I just did of Juliet Prime as a flapper and her best pal Dave as a city slicker! These two will finally make their graphic novel debut next year, 21 years after they came into being. And the last 2 digits of next year's date is...? Oh, the symbolism!

I'll be writing the Juliet comic concurrently with another one due to be completed this year. And in April, my blog will be ten years old! Gawd, where does the time go.

Two Wheels, Six Strings

A couple more sketches from my shetchbook:

Here are the main characters from Juliet Prime. The illustrations for Juliet and her friends tend to be a bit violent, so at last, here is one that shows the lighter side. I can't draw bicycles very well, so this gave me a chance to draw different types of bike and how the characters sit on them. It's all about the bike, as Gandhi once said.

If you don't know which one is Juliet, she's the one with yellow hair on the right, playing on her mini-bike she got from Tokyu Hands!

And there's always time for rockin' out with an oversized guitar. This one was done with a brush and water-soluble black paint. I prefer it to ink because it's a very rich black, although shades of grey are very hard to keep consistent. So, now you know!

Juliet & Dave – Plane & Scooter

A couple more illustrations from the Juliet & Dave hybrid comic I mentioned several months ago. I'm producing illustrations for scenes that haven't even been written! Still, there will definitely be a flying sequence featuring this little steampunk plane.


As well as that, here is another one of Juliet on her scooter – which comes from the beginning of the story, when she meets up with Dave in Chinatown.

One Year Already?

Today is the first anniversary of this blog, so I thought I'd post some cool stuff as well as the usual artwork. I'll begin with the artwork, so here's an illustration from the untitled third Juliet Prime hybrid comic (I'm still trying to write it, but it's progressing very slowly). It's an updated version of the Juliet's apartment picture. If you've seen the original, it's just her hair that's different.

Airbury Academy is still on hiatus after completing Volume III and Special Edition last year, but I'm still drawing the characters for fun and practise. Here's a piece of promo art featuring the character Natascha, mimicking that of the Battlestar Glactica spinoff series Caprica. The quote on the left isn't in the comic anywhere, but I'll put it in at some point.

Next is a page from Constantinople, my autobiographical comic about my uni years. This page introduces the character of Beardo Tech Dude. This was a guy who was serious about his work – maybe even too serious.

Packaging isn't a particular interest of mine but I like the design, colour and typeface on these Berri juice bottle labels. The die cut on them is a jagged edge, giving them a 'torn paper' effect.

The following pictures are from the Daniel Cunningham Collection Of Stuff What Came From Japan. As you know, my obsession with collecting little Japanese toys shows no sign of slowing and Dan's collection is off to a good start with these cup noodles, soft drinks and snacks.

Got yer, didn't I? The above items are actually erasers! Notice the detail: the white lids on the noodle bowls and the bottle caps are also erasers, and the two drink bottles (all 600ml bottles in Japan are that shape) have their own little shrink wrap. Too good to rub out pencil with, I think.

Meiji, a popular brand of chocolate in Japan. Eat this one and you'll break your teeth, or at least require a lot of prunes. It's a plastic puzzle. Unlike the food erasers, whose logos are meant to resemble actual products, the Meiji logo and packaging looks exactly like this. Below you can see light sabre chopsticks, a kit of blocks that form up into a bird, and the food erasers.

It's been a good first year on the blogwagon – the World Cup, Gorillaz, Sydney and the joys of crap photography. Thanks for stopping by, whether it's been from day 1 or day 365!

World Cup 16 Series – No.4: Uruguay

Now I'm convinced that digital cameras lie. The drawing below looks much better in my sketchbook than it does in this crummy photo. But that's how life is, kids.

By the way, Juliet doesn't smoke. She's just holding it for someone else.

Juliet and Dave, Year 11

Here's a drawing of Juliet and Dave from last year. What's that thing on Juliet's hand? I don't even remember why I put that there. This drawing is starting to look a bit strange to me. I've been drawing these characters on and off for 11 years now, so you think I'd know how to draw them properly. Dave's helmet looks good, though. I tried to get an army jumper like his from Aussie Disposals, but even the large size didn't seem to fit.

More Juliet

Juliet Prime III

Even though it's crawling along at snail's pace, writing for the third Juliet Prime graphic novel – also titled Juliet Prime like the first two – is progressing. One of the plot points that will be featured in this story, and which was never mentioned in the first two comics, is that Juliet and Dave are time-travellers who jumped forward 800 years from the year 1199. (This is why Juliet uses a knife instead of a gun, because she's never seen guns before.)

Don't ask me how they got a time machine. This is cyberpunkscifidrama, and I'll find a way to work it into the story.

Here is a piece of art I did for the 10th anniversary of Prime in April 2009. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that the backdrop is once again Heffernan Lane in Melbourne. (See my post about Erica from two days ago.) It's one of the more photogenic inner city alleyways, with the rear entrances of restaurants, old-fangled architecture, and dumpsters awaiting collection. I recommend you drop by and see it if you ever come to Melbourne.

Note that it may not look as enticing as the below image.