Illustrations for Captain's Log #37

[Icy_Penguigo]

Hey guys. Been swamped the last few days making these at the last minute. These are illustrations that are meant to accompany a story in the latest Captain's Log(the magazine that ADB regularly puts out).

The story is about a squad of Star Fleet marines from the USS Potemkin conducting a hit-and-run raid on a Romulan King Eagle's tractor beam, four days after the Day of the Eagle(the day the Romulans officially joined the General War by invading the Federation). The Potemkin is locked in battle with the Romulan ship, but the captain makes a mistake, and his ship is tractored by the Rommies. The King Eagle is minutes away from launching a massive volley of plasma torpedoes, but the Potemkin manages manages to knock down her facing shield. The captain decides to send over a marine squad in a desperate attempt to kill the King Eagle's tractor beam and save the Potemkin from total annihilation. The ensuing battle in the King Eagle's tractor beam compartment is pure terror and carnage for the marines sent over there.

Anyway, here's the illustrations:

This image is immediately after the marines beam in, letting loose with a deadly phaser volley hoping to neutralize all Romulan defenses in the immediate vicinity.

This image is of the last two surviving members of the marine squad, beamed back after destroying the Romulan tractor beam and allowing the Potemkin to escape. Schneid, the squad's combat engineer, is frantically firing his phaser at the wall of the Potemkin's transporter chamber, convinced he is about to die at the hands of several Romulans who just stormed the chamber he was in seconds earlier. His other surviving squadmate is trying to convince him that he is back on the Potemkin, safe and sound. The horror of what he has just witnessed has taken its toll on him.

Whaddya guys think?

 

[Redfern]

Whaddya guys think?

What's the lady's "comm' frequency"? I think I'm in love!

Seriously, I'm always impressed when an artist can handle several mediums. When I first saw your work, I assumed you exclusively worked with 3D. But it's great to see you also handle "traditional" illustration with appreciative skill.

The girl in the second image reminds me a little of Shirow's Major Motoko Kusanagi from "Ghost in the Shell". I'm not implying you were influenced by that. It's just me... I, personally, am reminded of the popular cyberpunk character. I think it's her almond eyes, raven locks and the tactical armor. In my eyes, that's a good thing!)

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Icy_Penguigo]

Whaddya guys think?

What's the lady's "comm' frequency"? I think I'm in love!

Seriously, I'm always impressed when an artist can handle several mediums. When I first saw your work, I assumed you exclusively worked with 3D. But it's great to see you also handle "traditional" illustration with appreciative skill.

The girl in the second image reminds me a little of Shirow's Major Motoko Kusanagi from "Ghost in the Shell". I'm not implying you were influenced by that. It's just me... I, personally, am reminded of the popular cyberpunk character. I think it's her almond eyes, raven locks and the tactical armor. In my eyes, that's a good thing!)

Sincerely,

Bill

Thanks, Redfern! I've always had a thing for strong, capable female warriors. They're way hotter than your average "damsel in distress". And one of the things I've always loved about Trek in general is it's capacity to show women working alongside men, every bit as strong as tenacious as they are. (Again, hawt)

I think ADB has done a great job with this in particular, better than most of the TV shows, honestly. One of the great things about ADB is that the company is run as an equal partnership between Steve Cole, and his wife, Leanna. They have no compunction against showing a woman as an ass-kicking Star Fleet Marine, which I have no problem with whatsoever!

As far as inspiration goes, I love Ghost in the Shell. Just watched the Solid State Society yesterday, in fact. I'm also a huge fan of Yuktito Kishiro's "Battle Angel Alita", or "Gunnm" in the Japanese. You should check out his work, if you haven't already:

http://jajatom.moo.jp/E-top/E-frame.html

Kishiro-sensei's work is strongly focused on an insanely strong and inspiring female protagonist, named Alita("Gally" in the Japanese version)

And I've been writing my own science-fiction comic book series for years, called "Galatea", which I hope to have legitimately published someday. It also features a very strong female protagonist.(If anyone wants to know about that, let me know, I'll send you some info)

 

[Icy_Penguigo]

I don't know if anyone is interested, but this is a mini-gallery of a lot of my illustrative work:

http://www.mangaworkshop.net/memberslist/?memberid=3307

Anyone that cares, let me know what you think.

 

[Redfern]

I'm also a huge fan of Yuktito Kishiro's "Battle Angel Alita", or "Gunnm" in the Japanese. You should check out his work, if you haven't already:

http://jajatom.moo.jp/E-top/E-frame.html

Kishiro-sensei's work is strongly focused on an insanely strong and inspiring female protagonist, named Alita("Gally" in the Japanese version)

Oh, I know of Gally/Alita, "Lil' Octopus Lips" quite well. I have all the available "omnibus" volumes of both the original saga and the Last Order series. I've made several renders of her, improving her appearance as I gain a new costume or texture element. If you're curious, you can view them here:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v413/Redfern/

When prompted for a "guest" password, key in:

view

The Gally renders should appear upon the first page. I also have a Major Kusanagi render with the Section 9 agent wearing her "street walker" uniform (That's a uniform?!)

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Icy_Penguigo]

I'm also a huge fan of Yuktito Kishiro's "Battle Angel Alita", or "Gunnm" in the Japanese. You should check out his work, if you haven't already:

http://jajatom.moo.jp/E-top/E-frame.html

Kishiro-sensei's work is strongly focused on an insanely strong and inspiring female protagonist, named Alita("Gally" in the Japanese version)

Oh, I know of Gally/Alita, "Lil' Octopus Lips" quite well. I have all the available "omnibus" volumes of both the original saga and the Last Order series. I've made several renders of her, improving her appearance as I gain a new costume or texture element. If you're curious, you can view them here:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v413/Redfern/

When prompted for a "guest" password, key in:

view

The Gally renders should appear upon the first page. I also have a Major Kusanagi render with the Section 9 agent wearing her "street walker" uniform (That's a uniform?!)

Sincerely,

Bill

Very cool stuff. Mmmmm...Matoko...so hot.

I really want to see an awesome 3D version of Gally from Last Order. Unfortunately, it's beyond my abilities as a 3D artist, and it would probabaly be a significant challenge for someone highly versed in 3D characters anyway. Guesss I'll just have to wait until James Cameron gets done with "Avatar",

 

[Redfern]

I really want to see an awesome 3D version of Gally from Last Order...Guesss I'll just have to wait until James Cameron gets done with "Avatar",

Doesn't Kishiro himself have some modeled and rendered images of Gally at the site you linked? He used to. I remember he changed the color of her leather leotards from black to red for one particular image because it just seemed to work better for the composition. I mean, one can't get a more "authentic" 3D version than as interpreted by the character's creator, right?

Oh, wait... I see you specified "Last Order". Kishiro's was the Scrapyard ensemble (which will be the setting for Cameron's movie I understand).

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Icy_Penguigo]

I really want to see an awesome 3D version of Gally from Last Order...Guesss I'll just have to wait until James Cameron gets done with "Avatar",

Doesn't Kishiro himself have some modeled and rendered images of Gally at the site you linked? He used to. I remember he changed the color of her leather leotards from black to red for one particular image because it just seemed to work better for the composition. I mean, one can't get a more "authentic" 3D version than as interpreted by the character's creator, right?

Oh, wait... I see you specified "Last Order". Kishiro's was the Scrapyard ensemble (which will be the setting for Cameron's movie I understand).

Sincerely,

Bill

Oh yeah, I;ve seen Kishiro's renders of Gally from her scrapyard days. But I wanna see that sexy Imaginos body in action.....plus I loooooooooove Desty Nova, I'd like to see him too. Basically, here's what I want, in no meaningful order of any kind:

- Gally vs Zapan(Berserker body, gigantic apolypytic scrapyard battle)

- Motorball anything(Yes, I have seen Kishiro's brief CG movie of a Motorball match, it was amazing)

- Gally vs Jim's robot body, the Tipharean spoiled brat genius that killed his Dad(rather gruesomely) and tried to kill Nola....forget the name of the particular body he used.

- Gally and Zazie versus the Electromagnetic ZOTT Karate Master.

- Vilma fighting her crazed vampire husband.

- SPACE MBADI!

I love Battle Angel....

 

[jolau]

This image is of the last two surviving members of the marine squad, beamed back after destroying the Romulan tractor beam and allowing the Potemkin to escape. Schneid, the squad's combat engineer, is frantically firing his phaser at the wall of the Potemkin's transporter chamber, convinced he is about to die at the hands of several Romulans who just stormed the chamber he was in seconds earlier. His other surviving squadmate is trying to convince him that he is back on the Potemkin, safe and sound. The horror of what he has just witnessed has taken its toll on him.

Whaddya guys think?

Don't you think the middle transporter pad is alittle too TNG-ish?

 

[Redfern]

Don't you think the middle transporter pad is alittle too TNG-ish?

Are we sure it's a T-pad? When one considers the guy's horrified expression, well, it could be a puddle!

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Nerroth]

Not too shabby!


(As far as Masamune Shirow leading ladies go, it's hard to beat Deunan Knute, especially the way she looks in Appleseed: Ex Machina - though the characterisation is still somewhat different in the print form than it is on-screen.)