The Rebellion Leaders & We're Boston Strong!

Work continues on "Last of the Electus" with most character designs complete and the first chapter's script being finalized. Isiah has begun work on the first pages but we have decided that it would be best to partner with a letterer so the search for that talent has started. If you're interested, drop us a line.

Meanwhile, in this post we'll take a look at some of the characters joining Peter Redwood in his quest to topple Discordia's regime. 

First up is Abigail Nayar, leader of the New York City rebel cell. Nayar is a tough, take no prisoners type of leader who has a big secret that Redwood uncovers in chapter two. (Let's just say she's not who she says she is!)

Next up is Master Chief Jon Gage. Gage is the oldest member of the NYC cell, Nayar's chief tactician and a former Navy SEAL teammate of Redwood's. He knew Redwood as a young brash Ensign right out of the Naval Academy and helped to forge him into the leader he became.  In our story, Gage sometimes acts as Redwood's conscious and sounding board. Like many in "Last of the Electus," Gage is also hiding a secret that will be revealed in the course of the story.

Finally, meet Essie. A spunky but street-smart 19 year old, she is the one who finds Redwood locked away in cryo-sleep and accidentally releases him from his icy prison. Wise beyond her years, she is one of Nayar's most trusted troops. Gage rescued her as a toddler from a vampire's assault and trained her to be a warrior; she looks to the Master Chief as a surrogate father. Essie becomes very fond of Redwood after he saves she and a companion from execution in the arena. 

Last but not least for this post, on Saturday April 20th, Lloyd will be at Boston Comic-Con promoting the project. As you all know, Boston suffered a terrorist attack this past Monday during the Boston Marathon killing three and injuring hundreds. The Hynes Center, where Comic-Con is held, is only a few blocks from the site of the attack and tensions are still running high in the city. In this region though, we're Boston Strong and refuse to let these terrorists change our way of life so thankfully the Con goes on as scheduled. 

Look for Lloyd at the event passing out stickers with this image of Redwood battling a Minotaur in the arena, which is the first color image for "Last of the Electus."

Mythological Vampires

In "Last of the Electus," vampires play an important role as the foot soldiers of the evil Discordia. In Greek mythology, there are two vampire type creatures; Mormo and Lamia. Mormo was a spirit who bit bad children and Lamia was turned into a child eating demon by a jealous Hera for her affair with Zeus. 

In our story, Lloyd deviated somewhat from mythology and created his own back story. Vampires were created in ancient times by Discordia to punish humanity for turning away from polytheism and embracing the concept of monotheism. While she and the other gods eventually went into seclusion and worked for and against mankind behind the scenes, her vampires spread out across the world and multiplied, killing millions across the centuries. It was only in the early twenty-first century that the world's governments formally acknowledged the vampires' existence, leading to the creation of the Electus and the first Vampire Wars.

In "Last of the Electus," Mormo and Lamia are the vampire leaders of Discordia's army and secret police. While Mormo prefers brute strength and a direct attack on her opponents, Lamia, who is also a practitioner of the black arts, uses more subterfuge to accomplish her agenda. 

Below are Isiah's first character sketches for each of the vampire leaders based on Lloyd's descriptions.

General Mormo

Lamia

 

Next time out, we'll take a look at the leaders of the rebellion and some background information on the characters. 

If you have any questions or comments about this blog, the project or any of our other works, please drop us a line.

 

Story Development

Welcome back to the Electus blog.

As Lloyd continues to write Chapter II of the graphic, Isiah has generated more character sketches. The latest are two are Greek gods; the villainess Discordia and Hephaestus, the Greek god of craftsman (also the blacksmith of the gods...which will be somewhat integral to the story).

Keep in mind these are just the rough sketches that will be used as character references for Isiah when he starts to draw the actual pages. 

This time out, we're going to feature some background on where the story comes from. The genesis of "Last of the Electus" came way back in 1995 while Lloyd was working on the set of the sci-fi television series "seaQuest 2032." One day he picked up a script and after reading it, decided that he would take a shot at creating his own original story. This led to his first effort called "Subject: Unknown;" a script featuring a character that would become Peter Redwood leading a team of federal agents with super powers against a vampire lord and his minions. That script was optioned by a local Orlando production company (Boris Malden's BBK Productions) that had produced the "Swamp Thing" and "Superboy" television shows in the early nineties. 

Lloyd pitched this story as "X-Men" meets "Blade" and while it contained many supernatural elements, the Greek mythological angle was totally absent. Around the same time, producer Walter Von Huene, who was also based in  Orlando at the time (and just so happened to be the dialogue coach for Arnold Schwarzenegger), recommended that Lloyd read Christopher Vogler's "The Author's Journey" to better understand story structure and archetypes.

While the script was never produced, the experience with both Malden and Von Huene gave Lloyd the motivation to continue forward with his writing. Switching to novels around 2002, he completed and saw published his three Ronan Marino hardboiled detective mysteries. Meanwhile the Redwood concept continued to gestate in his imagination and in late 2011, Lloyd decided to turn it into a graphic novel. Abandoning much of the original storyline while keeping the Redwood character, he outlined a story about Redwood, having thought the vampires defeated in the present day, awakens from cryogenic sleep fifty years into the future to find it ruled by vampires. 

Sounds somewhat familiar, right...but where are Discordia and the other Greek gods? After much thought, Lloyd decided that there were just too many novels, comics, movies, etc. that featured vampiric rulers in a dystopian future; especially after an artist that he pitched the story to said it sounded too much like the movie "Priest." Fair enough...so who would be the villains?

Could it be aliens? Demons? Then Lloyd stumbled over the Greek goddess Eris, the goddess of chaos, strife and discord. Finding promise in her as a villain, he learned that in mythology there were also actual vampires in Mormo and Lamia. So what if vampires were created by Eris to punish mankind for turning away from the gods and becoming monotheistic? What if after centuries the gods returned to reclaim the planet and enslaved mankind? What if they staged massive gladiatorial games in famous places like Madison Square Garden?

Eureka! Gods, vampires and gladiators it was. In early drafts,  Lloyd used the name Eris as the chief villain, but decided that the Latin version "Discordia" sounded far more evil, especially in light of the title becoming "Last of the Electus" using the Latin term for chosen. With a villain in place, the story could move forward.  

So what's up next for the project? We're going to begin building a website to promote the story and Lloyd will be attending Boston Comic Con in late April with promotional materials. We're also hoping to have the first chapter ready to go for New York Comic Con in October.

Look for more artwork from Isiah very soon!