Still running behind on commentaries, so I’m once again “double-sipping” with a Tweet storm about a new project.
The 10pp story I did for 9/28’s Deadpool Annual is titled “Nü Flesh,” after an AIM splinter group that “gene-pirates” Wade’s own mutant flesh.
PREVIEWS listing here: http://www.previewsworld.com/C
Had fun designing some amusingly icky AIM biotech monstrosities for Deadpool (and the heroine he teams up with) to battle.
Was trying for a bit of a Yasushi Nirasawa feel to the hideous AIM bioconstructs ol’ Wade faces, by the way.
The late, great Yasushi Nirasawa has long been a major influence of mine—his fine book CREATURE CORE has lurked by my table for decades.
Cue my favorite goopy sound FX for these wet, fleshy, creepy AIM biodrones: SHLUPP, PLURPP, and even an EMPOWERED-style “GLORPP.”
I probably shouldn’t spoil the “Final Boss” critter that Deadpool must take down, but the technically redundant term “biokaiju” is used.
“Biokaiju” technical redundancy: Obvsly, pretty much all kaiju are biological in nature, or they’d likely be called “giant mecha.”
Running joke, here, is that the “bio-” prefix gets overused in the story, to the point that Deadpool yells, “LET’S BIO-DO THIS BIO-THING!”
Ah, but as Deadpool battles the grotesque biodrones of the AIM splinter faction “Nu Flesh”—don’t forget the umlaut!—who’s helping him out?
Which little-known Marvel character did I pluck from obscurity to team up with Deadpool, might you well ask?
Which obscure Marvel heroine is, in fact, the main reason why I made the ill-considered decision to draw this Deadpool Annual story myself?
Deadpool’s temporary teammate for this story is… *EXTENDED DRUMROLL* …Gothic Lolita from my 2004 Marvel miniseries Livewires.
12 years after the miniseries ran its low-selling course, one of the characters I created for Livewires returns to the Marvel uni!
Livewires was about a team of mecha created by a top-secret übertech program set up to target & destroy OTHER top-secret übertech projects.
Why, you can read and enjoy Livewires right now on Comixology or Marvel’s app! https://www.comixology.com/Liv
(Livewires may actually read better in digital form, as the old TPB’s poor paper stock made our heroes’ “comlink captions” tough to read.)
Had high-minded intentions of updating Gothic Lolita’s fashions for the story, but this intent was overtaken by crushing deadline pressure.
Belated consultation informed me that Gothic Lolita’s old-school design might be semi-plausible as a “retro” Japanese style, though. Huzzah!
I learned too late from a kindly expert that the “tiny top hat” was out of fashion—by this point, GothLol’s hat was a minor plot point. Oops!
In a cruel twist of fate, however, I found Deadpool much easier to draw than Livewires’ Gothic Lolita, a character I’d designed myself.
Due to similar crushing deadline pressure back in 2004, I wound up drawing about half of Livewires issues #4-6 myself (uncredited, alas).
I drew Gothic Lolita plenty of times back then, including on three of the Livewires covers, and don’t recall having much difficulty.
GothLol’s red-glowing “robot eyes” proved maddeningly tough to get right—and, in fact, I didn't get them right in several shots.
(If I hadn’t messed up my fingertips with temporary nerve damage from inking, I’d likely still be drawing patches for GothLol’s g-d eyes.)
Just realized today that I could’ve drawn GothLol with human-looking eyes for the first few pages, until Deadpool realizes she’s a mecha.
The chance to reintroduce one of—ahem—“my” Marvel characters for a Deadpool Annual story was a key reason why I decided to draw it myself.
Frankly, I—or my fingertips, at least—would’ve been better off just writing this Deadpool story for Ryan Kinnaird to handle all the art on.
Still, was a great experience to work with Ryan Kinnaird on Livewires again, as he colored all the cover art I drew for the miniseries.
I love how beautiful the full-color pages look, but it’s clear to me that I can no longer produce artwork set up for this format. Oh, well.
-Adam Warren
