adamwarren
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My way-too-tight layouts for "Unnamed Robot Comic" issue #2, pt.5!
🕑 Added 2021-11-03 13:01:01 +0000 UTC(UPDATE: Here's a link to our previous installment, in case you'd forgotten what the heck was going on in the issue's narrative.)
Behold, the rest of my layouts for issue #1 of 2004's Marvel mecha-team miniseries Livewires, titled here as "Unnamed Robot Comic" as I'm more than a tad dubious about identifying this series of posts publicly. Keep this to yourselves, won't you? (The joke of using the title "Unnamed Robot Comic", by the way, is that Livewires' mecha protagonists consider the term "robot" to be an offensive slur.)
The final art on the series was done by my old bud Rick Mays, but as you can see I cranked out insanely tight, fully dialogued, Sharpie-and-pencils layout pages for the series ahead of time; not only was this approach a faaaar from cost-effective use of my worktime, but in retrospect I feel that these layouts constricted Rick from drawing the beautiful faces and figure work he produced for other books. (Oh, well.)
BTW, with this sequence mentioning Life Model Decoy Nick Fury (and setting up future plot points)...
...let's pour one out for the long-defunct microbrewery Devil Mountain, whose products included the Devil Mountain Pale Ale mentioned in panels 2 & 3 above. (I was a big fan back in 2004, but I think their product line ceased while I still finishing up the miniseries.)
Interestingly enough, in Empowered vol. 12 I'm about to the revisit the same flashback concept of "present-day characters appearing directly in a memory" seen here. I thought that I was homaging a similar riff I recently saw in the late Satoshi Kon's anime Millennium Actress (which I hadn't checked out until a few months ago), but it turns out that 2004 Me had already covered the concept 17 years ago. Nicely done, Past Me!
NEXT TIME ON THIS HERE PATREON: Who knows what might go up next? At the moment, not even me, thanks to the semi-randomized "M/W/F+" posting schedule! Golly!
Comments
Burninator
1998 comes straight from Boston Beer Company's old annual reports saying that the brand was discontinued then. "On March 19, 1996, the Company entered into a Trademark License and Technical Assistance Agreement (the "Trademark Agreement") with Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc. ("Seagram"), pursuant to which the Company licensed the "Devil Mountain" trademarks for use by Seagram on beers which Seagram developed, with technical assistance from the Company. The Trademark Agreement was canceled during 1998 and the Company does not expect to receive any additional royalty payments during 1999." Also, Austin Homebrew Supply sells a kit to brew a clone of Devil Mountain Black Honey Ale, FYI.
Adam Warren
I do recall that the last DM six-packs I bought were actually coated in dust and had clearly been lurking on the state liquor store shelves for some time, but 6 years does seem like a bit of a stretch...
Burninator
Just did some research, and it looks like Devil Mountain was actually a partnership of sorts between Seagram and Sam Adams for most of it's life. (From what I can tell, Some Guy started a microbrewer as Devil Mountain, sold out to Seagram, then Seagram decided to contract out the actual brewing, or Sam Adams bought the name and licensed it out to Seagram; info's kinda murky) Since Sam Adams/Boston Beer Company did the actual brewing as a contract brewer, if you're willing to buy a whole production run you could probably get them to remanufacture the recipe. Elvis did that once for a flavor of ice cream he liked that got discontinued. Also, from what I can tell, there wasn't a Devil Mountain Pale Ale as such; they made several pale ales under different names. The weird thing is, Devil Mountain was discontinued in 1998, so I've got no idea how you were buying their stuff in 2004 unless it was really old stock or you had/will have had a time machine.
andrew
If Pepsi Blue can return (albeit ever so briefly) after 16 years, Devil Mountain Pale Ale may one day live again. Never give up hope.
PixelThis
"a fetching little starfish", I can see this as a potential new product the ARR inventory
Strypgia
You hadn't seen _Millennium Actress_ until recently? You were missing out. Next you're going to tell us you haven't seen _Your Name_ or _Summer Wars_. :P I remember even when I was reading LW the first time, I noticed how dense and almost dark the art was at times. You really went all out on this project. The 'window pop-ins from other characters' is a bit of a flashback as far as _Sim Hell_, too.
totallySafeUsername
Just finished rereading that book...
totallySafeUsername
Hopefully past "you" didn't point out the size of your butt and tie you up with your clothes! ;)
A Patreon of the Ahts
I loved the way SHIELD solved AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) AND made perfectly undetectable androids - and we can't do either of those things yet - in the 60s.... I always thought that the LMD wing of SHIELD was woefully under explored in the comics.
