adamwarren
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BUBBLEGUM CRISIS: GRAND MAL pitch sketches, pt. 1
🕑 Added 2020-11-03 14:00:03 +0000 UTCThis month, my Patreon's informal "Design Tuesday" feature will be featuring my initial, circa-1992 sketches of the lead characters from the anime Bubblegum Crisis, drawn as part of my Studio Proteus pitch to write and draw an original, English-language BGC comic miniseries. (Non-SPOILER ALERT: The proposal was eventually successful, and in 1994 wound up producing the 4-part Dark Horse miniseries Bubblegum Crisis: Grand Mal, sadly long of print and never to be reprinted due to intractable licensing issues.)
A few words, as we start out with Priss (of course):
I drew these initial takes on the Knight Sabers' hardsuits and character designs on my once-beloved linen-finish cardstock as a time-saving alternative to producing fully-inked illustrations, which would've taken too long while I was still in the midst of finishing off the artwork for the last few issues of Dirty Pair: Sim Hell. Not an ideal medium, TBH, but what the heck.
Alas, I was a good five years out from sketching leather jackets based on photoreference, hence the notably drawn-off-the-top-of-my-head jacket Priss is sporting here.
Interestingly enough, while BGC designer Kenichi Sonoda was one of my key artistic influences in my first decade of manga inspiration, I can't say that I'd specifically riffed off his character designs until Grand Mal. I'm happy to say that I got a lot better at emulating his approach during the actual miniseries.
Next Tuesday, another Knight Saber! But WHO...?
TOMORROW ON THIS HERE PATREON: The DISTRESSED DAMSELS weekly feature for the $5+ Patron tiers boasts a pair of (mostly) unpublished first-draft, DiD-intensive Empowered (very) short stories. Behold the original ending of the "throwaway joke" iteration of the project, folks!
Comments
Ruth and Darrin Sutherland
Terrific Priss 👍
Burninator
I mean, there technically sort-of WAS a rerelease of Grand Mal, but only as a PDF. AnimEigo put high-resolution scans of Grand Mal on the Ultimate Edition Blu Ray when they cleared the rights to re-release the show, and they then put those scans on their website after that edition sold out. You can still grab the scans there to this day. I've no idea exactly what the legality of that was, but given that AnimEigo has a legitimate license to the show, it's possible that they could have the rights to the comic cleared.
Steven Ng
I love seeing these development sketches of Priss. The Grand Mal series is the point where Adam became an artist I love from an artist I like.
Steven Ng
My understanding is jointly held copyright by different estranged companies. I remember Toren Smith discussing the matter at a convention panel.
PixelThis
What makes the license issues so intractable?
Strypgia
You are really nailing Sonada's style right here. And I'm going to carefully hoard my original print copies of Grand Mal.
Tekkaman-James
So awesome!!! You’ve been pretty forthcoming with the exploits of getting permission to do Dirty Pair, but I’ve never really heard you describe how you got permission to make Grand Mal. I am hoping you will share more details as you post the rest of these gorgeous designs. Also, let’s reveal Nene next, please? ^_^
Will_K
Hardsuits and ballet heels... in space, noone can hear you kink.
