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FAILED-PROJECT FRIDAY: The sad tale of defunct Cliffhanger pitch BLOOD OF THE MAGI
🕑 Added 2020-01-10 14:08:30 +0000 UTCWelcome to another installment of Failed-Project Friday, folks! (Open to the public, this time, in part because I repurposed much of this post from an old DeviantART piece.)
This time around, the failed project in question is one that has no actual artwork directly attached to it, alas. On the other hand, two of the project's characters made cameo appearances in an illo I did for the videogame magazine PSM, so I'll use that stuff as accompanying artwork, starting with the Ryan-Kinnaird-colored piece below:
Back around 2002 or so, I horked up a pitch for a skewed, hyperkinetic and somewhat demented foray into the field of "fantasy" or "sword & sorcery" or whatever term along those lines you care to use. I wasn't all that interested in the standard-issue tropes of fantasy literature, so I took an approach that was more akin to the SF speculation that's often characterized my work... As in, colorfully twisted applications of magic usage (substituting for the "techy" riffs of my SF work), bizarre mage-spawned lifeforms aplenty, exotic and hard-to-draw environments, way-over-the-top action, and all sorts of sexualized implications. (The odd degree of asexuality inherent in much fantasy work has always puzzled me a fair bit.) Have to say, the proposal had a bit of the "flava" of Julian May's "Many-Colored Land" series of SF/fantasy/whatever novels, which I quite enjoyed in back in high school (and still do, after rereading 'em recently).
The project was titled Blood of the Magi, and told the story of a scrappy, low-level magic-user accidentally empowered with the world-changing skill set of a high-level, nigh-godlike mage. With the help of her reluctant bodyguard, a superhuman, "mage-woven" female gladiator (well, gladiatrix, whateva), the young mage struggles to survive in an exotic, magic-twisted world that has quite literally turned against her. To give you an idea of their roles, I originally code-named the lead characters "Jamadagni and Gabrielle," after the female leads from Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone. (Same deal with the heroines from the potentially upcoming, currently pseudonymous Project X, by the way.)
Anyhoo, during that brief, golden time when I had some minor degree of "pull" at Wildstorm, I successfully pitched Blood of the Magi as a series for the Cliffhanger book, with yours truly as the writer and the great Terry Dodson as an artist(!). Alas, Terry had to go work on the Kevin-Smith-written Black Cat miniseries for Marvel, which was A Very Big Deal at the time and arguably launched him on his way to superstar-artist status. And lo, thus did Magi's brief stint as a theoretical Cliffhanger book draw to an ignominious close.
Come to think of it, Blood of the Magi had one more short-lived stint as a theoretical Cliffhanger book, as I briefly considered drawing the series myself. Sadly, as with the ill-fated Cannibal Sun pitch, I soon discovered that I no longer possessed the ambition to tackle the incredible amount of challenging artistic work that the project's insanely complicated environment would require. Moreover, the overly lucrative Cliffhanger program was soon shut down anyway. (Oh, well. )
Around this time, Ryan Kinnaird and I had to do an illustration for the videogame magazine PSM dealing with fantasy-RPG game tropes, so I stuck a version of the magic-using lead character from Magi into the illo. She's the elf chica with the spellbooks lanyarded to her legs, like a Western gunfighter's holstered pistols; I should note for the record that she was rather notably less voluptuous in Magi, to contrast with the more zaftig curves of her gladiatrix companion's "magic-augmented" body.
Most of the characters in the RPG illo had no role in Blood of the Magi, with one notable exception: the cheerful-looking, bloody-handed chica in white (as seen below) was a secondary Magi character, playing the role of a very "hands-on" (or "hands-in") sort of healer. In fact, a version of this character appeared in the great Carla Speed McNeil's story in the Sexy Chix anthology from Dark Horse. We'd had a number of lengthy e-mail discussions about the "happy healer" (who magically tinkers with her own neurochemistry to stay happy), so I gave my blessing when Carla did a very bloody and very funny story about how this healer might carry out her work.
Sorry about the crappiness of the illos, folks, but these low-res jpegs are the best versions I could find of the pieces I drew for PSM.
Anyhoo, that's the low-down on Blood of the Magi, folks! Working up the project's complex world and sprawling cast would be so demanding an artistic task that I don't imagine this puppy will ever spring to life again. However, I should add that I have a new fantasy-comic pitch in development, one that would be my own take on the currently popular "D&D-based action/ comedy" genre; that sucker, if I can line up an art team, stands a much better chance of someday seeing print.
Comments
KranberriJam
I would love to see this story in print, the base ideas sound fantastic. The medic girl calls to me~
Adam Warren
Alas, no. I’m curious as well re: what his versions of the characters would’ve looked like!
Adam Warren
Ah, no, that’s not a girl. The dude was created solely for the PSM RPG illo, and had no role in BLOOD OF THE MAGI.
Tim
Loved these ever since >I saw them on DeviantArt, but.... That one with the sword is a GIRL?!!! Wow, I always thought that was a dude.
Lucky Barry
Nice Tellos / Battle Chasers vibe off the character designs in this pitch. Sorry we didn’t get to see the finished product due to timing, but maybe we’ll see a story someday?!
TF Commando
Fun stuff! There's a ton of detailed stuff all over the black mage, but it all looks like it has practical use, unlike some modern RPG illustration styles (Pathfinder). Did Terry Dodson do any sketches of them? His character style is a lot more streamlined and I'm curious how it would have looked.
Strypgia
Wouldn't mind seeing these characters show up in the future. They look like a new blood the fantasy genre needs.
