Strange Aeons - A Dieselpunk Retro-Pulp Thrillventure (...Webcomic)

Hi gang. Nice to join the community and see that it's thriving; I'm a fan of 'retro-future' stuff from way back, but it's only recently I discovered there was a noun-punk descriptor for it. So that's cool, as long as we keep the Nerf Mavericks holstered for now :)

I figured that since one of you guys was kind enough to feature my work in a post a few months back, it'd be kosher to talk about it a little here. I do a free weekly online comic (pretty new, not very long yet!) that might be of interest to the community:

Strange Aeons

"It's 1939 in the sprawling Art Deco nightmare called Nocturne City. A crew of Nazi rogues has come to the city to unlock the secret of the Necronomicon and unleash the apocalypse. The only people who stand in their way are junior pulp heroine Michelle Jehanne and hard-boiled detective Jack Chow. They haven't a prayer, but they've got bullets to spare."

.... If that tells you anything. As a fellow comic artist who read the script described it: "A Tarantino adaptation of a Frank Miller comic based on a Lovecraftian myth, starring a Humphrey Bogart / Chow Yun-Fat hybrid, with Nazis." Sooo, there's that. Does it live up to this? Well, probably not, but we'll see how close I get!

I understand that there are a few good dieselpunk comics out there already, both established (19XX) and newish (Warbirds of Mars) so I hope there's room for Strange Aeons in the mix. While I'm not an expert artist, I am making headway, at least in my own mind. Fans of Art Deco (as I am) should find something to enjoy in the pictures, I hope!

By all means, let me know what you think :)

Tags: 1930s, art, deco, dieselpunk, lovecraft, necronomicon, retro, retro-future

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Permalink Reply by Caerulctor on January 14, 2011 at 7:18pm

It looks quite promising! I won't dampen your ardor with any unasked-for criticism, but I'd be interested in knowing more about your sources of inspiration -- especially for the style of art. What do you look at to help give you a feel for the visual world that you're exploring? How do you maintain consistency in the look and feel of the world?

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Permalink Reply by J.R. on January 14, 2011 at 8:25pm

Gpod questions, Caerulctor. I'm a graphic designer by trade, so I'd say more than anything that the environments are inspired by graphics, and that Art Deco and German Expressionism are the major parts of that. I've always loved films with stylized environments -- Metropolis especially, which is the single biggest influence on the look of this project. Character design-wise I'm probably most influenced by animated films, especially Disney films of past and present. My inker is heavily influenced by Disney as well, and is an excellent artist in her own right.

The actual look of the comic is a result of combining vector drawings, photo sources and Photoshop tools. It's something I'm still developing as I go -- I only started doing comics (or any illustrations that weren't on cocktail napkins) in 2009, and it has been a learning experience indeed, since I wasn't trained as an 'artist' per se and had to start from near-scratch with anatomy, composition, etc. I had another comic before this one, in which I learned most of the techniques I use now, but the less said about that one, the better :)

Caerulctor said:

It looks quite promising! I won't dampen your ardor with any unasked-for criticism, but I'd be interested in knowing more about your sources of inspiration -- especially for the style of art. What do you look at to help give you a feel for the visual world that you're exploring? How do you maintain consistency in the look and feel of the world?