The Vort: The Big Reveal

Aloha!
The Vort/Lobster Random © 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Created by Si Spurrier (writing as G. Powell) and Me

With the new 2000AD out, I think it's safe to talk about the final episode of The Vort without spoiling anybody's fun. Reaction has been mixed, but not as virulent as I'd feared; the feedback I've had has all been very measured and reasonable. Much of the feeback has been along the lines that The Vort had developed its own very distinctive character, so having Crispy turn out to be Lobster Random felt a bit jarring, but most people seem to have enjoyed it overall.

Meanwhile, the Big Reveal finally gives me the chance to give credit where credit's due; first of all, G. Powell was of course Si Spurrier (which explains how "he" could get a series at 2000AD apparently without doing a Future Shock first). Thanks to Si for writing such a meaty story for me to work on; not only was it chock-full of cool stuff to draw, but each five-page episode was a journey in itself, yet still smoothly built up the overall picture as the series advanced. A classic example of the "show not tell" school of writing.
(Thanks also to those of you who flattered me by thinking I was G. Powell; your faith in my writing abilities, however misplaced, is much appreciated :-)

My original concept design for the alien Frogs, with whale-like faces.
The Vort © 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD

Created by Si Spurrier (writing as G. Powell) and Me

Big thankings too to Carl Critchlow for his open and generous collaboration in the design of the world of The Vort. Because the next series of Lobster Random re-uses settings from The Vort, we both supplied designs to the series; most notable was Carl's design for the faces of the Frogs. My original concept (above) featured a back-end-first torso design (inspired by the work of SF illustrator Wayne Douglas Barlowe) and a cetacian-type head with a flip-top jaw. This looked really alien but didn't seem to me to have the sinister and vicious-looking quality demanded by the script.

Carl Critchlow's concept design for the Frog head
The Vort © 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD

Created by Si Spurrier (writing as G. Powell) and Me

Happily, Carl had come up with an excellent head design (above) but was stuck for a body. I glued the two together (below) and the result was pretty much what appeared in the strip - though in practice the eyes drifted a bit further down towards the jaw, making the head look a little more chameleon-like.

Carl Critchlow's head on my body; the composite Frog design that made it into the strip.
The Vort © 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD

Created by Si Spurrier (writing as G. Powell) and Me

Cover to the final part of The Vort (2000AD Prog 1596)
The Vort © Rebellion Developments/2000AD
www.2000ADonline.com
The Vort created by G. Powell & Me

The final episode of The Vort is out, and we have the big reveal as to Crispy's identity. If you've read it, you'll either love it or hate it. I'm saving my comments till the end of the week, so everyone will have had a chance to read the thing before I talk about the big spoiler.

The Vort: Catching Up

Having finished The Vort, Matt fucks off to Dublin
The Vort © 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
The Vort created by G Powell & Me.

Gordon Murray lied to us, dear friends; time flies by whether you’re the driver of a train or not.

Radar problems caused delays and cancellations at Dublin airport.

Despite my firm intentions to do a blog post for each episode of The Vort, I realize to my horror that it's nearly a month since I last posted anything, and 2000AD Prog 1595 (containing part 7 of 8) has arrived on my doormat already. I knew I'd lose a couple of weeks finishing the last two episodes (part 8 was due by the end of June), but my recovery time afterwards was a bit longer than I expected, and then I went away to Dublin for a couple of days and on the way home got caught in the shite-storm when the radar broke down at Dublin airport. Once I got back I needed a day to sleep that off.

So, now I've finished explaining how the dog ate my homework, let's have a quick summary of stuff I was going to say in those putative weekly blog posts.

A page of G. Powell's script including page layout diagram (ringed in red) opposite the finished page.
Click on picture to see a larger version.
The Vort © 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
The Vort created by G Powell & Me.

Page Layout Diagrams
Earthlet Arthur Wyatt asked if I'd show one of G Powell's scripts with page layout diagram, so here's the script for page one along with the finished page for comparison. Mr Powell's diagram is quite small, so I've ringed it in red.

Meridien Bless with her plain-prism Nikon F2 and 80-200mm lens.
To avoid any possible copyright problems, "Nikon" becomes "Nixon" on the camera.
The Vort © 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
The Vort created by G Powell & Me.

Meridien Bless's Camera Equipment*
*you may want to skip to the next bit
Being a bit of a photography nut, I got quite caught up in the mechanics of how Bless would be able to photograph in an environment where nothing electronic works. Camera equipment was pretty straightforward; any camera with a mechanical shutter will work perfectly well without batteries. I'd have liked to have equipped Bless with a classic Leica rangefinder, but that wouldn't have given her access to the sort of telephoto lens she would have needed to photograph the Frogs on the bubbleberg in episode 3. In the end I opted for an all-mechanical plain-prism Nikon F2 SLR kitted out with the original AF-Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 zoom and the classic Angenieux AF 28-70mm f2.6-2.8 zoom (these Nikon-fit AF lenses work like manual-focus lenses when attached to manual cameras.)

Meridien Bless takes a light-meter reading using a non-electronic "extinction meter".
The Vort © 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
The Vort created by G Powell & Me.

Light metering was more of an issue; even old hand meters are battery powered. Then I remembered that, in the 1960's, my dad had used some sort of simple metering device with no electronics - it was a sort of scope you looked through, though I couldn't remember how it worked. A bit of Googling told me this device was called an "extinction meter" and that it did indeed work without any sort of electronics - you can see Bless using one in part 6 panel 3.
As to how film would survive without fogging in such a powerful electromagnetic field... I can only assume that APCU have some sort of advanced emulsion that's sensitive to visible light only.

Just Can't Stand The Rai-ain
Drawing a comic is like running a marathon; you start off fresh and full of enthusiasm, but by the end it's almost always a test of stamina and endurance as you grind towards the finish line. To be fair, The Vort's not been too bad; at forty pages, it may even be the shortest self-contained colour series I've ever done. The fact that it's set in the jungle also cuts down the amount of perspective drawing, something that always slows a project down.
Balanced against that is having to draw all those APCU soldiers in their complicated camouflage-patterened uniforms and slimy-looking Genekit. I don't regret designing the uniforms as I did - you want character costumes to look interesting and distinctive - but by episode 4 I was glad when the script described everyone wearing rain capes - which hide a multitude of sins.

The stages of adding rain to a panel: Top left: no rain, top right: small background drops, bottom left: medium mid ground drops, bottom right: large foreground drops. Each layer of rain had a different Motion Blur filter setting applied to it in Photoshop.
Click on picture to see a larger version.
The Vort © 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
The Vort created by G Powell & Me.

Being me, of course, I couldn't let it be that simple. As the same time as I was saving work drawing the soldiers, I added to my burdens by the incredibly faffy way I did the rain itself. To give a sense of depth and movement, I drew rain on three different layers (tiny strokes for the background, medium strokes for the mid ground, and big strokes for the foreground), then added a different degree of Motion Blur filter to each layer. On pages where the rain is falling in different directions in different panels, I'd have to select individual panels and add filters to each one - I think the most fiddly page had four selections and twelve filter operations. I'd also sometimes colour the layers of rain differently to help add a sense of depth.
Half the time, I'm not sure if this stuff is really noticeable on the printed page; still, I wouldn't feel right if I missed it out, and besides, when I got to part 7 page 2 when the rain stopped... it was almost worth it just for the blissful sense of relief.

Cover rough for next week's 2000AD (Prog 1596): a Ditko-inspired "Who is Crispy?" cover.
Don't worry, the finished version is coloured in with crayons and everything.
The Vort © 2008 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
The Vort created by G Powell & Me.

Next Week on The Vort
Bless finds some disturbing evidence which changes her whole understanding of what was happening on The Vort. We finally get to find out who Crispy is, and I get another cover.