JP here...with a new post! I think about 3 months ago I made the promise that this blog would be updated a lot more frequently. Yeah...that didn't happen. But NOW I promise...just kidding I'm not going to make that promise again. Hopefully we'll keep this updated on a somewhat more regular basis, but it just depends on mine and Matt's respective schedules. Plus I want to make sure there's always something worthy of a posting. I could post 2 or 3 times a day about every inane little thought that pops into my head, but nobody wants that, trust me. I believe that's what Twitter's for anyway...
But back to the posting at hand! And we do in fact have something very post-worthy. Introducing KENT!

Who is he? What's his role in the world of Zak Goji? We'll have to get this comic published for you to find out!
And what's the little device on his wrist? Even I don't know! Perhaps Matt does, since he included it as part of this awesome design. And if he doesn't, well I've already got some ideas. That's the beauty of working with a great artist. Not only do they bring what's in your head to life perfectly, but they also add in stuff that makes the design/character even better!
Oh and the BEST part about this particular design? It means that the bulk of the main character designs are finished for now.
On to the cover and sample pages, and then we can start pitch'n this bastard!

Even MORE spice!

And nothing nice.



These chicas be Gia's clique. It took a little too much time to get these babes drawn up and colored, but here they are!

Only one more character design before the promo pages go up.

She's a spicy one.

JP insisted that I post Gia here after I finished her at, um, 4:00 AM. But besides that, she's definitely a girl with problems. Someone who has everything going for her...and yet has nothing. She is a character that, despite being one you "love to hate," will become a fan favorite.

I present Gia Gann.

What is this Robot Behemoth created by the hand of Man?!

A little piece of concept art, courtesy of yours-truly ;)
This isn't the final design for this character, but I loved how this sketch came out, so I thought to share it!



Codename: MECHA X

Function: Unknown

Pilot: Unknown

Purpose: Enjoy

Sample Script Pages

JP here, sorry it's been a bit since the last posting, but I promise they will be more frequent from here on in. So far we've allowed you to see some of the character designs Matt has completed so far and I thought it would be interesting to post some sample script pages. These are the pages that Matt will be turning into completed pages as part of the pitch we will be sending out to publishers. I think these will both give you another nice preview and taste of the comic, all a little more insight into who these characters are that we've posted designs for and also give you a peek at what a comic book script might look like. I say "might" as this is only one of many different formats that are used in the industry, but it's the one me likey the best. So, I don't know, give it a read already!

Here it be:

How about another fresh, delicious character design?

JP here, Matt's been slaving away to get the character designs done so he can work on the sample pages so we can start pitching this monster, and we thought we'd post another one of his recently completed beauties. We've let you see some of the monsters, we've introduced you to our boy Zak and now it's time to meet one of the ladies of the comic. Who is she and what role will she play? Well that's more of a "lets get the comic published so you can read all about that" kind of thing. But I can tell you that Zak's been working up the nerve to ask her out on a date. Of course he doesn't realize the giant (sorry) changes that are in store for him. Anyway, have a look at Sarah.

Zak character design!

JP here. So far we've gotten a couple of nice examples of Matt's very cool monster designs. But what about our hero, you know the dude who gets all big and has to fight these crazy kaiju? Eh, we'll figure him out later...all we care about is monsters, monsters, monsters! I'm kidding of course. I mean, we do care a great deal about monsters, monsters, monsters, but we most certainly are going to be giving big time love to our main character. It's his story after all and as cool as the monsters and monster fighting action is going to be, our hope is that Zak's story is what keeps you coming back.

So with that, lets have a look at our boy Zak. Below you'll find Matt's character design for Zak Goji. This is for pre gigantified Zak (though for fun Matt suggested that cool pose). Let us know what you think!

Revel in his Badassitude.

It's MATT. The slightly unhinged artist and kaiju fan recently invited to join forces by our proprietor, JP, on this AWESOME project.

And thus was born KRONGASAURUS.



Think of him as the Obi Wan of kaiju. That's him in a nutshell. Stay tuned for more goodness!

Who's Behind This Nefarious Scheme?

So maybe you'd like to know who's making and trying to get this comic published? No? Well too bad, because we've got these nice little bios for myself (creator, writer) and the artist (pencils, inks, colors) that we've written up as part of our pitch...and we're not letting them go to waste! Here they be:

Jeff Prezenkowski is a creative executive at Cartoon Network. He develops new series and has overseen production of several series including My Gym Partner’s a Monkey and Camp Lazlo, and currently is in charge of production for The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. He has also written for the CN series The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.

Matt Frank is a freelance artist and writer out of Austin, Texas, and an avid fan of monsters and sci-fi/fantasy. He has provided art for the Beast Wars Sourcebooks and Transformers Animated comics for IDW and Hasbro, as well as extensive illustration and comic work for G-Fan Magazine and Prehistoric Times and Marvel's Hardcover sourcebooks. His first full one-shot was the Ray Harryhausen WRATH OF THE TITANS: CYCLOPS (Bluewater Prod.) which he wrote and illustrated.

See, that wasn't so bad, right? I just want to point out how thrilled and excited I am to have Matt involved in this project. He couldn't be a better fit both in terms of his awesome ability to draw some amazingly, kick ass kaiju as well as his staggering wealth of knowledge and excitement when it comes to all things related to Godzilla, the daikaiju genre and giant monsters in general. But why not let Matt's art speak for itself, while also allowing nice intro to the kind of beasts our giant-sized, teenage hero will have to tangle with on the monster side of things. Have a look at Matt's design for the Raptoran:

WonderCon!

I attended WonderCon in San Francisco this past weekend and preparing a little mini pitch for Zak Goji kept me busy last week.

The Con was great as these sorts of things tend to be for a fan of most things comicky like myself. Met some artists/creators who's work I'm a fan of and bought some latest volumes of their work as well as some other trinkets of geek. Also randomly met one of the founders of a certain apparel site I'm a big fan of (hint: it's linked on this blog) and he bought me a beer and was super cool. It helped that I was wearing one of his shirts. But seriously, a very cool guy.

The main reason I went though was to make some contacts with potential publishers and maybe leave some materials with them. I was able to talk to a few, but most wanted to see some finished pages, as I suspected. But I WAS able to leave materials with a certain publisher whose titles I'm very fond of. I'm not holding my breath though, as I understand the harsh realities of getting a publisher for your first series. Especially the first one you've given anything to. But I will think positve thoughts nonetheless as I believe in the project so strongly. Who knows, maybe they'll bite and at least conact me about it. That would be pretty damn cool for a start.

Caught in a nuclear accident or bitten by radioactive monster.

Hello and welcome to Origin Story, the thrilling tale of my attempts to create, write and ultimately get a comic series published. Calling it "thrilling" is just me being sardonic, but hopefully there will be some that find this interesting. I'm thinking of those that are themselves wanting to try to get a comic series published as well as hopefully those who are interested in the series and are potential readers/fans.

So let me begin by letting you know that I'm a little late on starting this blog as I have already created the concept, most of the characters and the mythology of the world of the comic. I've also already written the script for the first issue and, after an EXHAUSTIVE search, found an artist. Its just that it took me until all of that happened to say, "Hey, I should write a blog that follows the process of getting this comic published!" But I fully intend to play catch up and still fill you in on all the details of all the steps I've taken so far and on going.

So here we go. It all started with a dream...not a wake up in the middle of the night, sweaty and choking on your mouth guard dream. More like a brilliant, electric blue bolt of pure awesomeness that tore down from the heavens and invigorated my very soul! Or maybe I was slovenly pawing through a comic book (or cartoon book, as my girlfriend calls them), decided I liked the pretty pictures but couldn't draw and figured I'd try to make the funny words instead. Yeah, it was probably closer to that one.

For reals, I've always loved comic books and have fancied working in that industry in some capacity, while definitely knowing that I wanted to be a writer of some kind. That notion has been a part of me since my late teen years. A little over a year ago I turned 30 and still wasn't working in the comic industry, nor was I a writer of any kind (there were some semi successful start/stops in there, but my current income does not come my written word). Maybe I had one of those little "I'm 30 and not doing what I really want to do" moments. Or maybe instead of maybe, it was a definitely. So I forced myself to sit down and and start kicking around ideas and actually type them up.

Instinctively, like some type of species of goose native to Canada who's name I can't recall at the moment, I migrated to south. No, wait...I mean I migrated towards the types of things that I love. I guess if I really want to be a writer I need to work on the ol' similes. Anyway, some of those things that I love that I migrated towards were giant monster movies. Kaiju, if you like it sushi (uninteresting fact, though I'm highly interested in all things Japanese, I hate sushi. I know, I know: crazy. But it's more of out of an ongoing disagreement with creatures of the sea).

I grew up loving Godzilla, King Kong and the like. I like monsters and I like 'em (what is this, a "like" festival?) big and city smashing. So I figured something invloving giant monsters would be fun. I also enjoy teen and twenty-something social drama set against the back drop of crazy happenings, a la Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Ultimate Spiderman and Scott Pilgrim. And they say to write what you love, I think. Or write what you know. Or write what you just damn well wanna write I say.

So there it was, I wanted to create and write a comic series that combined all the best elements of those types of things. That is, giant monsters and teen stories, remember? Stay with me. So after long stretches of sitting on the couch with a computer in my lap and my head swirling with all these notions, it crystalized into a concept that I was excited about and thought others might be excited about too. It's the old "What If" and it goes a little something like this: what if a modern teenager trying to make his way through high school life (friends, girls, grades, parents, etc.) woke up one morning to find he had grown to monstrous proportions? Lets say he's now 300 feet tall. He's effectively, a giant monster. And what if his monster free city suddenly became overrun with various giant monsters all bent on either destroying him or eating his friends or both? And what if in between these giant monster battles, he was still trying to have a somewhat normal life as a teenager? What if?

Oh and he and the comic needed a name. After kicking around things like Giant Monster Boy and Kaiju Kid...all of which were terrible...I decided to use the character's name as the title of the comic. And I also made sure that his name was a nod/wink to the comic's influences.

Ladies and gentleman, I give you...

ZAK GOJI

Stay tuned for intriguing tastes of the comic including character designs, script samples and such, as well as notable incidents along the hazard-filled path to (hopefully) publication.