ArmorQuest

One of the current projects I'm involved with is been working behind the scenes with the fine folks at Rising Star Studios on their property, ArmorQuest. We’ve been kicking various things around with ArmorQuest for a while and we’re now at a point to start getting this material out there. We've recently launched the website, ArmorQuest.com, and have just released our first digital graphic novel, ArmorQuest: Genesis.

ArmorQuest tells the story of a young man named Timothy who finds himself on a quest to join the ranks of the Emperor’s elite force, the Knights of the Way. He sets out with nothing but a sword, a pair of allies, and a hope to one day return home as a hero and save his friends and family from the threat of the dragons. He faces many challenges and dangers on his journey, but through it all, he learns to rely on the tools of the Emperor, the armor of the Knights of the Way.

The story begins with ArmorQuest: Genesis – a graphic novel now available for digital download through Amazon and iTunes. Written by Ben Avery with fantastic art by Sherwin Schwartzrock.

ArmorQuest ebook Trailer from Rising Star Studios on Vimeo.

For more information on ArmorQuest: Genesis and to read a preview head on over to: ArmorQuest: Genesis

ArmorQuest Online

Im glad to see that Ben Avery has just placed ArmorQuest online over at WebComics.CC.

ArmorQuest is a fantasy story about a boy named Timothy who decides he wants to join the Knights of the Way to fight off the dragons that threaten the land. WebComics.CC is presenting ArmorQuest in it’s full page glory and in black and white as originally drawn by the incredibly gifted Sherwin Schwartzrock.

Ben, Sherwin and I worked on this story over five years ago and it's always been one of my favorites. It's a story of discovery, determination and faith, and it contains a fantastic mixture of high adventure and spiritual teaching.

In launching ArmorQuest online, the "Sneak Preivew" Prequel pages are being posted every weekday. Starting with “Chapter 1″,  pages will be posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

You can start “Chapter 0″ by clicking here: AQ Genesis: Chapter 0

Action Figures

Last week I mentioned Clash Creative and their production/representation of several properties they’ll be submitting to publishers in the near future, but I didn’t know that they had announced a project I had a hand in developing several years ago.

Some time after our work together on HeroTV and before working on ArmorQuest, Ben Avery and I were batting around a couple of different ideas and one of those was this story about a group of kids that were able to turn into real-life versions of their favorite action figures. We wanted to hit a wide range of genres with this so we honed in on a 40s-era Cliffhanger Action Hero (Nash Raider), a Silver-Age Superhero (The Cowled Owl), a Sword & Sorcery Barbarian character (Grun-Tar), a Futuristic Techno-Ninja (Red Zero), and a Barbie-type character who was also a Master of Disguises and highly skilled in a wide variety of disciplines (Modelin’ Madeline). With the character types and eras in mind, I set myself to designing the characters while Ben fleshed out the concept and drafted a preliminary script. We had our friend Jonathan Koelsch illustrate a couple of pages of art to get a tidy proposal in place.

We moved on to other projects once the preliminary work was completed on the concept, but Ben recently dusted it off and placed it with Clash Creative to give it a fresh set of legs. As a bonus, Clash hired Jonathan Koelsch to complete one of his original pages and to jazz up my designs with colors.

So with Action Figures making it’s debut of sorts, I figured now’s a good time to run these character designs.

Nash Radier and the Cowled Owl

Grun-Tar and Red Zero

Modelin' Madeline

(Sport Madeline, Kung-Fu Madeline, Scuba Madeline, and Tomb Raider Madeline)

The Kids

Action Figures, Nash Raider, Cowled Owl, Grun-Tar, Red Zero and Modelin' Madeline are © & TM 2009 Ben Avery

Art © 2009 Bud Rogers

Colors by Jonathan Koelsch