"Spectacles of Doom" (an ongoing multi-part sci-fi adventure comic).

[Low_Roads]

In 1978, a good friend of mine (hereafter referred to as GM) created a public access children's program for our local cable TV station. Called Commander Duck and the Quacketeers, it grew from a 15 minute time slot, live broadcasts and an interview format to 30 minute serialized, videotaped adventures during its 10 year run. GM created the scenario, as well as most of the characters. I performed in the show, and wrote and directed episodes of my own. Spectacles of Doom was to be my magnum opus, a titanic 17 part saga. It wasn't to feature live performers: the whole thing was conceived as a graphic presentation, sort of a videotaped comic book. I worked on this project for years throughout the '80s; once completed, it was never filmed. GM's health (he was a life-long type-1 diabetic) had grown very fragile and he was unable withstand the rigors of further production. Spectacles of Doom has languished for 20 years without an outlet.

I hope to change that now. The individual panels have been arranged into pages and I plan to present them as a graphic novel. This is a sci-fi/adventure story not a fetish-based one, though it does feature one instance of tickling torture, a scene I offered last year as an excerpt:

http://www.tickletheater.com/showthread.php?t=20979

I'll use this one thread to present the story, adding to it until the whole thing is finished or until someone in authority tells me that I'm squandering too much space on off-topic material. I hope at least to give you a taste of this massive undertaking that occupied so much of my time.

Episode 1, scene 1, pages 1-5:

 

[Low_Roads]

Episode 1, scene 1 pages 6-10:

 

[Low_Roads]

Episode 1, scene 1, pages 11-13:

 

[DarthGrinn]

Very interesting 😀 it reminds me of the Tin Tin comics =)

Keep em comin 🙂

 

[Senshi1]

Excellent stuff! 😀 It's obvious that a lot of work has gone into this. Looking forward to the next installment! 🙂

 

[Low_Roads]

Thank you, Rtl! I'm not as well versed in Tin Tin as I should be... which is odd, because the series seems to offer the sort of Jack Armstrong-ish seat-of-your pants adventure that delights me. Tin Tin wasn't unfamiliar to me when I put Spectacles of Doom together, though (as the name Tin-Tin-Qual indicates; this wasn't a deliberate tribute, but I strongly believe that the comic name suggested itself to me subconciously at the time), since collections of the comix were then offered in a series of books and were easily recognizable. This is another hole in my educaton that I ought to fill... the opportunity arises so often from respondants offering their own unique perspectives!

Thanks to you, Senshi! I see Spectacles as a sort of summer replacement for the Low Roads series... it's recently become far too hot for me to do any useful work on Low Roads; since Spectacles only needs to be compiled, it's far less taxing to present. I'm hoping to make new additions every week to two weeks... looks like Spectacles and the reborn WTF will be slugging it out in months to come! Just joshing... the two series should form a nice compliment to one another!

 

[Kalamos]

I'm currently incapable of sequential thought.
I'm gonna download it and watch it and read it and eat it.
Thumbs up.

:happy:

 

[Low_Roads]

Thanks so much, Kal! :happy: Hope it proves flavorful! Octopoids taste like chicken, I'm told...

 

[Kalamos]

Illithids taste like psionic picklings...

😉

 

[leenotler]

I too thought of Tin Tin, even before the unintentional homage. I'm happy to see another good series for TT. (Why watch TV when there's TT?) Thank you.

 

[Low_Roads]

Thanks Leenotler! Man, I really wish now that I'd picked up a few of those Tin Tin collections back when they were widely available (though who's to say they aren't anymore... might be worth looking into). By way of research, I checked the Wikipedia: Herge's character list and range of adventures is impressive... I'm quite pleased that people see a corelation to my own offerings! Incidently, the Wikipedia entry states that a Tintin (that's the way they spell it) movie is planned for release by Dreamworks sometime this year. We should keep an eye open for it!

 

[Kalamos]

Well, LBH, your chars have a unique flair yet retain a classic veneer.
I'd go out on a limb and say yours remind me of european comics, for style and composition.

 

[Low_Roads]

Thanks for the compliments, Kal! I'm really not as familiar with European comic strips and books as I should be for proper cultural literacy. It's not for want of availability, either... Asterix and Tin Tin collections and suchlike have been easy to find in comix shops. Mostly, though, I know only American examples in detail... Elsie Seegar, Chester Gould, Hal Foster, Alex Raymond, Carl Barks, Will Eisner, Burne Hogarth, and dozens of other names, probably, that I can't readily bring to mind. It's a deficit I ought to correct... one can find just about anything over the internet now.

 

[Low_Roads]

Episode 1, scene 2, pages 1-5:

 

[Low_Roads]

Episode 1, scene 2, pages 6-7:

 

[LonelyKimiko]

Wow! This is a really fantastic job LBH. This must have taken a huge amount of hard work. Kudos to you, and I really look forwards to seeing more soon! 😀 .

 

[leenotler]

Ah, good, another fine scene. I love SF and comic art, so it's a double treat!

Well, LBH, your chars have a unique flair yet retain a classic veneer.
I'd go out on a limb and say yours remind me of european comics, for style and composition.

Tintin was the first to come to mind, but yes, that's it, european. It's the strong, rounded, fluid lines, the ink shading, the large solid areas. I'm certainly no expert, but that says european to me.

Thanks again for another good reason to visit this forum. 🙂
(I'll watch for that Tintin movie.)

 

[Low_Roads]

I'm so pleased you're enjoying the story, Kimi! Thank you for the encouragement! The existing material (and the whole thing is finished except for a bit of minor clean-up in the last scene of the last episode) took 4 to 5 years of relatively steady work to complete. That said, it probably would have proved impossible to commit to videotape: the few trial filmings I attempted were disasters. Four years, and I hadn't thought that end of things through! Talk about jumping blind! Well, I can't complain... it seems to be working out well enough as a straight comic, and it's reaching a far wider audience then it ever would have found on the Commander Duck show.

That's kind of you, Leenotler! I'm a huge science fiction fan myself, both the literature (Robert Heinlein, Harry Harrison and Larry Niven are my favorites) and cinema (especially movies from the '50s. Much of my inspiration springs from films like Forbidden Planet and It Came From Outer Space). And thanks for your kind words about my contribution to the fourm! The TTC has become an important part of my daily life: I really want to do my part to make this a pleasant, productive place to spend time!

Actually, I may have a further scene ready for tonight. I'm not working this weekend and can devote all day to compiling and arranging. That's not really the way to do it, I guess... I should be spreading these submissions out for dramatic effect. But I'd really like to have Spectacles finished before the hot summer weather ends. I don't want it interfering with the continuing work on the Low Roads.

 

[Low_Roads]

Episode 1, scene 3, pages 1-5:

 

[Low_Roads]

Episode 1, scene 3, pages 6-10:

 

[Low_Roads]

Episode 1, scene 3, pages 11-12:

 

[Low_Roads]

Episode 1, scene 4, pages 1-5:

 

[Low_Roads]

Episode 1, scene 4, pages 6-10:

 

[Low_Roads]

Episode 1, scene 4, pages 11-14:

 

[Low_Roads]

Episode 2, scene 1, pages 1-5: