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Another concept sketch of Dr. Wissenschaft, this time drawn in colored pencils. Sometimes, characters like this are designed years before they show up, and key plot points hang out in the indeterminate future, waiting for their placement in the story. Dr. Wissenschaft had no trouble waiting his turn to appear.
Ah, my first concept sketch of Dr. Wissenschaft. The idea of this old villain came to me complete, as sometimes happens. Where a character like Titanium Tom called for almost endless design sketches, I guess the idea of an ancient Nazi villain is so engrained in our collective unconsciousness as to be a no-brainer. I remember seeing the “The Boys from Brazil” in my teen years, and I believe that movie had a big effect on characters like Dr. Wissenschaft and Dr. Synn. The idea of this frail, ancient villain being more dangerous than all the super-powered muscle heads in Spire City appealed to me. There is no super power that trumps genius, even a dark genius like that of Dr. Wissenschaft.
Hi, All:
I just added the covers to issues 7, 8, and 9 to the archives. Enjoy!
Most of you know it by now, but Benita Story is an integral part of the team that creates Johnny Saturn. She is also my wife. What follows is a casual conversation about what she does, and her views on it.
Scott: Benita, how did your role as a co-writer on “Johnny Saturn” come about?
Benita: I’m not really sure, actually. I think we just started tossing ideas around about a story we’d like to tell, and one thing lead to another. I remember a lot of “What if…” and “What about…” and “That’s a great idea, but what if we did…” It’s like the story of twin boys – what one doesn’t think of, the other will. That’s us!
Scott: Well before you assumed the co-writer’s mantle, you were making up characters for the series. Would you tell us about that?
Benita: Ahhh… Dr. Synn. Well, you had this temporary name for the villain of the Johnny Saturn story, Dr. Synn. I liked it and it immediately conjured up the character pretty much as he ended up being. First, though, I knew what he looked like. I remembered a line from the movie “Addam’s Family Values.” They were at a school function (Halloween?) where the kids were supposed to be in costume. The teacher looked at Wednesday, who was not in costume, and asked, “And what are you supposed to be?” Wednesday deadpanned, “I’m a homocidal maniac. We look like everyone else.” That’s why Dr. Synn is dressed like a businessman in a white linen suite, fedora and walking stick. I wanted him to be able to walk down the street in any city and no one pay much attention to him. I wanted him to be proper and polite, even to the point of leaving a tip in a café that he blows up theminute he’s out of it.
And then, there are Tara and Mollie. You had drawn a picture of a blond girl with cupie-hair in your sketchbook. She just spoke to me and said, I am Tara, the grand-daughter of Karl Wissenschaft. But, the further I delved into her character, the more conflict I felt in her for all her perfect exterior. It was then I realized she was a robot based on the successful experiments Dr. Wissenschaft had done on a homeless girl. Also, I realized he had done more than based her physical aspects on this girl, but had gone so far as to download the memories and personality of this girl into Tara. But who was this homeless girl? Mollie. She came to me whole and complete as she is. A mutilated survivor of Dr. Wissenschaft’s life’s work. The Yin to Tara’s Yang. And that’s all I can say, because I don’t want to give away some important plot elements.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This Johnny Saturn pinup was originally drawn as a Frumph.net contest prize and was awarded to the winner of a webcomic scavenger hunt. It was won by Deth Invictus of Australia. I like the basic theme of this drawing enough that I think I’m going to adapt it for a Johnny Saturn. Cover. It has an old fashioned pulp feel to it, especially with the skull hanging overhead. Does the skull stand for Johnny Saturn’s nemesis Dr. Wissenschaft, or for Johnny’s own imminent demise? Time will tell.
Good Morning, Folks-Welcome to December 08.
Recently, I requested a critique for “Johnny Saturn” on a certain forum, and several of my webcartooning peers were kind enough to offer their opinions. One such critique set me to thinking, though: It stated that many of our “Johnny Saturn” villains were evil for evil’s sake, and that we didn’t offer good reasons for them to be this way. This criticism centered on Tactical and Dr. Wissenschaft.
As much as I welcomed the critique, I have to respectfully disagree with this assessment. There is that old Stan Lee adage, that “there are no villains, just fallen heroes.” That same line of reasoning goes on the express that everyone is the hero in their own story, and every villain believes he’s on the side of the angels no matter how awful their deeds.
I don’t buy it.
Josef Mengele, the so called Angel of Death, is a loose inspiration for Dr. Wissenschaft. This should be pretty obvious to those of you who know anything about 20th century history. Did Mengele feel he was walking a moral high ground in doing the things he did? I doubt it. My guess is that he was all about the science, and that he was a total sociopath, devoid of any empathy for his victims.
Tactical, in his origin as a Balkan war criminal, is loosely based on any number of similar war criminals, both those that have been brought to trial in the Hague, and those that have yet to be apprehended. Did these men relish the slaughter they ordered and oversaw? Did they feel terrible about the massacres and rape camps? I doubt it. I think they performed their deeds in a misguided sense of nationalism.
Does every villain have some defining moment in their life when they become evil? An “origin,” you might say. Or, are they all sociopaths and psychopaths? This is the standard comic book way, but I don’t think it’s the real way. I think many of these people grow up in hell holes, and they grow up with cruelty. It’s what they know. They become inured to the suffering of others by their environment, and they learned cruelty as a second nature.
To put a point on it, many of the “Johnny Saturn” villains are simply those who put the ends before the means. If they want something, they will do anything to make it happen.
In the real world, we know some people are bad, and we neither know (nor usually care) what made them bad. The same rule applies to the “Johnny Saturn” villains.
Scott.<-->
Hi, Folks:
Recently, a friend and I were talking about the different types of superheroes operating in Spire City, and I realized that there is a pretty wide spectrum. As a group, we call them meta-humans, but this isn’t all inclusive. I imagine I’ll return to this subject and flesh it out many time in the future. Here is the short list:
Being Johnny Saturn – Part I by Benita G. Story. Copyright 2008 Story Studios, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Greg unlocked the door to his apartment. “It’s been over three days since I was last home. It feels like three years.”
Greg stumbled across his threshold, pushed the door closed and began pulling off pieces of his costume as he tripped, bounced off the walls of his hallway and finally fell onto the mattress on his bedroom floor. He was asleep before he had the chance to cover himself with the single blanket on his bed.
Sniff. “What?” Greg slowly fought his way to consciousness. As he did, he realized that his bladder was screaming in agony. Carefully, he groped his way into a standing position and headed toward the bathroom. As his body began to awaken, the screeches, pops, and cracks from his muscles and joints joined his bladder in a symphony of pain. He had never felt more like giving up and dying more so in his life than at that moment.
After what felt like an hour, his bladder finally emptied and his brain began its journey toward reality. Sniff. “Is that bacon I smell?” Greg’s head came up from being slumped against his chest, which caused a series of pops and cracks to issue from his upper vertebrae.
Greg slowly washed his hands. Then he splashed cold water onto his face and gasped as the water hit his face. All of a sudden, Greg was fully awake and he opened his eyes to the face in the mirror. “Holy shit! Is that face mine?” What peered back at him was a series of bruises and swellings that barely resembled anything human. He glanced at his watch. 10:30. “Morning or night?” Without waiting for an answer, Greg left the bathroom.
Sniff. “Coffee? I smell bacon and coffee.” Greg stumbled down the hallway toward what would have been a living room in a normally furnished apartment. As he walked the short distance, the smells became stronger and when he finally reached his kitchen, he stopped in awe at what he saw.
There, standing at the stove, was a man with shoulders as wide as a bull-dozer. The man had his back to Greg and was taking something out of the skillet.
“It’s about time you woke up!” came a gruff voice. Greg just stood there with his mouth open.
The man turned around, a plate in one hand and a mug in the other. He was about 6’4”, had short, dark hair graying at the temples, and was well dressed in a polo shirt and neatly creased slacks. “You’ve been asleep for over two days,” the man said.
Greg watched the man as he sat the plate and mug down on the counter in front of Greg.
“I’d put this on a table for you and offer you a chair,” the man said as he looked around at the bare living space, “but it seems we are short on those this morning.”
Greg swallowed hard. “You are John Underhall.”
John smiled and said, “So, you aren’t a total imbecile this morning, Greg. Good. We have a lot to talk about.” He then thrust a fork at Greg.
Greg took the fork and began shoveling food into his mouth. For several minutes the only sound to be heard was munching and slurping as Greg gulped down the hot food and liquid. As he ate, John turned back to the stove.
When John finished cooking his own breakfast, he leaned against the counter next to the stove and slowly ate. As he did so, he watched Greg closely. When Greg finished his meal, John reached into the pocket of his pants and tossed something at Greg. Greg barely caught it. It was a medicine bottle.
“Vicoden.” Greg stared at the bottle.
“It’ll help with the pain,” John said as he paused in eating.
Greg continued to stare at the bottle, then, slowly, he placed it on the counter in front of him. “No, thank you.”
John shrugged his shoulders. “Suit yourself. But, if you keep treating your body like you have in the past several days, you are going to need it.”
Greg looked up. “And be like you? I heard you were a pain killer junkie.”
John continued eating. “Used to be. Not anymore.”
John took his now empty plate over to the sink and rinsed it off. He then reached for Greg’s and did the same thing with it. Greg kept a tight hold onto the mug. John glanced at him, grinned and asked, “You want some more coffee?”
Greg’s face muscles contorted into the closest semblance of a smile it could make at that time. “Sure!”
John laughed and poured both of them another cup from the coffee maker next to the stove. Then he picked up his cane and led the way over to a wall next to a window. Greg watched as John slowly eased himself down into sitting position on the floor. Once John had settled, Greg slowly, and achingly, joined him.
Greg looked at John Underhall. “What do we need to talk about?”
John took a sip of the coffee and leaned his head back against the wall. “You. You and your future as Johnny Saturn.”
Greg looked surprised. “My future as Johnny Saturn? You mean you aren’t here to tell me to cease and desist?”
John shook his head. “Do I look like I’m in the position to take the job back?”
“Well….”
“No. I’m here to help you become Johnny Saturn in more than just name.”
Greg sat silently for a minute. “How?”
