Here are some quick sketches I’ve done of some zombies. To help keep the Dark New World zombie comic book fresh and new, I decided to sketch out a bunch of zombie faces. This way I can pick and choose which ones I want to use in the comic. I don’t just want a bunch of stereotypical bland zombies. My goal is to have over 50 different zombies already designed for the comic when I start penciling the sequential pages.

I’ve been looking at people to get ideas for the different looking zombies. I’ll be at the mall or the gas station, making sure to look at the characteristics of all the different people. So basically I’ve been people watching and re-imaging them as zombies.

I’ve tried to make them retain some of the human characteristics, but still bring the horror I feel when I think of zombies. With some rotting flesh, biting jaws and dead eyes.

Originally posted on 06.17.09 by me on the Dark New World – Zombie Comic Blog

I am currently working on the comic book “Dark New World” with Carlos Parra. It’s a continuation of his independent zombie film. He’s introducing a lot of new characters into this awesome zombie infested comic world.

Here are the initial character design sketches for Private Andrew Martinez, one of the new characters from the mind of Carlos Parra. The character is a veteran of the recent Iraq war. He uses the skills and training he received from the armed forces to survive this Dark New World.

Private Andrew Martinez - Military Uniform

With these character design sketches I took into consideration Martinez’s military knowledge. Carlos sent me several photos of solders in uniform for the general look he wanted for Martinez. I used these references and modified them a bit to come up with his look while still keeping to the standard U.S. Army desert uniform. He’s in 30’s so I tried to show that in these sketches. He doesn’t look to old or to young.

Private Andrew Martinez

In a previous blog post I put up a video of me drawing this character design sketch, Caught on Video – Character Design Drawing.

Check out the Dark New World zombie comic book blog. We’ll be updating the status of the comic, posting more character design sketches, and eventually selling the comic there.

I’ve been collaborating with my friend Carlos Parra on the continuing story from his Dark New World film. The movie was created on a budget of $3,000 dollars. It was a great zombie movie. When Carlos decided he wanted to continue the story in a comic book I thought that was a great idea. He then asked me if I wanted to be a part of it. I didn’t even give it  a second thought. Of course I’d like to be a part of the Dark New World comic.

This video shows me drawing a character sketch to one of the new characters in the Dark New World zombie comic book. His name is Private Andrew Martinez. A survivor of the zombie apocalypse. From my understanding the first story arch will be centered around him. Carlos sent me several photos of military uniforms to inspire me. I took those photos and tweaked the regular US desert uniform for this character design.

Check out the Dark New World zombie comic book blog site to see the final character design drawing. The blogpost is: Andrew Martinez – Character Sketches.

-SHAZAM!

Last week I was working on character design sketches for one of my characters named Nemcromn. These were drawn in a pocket sketchbook I carry around. I thought it would be cool to upload these to show the steps in my thought process when designing what I want a character to look like.

These are sketches of Nemcromn’s Face. I did a 3/4 view, a front view and a profile. I was trying to capture a sinister look. He wears a skullcap. His face has two major scars and his left cheek has a one that stretches to his ear. He’s a mystic Zombie Necromancer so I tried to reflect this in his skin by making it look a little rotten. He also has no pupils.

Here’s a front full body view. I like to draw a quick sketch of the form, then I can start customizing the characters look. When I originally came up with Nemcromn’s look a few years ago I was really into Brom’s art work. With his industrial mystic goth creatures and characters .

Here’s a sketch of Nemcromn with a little more detail. The skullcap stretches to cover his upper chest as well. He has leather straps wrapped around his waist and chest. The chest traps hold a small cape that goes over his left shoulder. Like the sketches of his face, Nemcromn’s body is that of a corpse.  I wanted to show the scars and stitches that cover his entire body.

So who is Nemcromn? In life he was a Stephen Boyle, a wealthy adventurer who traveled the world looking for new and exciting challenges. Rock climbing, deep sea, and sky diving. He wanted to experience any and all he could. He began to get bored with theses type of challenges and started to look inward and beyond. This route took him to dark places and eventually to the study of life beyond death. Using his vast fortune he bought all the knowledge he could in the study of life, death and the undead. He became a powerful living necromancer and his studies taught him of the dark power that coexist with all life. In these studies he learned of celestial object traveling though space that could increase his power 1,000 times that of what he could possibly achieve on his own.

He discovered that one of these objects would fall to earth. Planning on taking the energies from the fallen object, Nemcromn using his original identity took 6 of his childhood friends on a dangerous hike up the mountain where he knew it would arrive. Like his former self his friends were also adventures in extreme sports. Planning on sacrificing them and using their life forces to bond with the energies Nemcromn made a fatal miscalculation. The object fell to earth sooner then he thought, hitting the group and killing everyone but two of his companions. Nemcromn died in the impact that day. The power he craved was completely absorbed by one of the survivors, John McCarran. McCarran used the power to become one of earths most beloved heroes, The Radiant Guardian.

Nemcromn who was now a master of life and death was not so easaly defeated. No one knew of his secret life and Stephen Boyle was buried at his family plot. Several weeks after the funeral Nemcromn the lord of the dead dug himself out of the grave. He was now a powerful mystic zombie with more power then he had when he was alive. The necromancer used his dark knowledge to escape the afterlife. Now with a new purpose, he wants the destruction of The Radiant Guardian and the complete control of the world’s dead and living. He works in the shadows sending agents both dead and alive to set his plans into motion.

This last weekend I took a trip down to my home town of Las Cruces, New Mexico to watch the premiere of my friend Carlos Parra’s zombie film  “Dark New World” which he wrote and directed. It was filmed in 16 days with a budget of $3,000 dollars. Watching the movie though, you wouldn’t know that it was done for so little. The quality of the acting and the story telling was top notch.  Although the premiere was actually at Allen Theaters on Friday the 13th (which by the way had 2 sold out screenings) I went to the premiere on  Saturday March 14th at the Fountain Theater (which also had a  sold out screening). I chose to go to the screening at the Fountain Theater because there was a Q & A with Carlos and several actors from the movie.

“Bio-terrorists unleash a devastating plague across America and the chemicals from the bomb kill millions.  Days after the attacks, the recently dead begin to rise and devour human flesh. Sam and Kat seek refuge outside of the city in an abandoned house with eight others. Rations are running low and people are dying. Sam and Kat are in over their heads.
Do they fight to survive out in the world against zombies or stay and fight the monsters within?”

I really enjoyed this movie. I’ve been a fan of zombie movies for over 20 years now. I still remember the first one I watched as a kid “Return of the Living Dead”, and of course I’m a fan of all George A. Romero’s films. This film like all good zombie films doesn’t focus on the zombies but the survivors of this Dark New World. We see how people cope with the horrors of these monsters, but more importantly we see how people’s true nature starts to surface.  Who leads, who follows, who takes advantage of others, and who protects the weak? Carlos brings great camera shots and amazing character development though out the film. I thought some camera shots would look  great in a graphic novel.

Dark New World dvd cover

What’s really cool for me is the part about how I helped contribute to it. Although I wasn’t involved in the writing or the filming of this awesome movie, I did kinda help with the idea. A few years back I use to own and run a comic book store called Modern Age Comics. I remember myself and a few of my customers were talking about zombie movies and how we should make one. Carlos was the perfect candidate for filmmaking, he had previously filmed a short for the Governor’s Cup film competition called “Why Can’t it be Tuesday” the day in the life of a graphic designer.  Some of which was a actually filmed in the comic shop. Carlos took the zombie project by the horns and wrote a great script. Unfortunately I was in no financial means to go any further with the project. I was in the process of closing my store down. But Carlos was energized by the zombie film and took upon himself to see it through. I’m proud to say that I was able to assist with his casting call for the film. Carlos held the initial casting call at my store location on the last weekend I still held the lease. The turn out was great with about 150 people showing up for the audition that day.

Q&A with writer/director and cast of Dark New World

It was fun to watch people I actually knew personally on the big screen. The character of Frost was played by one of my old customers Tony Baker and the role of Jinx was played by Johnny Tabor who I worked with at the Las Cruces Sun News. Both these guys are great actors and brought the level of the movie to greater heights. I still remember playings Heroclixs with Tony in the comic shop. He’s now living in California doing stand up comedy and has been in a few movies. Right on dude! The funnest part in the move was when Carlos himself made a cameo as “George”, a zombie movie buff quoting “Night of the Living Dead“. Like writer/director M. Night Shyamalan and Quentin Tarantino, Carlos casts himself as an unforgettable extra in his own film.

There was a lot of buzz for this movie too. Carlos did a great job of marketing his film with a website, a myspace profile, and flyers. He received a good amount of press too. With articles written about the movie and it’s premiere in Yahoo movies, the Las Cruces Sun News, and an on-line interview he gave with KRWG public radio. It’s also very cool that the movie is listed in IMDb (The internet movie database).

Dark New World can be purchased on dvd at the films website:  http://www.darknewworld.com. Every sale will help finance Carlos in taking the film on the road to film festivals. The movie will be showing at this years Eerie Horror Film Festival. Right on dude!