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00:00:01
Introducing Paragons of Earth!
138 Plays1 year ago
Hey guys! I'm excited to introduce my new comic book project, PARAGONS OF EARTH! This is a superhero comic where we've reinvented forgotten public domain characters for the modern day and pitted them against the cosmic horror of a Lovecraftian apocalypse.
I've been hard at work on this project for the past few months with my co-writer, Thomas Deja, and my penciler, Eric Johns. Now we need your help to make it a reality. If you could back our Crowdfundr project, it would mean a lot to me and we've got some great rewards lined up for backers.
Enjoy the trailer and watch the full video on YouTube.
Support our comic and view free pages at Crowdfundr.com/ParagonsComic
Thanks for your support!
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Transcript
Launch Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey guys, Perry here. What you're about to listen to is the audio from the announcement video of Paragons of Earth, the new comic book I'm launching on Crowdfunder and trying to get support that I co-worked on with Thomas DJ as my co-writer and Eric Johns who did the pencils.
00:00:17
Speaker
As I said, I co-wrote it and I also did the inks and the colors and the letters. So we're really excited to launch this crowd-funder and we could really use your support. So I want you to listen to this, see what you think about the comic book. You can view the full video. The link to the YouTube is going to be in the show notes.
00:00:35
Speaker
and you can also see a link to the crowdfunder again that crowdfunder page is crowdfunder that's f-u-n-d-r-no-e dot com slash paragons comic crowdfunder dot com slash paragons comic again that link will also be in the show notes i would really appreciate your support if we can get this comic book launched and and back to its uh... full amount then we can move on and do future installments of this really awesome series
00:01:03
Speaker
Hope you like what you hear in the video, and again, view the links in the show notes for more information.
Meet the Creators
00:01:35
Speaker
My name is Percival Constantine. I'm a novelist with over 30 books published, and I've also written some short comics for Black Glass Press, AC Comics, and Red Bud Studios. I've lettered comics for all of these, as well as Rising Sun comics and White Rocket books. Now, in this comic, Paragons of Earth, I am the co-plotter and scripter, and I'm also lettering. Plus, for the first time, I'm inking and coloring, so I've got quite a bit on my plate.
00:02:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Thomas DJ. When I was asked to come on board by Perry, he called my position plotter and showrunner, so I guess that's what I am. I'm presently creative director of ATW Audio Works, which produces, among other things, audio adaptations of public domain comics.
00:02:17
Speaker
And that's not the first time my career intersected with comics. Back in the 90s, I wrote stories featuring the Hulk and the X-Men for Byron Price's Marvel Pros program. In the aughts, I became heavily involved in the comics fan fiction community. That's where I met Perry initially.
00:02:36
Speaker
And one of my last fan-fiction concepts led to my writing two books featuring my own Golden Age heroes, The Shadow Legion, through Airship 27. Paragons of Earth can be summed up simply as a public domain Justice League versus the Lovecraftian gods. It's a fun comic that's designed to appeal to fans of Bronze Age superhero stories. Paragons of Earth poses the question, what would happen if a public domain Justice League had to deal with the oncoming Lovecraftian apocalypse?
Concept and Collaboration
00:03:07
Speaker
Now I came up with this idea based on a prompt from a public domain group. And this prompt was simply, continue Zack Snyder's Justice League with public domain characters. And what started as a simple thought exercise warmed its way into my brain. And before I knew it, I was sketching out character designs in my free time. That's when I reached out to my friend, Thomas DJ. We'd already been talking about working on a project using public domain characters. So I sent him my notes and sketches and he took to it like a fish takes to water.
00:03:36
Speaker
He's also the one who said we needed a Green Lantern type character, which led to expanding the cast and adding in Diamond Jack. But as it kept building out, I realized that this was beyond my abilities as an artist, and that's when I reached out to Eric Johns. Eric's an incredible talent, and he's recently been looking for projects. After I sent him the script, he loved it, and he brought a unique look to the character designs to really kind of make them pop.
00:04:02
Speaker
I love the golden age of comics. It's like the wild west where people would create this new format and had no idea what to do with it. I love the public domain characters. These characters have fallen through the cracks, some of which have wild ideas that you can still
00:04:21
Speaker
turn into something fun for the modern audiences. And I love creating new concepts and new worlds, new universes, and I get to build a whole new universe right here, right now, which combines public domain, golden age characters with classic cosmic horror. What is not to love about that?
00:04:47
Speaker
So we're not doing an origin story here. We are dropping readers right into the middle. The Paragons are already a team and they've been, they're summoned to a train station where these Lovecraftian ghouls are tearing about the train, killing passengers. But when one of the team's most powerful members, Adam Mann, gets sucked into the ghoul's home dimension, things start to take a turn and we learn there's more going on than what it seems.
00:05:11
Speaker
And in the background, we've got a greater threat waiting. Perry and Eric are the real creators of this comic. My purpose as showrunner is to take all the crazy stuff they come up with, all of the stuff they'd like to do, and look at a way to fashion them into a coherent playground that we can tell our stories in, and then to plan out the ways to develop those ideas into dynamic stories.
00:05:41
Speaker
And I don't know about anybody else, but I am having a ball. My biggest problem right now is that I have too much material. I want to show these guys, and I have to remind myself to pace myself so I don't get too far ahead.
Character Development
00:05:54
Speaker
I mean, it's a good idea to wait and see if the first issue gets crowdfunded before I show Perry and Eric the Cloth for the third, right? For the Paragons themselves, Perry had already written some notes on the characters and what he thought we could do.
00:06:07
Speaker
I looked at each one individually and some needed no real changes and some needed more work. The owl, for example, is very, very close to Perry's original concept. Amazona the Mighty Woman, however, only had one comic appearance so that we had to flesh things out a little more. And one of the nice things about developing one character is that you can see connective tissue develop that could inform another character.
00:06:32
Speaker
And I think we've got a real dynamic between our eight heroes that I hope readers will enjoy. All the characters in this series are great, but I think the shark may be my favorite. And a lot of that starts with Eric. The original shark was just a guy in swimming trunks with webbed hands and feet, but we decided to make him part of a race of actual shark people. Eric sent us a sketch of him in a Hawaiian shirt and Tom and I fell in love with it.
00:06:58
Speaker
coming up with the idea that he's kind of gone native and really immersed himself in human culture and customs. Ever since I saw Eric's initial design for the shark depicting Christi in human clothing, everything fell into place for me. I really do believe the shark may be our breakout character. He's definitely got some of the best lines in the comic and I'm looking forward to you getting a chance to read that.
Influences and Style
00:07:22
Speaker
I think that between the three of us, we've created this really cool cocktail of Perry's love of noir heroics, Eric's vibrant artwork, and my own strange devotion to Golden Age silliness, Silver Age bombast, and Chromium Age insanity. It's gonna be just wild, guys. We've got a fight between superheroes and ghouls in the first issue, and a visit to a secret organization that fights occult menaces founded by one of the most famous public domain comics in characters in pop culture.
00:07:51
Speaker
I'm hoping we can give the reader at least one what the hell moment each issue, and I'm aiming for one per scene. I think no matter what you want out of a comic, you'll find something to like about Paragons of Earth. It's got action, it's got drama, it's got humor, and the project just looks freaking gorgeous. All three of us have been working our butts off to make this project the best it can be.
00:08:14
Speaker
I'm just having a blast coming up with ideas that Perry and Eric are going to bring to life for you. I can't wait for you to meet the Court of Tears, the Paragons of Lawlessness, the introduction of one of the most popular horror-themed characters of the Golden Age,
00:08:29
Speaker
All of that nuttiness, this is gonna be one insane ride and I can't wait to take you all on it. Thanks so much for taking the time to watch our video. With your help, we can make paragons of earth a reality.
Call to Action
00:08:40
Speaker
So please consider contributing whatever you can and also help spread the word. Thanks again for watching and we will be in touch soon.
00:08:47
Speaker
And that's it. Thanks again for listening. I hope you enjoyed that audio clip. And again, you can watch the video link in the show notes. And the crowdfunder page is crowdfunder.com slash paragonscomic. Again, that is crowdfunder without an E. Just f-u-n-d-r dot com slash paragonscomic. The link will be in the show notes. Thanks so much for your support, guys. Even if you can donate just a little bit, it could definitely help this project become a reality.