Where do the Infinite Wonders begin?

Thumbnail to ink to color

There hasn't been a post on this blog from me in a few weeks. It's a sad state of affairs, I know. I wanted to make one to talk about this, though. The first issue of Infinite Wonders was finally shown to the public last week. It has been gathering dust for nearly a year now. Since I did the first issue on my break in December of last year I had another semester of college work, then Timespace became my life. It's weird to think we did the book when we were 18 and just now it came out nearly 11 months later.

Infinite head turnaround

Infinite Wonders was not the first comic Tristen and I did together but it is the first we're showing to an audience of sorts. Its genesis lies in Tristen coming to me one day wanting to do an old fashioned superhero book because it was something he knew we both wanted to try. It would have a young and thin looking protagonist with more modern design sensibilities, and a seasoned superhero with the traditional cape and the trunks on the outside (I'm looking at you, Superman! You need your red trunks back on!).  It's foggy how exactly, but quickly we decided on Infinite as the name for the main character.

Infinite model turnaround

I recall months before I was playing around with this design for a spacey looking character, wearing a very organic but simplistic costume. Small boosters on his hip, mask covering the full face, big round eyes and antennae pieces on both ears. I think I was on a big Steve Rude kick (although you can never not be on a Steve Rude kick) because he bore similarities to the Moth.  I don't think I have those drawings anymore, it was one boredom-induced product found on the side of a high school math sheet.

One of the earlier Infinite designs.

I threw something similar to Tristen and he really dug it, but he wanted to see the mouth, no antennae and wanted this guy even skinnier than I was drawing him already.  The basic principles held firm and it kept refining itself as the months went on. I wanted the big eyes because they evoke the wide eyed youthfulness and inexperience, and also takes me back to my roots as a Spider-Man fan.  Color-wise, I wanted to keep him black and white since I knew the comic would likely stay black and white, you wouldn't miss much going on that way.

Mr. Wonder model sheet

Mr. Wonder's I was trying to use motifs from a lot of the big leader types. The colors of Cyclops' 90s design as well as something over the face, Superman's cape and trunks, Captain America's ears popping out was something I always enjoyed. Stuff like that. MW has a massive build, like a towering boxer.

You look like Wolverine or Batman here, why?

But one of my main goals with these designs was to go for simplicity and hopefully achieve something that feels memorable through that.  There is definitely something attractive that comes from a combination of simplistic design components.  There's that silhouette idea you hear sometimes that asks if it's something you could know with just the outline or some of those more distinctive parts of the outfits. Nolan himself I wanted to look identifiable out of costume, too.

Dat is the caption. ^

He has a strange parted flowy top hairstyle that looks like it's stuck in the 90s but also dresses pretty traditionally with the vest- again going back to my Spidey roots, Peter would wear that awesome yellow vest all the time.  The Ransacker himself was a lot of fun to draw, his design was straightforward. Supposed to be like a big schoolyard bully, wearing clothes too small. A striped shirt, short shorts, big socks, sneakers, a little bandit mask on and a beanie. Then you've got a Ransacker.

Grrr.

Working on this book and these charaacters, what it's really become for me is sort of a reactionary piece tonally compared to the majority of mainstream superhero books on the market these days. There is this fascination with making everything look super realistic and mimicking that sensation from the movies, costumes are overly detailed these days and it just lessens the fantastical escapism for me personally. If I want to see a superhero movie I'll go and see one, but I think there is something really valuable that is getting lost a lot these days with comics.

The system, man!

Big editorially driven event stories also dominate and it just keeps pushing both Tristen and I further away. It's a discussion we've had many times that directs us to the books we enjoy.  There aren't enough honest in scope mainstream books these days. They don't sell as well. My personal favorite comic at the moment is a great example of this, Superior Foes of Spider-Man (unfortunately ending soon)- which focused on villains nobody cared about before and made a humorous and character driven story out of their lives.  We wound up caring about these jerks going through these normal things along with them. I suppose what I'm relating here is that we like the comics like that which play with tropes in fun ways. They feel fresher and more earnest.

The man knows what's going on.

The way Tristen's approaching this series and the way it's mapped out, specifically its focus on character really reminds me of any Peter David book. This really smacked me in the head the other day while working on the second issue because there's this great understated wit in his words that's something I really find fun drawing.

IT'S WABBIT SEASON.

One of my main goals was to infuse my own personality into the book, and I hope you can see some of those flourishes stylistically because I'm pretty offbeat- so there's lots of quirks in there. From body language to expressions in the line work itself. Humor is the word, I wanted some slightly off-kilter humor. Cramming 10 goons in the back of a van, the licence plate, piles of security guards and goons, that one thought-process thought bubble on page 14, sound effects. I dunno, there's a lot of me in there is what I'm trying to say.

Eager front row guy!

I tried to do some experimental things with layouts, sometimes even pasting things on top of other panels and playing with the panels as part of the work itself sometimes, and with inking techniques. I used India ink, which gave some life. I've really grown to love using that stuff.

Part of an early cover rough

I really didn't like the last page. It would have bothered me to no end leaving everybody on a cliffhanger with something I didn't feel was up to par with the everything else. I ended up redrawing it months later to make it look more dramatic. Mr. Wonder himself became more streamlined as I kept tinkering with his design months after that original last page, as he just looked damn goofy before. Goodness.

Original page 21 with revised page 21

One page that was satisfying for me was page 9. It happened to be one of the most difficult to figure out because the script called for him just putting on his costume and climbing up a ladder to a rooftop. I needed to see how he gets himself over there in a more exciting way so he makes it back to his dorm taking a few silent panels to suit up. Then he jumps out the window (obscured by a tree!) into a bush to check if the coast is clear, then he dashes out and slingshots himself up onto a roof.

Page 9. 11x17 on bristol board. Pencil, pen, India ink.

The slingshot doohickey wasn't in the script (we need a name for that thing), but I thought since the guy is an engineering major he could come up with a fun gizmo like that to keep with him since he can't fly. Now he could launch himself all over the place just as quickly! I imagine it like a super duper piece of measuring tape, he keeps it inside one of those side panels on his suit.

BOOP

Another visual piece not in the script is when Nolan makes his big play against all the goons and smacks them all around-the costume inversion. I wanted there to be a visual indicator of when his power is peaking for a short while, where all of the colors on his costume would invert and there would be this bubbling all around him. Because if he could lay that kind of smackdown all the time he could have laid out all those guys as soon as he stepped in there!  I had already hinted subconsciously to myself something like this with his hand on the cover, strangely. This ended up being dubbed 'Infinite Energy' and one thing I find funny about our character is how ambiguous the powers are. He's called Infinite which implies a lot, but his powers are super mysterious and he these uncontrolled bursts where he can perform incredible feats.

Page 16. 11x17 on bristol board. Pencil, pen, India ink.

I wanted to get this post out much earlier as it's been written and ready for some time now but I couldn't scan anything until right now. It has been quite a hectic month. I am starting to feel like I am in the Twilight Zone with little sleep. I finally rummaged through 5 books of mine and this isn't even everything but that should give you the gist of it, hopefully.

If he was older.

Ah well, thanks for reading if you made it this far. It was a lot, I know. I hope you enjoyed the 1st issue. If you haven't read it yet, do it now that I've spoiled it all for you! 

The Steve Ditko split!