Adamas and The Swarm [comic books]

[erockbrox | 33]

Hi, I've been a character designer for many years now. This has lead to me wanting to make stories and video games and other such stuff that is based off of these characters.

I've been wanting to do a comic book and recently I put together just some mock-up pages of two of the comic books that I've been recently working on.

The first comic is called Adamas: The diamond man

Here is Adamas!

 

 

In the story there are lots of gods out there in the universe and they all want to find a planet to create life on. Adamas found the Earth 5 billion years ago and started the process of life. Other gods may not be so lucky to find such a planet.

He lives in his crystal palace on planet Neptune.

 

 

Here is Spectra. His female assistant. He created her with his powers for companionship. But when creating complex beings (like Spectra) this actually drains him of a little bit of his power too.

 

 

So what does Adamas do? He fights space monsters who come to the Earth to consume the resources of Earth. In other words, protects the Earth from monsters who want to eat the Earth. And he also defends the Earth from other rival gods who want to claim the Earth for themselves.

 

 

The monsters could be small (human size) or very large (planetary size).

Adamas has the power to fly, create all sorts of weapons and shields out of purple plasma, he can be broken and put back together with the aid of diamonds on his home planet Neptune.

I created some comic book pages using just stock images to help tell the basics of the story. I uploaded them to the Webtoon website for easy viewing. Here is the link for the Adamas comic!

 

https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/adamas/list?title_no=658067

 

The Swarm is a super-hero who has the powers of the bee. He can see in ultra violet vision, cling to walls, super strength and he can control swarms of bees.

 

 

If he went to the bad guys lair to take on a bunch of goons, he could call upon thousands of bees to basically fly in and sting all the bad guys so that they wouldn't stand a chance.

Just think about trying to fight someone when you are also being stung by a ton of bees. You couldn't....... so The Swarm is just awesome.

Some folks might say, is this Spider-man? But the answer is no. The Swarm is his own original character and has no spider powers what-so-ever. He cannot shoot webbing or swing from building to building as this is not a property that bees have. He has different colors, different name, different story, different powers and abilities.

Although I would love to see some fan art of Spider-man VS. The Swarm!

The character is also based off of my dad who passed away while I was young. So it is somewhat based off of a true story.

 

Here is one of the main enemies in "The Swarm" comic book. His name is Olympus and his suit is a bacteria from Mars that basically acts like a parasite living off of his body.



And here is the link to The Swarm comic book.

 

https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-swarm/list?title_no=661774

 

Now these are just two of the comic books that I'm working on. There are a few more that I also have so if you are interested in this kind of stuff follow me on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/Eric_FL_Schafer

 

 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

I hate to be that guy, but...

"Swarm" not only is directly derivative of Spider-Man visually, but the whole idea of "Swarm" is actually from Spider-Man comics as well as the cartoon "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends," specifically the episode named (unsurprisingly) "Swarm."

"Olympus" looks like a direct derivative of Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Sabretooth, both in design (all three) as well as color scheme (Wolverine and Sabretooth).

The monster attempting to eat Earth looks like it was directly pulled from the opening scene of the Marvel movie Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

The "diamond man's crystal palace" looks directly derivative of the various Vex levels in the video game Destiny, Superman's Fortress of Solitude, and the visual showing up in the distance beyond the place looks just like the black hole more or less starring in the movie Interstellar.

Your art looks great, but personally, it seems that consciously or not, what you've produced is far too closely paralleling plenty of existing, and popular, comic book, video game, and movie media.  Looking at your links to your comic pages, it looks like you've taken a lot of stock art and photos from all over and pasted it together, mildly Photoshopped.  This clearly seems to be something you want to do, and it appears you've got enough ideas to get going, but I really think you need to work more on fully original designs and artwork before attempting to launch any such endeavors, even as an amateur most likely trying to attract Patrons, etc.  These days comic and movie companies are all quick on the trigger and have quite a big stick to swat down anything they think is or might be infringing on their brands.

Good luck.

[fox | 1,674]

Are you more of a writer or an artist?  Comic books are a collab process and a couple cats can do both, but their strength really is in one or the other.  Start writing/drawing all kinds of stuff (even if not comic related) and get a portfolio together.  Then you need to pair up with a writer/artist who can really flesh out your characters and bring them to life.



^Also obligatory "original character do not steal."

Your characters are ok starting points, I mean there is a lot of copy/paste or flat out stealing in the history of comics.   You are really going to need to expand on or subvert those character archetypes that inspired your characters to really give them a voice and make them your own.

[G-type | 2,533]

On 8/1/2021 at 11:14 PM, darkchylde28 said:

it seems that consciously or not, what you've produced is far too closely paralleling plenty of existing, and popular, comic book, video game, and movie media.

Plenty of superheros have been conceptually or visually derivative of other characters. If he's just doing this for fun, I say go for it and have a blast.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

14 hours ago, G-type said:

Plenty of superheros have been conceptually or visually derivative of other characters. If he's just doing this for fun, I say go for it and have a blast.

For the most part I agree, but here I'm seeing Spider-Man very slightly reskinned to look like he's got honeycomb on him but with a name, powers, etc., more or less directly lifted from a Spider-Man cartoon and/or comic books.  Lots of stuff has been inspired by or derived from other things, but normally not in nearly so close a manner, at least not without an accompanying C&D, lawsuit, etc.  Better to keep developing the creations to push them further apart from their inspirations so they're not so easily mistakable for where they've come from and are truly original creative works.

[erockbrox | 33]

Thanks guys for the comments.

What is interesting about stories, characters, art and music is that many times ideas are inspired by the previous works that were created before.

Ideas are often borrowed so much that people often forget their original source material and instead just remember who pulled of the idea the best.

 

Disney pulled many of its stories straight from the public domain. While many of their adaptations were done very well, such as the animated movies,  the core stories themselves were not original.

Disney's Lion King, which undoubtedly is a good movie, is a complete rip off of 1950's Kimba, The White Lion. Watch the video here:

 

Star Wars, everyone loves Star Wars, but did you know that Star Wars directly copied the opening text crawl from Flash Gordon. Star Wars ripped off Flash Gordon, but nobody cares because we all love Star Wars.

 

 

What's really interesting is that there were Spider themed characters before Spider-man. There is actually a golden age comic book character called "The Spider". We as people tend to forget which character came first, but instead, we think which character had the biggest impact and is still culturally relevant.

 

 

And speaking of Spider-man, Spider-man himself may actually be a rip off of a Halloween costume by the exact same name "Spider Man" by the Ben Cooper Company in 1954, which predates the Peter Parker Spider-man. Read the article here.

https://nypost.com/2015/07/14/did-stan-lee-steal-spider-man-from-a-brooklyn-costume-shop/

 

 

Even Super Man was thought to be inspired by the Strong Men in the circus. And Shazam, previously known as Captain Marvel was thought to be a rip off of Super Man.

 

So what can we learn from all of this?

1) Well ideas are borrowed all the time from previous ideas.

Star Wars borrowing the Flash Gordon intro

 

2) All ideas have to come from somewhere and they usually build off of previous ideas

The Strong Men in the circus was the inspiration for Super Man

Super Man then inspired all sorts of other super heroes such as Shazam (Captain Marvel), The Avengers, The X-Men

This inspires other creators to make their own characters such as Ninja Turtles, Spawn, Savage Dragon

 

3) The average person isn't really aware of where the original ideas came from, or who came first, as long as they like the final product of the thing they are interested in.

People love the Ninja Turtles, but the Ninja Turtles was actually supposed to be a parody of Marvel's Dare Devil. In fact in the comic, the Ninja Turtles story is supposed to branch off of a Dare Devil story as if its an alternate time line. Splinter, the Turtles mentor was named after another mentor character called "Stick" and The Foot Clan is a parody of another group called "The Hand" in the Dare Devil comics.

 

 

Edited August 7, 2021 by erockbrox

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

This last post seems to be more a defense of all the direct lifting going on versus explanation of how/why inspiration struck you.  I stand by what I (and at least one other) said previously--continue to differentiate and develop your stuff versus pushing more or less direct ripoffs of big name IP content.  If it's "just for fun," call it what everybody else does--fan fiction.  If you're really wanting to "make it" with your stuff, though, time to keep at it at the drawing board until you've polished your stuff enough to differentiate it from the stuff that isn't in the distant past and is still being actively developed, sold, and distributed by the proper IP owner.

[fox | 1,674]

People aren't stupid, everyone learned about the hero's journey and common archtypes from mythology in like middle school.  WIth the internet people are more aware of tropes than ever before.

You need to figure out how you are going to expand on or subvert these classic elements and how you plan to put your own personalized stamp on them.  What is the theme? tone? etc

[erockbrox | 33]

Oh, so maybe if I post the script for Adamas, even though its in its early form that this will clear things up

So Adamas is a God, but there are other Gods too in the universe. Here is one of the rival Gods "Tyro".

 

 

The brief summery of the story is that Adamas is the protector of the Earth. Tyro lives on another planet that cannot support life. Tyro eventually gets so jealous that he decides to challenge Adamas for keeper of the Earth. He ends up gaining the thrown, but he doesn't know how to do the job that well and eventually realizes that he is not worthy of the position. He eventually sacrifices himself to save the Earth and Adamas becomes the true ruler again.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Adamas Main Script

 

 

 

 

Main Event 1

·         Montage explaining the background and story

·         Explaining Gods

·         Gods have the power to create life (simple or complex)

·         Gods can only create life on suitable planets that they must seek out and find

·         The suitable planets for life are rare so there is competition (Earth like planets)

·         Gods have enemies such as other Gods and space monsters

·         Adamas is the God of the Earth

 

 

 

Main Event 2

·         An organic alien looking pod flies thru space towards Earth

·         It create a “shooting star” streak in the atmosphere

·         It lands on a farm and it opens and some alien seedlings slip out

·         The aliens hatch one by one slowly and start eating things like the farmers cows

 

 

Main Event 3

·         Meanwhile on planet Neptune.

·         There is an alert observed by the Spectra (Assistant of Adamas)

·         On a crystal display she is alerted that Earth is under attack by a Space Monster

·         Adamas is then 1^st introduced and appears as he leaves Neptune to head for Earth

 

Main Event 4

·         A space monster is attacking a city and eating people

·         The Space Monster is just about human size because it’s still just a baby

·         The military can’t control the Space Monster its insanely strong and bullet proof

·         There is a crowd of onlookers watching the chaos

·         But wait! Look in the sky! There is a streak like a meteor! It’s Adamas!

·         KaBoom! Adamas lands on Earth creating a huge impact just like an asteroid

 

 

Main Event 5

·         Adamas flies down and lands in the middle of the street amidst the Space Monster

·         His diamond shine sparkles attracts the attention of the Space Monster

·         Instead of attacking and eating more people the monster focuses in on Adamas

·         The two of them are now in close approximately to each other

·         All of a sudden the monster lashes out with a surprise attack of a tongue whip

·         The organic tongue whip flicks out to grab Adamas by the leg

·         But Adamas has been fighting these monsters for millennia so he knows their tricks

·         Adamas quickly reacts and stomps the tongue whip down pinning it to the floor

·         The monster reacts by then opening its other mouth and spraying an acid outwards

·         Adamas then forms a translucent purple energy shield and blocks the acid spray

·         Then Adamas uses the shield to cut the tongue of the monster

·         The two of them fight it out some more

·         Adamas picks up the monster and gives it all he has and throws it into the air

·         The monster is going so fast in the atmosphere that it explodes due to friction

·         Everyone in the crowd cheers and chants. Adamas! Adamas! Adamas!

·         Adamas is the hero of the Earth. He protects the Earth from threats and people love him

·         He only comes down when he needs to, but when he does its serious business

 

 

Main Event 6

·         Adamas comes back to his home and is congratulated by his girl Spectra

·         Another job well done. Time to celebrate.

·         He walks down a hallway of crystals that have turned into carbon

·         He then eventually finds some non-graphite crystals and transfers the energy to himself

·         This turns the crystal into carbon graphite thus recharging Adama’s powers

·         If Adamas should ever die of old age he would turn into graphite

 

 

Main Event 7

·         Meanwhile on planet Hell Doom Tryo is observing the success of Adamas thru a device

·         Tryo is a rival god seeking his own planet to rule over

·         Tryo gets mad and upset and throws a rage fit

·         His planet is not capable of creating life and it’s just a lava land

·         Tryo is completely jealous of Adamas for his planet and wants it

·         His two girls accompany him and try to comfort his pains (FYI he created the two girls)

·         He gets mad that he decides “that’s it” and heads to planet Earth to challenge Adamas

 

 

Main Event 8

·         Tryo, after traveling a very long distance lands on the Earth

·         Tryo then arrives on Earth & makes the statement to challenge Adamas for the planet

·         The news channels and media pick up on this

·         Adamas refuses the challenge. Tells him just to go home you have no purpose here

·         Tryo then threatens to destroy the Earth and Adamas shows up

·         Adamas then takes on the challenge

 

 

Main Event 9

·         Adamas lands on the planet Earth and accepts Tryo’s challenge

·         They fight it out, but Tryo’s fights dirty and without honor

·         Tyro is strong maybe even stronger than Adamas

·         Tyro gets Adamas in arm lock and twists and shatters arm off “ching”

·         Tyro throws Adamas to the ground along with his broken off arm

·         Tyro then puts him foot on Adamas’s body and makes a speech

·         He says to the people of Earth “This is your god? This weak pathetic fool” I Tyro will now be your God and will rule over Earth.

·         Then he pushes down harder to completely shatter Adamas AHHHHH!

·         Then all of a sudden out of nowhere Spectra teleports right in front of Adamas

·         She then winds up and delivers a near knockout punch to Tryo sending him flying back

·         She then says “ not on my watch” and grabs the broken Adamas and teleports back out to Neptune to heal him

 

 

Main Event 10

·         Tyro then gets up and with his two girls t becomes the new rulers of Earth

 

 

Main Event 11

·         Back on planet Neptune. The injured Adamas is put into a special healing chamber

·         It takes a while, but he makes a full recovery as he can be regenerated by diamonds

·         Adamas and Spectra then try and decide what to do next as they look at the display of the new rulers in power

 

 

Main Event 12

·         So then we go back to those alien pods. The pods at this stage are not detectable due to their small size.

·         There is another one that hatched and it’s been growing and is getting bigger

·         The monster then attacks the city just like the previous on did

·         There is also a crowd of onlookers like the previous attack

·         Tyro then shows up with a pompous and foolish attitude being overconfident

·         The monster then goes after Tyro to attack him

·         The monster spits out his whip tongue to attack Tyro

·         Tryo doesn’t know how to react and gets caught by the trap and then dragged around

·         Then once Tyro recovers, the monster spits liquid acid at Tyro and it covers him all over

·         Tyro has no idea on how to fight these monsters so he ends up looking like a complete fool

·         Tyro is outmatched and realizes that he is too inexperienced

 

 

Main Event 13

·         Tryo gets put into a death grip by the monster

·         It looks like it’s the end for Tryo

·         Then Boom! Adamas punches the monster letting go of Tryo. Saving his life and killing the monster.

·         Tryo says, “why did you save me?”

·         Adamas says, “I didn’t, the monster was distracted so I attacked”

·         But now is no time to celebrate as now there is something big in the sky

·         It’s a planetary sized space monster “the mother” possibly. When you look up you just see a giant monster in space over the Earth

Main Event 14

·         The two of them try and work out a plan

·         A space monster this big is rare and pretty much unbeatable. It can’t be defeated so easily.

·         So Adamas comes up with an idea. Go out into space and act like a lure.

·         You act like a lure to attract another space monster

·         So Adamas goes out into space and glows like a fishing lure

·         Then out of nowhere a big fish like Space Monster appears and tries to eat him

·         Then Adamas trails the fish like monster back to the other monster at Earth

·         The goal is to make both space monsters fight each other

·         It’s a battle between two monsters at the planetary size.

·         This way the attention is no longer on the Earth and maybe they will scatter in the fight

·         Adamas lures the fish monster to the other monster so they crash into each other

·         They fight and battle it out, but eventually the big Space Monster wins

 

 

Main Event 15

 

 

·         So the Earth is now still under the threat of the big Space Monster

·         Tryo and Adamas look onto the threat while the people below start chanting

·         Adamas! Adamas! Adamas!

·         Tyro observes this and hears everyone chanting Adamas!

·         Then Tyro looks at Adamas and says “you truly are worthy of this planet”

·         Tyro then starts glowing and flies right toward the big space monster

·         He plows himself deep within the monsters core and starts concentrating his energy

·         Light starts glowing outward and KaBoom! Tyro sacrifices himself to save the Earth

·         The big space monster then falls apart and floats in all directions

·         It starts raining on the Earth, but it’s not water. It’s space monster blood

·         Everyone cheers. Adamas has done the unbelievable. He beat an unbeatable monster with a little help

·         THE END

Edited August 8, 2021 by erockbrox

[erockbrox | 33]

And here are some more pics of the "Space Monsters". The monsters come to feed off of planets. Just think if you were a giant sized monster and needed a drink, you would come to a planet with liquid water and drink the oceans away.

 

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by erockbrox