Introducing Forged Lord Comics
Some twenty years ago, I was approached at a comic convention by a skinny teenager with black-rimmed glasses. He said “I’m Luke Crane! I love the Iron Empires! I want to do a role playing game based on your comics!” I don’t remember what I said. I hope I was polite and encouraging. I know I shared his enthusiasm [...]
Continue ReadingI AM COUNT UDULOR
The singers of songs will remember me. I am Most Devout Count Sekaman Comor Udulor, Forged Lord of Valabham, Lion of Lasyé, Blessed of Ahmilahk. My father, cherish his memory, was a great and noble lord, but he was obsessed with the details of governance. Diplomacy, finance, law and policy are necessary to good governance, but are [...]
Continue ReadingThis is the way the world ends.
THIS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS – NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER We are the lesser sons of greater fathers. There was a time, ten thousand years ago, when explorers leapt from world to world like wildfire. There was a great age of discovery, when our scientists wrested secret after secret from the cosmos. There were telepaths to look inside [...]
Continue ReadingHow the Interstellar Medium Affects Distortion Technology
In the Iron Empires, space travel is accomplished by way of the Distortion Drive. This technology functions optimally in a vacuum, being extremely sensitive to even the smallest amount of matter in the drive’s active envelope. Thus the “terrain” of space is of crucial importance to any Hammer Lord. The Interstellar Medium [...]
Continue ReadingHoly Song of the Prophet
One of the greatest thrills for me, working on a creator-owned graphic novel, is bringing my universe to life. Exploring it for the first time. Every element I design adds another bit of richness of the story, making it feel more real to me. Because so much needs to be invented in a science fiction story, at the outset it feels very [...]
Continue ReadingScale in the Iron Empires
The graphic novel I’m working on is centered on space travel, strategy and tactics in the Iron Empires. As a result, scale becomes an issue. From my notebook: Interstellar Scales Parsec (pc) – 1,000 parsecs is 1 kpc (kiloparsec). – one parsec is approximately 3.262 light years. – the center of the Milky Way is [...]
Continue ReadingThe Veil of Fear
The prophet Ahmilahk was a man, just like every other man. And, like every other man, he was the endless, eternal flame. What made him unique was that, from the moment of his birth, he felt his duality and believed in it. The prophet was born into a universe drenched in fear. Proud men feared humiliation. Careful men feared being in error. [...]
Continue ReadingCostume Design
One of the things that always surprises me about doing Iron Empires stories is how much background work is required to build a consistent world. Every time I think I’m done, I sit down to paint a page and am confronted by something I don’t know. “What does the inside of a Comoran spaceship look like? Is it ornately decorated [...]
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