The Collectibles Comic Book

We've begun work on the assets for The Collectibles season 1.5 comic book.  Originally we were thinking about shooting actors in costume in front of the green screen and then digitally filtering to get our graphical look*, but then we decided it would be more effective in the long run to generate the characters in 3D.  We can then pose them in any hazardous situations we require, and post-process for a graphical look.

Here's a little sneaky at the cover...

And some peeks at the character models in progress...

* Such as the top banner graphic at www.the-collectibles.com or the faux comic book page we used in the SIFF trailer...

Episode 10: In Case of Emergency, Press Here

And scene.  Be sure to watch through the end of the credits.  Season one of The Collectibles is done.  Next up, the season 1.5 comic book, Breakout!, a screening of the entire season at San Diego Comic Con, the commercial DVD production, and scheduling/budgeting for season two: Divide & Conquer.

Episode 9: In the Bored Room

The three-part climax of the season continues, starting with death-by-PowerPoint!  We've all been in that meeting at least once (and some of us on a weekly or daily basis).

Episode 8: Hostile Takeover

For the last three episodes, we brought in some heavy hitters from Seattle's indie film scene.  Lisa Coronado was quick to sign on as Evil Hand (in fact, we'd written the role pretty much with her in mind), and the roles of Choking Hazard and Dr. Flaming Skull were given to two actors with whom I'd worked previously (and both traveling from different parts of the country).  When events conspired to take both gentlemen out of the picture at varying degrees of last-minute-ness, we had to cover our bases - and I daresay we came out far better than we could have hoped.

Josh Truax is a fixture in Seattle indie film.  I first became aware of his work through the West Seattle project The Divine Marigolds and Ali Mohsenian's Sequential Art, although he's been at it longer than that.  We asked him directly, and he accepted, bringing a delightfully frustrated quality and human dimension to a character that is on the surface not much more than a play on words.  Fantastic.

Paul Eenhoorn has likewise been a fixture of Seattle film, both commercial and indie.  He plays the patriarch of the Marigold family, and a host of other roles, from hit men to the mayor of Renton.  And as Dan Heinrich says, the man held a friggin' clinic every time the cameras rolled.  He embraced the ridiculous and made Dr. Flaming Skull into a far more paternal figure than we'd initially imagined.

Episode 7: How Does That Make You Feel?

For this episode, we called in our friend Devielle Johnson (whom you may have seen gracing your television set on any number of prime time shows - the dude is workin' it!) to play the narcissist "hero" Shrink Ray, who proceeds to reduce everyone at Power Posse HQ into a puddle of emotional goo (and Receiver for all the wrong reasons).

The show creators had fun playing other supers in the bar scene.  As in the On and On video, we shot at the Mop & Bucket, and got our old Nightcrawler Michael Fairbanks to portray Raoul the Time-Traveling Bartender.  If you watch closely, you'll see that just about every shot Michael is in he is wearing a hat from a different time period.

That's Raechelle in the trio of ladies in the back - the one in the long black wig.  I'm the big guy with the goggles, fedora and trench coat.

Episode 6: With Grrrl Power Comes Grrrl Responsibility

Episode 6 examines gender treatment in the workplace, as Vance introduces the latest applicants for the vacant team position, The Sisters of Might.  Played by two of my favorite actresses to work with, Trin Miller and Angela DiFiore, Mighty Girl and Brain Pan try to use sex appeal to help their case, while the female Power Posse members bristle at their mere presence.  In the end, victory goes to the Power Posse girls, who then prove as piggish as the guys had been when hunky Shrink Ray arrives for his interview.

Episode 5: Ninja, Please.

Episode 5 introduces Death-Wish's faithful (and annoyingly cute) sidekick, Ennui (played marvelously by Elizabeth Daruthayan).  It also includes guest performances by Ben Andrews (of Ordinary Angels) and Darlene Sellers.  Darlene reprises the role of Daisy, whom she plays in her own webseries, Chop Socky BOOM.  CSB just premiered, and I'm proud to help promote it, not just because I play the annoyed Director of Photography (aka DP Guy), but because Darlene is an amazing performer and collaborator, and our shows happened to share several cast and crewmembers.

Here are the first two episodes of Chop Socky BOOM.  Enjoy!

Episode 4: Location, Location, Location

The next several episodes feature guest stars as superhero applicants and, later, villains.  The first applicant, Graviator, was played by rising star Conner Marx, who brought a delightful awkwardness to the role.  We've all been in the position of interviewing in a situation where the company is not well prepared, and that lack of preparation somehow reflects badly on the person who doesn't even work there.  There is also a reference to being put on the spot and tested on one's skills (and being unprepared to do so).

This episode not only marks the change of location, but also of a shift-around in some crew positions, and a step up in production value.

Episode 3.5: Moving Day

So, right after we shot the first three episodes of The Collectibles back in August 2011, Arc Media lost their lease, leaving us without an office in which to shoot.  Fortunately, through connections with our Ultrafemme actress, we were able to secure Chubb Security in Bothell, WA for episodes 4 through 10.

To ease the shock of a totally different environment in episode 4, we were able to shoot a brief scene in the Arc Media space literally days before they moved out, and wrote the office move into the next batch of episodes.

Episode 3: The Views Expressed...

Rob and Joel (Kyle and Jim of Kirby Krackle) are back as guest stars in the third episode.  In a sequence reminiscent of Office Space, the team members of the Power Posse meet with the corporate tools to justify their jobs.  And no, we're not too proud to go for the pee joke.

Episode 2: Tool Time

For this episode, we enlisted the talents of Jim Demonakos and Kyle Stevens of Seattle nerd rock band Kirby Krackle to portray Joel Bradavky and Rob Schufeld, a couple of tools from upstairs at "corporate" (meaning where the actual decisions regarding the Power Posse are made).

Some trivia:

• Kirby Krackle are responsible for the end title track on each episode of The Collectibles.  "I Wanna Live in a World Full of Heroes" is exactly the vibe we wanted for the show, as it's about throwing off the mundane yoke of an office job or flipping burgers for the exciting world of superhero crime fighting.
• Jim Demonakos has done some improv, but has no formal acting experience, and it is his rehearsed delivery that makes him so painfully believable as a corporate manager.
• As the chief songwriter and front man for Kirby Krackle, Kyle Stevens is the literal voice of the band, while lyricist Jim Demonakos stays more behind the scenes.  For episodes 2 & 3 of The Collectibles, we reversed their roles.  Jim does the talking while Kyle remains silent.
• Jim's character, Joel Bradavky - what does it mean?  "Joel" is a reference to Joel Schumacher, the movie director who many Batman fans say ruined the 1990s movie franchise.  Batman the Animated Series contained an episode where an overly-flamboyant kid is fantasizing about how he would tell his Batman story, to which the other kids reply, "Shut up, Joel."  This has become comic book jargon for addressing any bad idea.  Among Schumacher's many perceived sins was putting nipples on the batsuit.  "Bradavky" is nipples in Czech.
• Kyle's character, Rob Schufeld - what does it mean?  "Rob" is a reference to Rob Liefeld, a comic book artist in the 1990s whose hyper-stylized drawing bore little to no resemblance to the human form.  "Schufeld" is an amalgam of Schumaker and Liefeld, two extremely divisive personalities in comic book franchise history.