Zeros 2 Heroes - The People's Publisher

(disclaimer: enormous blog post with loads of pictures)

I write Week X because, in all honesty, I have no idea how long it’s been since Jive-A-Tastic Julian Lawrence received the assignment of editing Deutschmaschine. Time has been evolving at a strange pace since the appearance of the Keeper of the Gate and Key on that edition of The Gutter…

However, now I figured I might as well talk about it a bit now, huh? And I figured, one thing I can talk about is my Vision Document for Deutschmaschine. Well, not *all of it*, but at least some. You see, some of my fellow CCN winners have expressed puzzlement at assembling the information needed to properly realize their artistic vision into the VisDoc, but I have to say, I already had more than a few ounces of references for that piece of documentation.

In fact, it’s been a challenge to keep it not *too* loaded…

MANDATORIES

My first mandatory was as follows: No. Oversexualization. Ever. This was my principal thing. I know it’s a standard for a lot of working artists, but since the book subtly underlines gender equity and exploitation issues, exaggerating female sexual attributes for mass market appeal would have been rather hypocritical on our part. But I made clear that sexiness wasn’t out of the question. See, compare the two options here. First:

Then second:

I would expect our artists to be able to make the mature choice. And by mature, I don’t mean PG-17.

I also wanted to make sure that we are not evolving in the usual turmoil of Cyberpunk fiction. Our story takes place mostly in the higher spheres of society, so I don’t want the mood of the scene to telegraph to the reader what will happen. Deutschmaschine is about a stable world with unstable people at its helm.

Then, while the story is set in the future, I want to maintain a feeling of believability, of potentially occurring situations and technologies.

Aside from that, my mandatories are mostly linked to the characters, their psyche and their individual backgrounds. Nothing I care to talk about here :D

THE CAST

Boy oh boy, was this a challenge or what. For half the cast, I couldn’t pick a single choice, so I had to create a character based on an amalgam of actors or actresses.

For Deutschmaschine, it all started with an elegant, long-haired brunette with mysterious and clouded eyes. So we could start with the European elegance and athletic body of Kate Beckinsale:

Then the shade of hair color, along with the intensity and social chameleon skills of someone as gorgeous and refined as Rachel Weisz:

…and to top it all off, distant, inscrutably neutral eyes containing an equal mixture of wariness, resentment and focused will, and Evangeline Lilly’s seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

I also initially threw in Morena Baccarin for the innocence, quick wit and gentleness, but since those are traits that Gabriele keeps buried deep inside, so it’s not too relevant at the moment.

On to Wiretrip, now. This was simple: a street-savvy, proud young man with too little humility and too much bravado based on his personal accomplishments. With a slightly unkempt look and chin-length hair, we have a perfect match with Scott Speedman here:

But for good measure, we need quirkiness and that extra trust-me vibe only Alan Tudyk knows how to convey:

Now, Zahra Haarland. This was tricky. A corporate guru wealthier than God, Zahra is quite old, but still very sharp, dangerously intelligent and almost inhumanly cunning: in the Vision Document, I dub her Machiavelli’s Princess as well as the Iron Hag. How best to portrait that?

You start with Helen Mirren’s body type, fearlessness and intensity:

Slap on Meryl Streep’s hair (and only the hair; she's too plastic otherwise) for good measure:

And add that sometimes steely, sometimes grandmotherly demeanor we’ve come to know and love of Judi Dench’s characters:

After that, it gets easier. For Ms. Lorie Heinen, Gabriele’s personal pilot, we’ve got a perfect match with Canada’s own Sarah Carter (hawt).

Moving on, Connell, the spymaster (which we see for all of one page in the first book) is a master of subterfuge, with cold, calculating eyes and the wit of a chess grandmaster, and only Michael Keaton can foot that bill.

Finally, Colonel Mikael Winters, with a commanding sneer and intimidating presence cannot be portrayed by anything less than the ridiculously talented and always astounding Peter Stormare.

TV/MOVIE REFERENCES

This wasn’t difficult to find: I already had loads of references. What was difficult was to select enough pictures to give a proper impression without creating a 20-meg word file. So I deconstructed aspects a bit, here and there…

For architecture and interior design, you could look at The Fifth Element, Renaissance and Ghost in the Shell.

Clothing is very diverse. The renegade underground media would happen to have dark and very functional clothing, along the lines of the younger vampires in Blade. Corporate employees, in return, would dress fashionably and in rather structured styles, befitting movies like Ultraviolet, Gattaca, Renaissance and The Matrix.

Automotive, medical and cybernetic technologies are sleek and futuristic, of course. Examples are easily witnessed in The Island and Ghost in the Shell.

As for the Digital world and Ikons, look no further than an electric blue fusion of The Matrix, Ghost in the Shell and Tron.

Action sequences, for the most part, are meant to be cool, stylish, fast-paced and slightly over-the-top, right up there alongside Ultraviolet, Blade and Equilibrium (but no Gun Kata. Gabriele doesn’t like guns anyway: ballistic science is way too advanced, making guns a liability for her).

SOUNDTRACK

I have to warn you, my musical tastes are very eclectic, and rather obscure… But hands down, the Cyberpunk theme immediately inspired Industrial, Electro and Techno-ish sounds in my head.

For your benefit, you can listen to the soundtrack at the following address:

http://deutschmaschine.muxtape.com
(pops in a new window)

The various theme and their meanings:

• And One – Deutschmaschine (theme song)
• Suicide Commando – Evildoer (the feel of Deutschmaschine’s enemies; Toson Zaibatsu’s theme song)
• Project Pitchfork – Timekiller (Gabriele waiting in the wings to be activated)
• Depeche Mode – Precious (Gabriele’s unresolved childhood issues and deep-seated feelings of betrayal)
• Funker Vogt – International Killer (Deutschmaschine herself when operating)
• Madonna – American Life (a worthy criticism on the overall state of the world in the book)
• VNV Nation – Joy (duty versus true purpose)
• Colony 5 – Plastic World (the actual state of Western society)
• Prodigy – Spitfire (action sequences could move to this beat)
• Thomas D and Franka Potente – Komm Zu Mir (I needed an extra German language song to underline Gabriele’s origins as well as give a feeling of what her jumbled thoughts and inner desires might sound like)

COMIC STYLE

The comic world has many different styles, and while I’m not a fan per se of that genre, the Dynamic style mostly fits to Deutschmaschine: flat blacks, fine lines, powerful action, dynamic perspective shots, fourth wall breaks. However, it was very clear that the illustrative style would be more along the lines of artistic styles like Paul Pelletier, Yanick Paquette, Bryan Hitch, Olivier Coipel, Steve McNiven and Talent Caldwell, as well as the regular comic artists of the UDON studio.

Artists like Michael Turner, Marc Silvestri and J. Scott Campbell who favor moneyshots would absolutely not fit the book’s intent at all. While I have nothing against idealized forms, and I respect the vastly superior skills of those artists and countless others, for my title, I draw the line at gross indecency.

I will admit that my first selection for Deutschmaschine was Ikharion. His Witchblade/the Darkness sample pages were 100% perfectly suited to my vision, but he was taken. Then we attempted to recruit others, to no avail. And then Julian picked Santiago (SanBou), because we just had to move along. And I wasn’t sure. Looking at the galleries, I could only keep in mind the fascinating yet cartoony watercolors… and I was a little scared.

Then the first set of sketches came up, and I knew we were definitely onto something. Despite the initial style being a bit too cartoony, and Gabriele looking like she was 18 instead of her late twenties, he nailed her eyes and attitude right then and there. And surprisingly, his design of her bodysuit was incredibly similar to my own.

I tell you, when I saw the second sketch/pinup… I knew this was the guy, not a trace of doubt left in my mind. He revamped the style, applied corrections, and attempted new styling along the same lines… An artist with a vision, not just an executor. And seeing Luis’ textures in Gabriele’s hair, the shade of her eyes… a thing of beauty. And I don't mean the character, not my own creation… but the unspoken synergy at work.

True Art.

In closing…

I’ve read here and there a couple of words about how Deutschmaschine isn’t as high a concept as it could be, that I’ve developed it way beyond that… How it’s not overly original, that it’s basic Cyberpunk fiction and it’s been done before… In all honesty, I have to say, none of these comments sound very illuminated or thought-out to me. If you ask me, I don’t think Deutschmaschine is the best pitch I have on Z2H. However, compared to Hept-Seshet, Cacophony, and especially The Virgin Babylon, it is the one with very wide market appeal. I initially couldn’t see much more than a comic book out of it, and now, with all the different point of views that have been exposed to me since, I can see the concept in animation, as a videogame (Ubisoft would be kickass), maybe even as a movie. Heck, Gabriele would also fit right in along the other Wildstorm universe characters.

What’s interesting is that if a subsequent deal goes through, that’s prime development money to invest in another title... One I could submit for a limited series or even an ongoing title to another publisher. Who knows?

Like they said… Z2H aims at giving you your first break. And your second. And your third. And if it keeps being this good, hell… why stop there?

Cheers...

...and keep on pitchin’,

- Christian