Last week I was invited to take part in the ForceCast Roundtable discussion about the Clone Wars TV show.  I am thrilled that they would invite me to be on the podcast, and I don’t want to screw it up, so I spend some time preparing for the show.  It’s pretty tough work.  I have to watch the episode 3 or 4 times, and then look at all of the characters involved and their history.  Then I have to watch any related episodes too.  It really is a lot of hard work. 

Watching the episodes of the Clone Wars in this way can be a lot of fun, but it can also lead to quite a bit of work.  In last night’s episode (season 04, episode 14) titled “A Friend in Need” the show re-introduced us to a group called “Death Watch”.  I enjoyed the episode, but I wanted to refresh my memory about this group.  That “required” me to re-watch the episodes from season 02 when we were first introduced to them (S02E12 “The Madnalore Plot”).

In this episode, Obi-Wan Kenobi  arrives on the Planet Mandolore to investigate rumors that the Duchess Satine is secretly building her own army to fight for the Separatist cause.  Satine explains to Obi-Wan that she is not involved, and as they are walking in the gardens, there is an explosion, and the symbol of Death Watch appears claiming responsibility.  An observer from the crowd flees the scene and Obi-Wan gives chase, but the man jumps to his death.

The leader of Death Watch is seen communicating with Count Dooku and expressing his concern of the Jedi interference.  Dooku tells him not to be concerned because the people will rebel against this outside involvement and will rally to support Death Watch.

Well, apparently, Count Dooku was correct.  In the top part of image below, you can see the man who ran from the scene of the bombing.  Note the woman to his left shocked by the scene.  Well, in last night’s episode, we see some of the members of Death Watch with their helmets off, and this woman from the crowd is with them, and is now sporting a scar.  So there’s more to her story.  How did she come to join this group?  Where did her scar come from? Or maybe, the animation studio simply reached into their library of characters and they just reused an old 3D model. 

ShadowBox Comics has been on my mind for a few years now.  I’ve written a few other articles laying the groundwork for this project, but it’s moving along a bit slower than I would like it to be.  So here’s the story.

I’ve been an exhibitor at comic book conventions for 3 years now, but I’ve never worked on a comic book.  I’m am so thrilled that I’ve been able to work with Lucasfilm and make new art for Star Wars, that I figured that comics would be the next big hurdle for me to conquer.  When I looked into what it would take to be a comic book artist, I was completely overwhelmed.  There are so many talented artists and writers out there I felt like I just couldn’t compete with them.  So I decided I would have to figure out a way to stand out in the crowd.

I’ve had a good response to the ShadowBoxes that I make, so I figure that I could try and apply that attention to a comic book reader.  Most digital comics are simple image viewers and don’t really take advantage of the device to show off the comic.  So I looked back at the traditional animation technique of using a Multiplane camera to create a multiplane comic on the iPad.  Check out the video below to see a sample.

You can see another video where I explain a bit more of the history of the multiplane camera and how I came to create ShadowBox Comics here, and a demo on the iPhone here.

 The iPad application launched right before the San Diego ComicCon in July of 2010 followed by the iPhone version in November.  So far it has been well received.  Like I said earlier, there are so many talented artists out there, perhaps I can now use ShadowBox Comics as a platform to launch other comic titles.  We’re working on a new site now with an online store and hope to start launching individual comic apps within the next few months.