New Team Shot Work in Progress

New Art Webpage

I've been meaning to set up a page dedicated to my art for some time. I've been posting a lot of it here, because it is easy, but really this page is about the AlertForce campaign, and not just my art. So I now have a page at ComicSpace (like a myspace system for comic creators and fans) where I have posted several galleries of a lot of my artwork. The galleries there are actually nicer than posts on this blog, since you can see the whole gallery of stuff without having to scroll back through prior entries. So from now on I plan to post my general artwork there. Don't worry, anything specific to AlertForce (new covers, character drawings, etc.) that I do will still be posted here.

Here is the link:

http://www.comicspace.com/ccicconi

Rendered Mantis

Experimenting with trying to lay in some blacks and do more rendering. Here is a Mantis I may make into a full team poster at some point:

New Cover

MORE NEW ART

ART DUMP

Haven't posted my newer art here lately, so here goes some:

I've been attempting to work on my line art lately, so nothing colored.

First, a couple costume study pieces for Mantis and Zephyr:

NUCLEAR BLAST ROCKS ARTIC WILDERNESS

From the New York Times:

A Nuclear explosion of unknown origin was detected in the arctic wilderness this morning, approximately 230 miles from the nearest inhabited area. The blast was a small megaton bomb, with approximately only .4 the destructive power of the Hiroshima bomb. At present, world scientists are rushing to the area, but it is unknown who detonated the blast, whether it was an accident, an act of war, or an act of terror. It is not believed that anyone was killed in the blast.

Scientists from the climatology institute at UC Berkeley report that studies have already begun as to the effects the radiation will have on local wildlife, and whether the blast and resulting heat signature will cause global effects. "It is not my view at present that a blast of this small size will create widespread melting of the arctic ice sheet, but it will have long ranging effects on ocean temperature and the stability of the artic ice region, which was already stressed with global warming. We will study the situation, of course.

CAMPAIGN RESTARTING

I plan to restart the campaign this upcoming thursday, September 14, 2006. I will be on Skype at between 930 and 10pm that evening, and anyone who wants to play should be online.

Ongoing plans will be to play every thursday evening, with anyone who wants to able to join in. Depending on who is online and how many, we may need to switch over to Ventrilo or Teamspeak to accomodate the numbers.

If Paul is willing, I would like to have him GM perhaps every third thursday. He should let me know if this is ok.

See you at AlertForce Mansion!

Chad/GM

FUTURE PLANS - POST YOUR SUGGESTIONS/VOTE HERE PLEASE

Hi all:

At yesterday's labor day cookout, only Greg and Rob/Brenda showed up. However, we did discuss the future of the campaign or our group's roleplaying. We reached no resolution. Comments were as follows:

1. Everyone wanted to continue roleplaying in one form or another.

2. I reported that GMing five days a week for a year was taxing, and I am probably not going to be able to start that up again.

3. Rob said he IS going to get his internet up and running, so he should have Skype soon to participate.

4. We all agreed that with families/work/geography being what it is, whatever we decide to do for roleplaying will have to be primarily online, with periodic gatherings in person when possible. It is probably (sad to say) impossible now to go back to the days of getting together in person, even once every two or three weeks, as we did before children arrived on the scene.

Suggestions/possibilities:

1. Resume AlertForce/DC Heroes, on a more spaced out schedule (playing only a couple days a week with more players involved on each night, AND other folks joining in on the GM duties.

2. Keep our online method (skype, web page, calendar, etc.) but switch to Dungeons and Dragons (with whom as GM)?

3. Keep our online method (skype, web page, calendar, etc.) but switch to Traveller (with Rob as GM?).

4. Go back to playing an MMORPG (Greg suggested World of Warcraft). Rob and Chad were not inclined, but I list this as an alternative.

Please post here or email me your votes/comments/suggestions!

Thanks,

Chad/GM

PERSPECTIVE STUDY: SNOW ANGEL AND ZEPHYR

Just playing around with some recent sketches here. I pasted a couple things together in photoshop just to see if the perspective worked, and it seems to. This is Snow Angel and Zephyr preparing to confront some big monster coming down the street towards them. The goal is to create tension/anticipation by showing their position and gaze directed "off camera" towards whatever is approaching. The colors are a ten minute job just to show the positions.

Comments welcome.

NEW SKETCHES WITH ALERTFORCE MEMBERS

In case you were wondering, I'm really trying to improve my poses/anatomy in my drawings. I've gotten a new program to use computer figures to model poses. Here are a few drawings I've done using the models as reference. I think its helping. Spot a few AlertForce campaign members in these.

August hiatus for AlertForce Campaign

Hi all. With everyone going in ten different directions and interest in playing nightly waning (for the moment, hopefully), I am going to declare a hiatus/vacation for nightly gaming for the month of August. Ellen and I will be having our usual Labor Day cookout/AlertForce game over the Labor Day weekend (details to follow later in the month) at which time we will play Heroes, and will discuss interest in resuming nightly gaming or other plans for moving the game forward.

I think the turndown of activity is fairly common for summer, so I remain hopeful that we will all be looking to get back into the game in the fall/winter.

Chad

STRUCTURE FIRE AT FEDERATED TOWER - UNKNOWN SUPERS AVERT CATASTROPHE

From KABC-TV, channel 9:

This is reporter Bobby Lane, reporting live from Federated Tower in downtown Los Angeles, where a fire nearly destroyed the building this afternoon.

As you can see from this exclusive footage, a fire begain in the 60th floor of the tower, killing 6 and leaving over 100 people trapped in the floors above the flames, while police and fire choppers were kept away from the roof by intense heat and thick smoke. AlertForce member Loup Garou used our KABC news eye in the sky chopper, piloted by Ace Markinson, to reach the roof, after which he began assisting those in the upper floors to the relative safety of the roof. He shortly had evacuated everyone in the upper 20 floors to the roof, but was stymied in his efforts to get the people to safety, when rescue choppers could not reach the roof.

Here you see our KABC chopper evacuating some victims, but on our fourth run, we were struck by flying debris and crashed to the roof ourselves. We were followed by a Marine chopper, which was also damaged by flying debris and forced to land on the street below.

Approximately 50 people remained on the roof after all choppers were ordered away from the building by authorities, and the situation looked desperate. At that moment (as you can see from this footage) two unknown supers appeared and used a strange blue energy field to douse the massive fire, and save the building from possible collapse, not to mention the lives of the 50 people still trapped on the roof. The two supers, heretofore unknown, were dressed in suits with a triangle logo and an atomic symbol, and have been dubbed "Triangle Man" and "Particle Man" by the public. Their history and purpose remain unknown at this time.

Sources also report having seen an unidentified man parachute from the roof during the blaze, but he was not located for questioning. The cause of the blaze remains unknown at this time.

EXPERIMENTAL ZEPHYR PICTURE

I intend this to be part of a larger image with some other figures in it, but I couldn't resist doing some coloring and experimenting for a new Zephyr pinup.




I intend this to be part of a larger image with some other figures in it, but I couldn't resist doing some coloring and experimenting for a new Zephyr pinup.

THREE HOMES IN ONE BLOCK ROBBED IN ONE NIGHT

AP Beverly Hills:

Three homes were struck in the same block last night and the early reports state that the burglars who hit these homes averaged $1.3 million per home in plunder.

One particular oddity about each of the homes is the astonishing cleanliness which was left behind by the thieves. Jennifer Jamison, one of the victims, stated, "It was weird. I had a wine stain on a white carpet on Saturday and was going to have a crew come in today to clean it up. But the stain is gone. Our house staff is very talented, but I don't think that house has ever been this clean."

The owners of the other houses reported similar situations.

When asked for comments, the LAPD press representative stated that they suspect that the three crimes are related but that was the most he could state at this time.

CALENDARS UPDATED TO GOOGLE CALENDAR!

I've changed the AlertForce calendar to a Google Calendar. I think it will be easier to use and everyone will finally be able to see it. Embedded in this page on the right column if you scroll down is an agenda view of the calendar, and we still have the button to click to a full page version of the calendar.

Let me know if this works better for everyone.

I've also updated the calendar for the month of July. Paul, if you are ok with it, I've continued Ironic having nights, and you can keep GMing those if it works ok. Bryan, I've given you some more guest GM slots the last week of July, as well.

SKETCH CHALLENGE AND ALERTFORCE CROSS PATHS!

Yes, its the one and only.... JOKER!



And here's the original pencil, ink and marker drawing that will be my official entry into the challenge.

JACK OF ALL TRADES ARCHIVE ADDED

Check it out. It's chock full of Jack goodness. And lots of heretofore unreleased details on the man who is arguably the greatest AlertForce member never to have super powers!

TONIGHT'S PLAYER EVENT TO BE RESCHEDULED

Hi all. I am going to have to re-schedule tonights posted all player event. Tomorrow is the Autism walk in Wheeling (for which Ellen is one of the coordinators). Some of her family are coming in from Cincinnati to go on the walk with us, and thus we will have a house full of company tonight. Bad scheduling on my part.

My apologies, everyone! Check the calendar for a reschedule date.

A HEROINE IN PERIL

From the New York Times:


AP file photo - Bane (of AlertForce)

Dateline: Gotham City
By: Lydia O'Rourke

America was shocked last evening when the Joker, long thought to have been retired from crime forcibly by the Batman, resurfaced, and this time aimed his criminal genius towards a new generation of heroes, in the form of AlertForce.

AlertForce member Bane has apparently been captured by the clown prince of crime, and may have less than 20 hours to live, if the Joker's ultimatum via national television to AlertForce is to be believed. As a nation holds its breath, we felt this would be the time to recap what we know about this paradigm of the new generation of vigilante supers, which has taken up the mantle of AlertForce.

FACT: Bane's first public appearance with AlertForce was less than a year ago.
RUMOR: Bane has superpowers
FACT: Bane helped apprehend the Joker's former protege Harlequin.
RUMOR: Bane is from either Chicago or Detroit
FACT: Bane was in attendance at the U.N. special conference in Machine Rights
RUMOR: Bane helped destroy the global threat of UMI mere weeks ago
RUMOR: Bane has been sighted in connection with AlertForce in Chicago, Detroit, New York, Los Angeles and Detroit

Whether or not you support super vigilantes, Bane's current dillemma is compelling, and the nation is on the edge of its collective seat, to see whether Bane can be saved from the Joker's evil clutches.

A MESSAGE FROM THE CLOWN PRINCE

At 9pm Pacific Time last evening, the Satellite feed for three of the major television networks was preempted by a short broadcast from an unknown origin. The broadcast was as follows:

First, an image of the JOKER against what is obviously a superimposed blue screen, behind which are streaming graphics proclaiming "J-TV!!! ALL JOKER ALL THE TIME!!! FOR EVERYONE WHO THINKS THE WORLD IS A JOKE!!!"

The Joker leans into the camera and laughs, and says:

"Welcome to JTV America! I've coopted your airwaves to announce my return to the world, and to challenge my new enemy! I've been busy, but I'm back, baby!! hahahahahahaha! I've eliminated those that challenged me before..."

An image of batman with a red X through it flashes on the screen, followed by a JLA logo that shatters, and an Avengers logo that melts into a puddle of water and slides down off the screen.

"but while I keep trying to create a utopia of anarchy for everyone's benefit, there are still those that just can't sit back and enjoy the ride!"

He slams his fist towards the screen.

"So although I'm a peaceful man -- as you all know -- I've had to take up yet another challenge from some so-called super goody goodies who want to keep the corrupt in power and prevent my new world order... and so now... ALERTFORCE MUST PAY!"

The screen changes to a view of a room that looks like a gymnasium or warehouse, empty of anything except a huge vat in the middle, containing what appears to be bubbling acid. Panning up, the camera then sees a glass or plexiglass tube suspended above the vat by a chain. In the tube is BANE, looking seriously wounded, haggard, and almost unconscious. She appears to have lost about 10 to 20 pounds since you last saw her, and her leather uniform is torn across her shoulder and down her side. Blood is caked all around wounds on her shoulder and side, and her hair is matted and dull looking. Her eyes flicker as if she is not altogether lucid, and she sags against the side of the tube as if she is exhausted and in pain. The tube sways slightly, swinging between plumes of acrid smoke or mist rising from the acid below.

The screen changes back to a closeup of JOKER's face.

"Yes America, this is BANE, one of the so-called ALERTFORCE heroes. I saved the world from UMI, and I'm trying to free you all, but THEY take the credit, and THEY turned my own girl against me! Now they have to pay with THEIR dearest blood! In 24 hours, the chain will let that girl fall into the acid, and..."

A sizzling sound plays over his words.

"BURN BABY BURN"

His face again appears.

"And don't get any bright ideas, ALERTFORCE! You'll never find her, and if you do, you will meet the same fate! I've had years playing with a flying rat to perfect my diabolical, devastating, delirious, delicious, deathtrap technique!!!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The screen flickers, and a 20 year old rerun of FRIENDS shimmers back into form on the screen.

ISSUE 31 (FROM MARCH, 2006)

The long-awaited debut of Jurgen on an AlertForce cover!

CALENDAR UPDATED FOR JUNE 2006

The Calendar (see link in the sidebar) has been updated for the month of June, 2006. The once-a-week frequency of everyone's night has been slowed somewhat, in that I have reserved days for Bane, Guzzler (now played by Sam Z.) and Mantis, in anticipation and hope that those three will begin (or resume) participation this month. If any of those are not available on those nights, the nights will be used for others or other small groups as designated by the GM.

If you cannot access the calendar, email me and I will send you your nights by email.

The calendar is updated up to the third week of June, 2006. There is a special friday night event on June 16, and I am brewing up a special, week long event for the final week of june and first week of july, which was discussed yesterday, in which we will have multiple GM's (hopefully me, Bryan, Paul, and possibly even Rob) doing small adventures for individuals or small groups.

Stay tuned, everyone. As this new AlertForce campaign approaches its first anniversary, the game keeps rolling on!

ISSUE 34

EARTH SAVED FROM IMPENDING DISASTER

From the Los Angeles Times:

General Morton Crabass, the President's newly-appointed Secretary of Super and Mutant Affairs, announced this afternoon that the world may breathe a sigh of relief, as his department recruited super assistance to head off the impending meteor strike on planet Earth. Crabass made a statement to reporters on the North Lawn at the White House, the President at his side:

"The President directed me and the Department of Super and Mutant Affairs to start working with NASA to develop contingency plans as soon as the crisis was identified. We were able to recruit and brief an available super -- the so-called Green Lantern of Earth -- and equip him with protective gear and ordinance to allow him to reach the meteor in space, place charges, and destroy the meteor before it became a threat to Earth. My team and department operated flawlessly, and the super also executed the plan perfectly, I must admit, resulting in a successful mission. I hereby report to President Santos, the citizens of the United States, and to the people of the world, that this crisis is ended."

Crabass took a few questions after his speech, and noted that the Green Lantern in question was indeed the same one who is reported to be a member of AlertForce, and is not, in fact, either Hal Jordan or Guy Gardner. He further reported that the assignment was a single mission, and that Green Lantern is not in the employ of the government.

Scientists worldwide are examining the skies to verify the destruction of Calvin1007, but initial reports seem to confirm that the meteor no longer poses a significant threat to human life on earth, although it is reported that the debris remaining from the body should create a brilliant meteor shower in the upper atmosphere in two days' time.

METEOR THREATENS EARTH!

From the Los Angeles Times:

NASA Scientists today reported discovery of a meteor in the inner solar system with an orbital path around the sun that is 97% likely to intercept Earth's orbit within the next 10 days. The Meteor, called Calvin1007, was discovered by Astronomer Sarah Calvin of the Mount Palomar National Observatory two weeks ago. Computer analyses have now confirmed the high probability of an intercept with Earth.

Calvin1007 is a football-shaped mass of iron, spinning through space at approximately 4 million miles an hour, and is approximately three miles across at its largest point. This is a relatively small size in cosmic terms (although its effects will likely be devastating), which accounts for the fact that it remained undetected until it came so close to the Earth.

In the likely event that it strikes Earth, NASA reports that it will strike with the devastation of approximately 500 Hiroshima bombs. Not, perhaps, enough to strip Earth's atmosphere and trigger the destruction of the entire biosphere, but certainly enough to level a region of hundreds to thousands of miles in diameter. If it strikes a heavily populated area (New York, Hong Kong, etc.) casualties would be counted in the hundreds of millions. Should it strike an ocean, it is feared that monsoons and boiling rains would cause climatic devastation over a significant area. Should it strike land anywhere, it will likewise cause debris to be lifted into the atmosphere, resulting in short-term black and brown rains over large portions of the globe.

U.S. President Santos will make an emergency declaration to the public this evening, and has called upon NASA to come up with a plan to head off the meteor. However, NASA Director Simon Alderson reported that although his scientists are working round the clock, no solution has yet been reached. An emergency conference of world leaders and leading space scientists will be convened tomorrow in the Hague, at which the mental power of hundreds of the world's scientists will be put towards finding a solution.

National PTA Director Martin Salaris also made a special announcement this afternoon, indicating that the President has signed an executive order granting preemptive amnesty to all supers who have the ability to effect the situation, and offering blanket immunity against liability or prosecution for efforts at preventing this global disaster.

MY WEEKLY CHALLENGE DRAWING

Non AlertForce related, but here it is for anyone interested. In case you do not recognize the character, it is TANK GIRL.

ISSUE NUMBER 33

SOMETHING FOR FUN

Check out the Gotham Girls flash cartoons at this site for some fun little stories, and a lot of hijinks from your good friend Harlee Quinn

Gotham Girls

VIRTUAL TOUR OF ALERTFORCE MANSION

Please check out the MAP ROOM for a virtual, 3d tour of AlertForce Mansion and the grounds.

ANOTHER DRAWING FOR AN ART CHALLENGE

I'll be posting the pencil and ink version of this for an art challenge at an artists' forum. Just thought I would finish it in color to see how it came out.

Here is the pencil and ink version:

ALERTFORCE MANSION IN 3D

In my ongoing attempts to improve my art skills, I've been trying to do backgrounds, buildings, etc. in experiments. I decided to try to find some basic CAD type program to use to render buildings in 3d that I can use as references for buildings for backgrounds in drawings. I found a great, easy little program called Google Sketchup, that is a free download, and has flash video tutorials right on the homepage that really show you how it can be used. The below rendering of AlertForce mansion was created in about 3 hours using this program. It is based on Paul's maps of AlertForce mansion and my old map of the grounds. I can continue to add details to it, but it is pretty nice in my view.

It occurred to me that those of you who are doing maps or renderings of your rooms, hideouts, etc., might want to use this program.

Sketchup Homepage

Flash video tutorial page

FERAL LOUP

PTA TANK

AlertForce owns one, and also gave one to the LA PD. It is the patented PTA light "ContraSuper" class tank. With seats for two (a driver and a gunner), a 10ap laser mounted on top, 10ap's of solid armor, and a quick ground movement rate of 5, this baby is great for the law enforcement officer on the go!

JUST FOR FUN

Drawn for a weekly art contest. Comments welcome.

NEW OLD COVER

This is the cover for February, 2006, the month that the Mantis came to power as AlertForce team leader:

UMI CRISIS AVERTED BY ALERTFORCE!

From the New York Times:

Sweden's Ministry of Defense building erupted into flame amid several explosions yesterday, finally collapsing to the ground, and apparently ending the military and geopolitical crisis which has become known as "the UMI war." Shortly after the blast, world communications, electronic traffic, and satellite control, all returned to normal, pre-crisis status. Only when the smoke began to clear, and American Superhero Mantis appeared from out of the rubble, did the connection between the two occurrences become clear.

AlertForce spokesman the Mantis met with reporters on the steps of the neigboring Parliament building shortly after the destruction, and announced that the Swedish government had been overtaken by machines, and had been controlled by the rogue machine entity known as UMI. AlertForce had discovered the plot, which had resulted in thousands of deaths worldwide, as UMI had closed down the flow of information, launched clandestine attacks on most who could oppose it, killing many, and secretly built up military presence in Sweden, with the intent of taking over the globe.

It appears now that world leaders from many nations had been paralyzed by UMI's efforts at preventing information getting to them as to exactly what was going on. The full ramifications of these events remain unknown, but Mantis also indicated that AlertForce had found and destroyed UMI's core systems, and although some of the 5000 might still be operative (and likely innocent of wrongdoing, in light of UMI's control over them), UMI's malevolent activities should be at an end.

Shortly after the Mantis' press conference, announcements from both the Swedish Parliament (called into emergency session) and the United Nations confirmed most of Mantis' account, and established that global normalization of relationships is underway, and steps are being taken to prevent any such occurrences in future.

For months henceforth, authorities will be working to determine exactly how and why this crisis occurred, and the full extent of casualties and damage, but for the moment it appears that the worst of the UMI crisis is over.

One must wonder what might have happened if not for the efforts of a select few "supers" who had previously been branded as vigilantes and likely criminals by many. Speculation is beginning as to how nations, police, and other authorities may view such "supers" from now on.

IRONIC

Once Bryan becomes GM, this is Chad's new character...

MILITARY BUILDUP IN NORTHERN EUROPE AS GLOBAL SITUATION DETERIORATES

From CNN:

This is Linda Ross, finally back on the air, at least for the moment. Our on-the-ground sources from around the globe report a deteriorating worldwide situation, as satellite communications continue to fail, and land line switchers have become overloaded by the massive influx of calls over old land line systems. Those systems are now beginning to see intermittent cascade failures as a result of this situation. This is especially problematic, our government sources in South America and Africa tell us, due to the heavy reliance on land line communications in getting food supplies from coastal shipboard delivery sites to inland famine and drought areas. If land line communications systems fail, only localized radio and short-wave radio systems would be available as backups, and it is unclear whether these systems could handle the load, should they become the only viable means of reliable extended distance communications.

The continued uncertainty in the global geopolitical situation has resulted in severe downgrades in global stock trading markets, with the New York Stock Exchange having fallen approximately 17% in the last three weeks, which qualifies as a national recession. It is feared that if the situation with world governments and UMI does not resolve itself soon, global markets will crash, resulting in a worldwide depression the likes of which has not been seen in almost a century.

Finally, governmental tensions took another ratchet upwards yesterday as UMI's so-called representative SOLOMON again appeared before the UN's closed-door emergency caucus on Machine Rights, and emerged with a statement that no progress had been made. SOLOMON cited the United States and Great Britain as heading up an anti-machine rights coalition of nations that are acting as a block to global recognition of machine rights and "a favorable resolution of the matter." SOLOMON left the building with his entourage, which included the former AlertForce member known as PAL, with no further comment.

Meanwhile, military buildup in northern Europe continued, with a near complete closing of Sweden's borders to its neighbors, the closing of Swedish airspace to all foreign air traffic, and rumors of some kind of electronic jamming field being utilized to prevent communications in or out of Sweden. Concomitant buildup in other scandanavian, north atlantic, and northern european nations has also been reported. The British naval fleet was also spotted in the north atlantic, conducting maneuvers.

All this amid continuing reports of attacks by so-called UMI "constructs" across the globe -- in France, the United States, Australia, Russia, and even the Pacific Islands, time and time again verified and unverified reports of attacks by robotic warriors, presumed to be using some kind of teleportation to travel undetected, against global infrastructure -- attacks on STAR LABS (a prime defense contractor in the US), on both American and British intelligence operatives, attacks on the American PTA and the Australian SuperShockTroop Squad.

There have been, to be fair, some reports of Human representatives striking back or defending against such attacks, including some reports of conflict in Mexico, Australia, and spots across Europe. However, without reliable internet communication, it has been difficult to either verify or gain specific details regarding these situations.

In short, the World is preparing for war, and the outlook seems all too inevitable.

This is Linda Ross, reporting for CNN.