Annotations:
Heroes of Science
Hitler attacks the Olympic Games. He devours the torch bearer, but can he snuff out the Olympic Spirit? The Heroes of Science show up and intend to go all Jesse Owens on his ass. But can they? Will they?
Panel 1
Hitler's pistol looks somewhat like the mighty Luger, an early 20th century German pistol. They were
the superior weapon in
Return to Castle Wolfenstein and
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. I'm
not sure if it's the kind of gun Hitler actually shot himself with, but it's iconic and whatnot.
Panel 5
The futuristic technology featured in this panel shows it's futuristic by making breakfast.
Panel 7
Now we introduce the Heroes of Science. My original designs for Einstein looked a lot more like the
70's Nick Fury. The holster survived but after my friend suggested Marv from Sin City I had to go with
the wife-beater.
Marie Curie's costume is derived from Marvel's Baron Zemo. Well, the mask is, anyway. The rest is just random
futuristic clothes.
Da Vinci's costume was born out of the Warhammer 40K marine outfits.
George Washington Carver looks absolutely nothing like the real George Washington Carver. He looks more like
Samuel L. Jacksom I guess.
Carl Sagan's rocking the glowing blue ghost thing. No, he won't be played by by a poorly photoshopped in Hayden
Christiansen in the motion picture. He looks a lot more like the "real" Carl Sagan.
Nichola Tesla is derived from Space Ghost's pet monkey as well as the pet monkey from Superfriends. This was one
of the core concepts even in Heroes of Science's earliest days.
Panel 2
Crowd scenes are both a pain in the ass to draw, and so much fun. They require tons and tons of
detail, but they also allow one to hide lots of crap in the background. Captain Tacolicious' The
Pinnacle and V (from "V for Vendetta") are visibile in this panel.
Panel 3
Here we can see Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo rather plainly. Those hands coming from behind the
torch bearer belong to Mike Nelson, the superior host from "Mystery Science Theatre 3000."
Panel 7
Notice how huge Hitler's head is. I can come up with justifications thereof, fish-eye lens and
all that, but the real reason I drew it like th at is because it's a lot funnier than it would
be otherwise.
Lots of crap in this crowd. First there's and old guy and a vaguely cylon like robot wearing Mork
and Mindy shirts. Next to them is some guy in a Superman One Million t-shirt. Not to over-explain,
but Superman One Million is a hypothetical future version of the man of steel that appeared in
a crossover from the late nineties. It was better than other crossovers, however, because most of it
was written by Grant Morrison. Next to him is a fat lady in a Captain American moomoo. Next to her
is Neo.
I think I really overdid it with this panel.
Above that you can see the Toadstool Retainer, Robin Hood in sunglasses and Alan Moore holding a sign
that reads "John 3^16."
There's not a hell of a lot to say about this page. Here's George Washington Carver's first speaking
appearance. He's the real comic relief character, Nichola Tesla just being there as an animal sidekick.
Big GW is only here to throw his peanut grenade and say a one-liner. Unless there are serious changes to the status quo this will be his purpose forever.
Panel 1
The obvious character in the crowd is quite similar to ole' Chuck Brown. Jaws from the Burger King Kids
Club is on Big GW's opposite side. No, he's not Kwame from "Captain Planet and The Planeteers."
This is a pretty simple page. The one thing I'd do differently if I had the time, is the Marie Curie
on
Panel 5. I'd add some kind of transformation effect, maybe some twinkling stars or a gradient
from whatever she was wearing as the Olympic Torch Bearer.
Christ, look at that first panel. Talk about quick-and-dirty crowd scene. Sheesh.
Panel 3
...And we cut back to the fat guy in the Superman One Million t-shirt. There's more here now. We still have
Jaws from the Burger King Kids Club, but now he's joined by Kid Vid. If you look closely you can see Tom Servo, of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame.
Panel 4
Mr. T joins the audience.
My mother always told me, if you see a guy skydiving from orbit you have to
use him by the third act.
I'm well aware the scale on this page is completely fucked. Two pages ago Hitler was large enough to
hold a grown man in his fist. Now Einstein's feet are bigger than his head. No, I don't need a no-prize.
This is the most elaborate crowd scene yet. I'll just name the people that are recognizable.
At the top of the left we have Arthur. The cast of TV's Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is below him (you can
plainly see Kira, Dax and Odo. I would have found a place for Garak, but he would have been just too
obvious).
Next we get the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. You can only obviously see Patrick Steward,
decked out in the leather jacket he wore in that stupid movie where they go back in time and fight the
Borg. There are two Rikers to his left, Bev Crusher and Troi opposite him, covered by thte energy waves
coming out of Einstein's feet.
Next is the original cast. To the far left you can only see Uhura's massive beehive. Next you can sorta
see Spock's hair. We rock the Shater in the 80's style uniform, and finally we reach the good Doc, who
barely looks like Bones, but who cares?
That brings us to some characters from Futurama. They're hard to decypher, because the art styles are so
out of the ordinary. First is Cubert Farnsworth and Professor Farnsworth. Next to him is Hermes and finally
Fry.
I'm not done yet. Battlepope is at the top of the opposite side. Below him you can see Hulk Hogan's bald
spot, or some variation thereof. Below them we can see Antoine and Colby from the fabulous Upright citizens
Brigade. Choates lives forever. Below them are at least half the cast from the Mr. T cartoon. I don't
know any names, so don't ask. But Mr. T taught
gymnasts! Gymnasts!
Panel 1
I wonder where Hitler's "H" logo disappeared to. Perhaps
Albert Einstein Prime punched a
wall in his cosmic prison, making the world the way it's
supposed to be, ie: without
Hitler's "H" logo. Or perhaps Hitler was briefly replaced with his
Hyptertime duplicate
from Earth Negative 3, where it turns out Hitler never had an "H" logo to begin with.
No, wait, I've got a better one. I've got a better one! I'll use the stock science fiction
answer to everything nowadays:
Nanites.
Panel 1
This is a reference to one of Deadpool's finest monents. See,
he met Wolverine and Kitty Pryde at a trainstation and tries to
start a fight. Kitty is less apt to violence than our Canadian
friend, so Deadpool has a hard time of this. That is, until he
pulls the "shoryuken" card. Yeah, it's not high class like the
Mr. T cartoon, but it gets the job done.
This page is the entire reason I set the story at some form of Olympic Games. This
is really the heart of
Heroes of Science, bigger than life action sequences,
abject craziness, ridiculous set pieces used to the hilt... Once you've read
HOS to this point you'll know whether you like us or not.
Panel 3
This is the first instance of what I call "action movie exposition." It tells you
just enough to push the plot along while sounding retarded. "Don't worry folks,
Hitler will be back next month, kiddies!"
Panel 5
This is also an auspicious panel. It features the first appearance of Carl Sagan's
Ghost in all his transparent glory. Why wasn't he transparent previously? Uh, er,
more Einstein Prime continuity waves? No, that's just
too ridiculous... I
think i'll use the old stand-by
Nanites! Good enough.
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