Working Title: Helm

Format: Online comic, color, roughly 20 pages per issue/chapter.

High Concept: A crashed search-and-rescue team finds itself stranded on a strange world with a variety of cultures and creatures straight out of sword and sorcery. The survivors must settle their differences, recoup, and attempt to find a way home.

Intro Synopsis (Chapters 1-3):
It has been nearly fifty standard weeks since the ISC-USV-III William Clark and ISC-JPV-II Urashima set off on a search and rescue mission to locate the lost colony ship, the ISC-USV-I Mayflower VII. Only two weeks remain before the mission expires and the ships are ordered to return to local space.

In its final week, the William Clark inexplicably finds itself in an unknown quadrant of the Ares arm. The Clark is losing power; its engines, communication, and navigation systems have failed; and the Urashima is nowhere in sight. No stars are visible in the ship’s vicinity. The crew detects only a tiny, luminous blip in the distance. They use the Clark’s reserves to trek in its direction.

As the ship trudges forward, the vibrant blip is revealed to be a small planet. The wrecked Urashima is spotted on the surface of its only moon, fragments and shrapnel floating in the vessel’s wake.

The Clark, completely drained now, is pulled into the planet’s atmosphere. Although the ship’s flight team manages a crash landing, only a handful of its passengers and crew survive.

Eventually, the few survivors manage to assemble – only to be accosted by a party of hideous and hairy, spear-wielding hunters.

And so, our adventure begins.

Note(s):
* This is not meant to be detailed synopsis of the early part of the comic.
* The introductory chapters (anywhere from 1-3 issues) will take place aboard the William Clark. The reader will gain a bit of insight into some of the comic’s primary characters. A few story threads will also be introduced – chief among them, a leadership struggle and a romance subplot.
* HELM refers to the planet’s most commonly used name.
* The most powerful and dominant species on the planet is the Helmar, a decadent and warlike people that closely resemble humans (reminiscent of the art of Boris Vallejo).
* Prior to the comic’s start, the only confirmed alien species known to mankind are the Andromedans (the popular, modern sketch of aliens: pale, white skin; large, black eyes; slim and short). Contact between the two species has been incredibly sparse and for the large part, Andromedans are still a mystery to Earth.
* Due largely in part to overpopulation, Earth is no longer able to sustain itself. Dozens of massive colony ships have been relocating humans across the Galaxy for years.
* The only large, human extraterrestrial colonies in existence are located on Mars and Hobart. The latter is the only planet known to be habitable by humans. While numerous Hobartian groups have long been lobbying the International Space Council (ISC) for various planet name changes, the ISC body has opted not to take a position.
* There are several competing, experimental terraforming projects currently being conducted in local space, primarily on Mars and Callisto.



What I’m Looking For:

Ideally, you are a skilled artist who is looking for an opportunity to create a complete, high-quality portfolio piece, or an experienced comic artist seeking a new, fresh, and engaging concept to dedicate your time and effort toward. This doesn’t have to be a long-term commitment. I’m only looking for a minimum one-issue artist. If you decide that you’re interested in continuing beyond the first issue, we can arrange that together.

I’m primarily looking for someone who has a knack for sequential art and panel layout – an artist who understands how to position images on a page in order to tell a story in the sharpest, most intriguing way.

This person must also be able to concept a range of things – from sleek spaceships to mighty fortresses, to original alien species and their cultural artifacts, to primitive clothing and naval uniforms. Ideally, you have an interest in fantasy, sci-fi, history, and/or anthropology that you can draw from. Although I’ll try to provide a bit of direction when it comes to creating concepts, it would really help if I have a creative, pro-active partner I can collaborate with in this area.

As far as art style is concerned, I’m interested in anything that can be characterized as “realistic” – the kind of art you’re likely to see in Marvel, DC, or Image Comics. Be prepared for a lot slow, brooding scenes, and some action sequences. Although I don’t have anything against anime/manga, I just don’t feel it would jibe well with this particular concept. If you’ve got some time to put together a sample based on the concept, please feel free to prove me wrong. I would genuinely love to see it!


You should also be a good communicator. If you’re too busy for any reason, or just need a week or two away, please let me know. This is volunteer work in our spare time – it should be fun!

I’m willing to host the comic as a subdomain of my site, do the web work using Comic Press, and will take care of marketing. I don’t have a lot of experience doing this, but I’ll try to pull it off. You will also probably have to provide some web art I could use for the site.

I have no idea what sort of response to expect in regards to this ad, but I’ll try my best to reply to anyone that contacts me. Please e-mail jshahhasangmailcom by April 13 if you’re interested. I would love it if you have links to samples, an online portfolio, or anything like a deviantART account. Any sci-fi, fantasy, or sequential art pieces are a plus.

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As for myself, I have an M.A. in English Literature, a B.A. in Creative Writing, and I’ve taught writing and freshman English at a nationally recognized university in the US. I also have experience working on a few AAA titles in the game industry. If you’d like to learn a little more about my background, feel free to visit www.jshahhasan.com.

Many thanks for reading!