I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I think it would be awesome to have an Image United style short story where one person does the layouts and then each creator does the finishing pencils and inks on their respected character.

If you're not familiar with Image's Image United experiment see some of the process and finished pages here:

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/04/if-only-these-pages-were-earning-frequent-flyer-miles/

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/comics/2009-10-29-image-united-larsen-st_N.htm

So for example Abt_Nihil could draw Bombshell, fukujinzuke could draw Shell, AzuJOD could draw Azumorph.. and so on. It would probably only work with 3-5 artists who are comfortable with Photoshop and one person doing layouts and putting in the finishing touches (connecting lines, adding some line consistancy, backgrounds, coloring and lettering) … Ultimately, it would probably be best to try it out on a small scale, like a short 3-5 page story. But ultimately I think it could look really cool. The drastic differences in styles would make it a lot more interesting to see the final results.

I think it would be awesome. I'd be game. In fact, I may have mentioned such a thing in the storylines thread. I know I was thinking of such a thing when I was coming up with the jam issue. It's a nice way to integrate multiple artists. Granted, Image United itself has been a disaster, but that's because those guys can't hit a deadline to save their lives.

The question would be who is involved and what would be going on. I'd assume in such a situation that Titan wouldn't be involved, due to Nepath being so busy. But this is what would be needed (with some doubling up that could happen for the duties) if there's, say, three heroes and one villain:

Writer
Layouter
Background artist
Character artist 1
Character artist 2
Character artist 3
Villain artist
Colorist
Letterer

I'm trying to think which characters have the chance of being involved in such a thing, too. I mentioned Titan as one that probably wouldn't be able to be involved, and I would extend such things to Virtus, too, since Seb often doesn't have the time and has mentioned that he prefers to draw HA pages without Virtus. Of course, this is all assuming people only draw their own characters.

And I ramble. It's cool, and I would love to do my part. In fact, I could offer up any one of my HUniverse characters, not just the ones in the Heroes thread. I have Astral and Sparkle, of course, but I do hope to put into that thread the Ammon Kid, Technica, Noggin, Purple Power, Locomotive, the Herculean, and the character I created for the jam issue.

But who should we propose to write it? Even if it ends up being done traditionally, we can still get a good story written. In fact, we should mine the storylines thread for a good short concept.

Based on the fact that I would only be drawing the occasional picture of just Titan and would not need to do the colours, you can count Me & Titan in.

Sounds fun!

interesting concept

So… who does the backgrounds?

I'm more than happy to sign myself up as writer for something like this - I could come up with a 10-page story that would showcase each character (of course I'm only offering my name, I won't be offended if I'm not chosen as writer)

Ironhand recently proposed an idea for Fearless. Although i did not move forward with it, it was a well thought out plot. I think he could come up with something intesting.

I'm also in. And I also vote for ironhand - his script for the upcoming HA #8 is great!

Regarding backgrounds, I guess the proper thing would be to take turns…?

I might be able to do backgrounds for the sake of consistency.

Thank you both to nepath and abt for the kind regards - it means alot to know I can be trusted with a story like this so thank you again. If everyone else agrees, here is something that can be done in roughly 10-15 pages (maybe less, it depends on the battle and build up)
This is an interesting aspect I very vaguely bring up on my issue of HA - that Heroes Unite has disbanded and now the world has simply moved on after realising it was a bad idea. So where does that leave everything else that previously belonged to HU? In my ninja issue, I show one of the prisoners has “slipped through the cracks” whilst it has been closed - but for this short I'd like to show something very personal (and perhaps build up a kind of villain we can relate to) - the staff.
We would open with a debriefing from Bombshell to the team (whoever they may be) about some previous HU member has been able to take some very heavy equipment from the old HU files or maybe there's rumours he/she has attacked a former base with said equipment and stole more equipment. This obviously sparks a reaction and they have to stop the person soon. We cut to quite a shady bar where a handful of former HU staff are all there discussing old days where our guy/girl comes in explaining it was a bad idea and they should do something about it. They should all make the world realise the Heroes Unite was a good idea - that if they had the time they could shape the world into something better. Some agree, some disagree, they have a reasonable debate. In comes Bombshell and the team who arrive to retreive the weapons and stop the person. A fight scene will occur (it will either be very easy or a slight fight but nothing too bad) and that would end the issue. After the battle is over, I have then opened a future storyline in regards HU and how some members may been inspired to strike back to get HU back etc. and also opened up to the different HU technologies/bases etc. that are out there that any villain could take advantage of.
Let me know what you all think to that as I think it's something that will showcase everybodies art, be relatively short in size and also a storyline that could perhaps start a series of events of following it.
Thanks.

I'd like to see a Brad original character in it, hero or villain, as the centerpiece. Just saying. Brad's one of my fave artists.

fukujinzuke wrote:
I'd like to see a Brad original character in it, hero or villain, as the centerpiece. Just saying. Brad's one of my fave artists.

Completely agree, the page for the ninja issue is outstanding.

geez when did they become a me love fest.. ;)

I don't think I'd have enough time to do much else other than backgrounds and maybe flats if that would help whoever would be doing the final colors.

What ever happened to this idea❓It sounds like a great Idea. As much as I would love to draw for this concept, I don't have a character set in the HA universe yet. This I think would be a big task. The speed of different artist would begin to take a toll. Unless, each artist completely draws just their part for the book and then hands it to the next artist to do the same. I've done something like that in the past, but it was more like the way we do things here on the HA series. If this thing picks up again, I would love to be part of this.

I forgot about this idea. How about something like: Bombshell (Abt_Nihil) and Fearless (Nepath), two street-level characters, are chasing Handsome and Ransom (fukujinzuke) through the streets after they stole some rare artifact from a museum. Mid-chase, the ground opens up Fantastic Four #1 style and a big monster (cdmalcolm1) comes out of the ground trying to get said artifact. All 4 team-up to fight the monster. Handsome and Ransom must give up the artifact to make the monster go away. In the end the artifact given to the monster is a fake, Handsome and Ransom make off with the loot and Bombshell and Fearless are none the wiser.

My idea was simple: there's a supervillain with a nuclear bomb threatening to destroy the city. The issue opens on the military trying to contact Aria Conti and getting really frustrated because the first superhero to respond was captured (that superhero being Bombshell, who's chastizing herself for having been caught). It's up to the nearest superheroes to arrive on the scene, Sparkle and somebody else (Titan, maybe) to fight the villain's robotic minions and get to the bomb. My idea is that the other hero gets tied up with fighting the robots and that Sparkle has to be talked through defusing the bomb by Bombshell (and considering Sparkle's learning problems, that's where a good amount of the conflict can lie from that).
Also, CD, I would assume that you would be great as a background artist. You do those so well. However, there's also the villain stuff, which somebody would have to draw. I'd also assume Irrevenant would do the colors.

Ya, I'm happy to do colours.

Sign me up for this, BTW, if I'm not down already. :)

Lol….BG Artist. I don't mind doing that. It would be interesting. Who would do layouts? ….wait, who's writing this? When will this start?

I could do layouts.

Yes, layouts are incredibly important in such a context. And with my idea, I know I'll be the one that writes it. Doesn't mean others can't write their own shorts. Even shorts that wouldn't be involved in this still might have a chance in getting done in other ways.

But basically, we can only decide which characters are going to appear once we know who's willing to contribute art, right?

That's a good question. Yeah, it might be better to hold off writing until then.

I think there's four things we could or should do:
(1) Obviously, sign up artists who have posted in this thread.
(2) Advertise on HA's main site.
(3) Get a dd newspost on it to reach beyond HA's usual contributors and readers (maybe we should set a limit on how many characters should reasonably appear though).
(4) Reach out to artists who have already contributed HA characters and whose characters we'd like to be in this story (via e-mail, facebook, PQ, whatever means we have).