Featured Art - Firestarter - The Grand Cross' New Beginning

Featured Art - Firestarter by Derrick Rathgeber
8 x 10 marker drawing with Photoshop fire effects. 
Looking at this picture reminds me of where my story is going now. At the time that I drew this picture and colored it, I was changing my story into something it wasn’t. I did everything I could to put it out there and make it on tv.
When I contacted Warner Bros. Animation studio they were interested in picking up the Grand Cross story line and characters to put into rotation with their Saturday morning cartoons. The only problem was the content. They didn’t want a cartoon that had Earth, Heaven, and Demons waging war on each other so I had to tone it down. Which I did. I changed the story line to fit the “ demographics.” Unfortunately they wanted more changes. Pokemon was new and popular so they suggested that the characters got their powers from rune beings instead of powers from a dying planet…So I created a special being for each rune power. I even had them merge together. 
Long story short I changed EVERYTHING! Literally nothing was left but the characters, but I was going to have my moment. The Animation new projects director pitched my story and characters to the head honchos, and they loved it. We were in business. Or so I thought. A week later I got a call from the Project Director and he tells me they are changing their line up, and adding a new Super hero animation instead. I joked that all they had left to do with the DC lineup was Justice League….and he laughed and said I guessed exactly right. Then he gave me the usual speech of pitch it again another time, and who knows. 
To me this experience showed me something. As much as I love the cartoon look of my story, I hated the story it became. It wasn’t me, and it wasn’t the great battle it was supposed to be. So I am glad I took it all apart, and rebuilt it all. This time I am doing my own research and writing it for ME! It will be a grand continuation to the war of Man, Heaven and Hell full of plots, and sub plots. And who knows when I publish the comic book, I might just create a following strong enough to have a movie made of it. Till then, I will do this project for me.

Grand Cross - A Story Long in the Making.

Today was a strong day for me. I not only got a lot done around the house, but I stuck to my plans and I worked on my Grand Cross story. For those that are new to my work, I have been working on my own comic book series. This series will be drawn and colored in pencil with the only Photoshop edits will be to format the color for print, and add special effects such as lightning. I know already I am taking on a big task, especially if the story catches on, and I have to meet demands. I suppose I can cross that road when it comes.

Along the road of coming up with a good story line I ran into some very large blocks. To me it was enough to nearly scrap the project. I have been working on this project so long, and at one point adapted the story line to fit the needs of children’s animation programming, that the story got mangled. It was so far off base from what I intended it to be so I felt like letting it go.

I came across an old list of mine. I think it was a resolution list about things I want to do to make my life better. One item on the list was to finish a project that I started. To me I crossed it off too soon thinking that the large colored pencil piece like “Bird in Bloom,” was considered large enough. But I knew was I was writing about. I didn’t know how I was going to pull this one off because I already had so much on my plate with the kids, bills, making a new website, producing art for a show, adding to my portfolio,  ect… This list went on and on. I had to do something to keep me on track. So I made a weekly work calendar. I found that if I focused on one project for that day, I could get them moving, and it worked. Before I would look at my list, and freeze to the point where I would do nothing, and get nothing from it. But now I am glad to say everything is moving forward.

Now I have something to look forward to in a year’s time. A new comic book, and a brave new concept. In this journey I am going to attempt to do things different than the normal comic book world. First off I am not sure how many colored pencil comics are out there, but I can be sure that there are not many, if any. To me it’s a comfortable medium, and I feel I can draw my panels faster than if I were to draw them in illustrator or Photoshop. Second I am going to make people really question what they believe in. How strong would you be? Would you do the same thing? And a whole lot of what ifs.

Grand Cross is a story based on the bible. My story will involve the relationship of Angels and Fallen Angels with Man and God. At one time the Fallen angels we all know were all close to God, and they loved God. Some had fell into sin, but not all were entirely bad. The first Protagonist you will meet in my stories in one of the Fallen. His name is Lahash. Some of you may know this former angel, but if you don’t I will help summarize. He was the Fallen angel who seized the prayers from Moses’ followers. Their prayers were intended to keep Moses alive to make the journey. But it was Lahash who had second thoughts and intended to return the prayers to God. Unfortunately when he was taking the prayers to God, the angel Samael shackled him in fire and brought him before God to face punishment, and the prayers were lost. He received Sixty Blows and cast out of the inner chamber and labeled a Fallen.

It’s the stories that we miss when we are looking. Lahash means one who interferes with divine will. I cannot tell you too much, but the setting for the story in the future when the worlds of God, Angels, and Man are to collide in the final battle. But does it have to happen? Lahash was able to interfere with Gods will once. Could he actually stop the end of days from coming? What would be the consequences of his actions. Why does the apocalypse have to happen? Could his actions mean the end of heavenly eternity? Would your faith be strong enough to stand by God and his Angels to protect the hope of Eternity in Heaven over life and civilization on Earth. This war could be the end of both.

More to come with pictures, character designs, character profiles, previews and a whole lot more.

Thank you for supporting me and all of my projects big and small. Your support makes everything worth it.

Derrick Rathgeber

Visit me at http://derrickr.artist.cm