'Get the Mask' Comic

[believe victims]

 

 

Even so, it's still a perfect example of how the artists are not always reliable in getting every single detail correct.

There's a difference between the colorist miscoloring a couple of characters—who were in the same scene together anyway—and the illustrator drawing the sets incorrectly from the get-go.  It's not a case of not always "getting every single detail correct", it's a case of getting the character completely wrong.  Whether it's a case of early prototypes being taken as final versions or the artist not knowing what they're drawing, the comics aren't very good and don't do a good job of representing the sets.

 

...Or the artist knowing exactly what they were drawing and not caring too much about accuracy because it was merely concept art or a style test and not something intended for public consumption. We can't neglect that possibility.

 

The fact that the "storyline" of these comics feels like a rough, less eventful version of the "storyline" in the instruction manual comics leads me to believe this WAS a preliminary sequence that ended up leading to those. It does not surprise me that the LEGO Group would have sketched out versions of those comics before they knew exactly what style they would settle on or had finalized versions of the sets. It also would not surprise me if in those preliminary sequences, the artist would trace poses from other comics as a shortcut — hence the similarities to images from other comics observed on Eurobricks, the similarities between the individual Toa's comics, and the Toa and Protectors all having more or less the same body proportions.

 

 

I don't feel like these are preliminary, or at least not entirely, because Tahu's mask is clearly his final one and I know for a fact that just about everything else about him was finalized before his mask was. Either they replaced the mask panels for publishing in the magazine, or these comics were created after designs were finalized.

[Munty]

Perhaps they aren't entirely preliminary but I think anyone would find it hard to deny they are clearly early works. If you look at them again with the knowledge that they were possibly traced from other comics it's very easy to to see where this might have occurred. What other reason could there be for the Protectors and Toa all being of the same standard humanoid shape? Perhaps things like masks were edited before being released but I see no reason why they would do that frankly as they didn't fix anything else so why masks? It seems more likely that this was simply an early storyboarding of the comics that would eventually end up in the comics and the artists simply copied some of the structure from other comics to help keep the speed up and the cost down. 

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

Regardless I quite like the art and I am glad we get to see this apparent concept art in all its glory. I was little peeved that we didn't see any G1 concept art until Faber started his blog.

 

-NotS

[Aanchir]

Regardless I quite like the art and I am glad we get to see this apparent concept art in all its glory. I was little peeved that we didn't see any G1 concept art until Faber started his blog.

 

-NotS

Well, we did see earlier concept art in occasional articles, interviews, and case studies, but it was usually just concept art and prototypes of the sets, not concept art for the story and art direction.

 

I agree that it's great to get this kind of "behind the scenes" stuff like the concept art that has been appearing in the magazines, or that was shared on the LEGO Bionicle page on Facebook.

Edited January 14, 2015 by Aanchir

[Makaru]

Why hello Incredible Shrinking Onua.

[IcarusBen]

Wasn't Pat Lee the guy responsible for Dull Surprise?

 

Seems perfect for a Bionicle comic XD

[user-402520536]

Wasn't Pat Lee the guy responsible for Dull Surprise?

 

Seems perfect for a Bionicle comic XD

Speaking of Dull Surprise: THIS

 

I was reading the comic when my TransFormers-obsessed mind screamed at me 'Ay! This looks familiar!' So then I was looking over the TTV Board and, sure enough, someone had posted the above image. The left is Skywarp vs. Iron Man from the TF/New Avengers crossover. What do you guys think?

[Munty]

Nice to see some clear comparisons, it's fairly obvious that these images (or at least some of them) have been traced. I don't think that's really an issue though, given that it's an early concept piece, probably never intended for any kind of release. It also eplains away the other nonsense like the human statue as the whole piece is clearly simply an early experiment into art-style and storytelling for 2015.