Travis Charest

[Dolemite]

You make some excellent points. I suppose that, in the way that you explain it, Travis is a slacker. I'm also sure he isn't doing 80-hour work weeks to make his deadlines. Yeah, Charest should pick and choose his projects a little more carefully. As I said, the Dreamshifters book he's curently working on was supposed to be out the end of 2001, for christ's sake. Still, if he took shortcuts with his artwork he wouldn't be the Travis we all know and love (and love to hate). The occasional graphic novel from him would be fine for me. I can live with the delays if the end result is some mind-blowing artwork. If every panel of every page of the Dreamshifters book looks like this I can deal with the wait:



And yeah, I agree with you about Madureira as well. However, his artwork is nowhere NEAR as detailed as Charest's, so what's his excuse for missing deadlines?

[negitoro]

^ Totally agree... his work is top notch when he's at his best and he definitely would do well with a concentration in graphic novels.

My only fear, is that he's already disillusioning many of his fans. I'm just hoping that after all the wait, we don't get treated to a 35 page square bound "graphic novel"...

In any case, Madureira is a slacker and an irresponsible bastard. He just decided his fans loyalty and support wasn't enough for him when they waited 6 months for an issue of Battlechasers and that the money coming in from non-comic projects more to his liking. Bah.

[Lordmrw]

Madureira decided to put his comic work on the backburner in the middle of Battlechasers to set up a company to handle his non comic work. It was obvious that he enjoyed doing that stuff more than his monthly comic, and I remember he even said as much at one point. Then he knocked up his wife, and then he got lazy again. I would have no problems with all that if the bastard came out and said as much, like some of the other pros do, but he came across as, "why are you bothering me about it? I'll get to it when I get to it." Battlechasers is cancelled, and he's landed at another game company, www.realminteractive.com Hope this one turns out better than Trilunar.

[Xero_Kaiser]

oh well...if madureira doesn't wanna do comics, I guess that's that. I just hope he picks up the pace with his video games. games that get delayed a lot usually, and rightfully in most cases, get ignored

[Dolemite]

Originally posted by negitoro
My only fear, is that he's already disillusioning many of his fans. I'm just hoping that after all the wait, we don't get treated to a 35 page square bound "graphic novel"...

Ah, shit, don't say THAT...I have no idea how many pages the Dreamshifters book is supposed to be, but I've been assuming (and praying) that it's over a hundred, especially considering how long it's taking. If it ends up being only 35 pages I'm goin' to Charest's house with a pair of rusty plyers and rip his fingernails out.

Originally posted by Lordmrw
he's landed at another game company, www.realminteractive.com Hope this one turns out better than Trilunar.

I noticed a Gamecube game out (I forget the name) that had Madureira's artwork on the front and back covers...was that by his company?

As for Battle Chasers, I never liked it to begin with. Red Monika's tits were so big that they looked retarded (if I were Madureira I'd be ashamed to have drawn them), and the robot guy's design was a complete and total rip-off of Huitzul/Phobos from Darkstalkers. Good riddance.

[negitoro]

Originally posted by Dolemite
Ah, shit, don't say THAT...I have no idea how many pages the Dreamshifters book is supposed to be, but I've been assuming (and praying) that it's over a hundred, especially considering how long it's taking. If it ends up being only 35 pages I'm goin' to Charest's house with a pair of rusty plyers and rip his fingernails out.

LOL... see ? The fans will start to become disillusioned if he doesn't start bucking up and delivering something. Even you, who's been willing to defend him against my criticism, would kick his ass if he doesn't produce on his promise once again.

Really though, if he gave a real graphic NOVEL instead of a weak ass square bound Trade Paperback, I'd buy it too... but I'm not holding my breath on anything.

As for Battle Chasers, I never liked it to begin with. Red Monika's tits were so big that they looked retarded (if I were Madureira I'd be ashamed to have drawn them), and the robot guy's design was a complete and total rip-off of Huitzul/Phobos from Darkstalkers. Good riddance.

Actually, I don't think the robot designs were necessarily Phobos ripoffs as much as the whole japanese obsession with those funky Mayan mechanical designs.

In any case, as much as Battlechasers was a huge mishmash of fantasy and anime cliches, I thought it had some long term potential... As it turned out, the guy's just a bastard. I really think he just intended to parlay his comic fame into a game industry person.

[Dolemite]

Originally posted by negitoro
LOL... see ? The fans will start to become disillusioned if he doesn't start bucking up and delivering something. Even you, who's been willing to defend him against my criticism, would kick his ass if he doesn't produce on his promise once again.

Well, he hasn't promised anything about the length of the book, but yeah, good point...there's only so much even I can take. I'd be lying if I said that the guy wasn't annoying me with his crap. Like you said, if he wants to present himself as a "comic book" artist, then be better start acting like one.

Actually, I don't think the robot designs were necessarily Phobos ripoffs as much as the whole japanese obsession with those funky Mayan mechanical designs.

Not a Phobos rip-off, eh (note the birds, too)?

*EDIT* I noticed the image linked below was showing up with a red X, so I just changed it to a link (Since you can't add attachments when you edit something). Just cut and paste it into a browser since Geocities doesn't allow you to link directly to images, the bastards. I'd find another image, but this one is perfect for the purposes of comparing Calibretto to Phobos.

http://www.geocities.com/alucard1515/2pcalwbirds.jpg

[negitoro]

^ Well, to be fair, even Phobos looks like other things. I'm pretty sure Madureira stole characters from all over the place though. Nothing about Battlechasers was parituclarly original ...

[Lordmrw]

I actually let the pics load for once looking at this page, and now I can see part of the reason the Dreamshifters is late: he's painting it. But damn, if a guy like Alex Ross can do yearly projects and not be late, what's his problem?

[Dolemite]

Originally posted by negitoro
Nothing about Battlechasers was parituclarly original ...

Exactly. One of the reasons I wasn't sad to see it go.

Originally posted by Lordmrw
I actually let the pics load for once looking at this page, and now I can see part of the reason the Dreamshifters is late: he's painting it. But damn, if a guy like Alex Ross can do yearly projects and not be late, what's his problem?

Well, as stated above, it's mainly because Travis is slow as ass. But it's also because Travis' style is different than Ross'. Dreamshifters isn't 100% painted. Ross' stuff is straight oil painting, I think. Painting is faster and there's way more shortcuts you can take then when you're drawing. Travis is using paint, airbrushing, pencils, ink, etc. Travis' stuff is way more detailed than Ross', though not as realistic looking. Still, the fact that Ross can pump out such super-high quality work on such a regular basis impresses the hell out of me, and makes me even more annoyed with Charest.