Author notes

Page 13: issue 1 - Astronomy Domine

shastab24

on Jan. 19, 2012

Hey look, it's Time and Laser. I still attribute him to my brother because he has the same name, and general powers (energy and time mannipulation). However, all I remembered about his original look is that he had a ponytail and black hair. Since he was in sixth grade when he created him, I think my brother designed him off of a 90s aesthetic (it was the 1994-1995 school year–Liefeld was still considered a good artist). I was going to give him a 90s-type look but realized I would hate drawing all those pouches and big guns. So, I gave him a Silver Age-style costume and complimented it with a sword, for no practical reason (he has cosmic powers, and still carries a sword? Tempore just created an energy sword two pages ago, so a real sword is silly), but it gives him a slight (very slight) samurai look. So the sword will be a katana. Not because a katana is necessarily the most awesome sword, but Time and Laser would think it is.



I came into the issue without having designed the creatures attacking Time and Laser. I know I have updated their concept from when I was little and had a design ripped off from the Xenomorphs in the Alien franchise, but I came into this page trying to design something different. So I hope there is a difference here in these purple beasties. Their sideways mouths are in part because Giger's Xenomorph designs were so phallic, that I actually wanted something to go the other way. However, I look at the back of the head I created and can't help but thing of the Smurf hats. Thankfully I didn't color these guys blue.



Another note about Time and Laser, though: when I created Tempore, I had my brother's version of Time and Laser in mind, deciding to make my own version. Time and Laser's original characterization was as a typical 90s anti-hero–my brother even described him, not as "hero" or "villain", but "neutral". He did what he wanted, whether he broke the law or enforced it. He had the ability to manipulate time and shoot laser blasts (guess where his name came from?). In creating Tempore, I used the concept of a neutral character who has energy powers and a connection to time. I still consider Time and Laser to be a bad name (my brother disagrees), so of course my version had a different one. Tempore, instead, can see the future as it should be, for every multiverse in his control, and has quite powerful energy blasts. His moral code is not about justice in the normal sense, but about order in its entirety. It did help me bring in Qlrn after creating Tempore, that's for sure.