Suzi Quazar

Year: 2013

Inspirations: Comic influences

Suzi Quazar is the product of a lifetime of comic inspiration. Growing up, I was never really interested in the super powered comics. Never read Batman, some Superman on occasion. I found myself drawn towards the more cosmic and epic stories.

DC Kirby Kamandi1

Sci-fi was always my favorite genre, followed closely by fantasy.
Suzi is more what I would call ‘science fantasy’.
The ships don’t follow true physics, and there are giant monsters, life-support belts, jet packs and rayguns.

Mutants, monsters and mayhem is the general order of the day.

The Fantastic Four when they were in space, Kamandi, Dr. Strange and the Silver Surfer. There was an awesome Planet of the Apes b&w magazine done back in the late 60’s. I loved the art style and the stories went way beyond what was in the movies. I think as far as super-heroes go, Green Lantern was one of my favorites. The whole concept of the galactic police force was really cool. In the early books, the Lanterns ring held a world within the ring itself.

Planet of the Apes

It’s this kind of world of fun and fantasy that I want to capture with Suzi. I have a pretty good idea of where the story is going, but I will admit I am still flying by the seat of my pants when it comes to the specific details of the story.

April 4, 2013
Sunday Science: Quasars

Quasars. Cool name ( and a cool Marvel super-hero back in the day) but what are they?

Quasar stands for Quasi Stellar Object, and they are the brightest and most distant objects in our Universe.
They are also the most powerful and energitic objects known so far.
Some are so large, it would take three billion years to cross them while going at the speed of light.
They are so distant, they outdate our Universe.
Yeah, ponder on that one a bit.

Quasars are believed to be powered as the result of matter being consumed by super-massive blackholes at the center of galaxies.

Science continues to learn more about these super-powerful structures and their role in the Universe.

If you want to learn more, Jerry Coffey wrote about quasars over at UniverseToday.com.

Check it out, and learn some science!

March 31, 2013
Saturday Sneak Peeks: The Ruins!

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Wow, Saturday already. Where is time going?

I hope these little snippets of work’s in progress are catching your eye.
This story is a long form comic that has been 35 years in the making.

So what is your favorite sci-fi B movie?
You know, the one that you will turn on every time, even though you have seen it a million times.
Shoot, if it’s good (or so bad it’s good) it doesn’t even have to be sci-fi! El Santo, anyone?
Post a link to the trailer of your favorite in the comments!

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March 30, 2013
Inspirations: Jupiter 2

I was checking out the really cool Black Alpha facebook page, when I ran across this cool little video.

The Jupiter 2 Lost but not forgotten from william george on Vimeo.

Suzi’s DNA has firm roots in Lost in Space.
As a kid, this series was my favorite.
Shoot, I still watch it to this day.
The design of the Jupiter 2 was one that, to me, has withstood the test of time.
The clean lines are so elegant. They really took the idea of the flying saucer and ran with it.
This ship is a true sci-fi icon. I will talk about more in depth in the future, but for now, I wanted to share this fun little video.

And check out Black Alpha, a cool new comic by Tom Rasch. He is a huge classic sci-fi fan, and it shows in his work.

March 28, 2013
Sunday Science: Red Stars

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Science!

Just saying the word brings chills to the youth of today.
I mean, how can science compete with “American Idle” and other such shows.

But it wasn’t always like that.
I remember as a kid, the thing I wanted to be most was an astronaut.
That was the highest goal there was.
I was taught that you could become one, with hard work and a little bit of luck.

I want to use this section of Suzi to talk about some of the real science behind space travel and our Universe.
Suzi Quazar is science fantasy, but I think it would be fun to learn about some science facts.

Let’s look at the cover of Issue #1.
It shows our heroine drifting into a red sun.

Terror at the edge of the Universe

Very dramatic and eye catching.
But what exactly is a red sun, or more accurately a red star?

A red star can have a variety of sizes, from dwarf to super-giant.
Imagine a star much like our Sun. As this star gets older, the hydrogen fusion process in the core of the star starts to become inefficient.
This causes a series of reactions, with the result being the star expanding in size. When our Sun reaches this stage, it’s size could increase so much that it would swallow the Earth!

If you want to learn more, I highly recommend this article on Red Stars by Fraser Cain over at Universe Today.

Learn more, do more, be more!

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March 24, 2013
Saturday Sneak Peek: Run!

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Saturday Sneak Peeks! Who doesn’t love a sneak peek? I mean, you are sneakin’ and peekin’!

I remember it was Christmas of ’78, and I took a sneak peek at one of my presents. I almost died when I saw it was the new AD&D Players Handbook. I must have stayed up till almost 4 in the morning reading it.

Best Christmas ever…

Anyway, these posts are my way of giving you a glimpse into the future adventures of Suzi.

Wow, so we are not only sneakin’ and peekin’, we are time travelling as well!

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March 23, 2013
Hi guys!

Wow, I am seeing a lot more traffic than I thought I would have at this point!

I am pumping out content as fast as I can create it. I want to just flood everything out to the site right now, but my wise publishing partner has shown me that getting regular content updates scheduled is better than just dumping it all at once.

Our next big update will be on Saturday (I will be posting some weekly work in progress shots) and on Thursdays I will put up new blog posts about the crazy cool world of Suzi.

I have new merchandise in the pipeline, along with the DECODER WHEELS!
Can you decipher messages from the other side of the Universe and help our heroine solve a 4 billion year old mystery?

Can you?

Really?

Ok, ok, we will see…

And hey, you know, you can always leave a comment. It’s free, and all the cool kids are doing it. Well, maybe not all. But definitely that kid in the Space 1999 t-shirt, he did. Then he drove off in a ’78 Camaro. Cool…

March 21, 2013
It’s the ground floor, I tells ya!

Suzi has her very own Facebook page.
Head on over and like, share and do all those wonderful social things we do on the interwebs these days!

Help spread the word. I know we are just starting, and boy, do we have alot of story to tell!

March 20, 2013
Incoming transmission!

March 15, 2013
3.19 we go live!

3.19

That’s when the weekly adventures of Suzi Quazar blasts off to a galaxy of adventure.
I am working like a maniac on the look and feel of the site.
I already have a pretty good buffer of content ready and scheduled, so keeping new updates coming won’t be an issue for the near future.

Issue 1 has about 24 weeks worth of updates, along with some galleries and pinups, wallpapers and other cool stuff associated with it.

If you get the urge, you can check out my personal blog over at jaheath.com, or see some of my other art at my deviantART page.

And please, leave comments! I need feedback people! I hope I am not working on this in a vacuum!

Have fun!

March 5, 2013