Building The World

You clicked on this tab because you’re curious about how it all came together.

Chris and Dave have worked together closely on the creation of the world of the  Lost Angels, and the tale that unfolds in the first graphic novel.

It all began with a pitch from Dave, which is largely what you see in THE CONCEPT page on this site.

From there Dave gave Chris a loose story bible and some script pages. Chris began fleshing out the world visually, and the two batted around ideas that further enriched the world.

Here is an excerpt from Dave’s original story bible:

The city itself is all massive spires, once shiny and silver (made of an alien metal called Arg’ros), but since the crash, the 10,000 survivors have seen their once beautiful city lapse into disrepair, its spires tarnished, shabby and picked apart for resources. The Malaki’i residents (called “Angels”) still prefer to live high in the spires, and the city has become a sort of urban ghetto where all the residents happen to live high in the sky.

The architecture of the city has been built by and for this winged race. As such, they have many columns and perches, and the dwellings of the Angels are wide, high-ceilinged and spacious, with wide, arched doors and windows.

The interior of dwellings are wide-spaced and often quite vertical, built for the upward mobility of the Angels.

Pockets of the Silver Spires have been turned into human-dwellings as part of a cultural exchange program. Humans generally do not fit well into these homes, both physically and cultural. So it takes quite an adamant mindset to really try to make this a home…

Here are some of Chris’ development sketches:

  

 

From these sketches, Dave continued to develop more of the culture of the angels, building governmental concepts based upon Chris’ depiction of the city:

There are three factions of Malaki’i government:

• The Sword —The military Guard that services as law enforcement and army. A guard dedicated to policing internal matters and bringing them before the High Council of the Malaki’i, a group of elected elders who enforce law and dictate the punishment.

• The Book — The Monastic Order that acts as historian, librarian, religious leadership, and cultural center to the Malaki’i. They also distill and distribute the drug Amr’ti, to be used in religious ceremonies.

• The Gyre— Also known as the “Spiral Court”, the Gyre administers the City policies, laws and punishment. The Sword enforces the laws, but the Spiral Court decides the fate of the guilty. The Gyre is led by an elected council of seven.

These three factions are presented physically in the city in the form of three towers:

• The Tower of Ryz’ell — named after the the original keeper of knowledge, the Tower of Ryz’ell acts as the Great Library of the Silver City. It rests at the Eastern Gate of the City, facing inward toward the city’s center. In addition to library and cultural center, it also houses the great distillery of Amr’ti, the drug known as “Ambrosia.”

• The Tower of Mikh’ill — named after one of the great leaders of the Malaki’i armies, the Sword operates primarily out of the Aerie, a complex that resides in the “head” of the Sculpted figure of Mikh’ill. This is where Alex’s mother works, as part of the joint task force between the LAPD and The Sword. The Tower stands at the Western Gate of the City, and faces toward the center.

• The Spiral Court — a winding tower the exact center of the city. The eyes of Ryz’ell and Mikh’ill are both set on the exact central peak of the Spiral Court. The Court represents the spiral path of justice, from Knowledge to Strength. To achieve justice is to “Travel the Winding Path,” marshaling your wisdom in knowledge, coiling to a point of action with the might of the Sword arm.

From this point, Chris set about thumbnailing layouts for the script. Below we present Chris’ early thumbnails and the finished pages:

We hope you enjoyed this look at the process! For the full sample pages, please visit THE PAGES.

And for a look at the first 28 pages of the script, you can click here to download:  LOST ANGELS Script – Pgs 1-28.