The Evolution of Brute (part 2)
Last time we looked at how Brute and Rose evolved from my initial concepts in the 80’s/90’s to the characters they are in the latest issues of Brute. Today we’ll look at some of the other cast members, specifically Captain Jerrreecko (aka Vanguard), Jorj and Linni.
In my original sketch of Vanguard, he was basically a humanoid porcupine with a ridiculously oversize waist cannon. However, in designing Brute the series, I wanted to get away from having too many humanoid races. I didn’t want to give Vanguard more limbs, but I did change his skeleton from having one backbone, to two, giving him a boxy body and hands with essentially four thumbs in an H shape (feet as well). Owen took these concepts and added some touches of his own, making everything on Vanguard angular – even his pupils, and giving him a more alien appearance by drawing inspiration from a Chinese dragon. Vanguard has so far only been a supporting character, but in issue #4 he’ll be front and center and we’ll see a return of waist-mounted ion-cannon and his unique mode of travel.
It wouldn’t be right to talk about Vanguard and leave out his very present companion – Shipwreck. The initial concept of Shipwreck (formerly $#!^head) was on three tank-like treads, one in front and two in the back (not shown). You’ll see above how I dropped the treads and instead had him floating around Vanguard’s head. Owen further rounded Shipwreck and added a nose.
I don’t even recall the genesis of these two (aside from being a tribute of sorts to ‘Of Mice and Men’), I mean – why a crab? Why not?! Who needs yet another humanoid alien? But Jorj was never intended to be a crab, just a crab-like alien but you’ll see in my original drawings I never actually got very far from just a crab. Fortunately Owen made him much more distinctly alien. Linni on the other hand, changed quite a bit, from being a giant humanoid, to more dinosaur-shaped, and then Owen brought him back to a more human design and added his now distinctive fez hat.
That’s all for now. Let us know if you’d like to see more characters featured in this way.
And since I teased it above – here’s a surprise reveal for the cover for Brute #3 – currently planned for Q2 2022.
If Vanguard has an oversized waist, then I have just the plan for him. LOL. I love how the characters look and how you have described them, as each of your coworkers have added a special touch of their own.