A Sky Stalwart Update

I've been working on all things Sky Stalwart on and off this weekend, and updated a few things. I re-colored him in darker purples (because I liked that better, and it fits his LEGO figure better)... I also added to his Cormorant LEGO set (it's almost done), and created a stat block in Shards, using the streamlined character creation rules I plan to roll out in Dispatches from the Pale #2. I ALSO threw together a sample comic page - this is pretty rough, but I like the vibe, and I might end up re-drawing this as an 'official' page of his comic series. As is, this might be archived as the 'draft' Raymond Alexander did... or something. Anyhow, here's some stuff to look at! (The cockpit has his space helmet, his phase pistol, and a jet pack... the cockpit detaches as a pod for exploration apart from the main ship... it's a whole thing).

Sky Stalwart - The Man Who Fell From Earth; Clever Human Explorer 4

AC 19 | Hits 30 | Feat +10 | Move 3 | Resolve 4d8

Phase Pistol (x4 | +6 | 1d8) (stun setting)

STR 10 (+1) | INT 16 (+2) | WIS 10 (+1) | DEX 10 (+1) | CON 10 (+1) | CHA 12 (+1)

Attack +1; Attribute Focus (INT); Defense +2; Expert (Physics); Fortitude; Gadgeteer; Hacking; Resolute; Vehicles 

Belief: Life should always be protected.

Omni Suit (grants AC +2; acts as enviro suit and vac suit)

The Cormorant in LEGO

I completed a first try at the outside of Sky Stalwart's spaceship, the Cormorant, in LEGO. I like most of this, although there are a few spots on the cockpit I still want to make cleaner. I still have the whole interior to do, but it's coming along nicely... my original drawing and then the toy model. It is surprisingly swooshable, and very solid.

Sky Stalwart and the Cormorant

My daughter often tells me I'm a nerd. Well DUH. Here is my initial design for the Cormorant, Sky Stalwart's starship, as well as a custom LEGO minifigure for Sky Stalwart. Sky's minifigure is a combination of Batgirl, a Cedric Diggory head (I think that's who it is), a random bank robber, and Fred from Scooby Doo's hair. I think that the pistol may be too big - he needs either a classic megaphone pistol, or something smaller. I wish I had a purple torso with some yellow accents, but that's something to keep my eye out for...

Now, I just need to make the Cormorant out of LEGO, and I'll be all set...

Sky Stalwart and Messy History

I had something of an 'aha' moment. I was thinking about the 'world' of Shards of Tomorrow, and how much I like how I solved the world of Doc Stalwart / The Stalwart Age by creating a comic that never was. It scratched an itch for me to have a comic series I always wanted to have. I could create a full series of hundreds of comics of an extended storyline, or I could just pretend I did! I chose pretend, and am much the happier for it.

It occurred to me that I could do the exact same thing for the science fiction world I want to craft. I had two competing ideas in my head - a classic two-fisted hero named Sky Stalwart, or a modern, not-manic-pixie-dream-girl-but-also-kindof named Skye Stalwart. One was Doc Stalwart's dad, and the other was his daughter. I couldn't decide which story to pursue...

Then I realized that, thanks to the messy real history of comics, I didn't need to! I keep embracing the idea that the history of publishing is fraught with weird events, behind-the-scenes drama, and outright plagiarism and intellectual theft. Problem solved!

I present to you the science fiction comic strip that never was (except in my imagination)... Sky Stalwart: The Man Who Fell From Earth. My plan is to create the world around the comic strip, and maybe even some sample comic strips, but to not actually make 12,000+ strips. This gives me the chance to 'own' a comic strip that lasted several decades (which I've always wanted) without actually, you know, doing the work of MAKING a comic strip that takes decades to do.

It's called having your cake and devouring it as well. I highly recommend it.

More to come shortly. I'm excited to design his starship, the Cormorant. I'm excited to delve into some of his most notable storylines. Tolkien once talked about creativity as taking a leaf from the tree of ideas that have already been written and describing your leaf as well as you can. I feel like the leaves of this are already created, and now I just get to go and pull leaves as I will. Fun!