STARLOG MAGAZINE FEATURES RAY HARRYHAUSEN PRESENTS FROM BLUEWATER COMICS

"MORE GOLDEN VOYAGES"
By DANIEL DICKHOLTZ taken from Starlog.com

Mythic monsters, deadly dinosaurs and the occasional excitable extraterrestrial! Sinister sorcerers concocting elaborate schemes, swordfights with things that couldn’t, shouldn’t exist and quests through fantasy worlds so filled with wonders that each new astonishing sight makes the last one seem commonplace by comparison! They certainly don’t make movies like that anymore—at least not the way Ray Harryhausen did them.

Truth to tell, though, he hasn’t made any like that in quite some time, either. But in a world where computer-generated imagery has supplanted the stop-motion cinemagic Harryhausen was famous for—and where blowing things up and amassing a high body count seems to have replaced the classical heroism found in his features—one has to wonder if a place remains for his brand of storytelling.

Darren Davis—the head of Bluewater Productions and creator of THE 10TH MUSE and other superheroic fare—not only thinks there is, but he’s publishing RAY HARRYHAUSEN PRESENTS, a comics line based on the filmmaker’s works. Some titles follow up on characters and creatures introduced in past films, while others finally realize concepts which were intended for the big screen but never made it beyond the development phase.

An “amazing fan” of Harryhausen’s, Davis was won over at an early age by the cinema legend’s efforts. “I fell in love with CLASH OF THE TITANS when I was 10,” he recalls. “It was like my Star Wars.  I had the action figures, the book and all that stuff.”

Nevertheless, creating this comics line wasn’t a long-considered plan.

“It was actually a fluke,” he confesses. “I live in a small town called Bellingham, Washington, and Ray was showing EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS and doing a book signing at a local theater.
 At the signing, I introduced myself, and I told Ray how much I admired him. I always keep comic books that I have done in my car—most of the stuff is Greek mythology-based and loosely inspired by Ray—so I gave him a couple of graphic novels. Then I said, ‘I just wanted you to know that you’re my inspiration for taking Greek myths and turning them into comic books and different properties.’

“Ray was very impressed, and his manager took me aside and said, ‘That was really nice of you. He hears that a lot, that he’s an inspiration.’ So I asked him, ‘Are you guys interested in doing comics?’ He told me that people had approached them in the past, but everybody flaked out on them. I said, ‘Give me two weeks, and I’ll have something put together for you.’ And within two weeks, I had three properties drawn, and we signed the contract the next week.”

Initially, Bluewater will be offering up seven mini-series, with an eighth in the works. All will have Harryhausen’s direct involvement.

“I don’t want to do this just as a license and have him sign off on it. I want to make sure he’s a big part of this,” Davis explains.

“Ray is helping with the storylines and approves all of the characters. He’s also putting some of his original artwork in each of the books.”

The first title to bear the Ray Harryhausen Presents banner is WRATH OF THE TITANS, due this month. Although it picks up with Perseus five years after CLASH OF THE TITANS, Davis is hesitant to describe WRATH or any of the other comics as sequels.

“They’re basically what happens after the fact,” he says. “So WRATH takes place five years after Andromeda was chained to a rock, which doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the movie. We aren’t trying to make sequels to the movies. We’re just trying to build off of what Ray has created.

WRATH was drawn by Nadir Balan, and, given that it’s based on his favorite Harryhausen picture, Davis wrote it himself.
“Perseus and Andromeda have a child, and the child gets stolen,” he explains. Among those returning from the film, “You’ll see Bubo [the mechanical owl] and Pegasus. We do have a Kraken, but not the Kraken.
And Perseus’ mother is a big part of the plot. Then there’s a Cyclops, which wasn’t in CLASH. And Perseus must face a new character, Typhon, who’s the big, bad villain in Greek mythology.”

June sees writer Scott Davis and artist Alex Garcia’s follow-up to 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, 20 MILLION MILES MORE.

In September, the world’s most swashbuckling Arabian knight sets forth on his most unusual voyage in SINBAD: ROGUE OF MARS.

Further in the future will be JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS: THE KINGDOM OF HADES, which will be pencilled by Dawid Strauss and written by Doctor Who novelist David McIntee.

In a story being scripted by director John Landis’ son Max and drawn by Matt Frank, a new group of adventurers heads BACK TO MYSTERIOUS ISLAND.

THE ELEMENTALS -- Creative team of Scott Davis and Robert Hand, an unrealized Harryhausen project.

One of the line’s more peculiar offerings is Harryhausen’s reworking of Davis’ own superhero creation. Scripted by former STARLOG contributor Scott Lobdell and illustrated by Garcia, THE 10TH MUSE arrives in October.

“Ray was the George Lucas of his day. He was a pioneer in the entertainment world and a visionary. It’s the same reason why Superman endures: people know and love the characters. When people look at Wrath, they’ll think, ‘Ray Harryhausen.’ And that’s what I want them to think. It’s Ray Harryhausen Presents."

“To me, Ray is special because he represents my childhood,” Darren Davis smiles.
“Without him and his creations, I don’t know what I would have created.”