Sadly, we have run out of fan art to feature here on Hunter Black. (And yes, this is supposed to guilt you into sending us more.)
Happily, I have no intention of leaving you with nothing on Tuesdays, so when I don’t have fan art to feature, I’ll feature something cool and independent in this space. Today, that cool and independent thing is Kamikaze Animated, the brain-child of Carrie and Alan Tupper. Kamikaze is a cartoon that they’re trying to get off of the ground, and the more people that they can get interested, the more likely they are to make it happen.
Now, I’ve “met” Carrie and Alan, by which I mean we’ve video-chatted online, and they are TREMENDOUSLY cool and talented people. We’ve talked quite a bit about their creation, enough so that I had to make promises not to spoil anything, so I won’t go into too many details. There is a third member of their team, Havana Nguyen, who’s responsible for a lot of the work on the designs of their characters…and when you check out it, you’ll see that she kicks just as much ass as Carrie and Alan.
Kamikaze is a story set in a dystopian future with a stifling caste system (or at least so it seems to me) and militaristic gangs trying to express their will. Kamikaze is the code name of the main character, a woman who’s still discovering what she’s capable of in this crappy setting. Alan and Carrie are definitely shooting for an Adult Swim kind of audience, which was exactly what Will and I were originally going for with Hunter Black, back when we thought we were developing a cartoon. What they’re going for is moody, complex, and violent.
I was privileged enough to get an inside look at what they’re doing; I’ve seen more work than they have up on their sites and on social media, and I actually got to read a draft of the pilot. Their main character, Markesha, is STELLAR. They really know what they’re doing with her and she’s motivated by the kinds of things that motivate all of us. Plus, she runs all over the damn place, and that is tremendously cool to see. (Because I’ve seen it…even though you don’t get to. Yet.)
🙂
I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out how cool it is that they have an extremely diverse cast, without it being a comic about diversity. It’s kind of like the Fast and Furious movies that way (although not really in any other way). But this blog probably says that better than I ever could, plus there are even more pretty pictures to check out.
…I wish I could say more, but you should go over to the website and check it out, and maybe follow them on Facebook or Twitter (Carrie is @mermaidshells and Alan is @ThatTupperKid) or Tumblr, so you can figure out how to be of help, and what they plan to do with Kamikaze in the meantime. Geek culture is full to brimming with awesome creative people, and Alan and Carrie are two of them. Check them out.