Broken Frontier

With Dellec #0 in stores for almost two weeks now, I'm giving you an early peek at Dellec #1:

DELLEC #1
Frank Mastromauro & Vince Hernandez - Story
Micah Gunnell - Pencils
Rob Stull ­ Inks
Matt Hollingsworth - Colors
 
SOMETIMES EVIL SHOULD BE AFRAID.
 
His name is DELLEC, and it all starts right here!
 
One man amidst a blur of immorality, but his mission is clear‹destroy the forces of evil wherever they may flourish, even if it means taking on the very being that created mankind itself! The action-packed first issue takes off full throttle, as DELLEC, on a quest for vengeance and redemption, jumps headfirst into the battle of a lifetime‹and his chances for survival don¹t look good! However, DELLEC is not one to back down from a fight, even if his foe is the bloodcurdling Bludgeoner!
 
A completely brand new maxi-series brought to you by Aspen¹s own Frank Mastromauro, Vince Hernandez and Micah Gunnell, along with inker Rob Stull and colorist Matt Hollingsworth, DELLEC is unlike anything Aspen has ever done before. This inventive new title is set to raise the bar on cinematic storytelling, while keeping you on the edge of your seat every hair-raising moment.
 
Plus, to prove DELLEC¹s worth, we¹re introducing you to this #1 issue at our lowest price ever! So take the chance and see why DELLEC will soon be one of the most talked about new series in comics!
 
DELLEC #1 is GUARANTEED in stores July, 22nd 2009!
 
FC 32 pages
$2.50

I’ve always enjoyed a good fight.

No, I’m not referring to bare-knuckle brawls or MMA man hugging, I mean good old-fashioned punch-you-in-the-head-till-it-turns-to-goo boxing. It’s primal assault and battery at its best and I just can’t resist enjoying a great--or even terrible--bout. And all good fights start with the “Tale of the Tape” preceding it.

It’s a tradition that spans back to gladiator times I’m sure. I can just picture some ancient Roman cat dropping his denarius on some fool from Macedonia because he had big pecs. For sure. It happened. It’s a helpful tool. It gives a rundown of each fighter’s characteristics and dimensions. It gives us two sides of the battle and lays out elements we should notice and make our prediction based on. So I decided to give you guys our “Tale of the Tape” for Dellec. This way I can drop the facts on you, and in turn, instead of deciding between two fighters, you can decide if this series is for you. If it’s not, I wanna hear reasons why, or into the gladiator pit you go!

In our series, you can expect to see:

A bad-ass hero who is not a role model. Kinda like Charles Barkley only not fat and with two big weapons he can bash over your head.

Explosions. Small. Medium. Huge. We got ‘em all in this book.

Bad guys doing bad things and not caring about it. Yes!

Bagels.

Choppers and other cool stuff Dellec builds. After all, he is a metal fabricator.

Religion. But not the boring yada yada yada stuff that makes you want to knock yourself over the head with the good book. I mean cool, Hellblazer type stuff. Free plug Vertigo!

Cool ass stuff happening in cool ass rain. You know you like it.

Spooky power outages. I’m scared already.

Dope scenes of dudes walking with creepy lit candles in dark places. Hell yeah!

Mysterious chests. And no, I don’t mean Carmen Elektra’s.

Gangs doing gangster stuff—and not caring. Notice a trend yet?

Bad people getting hit…hard. Across the face, the neck, the torso, the feet. You name a spot on the human frame, and bad people will get assaulted there.
Awesome scenes of our hero looking inward for answers. * cue 80s power ballad music. Well maybe not this one. But motives will be reflected upon.

Performance-enhancers with terrible side effects.

Loads of villains. And you thought your life was tough.

Korean liquor stores in the hood--show me a film or TV show with a Korean liquor store in it, and I’ll show you something bad that’s about to go down. Sweet.

Street fighting. Ok, so I had a boxing theme with this blog, but guess what, we have elements of BOTH in Dellec! Yes, we like fights so what?

Ok, so hopefully this “Tale of the Tape” was enough to pique your interest to go out and give Dellec a shot. If not, go look inward you sissy.

We're back with a look inside this week's Dellec #0. Enjoy!

Frank Mastromauro here... So, this is my first ever blog post.

Honest. I’ve never blogged before. Don’t have one. Our company does, but I’ve never posted to it. Some of my friends do and I’ve read them, occasionally. Lots of our buds in the industry have them too, but blogging really isn’t my thing. No Facebook, Twittering or whatever other social online outlets for me either. I’d rather be outside doing something instead of...um, typing. But, I created Dellec with Vince, AND this is in fact the Dellec production blog, so here I am. As my good friend David would say (after acquiring it from The Answer), ‘Time to roll.’

At first, I had the thought of blogging about tons of other things, completely off subject of course. Movies, sports, music, video games, you know, all of the important stuff. But Vince told me to just write about Dellec. Alright...

Seeing as it’s been almost a month since V’s initial post anyway, a lot has happened. Terminator: Salvation came out, Lakers beat the Rockets and are in a dogfight with the Nuggets to get to the Championship, and oops, wait a sec...Dellec. Truly, I think we’ve worked on Dellec almost everyday in some capacity for the past couple of months. We put together the Zero issue and the Beginnings issue at pretty much the same time.

And even though you’ll be able to get your hands on the #0 issue this week, you’ll need to wait until the Philly con next month in order to pick up Beginnings. It’s a five year tradition (and counting!) for us to release a brand new Beginnings issue each year in Philadelphia. It started with the original Soulfire: Beginnings issue back in 2003, and the upcoming release of Dellec: Beginnings keeps that going strong. In regards to the story, it helps set the stage for what’s in store for the entire series. Speaking of the series...

Issue #1 is about a day or so from being wrapped up. Well, art wise at least. We still need to get the coloring and lettering completed, but all of that is on track to be finished over the next couple of weeks. All well in time for our big premiere at the San Diego Comic Con. Micah’s art style has definitely changed from his last interior work on Shrugged. It’s still big and bold with creative layouts and detailed characters, but it’s more refined, more complex. He’s doing a great job and me and Vince couldn’t be happier with the pages he’s been turning in.

Now it’s just a waiting game as the inks and colors pour in. Rob’s solid as can be with translating Micah’s pencils into inks, so there’s not much more I can say about that. I do have a few comments for him in regards to some upcoming pages, but nothing too major. We don’t have many of the colors in yet, but so far so good. Matt’s bringing our new world to life with some true style and flair. I’m kinda liking this book. :)

What I’m also really starting to like is issue #2! We recently finished fine tuning the script for that issue and it already seems light years ahead of issue #1. As much as I’m excited about issue #0 being out this week, and then #1 hitting the stands in July, issue #2 definitely gets the fireworks going. We have a lot in store for this series. More than I think we can even fit, but it doesn’t mean we’re not gonna try!  Issue #3 is already being constructed and we’ve paced out most of the rest of the series. That was a challenging day to say the least. More on that some other time. Meanwhile, don’t forget issue #0 is in stores as of this week!

Talk with ya next time.

The braintrust of Broken Frontier has seen fit to bestow upon you unlucky souls a brand spanking new DELLEC blog, which we will be updating frequently. Now, what is DELLEC you ask? The surface answer to that question is easy—it’s Aspen’s newest action adventure series with a considerably darker twist.

It focuses on one man. A working-class man. A guy who is thrown into an impossible situation and is faced with confronting the most omnipotent, powerful being known to mankind…oh yeah, and also the very being that created him. So that’s your on-the-surface answer.

But the deeper answer lies in a question we ask thematically in the book: What if all the evil in the world wasn’t fabricated by some incarnation of Satan, but rather, by God himself?

You still with me? Ok good. Hopefully, through the course of this series blog and through the many awesome and exciting posts we promise to deliver, you’ll be able to gain a clearer picture of the aforementioned hypothetical. Because it’s something we’ve put a ton of thought into.

What is the true nature of evil? And who ultimately benefits from it?

When we first started out developing DELLEC as a property several years ago, Frank Mastromauro and I discussed this question endlessly. If God is a being based on faith, and in reality a blind faith if you will – doesn’t God benefit the most from the effects of evil? When people search for answers in dark times, it’s not Satan they worship. It’s the Lord. Wars have been fought over religious beliefs. People are willing to kill another human being over blind faith. Over devotion to an entity they’ve never met, never even SEEN! It’s a troubling reality we encountered when we discussed the various elements we thought defined evil. What we ultimately discovered is most of today’s evil is created by mankind. And well, this begs the question: who created mankind? Hmm.

So, with these questions in mind, I happily welcome you to the DELLEC blog, and until the next post which is right around the corner, I leave you with what you really care about. Don’t lie. You wanna see the art. I don’t blame you. I do too. Here’s a look at the four original promo images for DELLEC, stay tuned for more!