Broken Frontier

Riot Shell is an all NEW online comic series, created by Adrian Nicita and revolves around a girl who can transform her arm into any kind of weapon she desires. Nicita Designs and Comic Idol have put together a 6 page preview as a jump on point and the best part is...the rest is up to... YOU!   
 
The next phase will begin with the online contest where anyone can take part by simply submitting their completed comic page to continue the story. Contestants will be given a time limit to upload their page and then the voting begins, which allows the story to progress via the choice of the readers themselves.

BF took the busy creator and went through some questions with him.

BROKEN FRONTIER: People might know you as the webmaster for many Top Cow creator websites, like Marc Silvestri, David Nakayama and Romano Molenaar. Is that what you do, mainly?
 
ADRIAN NICITA: Yes. I mainly design websites and logos, but too many to mention. They haven’t all been comic based but that’s where my passion lies. From a design aspect, I love creating sites for comic books and their creators as I get access to some really amazing artwork. I am currently working on a new site called stormbringers.com for Korby Marks, the creator of Stormbringers. The rest of my free time goes into comicidolonline.com; the official home of Riot Shell.
 
BF: Where did you get the idea to do Riot Shell? 

AN: Basically, the idea was to have a character that would be fun to draw. I thought giving her the ability to change her arm into any gun she can think of was a good way to do that. Also, I hoped it would provide creative freedom for the artists involved while keeping the character fresh and ever changing.

 

BF:  Did you immediately think about doing it via Comicbookidol.com and letting readers decide the outcome and the artist per page?

AN: Yes! An old friend of mine, Vince Panuccio (the comicidolonline.com programmer) and I, went out for a few drinks and started talking about creating a website where people could upload their own content and have people vote for it. With my love of comics, we decided to go down the track of letting people use a character we created to tell a story the way they think it should be! I mean, haven't we all read comics, books or watched movies and been disappointed with the ending thinking “I could’ve done that better?!” Comic Idol Online IS that chance. So, after we came up with the comicidolonline.com idea, it was time to create a character and Riot Shell was born.

 BF: Kudos for coming up with the concept, but really... why not do it as a normal comic via say, Top Cow or Image? 

AN: It was all about giving something back to the comic fans by letting them show off their artistic skills with an original character. I could have easily come up with something really quick and not gone to any effort but I have put a lot of work, effort and money into making this happen. It would love to see Riot Shell published I’m all for it, but I wanted to give the comic community a chance to draw a character that is as cool as anyone that is being published today. It's all about people having fun with Shell and hopefully using comicidolonline.com as a chance to hone their skills and maybe break into the comic industry one day.

BF: Do you already have a general idea about what Riot Shell will be about? Will it have similarities to properties like Aphrodite IX and Cyberforce?

AN: Yes, the 6 page preview has been written, pencilled, colored and we are in the editing phase now. If I was to continue to write Riot Shell, I most definitely know what direction I would like to take it in. As for similarities between Cyberforce and Aphrodite IX, besides the fact that there is robotics, lots of shooting and she is a woman, there aren’t any I can think of. If you dig those books though, you’ll love Riot Shell!
 

BF: How did you get Martin Montiel to work on your project?

AN: I had another artist doing some pin-ups for me, but he couldn’t commit to doing the 6 page preview, so I was stuck and that’s when I thought of Martin. I met Martin at a comic-con a few years back and we’ve been friends ever since. I asked him if he would like to do Riot Shell for me and he agreed. It was like a god-send...he fits the book like a glove and I couldn’t have asked for a better artist! Some of the art blew me away; it was like he knew exactly what I was thinking and took it to a whole new level. You guys can see what I mean from the two covers that are up on our Comic Idol Facebook page. Martin is a total professional and always gets straight to the point, which is perfect. However, if he ever stops drawing, he could probably be a comedian. He’s a real funny guy, I’m forever laughing at the sh*&t he comes out with.

 
BF: You found a real model as cover model for Riot Shell. How did that come about and how did you get Miki Black?  

AN: I was doing something one day and my brain just popped...“how cool would it be to have a real life Riot Shell?!" That’s how I work, random idea's just come to me at any time of the day (lol). I decided to ask a personal friend of mine, Bridget Silvestri (YES, the legendary Marc Silvestri's wife) who works with models all the time, if she knew of any who would be interested in being a superhero [Laughs]. Bridget emailed me some pics of her friend who was a model and asked if I thought she would fit the part and if so, would ask her.

When I saw Miki for the first time, it was like the picture I saw in my head when I was designing Riot Shell, a perfect match. So anyway, Bridget asked Miki (ohmiki.com) and she was right into the idea and grabbed Tony Donaldson (TDPHOTOS.com) to take some awesome poses. I have been very lucky to be working with people that are genuinely interested in this project and everything so far has been perfect. Thanks again guys. 
 
BF: Can you tell something more about the contest itself and the response so far?

AN: The contest is pretty straight forward, draw a pin up of Riot Shell and get a chance to appear in our book. There are 6 pages to be filled and we have received a bunch of awesome entries and hope to see a whole lot more. All entries will appear online at comic idol’s facebook page and the current entries are up now, so you still have a chance to show off your work. The grand prize up for grabs is a piece of original artwork from Michael Broussard (Top Cow's The Darkness artist).
 
 
BF: Exciting! What else will you be working on in 2010?

AN: I’m working on a few sites. I got an email from an old friend asking me to do a site revamp, which I’m pretty excited about. Besides that, LOTS and LOTS of Riot Shell stuff!.
 
 
You can find more about Adrian Nicita at:
www.nicitadesigns.com 
www.facebook.com/adrian.nicita
www.twitter.com/nicitadesigns  

More Riot Shell info can be found here:
www.comicidolonline.com
www.facebook.com/pages/Comic-Idol/110909752261
www.twitter.com/comicidol   

If you own WWE 2010 on Xbox 360, you can download Riot Shell as a playable character for free. Here’s a peek at what the damsel looks like: