pascal Blanché's Derelict Blog planet: 2009

2009/04/22

...about DUNE...

---- picts of the unseen dune from http://www.duneinfo.com/ ----

Frank Herbert is to scifi what Tolkien is to Fantasy.
It is maybe the one and only saga i read every three/four years ;) and it continues to inspire me.
But Before that David Lynch turned it into the controversial movie everyboy knows... ( you love it or you hate it)
Did you know that back in 1974 there was a DUNE project in Europe, gathering eclectic band of talents lead by Alejandro Jodorowsky ( director) with...

Moebius( boards and character designs)

H.R. Giger (planet Harkonnen designs)

Chris Foss (vehicules and spaceships)

But also Dan O'Bannon( special effects), Orson Welles(as baron Vladimir Harkonnen) , Pink floyd (music) and Salvator Dali ( the emperor Shaddam the fourth for one hour on the set for a fee of $100,000 )...

What a crazy movie it would have been!

The project never passed the stage of conception, but this adventure triggered many ideas @ Holywood, and some bits and parts of this derelict planet can be still be found here and there for those who know where to look at...

Star wars
( Dan O'Bannon worked on effects of episode IV )

Empire strikes back's Sarlacc pit

Space slug

and Jabba the Hutt ( remains of Leto Atreides II the God emperor of Dune )

H.R. Giger: Alien got contacted after Dune to work on Alien, and the Planet harkonnen became the famous Planet LV-426

MOEBIUS:
the Long tomorrow ( wrote by Dan O'Bannon)

The Incal ( wrote by Alejandro Jodorowsky, his own version of Dune's roots an mythos )

hope that the next movie planned for 2010 and directed by Peter Berg ( yes , a new DUNE! ) will live up to our expectations :)

And while we are at it, here's my own little tribute to the Dune Universe ;)

2009/03/01

| The true master of the force..

Jean-Claude Mezieres is a french comic strip artist. Most of people outside of France dont know him.. But when i was kid i remember reading his Valerian and Laureline adventures and later on, when starwars went out, i had like a "deja-vu" feel...
Well, truth is Mezieres was THE inspiration for the famous series and still is, but master Lucas refuses to recognize the facts.. ( i still like his work no matter what)
Im just spreading the word, like many of other Mezieres fans did bfore me... but ill just let the picts speak for themselves...
left: the starwars series(1977/2002) right: Valerian and laureline adventures (1969/1974)

"Dazzled, jealous... and furious!" (from his own words) He produced this illustration for Pilote magazine in 1983 :

2009/02/12

follow the starwatcher...

One of my early big influences Is Jean Giraud most know under his two artist names: GIR, and MOEBIUS
His work is a stepping stone in the european comics industry, his style and visions are truely inspiring.
His work extends also to the movie industry, the process of using illustrators for the concept stage of the production started with him on Alexandro Jodorovsky's Dune , Alien and TRON
One of his most known and aenigmatic characters is Arzach and is the theme i choosed to make my own little tribute to the master.

2009/02/09

|Space.... the final frontier

| To infinity and beyond...

Ive been collecting pictures around the web for almost one decade ( maybe more) Those picts are my number one inspirations when i start an new
illustration.What id like to do here is to share
those sources and give you an insight of my own little inner derelict planet ;)

So here we go with a first moodboard... about spaceships! Even if i never made one picture with a space ship as central theme( i sure will one day) The good old SciFi themes are the ones i like to dive into from time to time..
here are some masters that inspires me:

Bob Eggleton