The Leaf Timeline: 2005-2009
It Takes Two.
SDCC in 2005 was an interesting experience, not because it allowed us to publish the Leaf, but because it allowed Brad and I to dream of publishing the character again. Backing up the Leaf was over 200 characters and concept sketches that I drew, a few drawn by Brad, and many were scrawled away on note book pages, a lot on typing paper, and a few on the back of napkins.
Ideas don't come in a book...
Many of the characters I have created or thought of seem to have come in a vacuum. Almost as if I need an isolation chamber to focus my creative energy. I have been accused by many a girl friend of carrying the burden of unfocused thoughts. Its a skill I need to train and the best places that help me focus are in the shower, a long car ride, or in a darkroom. A daydream is as good as a thought. Sometimes the lines blur between the two, but the end results are formulative ideas.
The Leaf and Michael's back story was born from those environments. Watching World War 2 movies created the stage for Michael's grandfather, Walter Robert MacSorly. He's a classic Canadian Mountie figure snatched up from the RCMP services and enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1939. He soon exhibited skills and traits that made him a hero to his fellow soldiers --- a symbol of his unit. Walter was taken from room to room and tested until the Canadian Army couldn't find a single flaw in the square chinned ---he was the perfect Leaf.
Winston Churchill needed heroes. The war was going badly on all fronts and the Germans were sweeping across Europe. The desperation of all things in war, especially the onslaught that the British Empire had endured: combat, isolation, death, heroism, these made Walter.
I couldn't resist putting that hero in every terrible spot the British fell into during the war. His character seemed to thrive when all was hopeless. It fed his personality to do the right thing and to strive for freedom. I modeled the classic British uniform and added a red maple leaf on the pancake helmet. A well known artist was asked to draw the hero for the first time in 2007. He couldn't push himself to add the symbols of Canada to the uniform. He didn't buy into the Leaf as a character in WW2. So I searched for another artist. It would take three more years before I found Stuart Berryhill. Stu's love for history and WW2 allowed him to instantly bond with Walter. I remember getting the first penciled pages and thinking, "...here we go again!" But what I found was a big-chinned hero with the symbols of Canada etched on his uniform. Stu had grasped the concept spilling it onto every panel and adding emotion to Walter's facial expressions. I had found THE artist. Two stories later and two awesome pin-ups, Walter MacSorly is Canada's first true hero, or as we say on the cover of the comic "Canada's Greatest Hero!" for the ages.
All things WW2 that I enjoy I share with a dear friend and fellow writer, C.L. Werner.
C.L. is an accomplished novelist, ten if my current count is correct, and he helped guide me during this period when I was learning how to craft stories. When I felt Walter should do this, he twisted the hook and added that. He's a true genius when it comes to delivering drama and adding tension to a scene. His Warhammer novels are filled with grit and grime, the underbelly of society. I learned to put Walter through similar circumstances to strengthen his character and solidify his personality.
C.L. and I developed several ideas and concepts. The best I believe, and most fertile, is the IMPERIALS. The Allies never had it so easy when delivering these heroes to battlefields in every theater of war. C.L. brought enthusiastic energy and dynamic concepts to the team "From very corner of the British Empire" he would always say. The Leaf needed to grow and inserting him in the IMPERIALS added a new dimension to Canada's war hero and living legend.
Every year during this period, I would race down to Artists Alley at SDCC and commission Sergio Carellio to draw an IMPERIAL. Uberman, Dune, the Mystic Ghurka (twice), and others. Sergio helped define the written concepts crafting them in ink.
Next...
Mark F Davis and Surprising Comics.
