Need to start off with a couple of thank yous this week: first to Tony Johnson, for taking on some of the coloring chores for this week and next. With his own business, two kids and another on the way, and his own creative visions, he has no time to be wasting on somebody elseΓÇÖs web comic, but does it anyway. ThatΓÇÖs a pal. And then thereΓÇÖs Sam Gafford, one of LIMΓÇÖs earliest readers but whom I have never met, who took some pictures of St. JohnΓÇÖs for me to use as reference on this weekΓÇÖs strip. Sure, he was already in Providence for other reasons, but he didnΓÇÖt have to go out of his way to take pictures for a web comic. I appreciate that.

Over to the left is a button saying TWC, and if you click on it, you vote for LIM on Top Web Comics. Readership is growing, and getting noticed on the various web comic ranking site will help bring the strip to the attention of those who haven’t discovered us yet.

I was going to save the LIM animated series stuff for later, but I never got around to scanning the books for the post I had planned. So, here we go….

The origins of ΓÇÿLovecraft is MissingΓÇÖ animated series is detailed on the About page, so IΓÇÖll just recap here. In 1997, Film RomanΓÇÖs then-Creative Exec, Ralph Sanchez, took an option on my LIM pitch. Guy Vasilovitch was the art director. The overall storyline was similar to the story I am telling here in the comic book, but since a series is basically about treading water, there were many more side trips to stretch the story out.

As happens with creative people, there were differences of opinion, and there were a few false starts on the art side, but here is what I have in my files. (I donΓÇÖt know who the artists were, but the images, unless noted differently, are all copyright 1997 by Film Roman Productions.):

This is the cover of the pitch bible, and is a composite of two other pieces. I wasnΓÇÖt crazy about the characters, and the mood seemed more reminiscent of a 1940s hard-boiled thriller, but it was the best stuff we had at the time we needed to print the book. DonΓÇÖt get me wrong, itΓÇÖs good art, just not what I had in mind.

We had the most trouble with Nan. I had an image of her, but the powers that be wanted her smarter, sexier, thus the glasses and hair. Win looks like a private investigator.

HereΓÇÖs another pass at Nan.

And my pass (Copyright 1997 by Larry Latham)

And this is the one they decided to go with for the interior of the development pitch.

In 2006, I dusted the property off, and updated Nan (copyright 2006 by Larry Latham)

Win like wise went through various versions. This one, while a good drawing, totally missed the point.

My drawing is pretty close to what IΓÇÖm using now.(Copyright 1997 by Larry Latham)

But for the pitch, they made him a bit beefier.

Again, in 2006, I updated the pitch, and Win looked like this(Copyright 2006 by Larry Latham)

Backgrounds were an issue for me. The city scenes below are too wide, too expansive, and to me, they donΓÇÖt look like Boston. For the Lovecraftian sites, they tended to be more Gothic, like something out of one of the Corman Poe pictures.

Film Roman and I went our separate ways, but they still had the option and did further work for a year before it all reverted back tome. Most of which IΓÇÖve only become aware of recently. Mike Kaluta did some presentation pieces which IΓÇÖve never seen. And a couple of years ago, Howard Chaykin sent me this xerox of a French artist who did some work and included his drawings in a collection of his work.

This last is very cool stuff and I wish I could remember the artist’s name. I’ll try to find it out.

Anyway, looking back on it, I’m glad the series didn’t go. It would have been one compromise after another. With the web comic, I can do what I want, and take the consequences. But if the web comic gets a big enough readership and somebody wants to take it back to animation…well, I’m willing to talk.