About Az-Dar

: Behind the Mayhem

Welcome to a behind-the-scenes look at the comic that changed the face of crappy paleontology-based comics everywhere! I had a lot of unused Az-Dar drawings laying around, so I figured I'd feature them here, along with some other backstage information.
--Matt

These characters, which I think I drew in the terminal of LAX, came about when I was bored waiting for my plane and decided it would be a good idea to revive Az-Dar with a new look. Basically this is an adaptation of the characters into the Pinfall style. In fact, I later used this version Blaze in the wrestling comics. He was obviously meant for Az-Dar - just check out his zookeeper ID badge. This comic would have followed the originals. Basically, the wacky antics of Az-Dar and his friends in the Triassic Zoo. Ultimately I didn't have enough patience or time to draw two Pinfall-like comics, so I created the current style a few months later. Oh, and there was going to be a running joke with Dave the sinornithosaur constantly getting run over by trucks, the way his namesake fossil looks. See one version of this concept among the lost episodes below.

The cast of Az-Dar so far, all lined up. I'll have to add guest stars like MistyCloud the Raptoric chick, the Iraqi guy, and Buffy.

Ted is the first guy I drew, on the fly, and his look basically dictated the others. They ended up looking kind of like simple flash or vector art, which nicely sets them apart from my other comics. Ted is sort of the sarcastic straight man of the group.

I should mention that the intent of this new Az-Dar was that the whole thing basically took place On-Line. It's hard to see in the finished product, but these people were supposed to be interacting with each other online, and then sort of surreally giving pictorial life to the situations. That, or you can view it as just a really weird surreal physical situations. Or it all takes place inside the loading area of the Matrix.

Marlow is the obligatory female of the group, always a low percentage among paleo fans. She's also the one that rather masochistically hangs around furry sites and criticizes their art, so she undoubtedly gets the most amusement out of her hobby.

The Ed is the sidekick and the progenitor of all the surreal goings on. When paleo news breaks, he lets everyone know, and that news often manifests itself into reality, which baffles others, but Ed just takes it with a sly grin.

Az-Dar is obviously the title character, a pterosaur constantly put upon by millions of competing theories threatening to alter his physical presence in unspeakably horrific ways.

Mickey the smartass Microraptor is just that. His presence is largely pointless, other than to make sarcastic remarks, pop culture references, and to generally fill space. It should be noted that there are TWO Buffy references in the comic so far. Buffy herself faces Peters in one issue, while Mickey does his impression of the "Mutant Enemy" logo in another. Grr, argh.

Jamie Headden is the voice of reason and vengeance among the other real-life characters in the comic. Well, he only appears in one, and makes a cameo presenting his oviraptorid paper in another. But that one is bitching out Pickering, so it's all good.

Stephen Pickering... speaks for himself really. I don't think I've quite captured the erudition of his online pattern of speaking, but it's pretty close.

Dave Peters, the pterosaur researcher. Likes to use his computer to find impossibly extravagant soft tissue impressions and impressions of baby pterosaurs in fossil slabs.

John Conway is a master of vector art, but more importantly in the context of the comic, an online champion of new hypotheses regarding pterosaur wing structure. Has been known to have X-treme Snidely Whiplash disguises photoshoped onto him. May or may not actually be involved in the production of TLC's "Extreme Makeover"

Still to come: Old, never produced Az-Dar comics! More Blaze! More Mickey! More Dave! Plus Az and that Citipati character duke it out in the Matrix!

MORE TO COME! Back to Main