The concept - What is this ?
Published Wednesday, July 06, 2016
"Dragon Cat's Galaxia 1/2". You will agree, this name does not mean anything.
For you maybe. But for me it evokes a lot of things. =)
Long summer afternoons spent drawing on the same table as my sis. Sunny Easter weekends at my grandmother's home where we exchanged ideas and drawings with my aunt and my cousin...
A heavenly childhood and adolescence in short.
Concretely, what is this thing?
It's a comic ! =D
A big crossover with Star Wars and many mangas from my childhood.
The concept is very simple : "Vader is about to invade the Earth! How, Son goku, Seiya, Sailor Moon and their friends will they stop him? "
I want to point out that there was nothing to smoke but grass at my parents' house.
Official supplier: mum lawn mower.
Dragon Cat's Galaxia 1/2 1.0
Why "1.0" ?
At the moment, this project is available in 4 versions, the first version (1.0) which was then just called "Dragon Cat's Galaxia 1/2". And it's already long enough.
The concept idea came to me on a summer afternoon in 1998. I was young, Google did not exist yet and Zidane gave head shots in soccer balls.
Initially, I was just thinking of mixing Star Wars and Dragon Ball. I proposed the idea to my sister to start a small collaboration. "I don't mind, but we also add Sailor Moon, Cat's Eye and Ranma 1/2". Well, OK, we do like that. (Note : We added Saint Seiya later.)
It's all well and good, but we need a title.
A title that evokes Star Wars and all involved mangas.
We have to use the words "Dragon" for Dragon Ball and "Cat's" for Cat's Eye. "Dragon Cat's" sounds well, but Star Wars, Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2 are missing. So that there are not too many words, we will use "Galaxia" for Star Wars and Sailor Moon (Galaxy, space object, Star Wars and there is Sailor Galaxia in Sailor Moon). Then, we put "1/2" at the end for Ranma 1/2.
There you go ! We have everything!Dragon Cat's Galaxia 1/2!
Dragon Cat's will be the shortname for conversations.
Thus, the very first logo was born. I loved the colors in rainbow at this time, so the logo looked like that.
1998
It has not changed that much for 15 years. Actually, it changed just in its technical realization.
2006 (first digital version with AppleWorks)
2010
2011
2013
The prototype
At the end of the year 1998 I gathered some references (buying some Star Wars comics and encyclopedia with starships references - I said Google didn't exist at this time - as far as my pocket money allowed me), and then I began to improvise and draw a prototype where Son Goku and Darth Vader fight with eachother.
Yeah !
To be honest, it was this type of geeky fantasy that pushed me to start this project.
I did not have all the elements to start the series but I was very impatient to have some pages that materialize this crossover. So, there it is.
/!\ The following reveals elements of the story (not for the squeamish).
To avoid some spoil you can read the prototype here or jump to the next paragraph. /!\
When I say that I improvised, that means that I did not write a single script line. All was in my mind.
It's just starting with Son Goku pacing the corridors of the Death Star, blaster in hand...
I know, he does not need it, but it's for folklore, he's here to "play" Star Wars (but not for long).
He is there for a secret mission, so secret that I myself had no idea of its nature. We don't care, we're not here for that. (FIIIIIIGHT !!!)
Son Goku moves from the blue section to the multi-color section (or vice versa, I don't know). Hey! Do you know why these sections are blue and multi-color?
I no longer had gray markers!
It's handy to improvise the scenario from page to page, it can be adapted to the state of my drawing tools.
So, Son Goku move from one section to another. And then, he comes face to face with Darth Vader.
No more playing Star Wars. Now it's Darth Vader who's playing Dragon Ball.
Wait a bit ! What can he do against a saiyan???
Now we can wonder what my parents or my grandmother might have poured into my glass of water...
The Phantom Menace didn't come out yet, so I imagined a background for Darth Vader on my own. Long time before Anakin Skywalker began his jedi training.
All right? Are you still following?
Ok! Now, fasten your seatbelts!
In this alternative universe, Anakin Skywalker come from... the Vegeta planet.
Yes! I imagined him as a saiyan!
I said not for the squeamish.
So! Darth Vader is a saiyan and even a super saiyan.
I know, it's not logical! He is blondhair and saiyans have all black hair. Perhaps he is the super mega giga saiyan from the legeeeeeennd!
Are you hot now?
So I'm going to deliver the coup de grace with some pictures!
Totally assumed wild idea.
This crazy prototype lasted until 2000 (I continued to draw it at same time that the series) and I made 55 pages. It ended abruptly just before the beginning of the final fight of this story (yes, there are several fights).
In 2000, so Star Wars, The Phantom Menace came out (October 1999 for ones who have memory like a fish) and Anakin Skywalker's childhood was revealed. So, to keep a consistent background I detailed my idea in my mind.
No father and brought up by a slave on a godforsaken planet? Perfect!
Son Goku at the end of Dragon Ball should be approximately as old as Darth Vader. So, I imagined that just after their birth they were in the same place and developped the same relationship as Son Goku and Broly. Whereas Son Goku was send to Earth, at the same time, Anakin is send too in the space to raze a planet that the saiyans want to sell later. Bad luck, the navigational equipment broke down and send him on a planet without moon, Tatooine. Shmi Skywalker take in and brought up the baby and cut his monkey tail to avoid to draw attention.
Darth Vader will discover his true potential power after meeting Son Goku.
Et voilà ! Easy!
The series
Early 1999 (january or february, don't remember exactly), we had all elements : references and a script idea... But nothing written on any paper, as usual.
The hardest was to know how to begin the story : all the characters do they know eachother? How do they meet them eachother?...
The most logical is that all mangas characters know eachother. They come from the same planet, Earth (an alternative planet Earth in Dragon Ball). And during their fight against evil or extraterrestrials they probably met eachother.
On the contrary, the characters from Star Wars come from a galaxy far far away and they need a good reason to meet the other characters on Earth.
And it's raedy-made!
Georges Lucas created the greatest vilain of all time, the perfect scapegoat...
Darth Vader!
Vilains like to invade Earth for many reasons, so we have just to do it :
Send Darth Vader to conquer Earth.
Now, Luke Skywalker and his friends have a good reason to go to Earth and warn and help our favourite manga heroes.
Dragon Cat's Galaxia 1/2 2.0
There is something special with Dragon Cat's.
I had many fan comics idea. Many ! With Saint Seiya, Star Wars, Lodoss, The Last Air Bender, The Legend of Korra...
But Dragon Cat's is the only one which really motivate me.
So in 2006, I decided to work on it again. =D
A new story, more ambitions
This year, Zidane gave his last head shot, but not in a soccer ball this time and I get my driving license but we don't care all about that.
I had already the mania for making reboot of my comics. I'm an obsessive perfectionnist.
I wanted to do something better (at least for drawings), bigger and more frenzied. With my sister, we had the idea to put all our geek culture in this version (mangas, video games, movies... ).
We started with the same plot "Vader is about to invade the Earth! How, Son goku, Seiya,... blablabla" you know all about that. The difference is that the list of the heroes who fight against our favourite vilain is really really longer.
We wrote 2 chapters of this mess and drew one of them and it stopped here. Exams and other student stuff take all our time and find a consistent story with so many characters was difficult. The other problem is there are too many references. Most of reader can't follow all the story. Did someone understand the joke about the Cephiro's pillar? No? Go read Magic Knight Rayearth! What? You don't know Magic Knight Rayearth? 8D
First webcast
2006 is the year when ADSL technology came to my parents godforsaken place. It was magic! A new universe came to us.
So we decided to publish Dragon Cat's on Internet. We create a forum for that (it doesn't exist anymore).
Ok, a forum is not really the most consistent platform to publish a comic. My sister was used to administrate RPG forums and blogs disgusted her at this time.
No way about creating web site. I didn't know it will be my job one day. - "HTML ? What's that ?" - I was desgusted about programming because of some shitty programming classes with a shitty language during the preparatory class for high scientific school. (Maple, berk !)
I didn't keep any screenshot of this old forum. I was even not able to do this. I really had no idea I will become a software engineer.
Actually we keeped only the logo that my sister made with Appleworks (this softwar doesn't exist anymore).
The forum was quite active and frequented for a few months. It was only after a year that it was deleted. My friends, my sister and I had exams, I had no experience for forum administration and classes restarted in september, so, the forum come to death. I closed it at the end of 2006 or early 2007.
During 2007, I want to publish old pages of Dragon Cat's just for fun and to try to create a blog. Yeah, this time it's a blog. This blog is not active anymore but it is still online.
You can visit it here (Be carefull, it's a little agressive for eyes).
And start from august 2007, I didn't touch it anymore. I leave to study far from my childhood place in Strasbourg. I joined a engineer school and I have hard work to do. I played tabletop RPG and Magic the Gathering with my new friends.
No more Dragon Cat's.
Really ?
I think I underastimated the addictive nature of this... thing.
Dragon Cat's Galaxia 1/2 3.0
In 2010 I got all my degree and left the engineer school. I'm free to go, I have no job and nothing to do of my days.
One day while I tidyed up my room I found my Dragon Cat's old pages.
And I reread all of it...
FATAL ERROR!!!
A website
When I was in engineer school I started to learn to program... With true languages this time! And I started to like that! - "Shit! We trained a geek!" - Le Site du Zér0 (called OpenClassrooms now) became one of my favourite website to visit.
A saw there were good course about HTML, CSS, PHP et Javascript on this website. So, I decided to develop a website to publish Dragon Cat's on it.
It take a very long time to find a good way to do it and there it is! It is the website you are currently visiting. ^^
Dragon Cat's Galaxia 1/2 1.5
The 1.5 version is the 1.0 version with Photoshop corrections.
One of the website purposes is to republish the old versions and it is better if the pages are readable.
The hand made text was really terrible to read and I drew on both sides of the sheet, so the markers destroyed the drawing of the other side and the pages became unreadable. 8D
So, I used Photoshop to correct it.
On the left, an orginal page from 1999, on the right, the corrected version.
But the 1.5 version is only bonus content!
The main content is the 3.0 version, just new! =)
The 3.0 finally !
This version come back to the basics. It is a crossover mainly with Star Wars, Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2. Star Trek will do some appearance just to troll most radical Star Wars fans trekkies.
I plan some other cameo appearences for one chapter or one cycle. Yeah, I'm ambitious, as usual. I'll never change.
Like the 2.0 version, I want this one to be better than the previous ones. Did I say that I'll never change?
The plot is the same. Never change a winning team. =p "Vader is about to invade the Earth..." *TUMPFF* It's ok, we know all about that now!
The story will gradually move to a frenzied SciFi adventure with multiverse, time travel and some sticky extraterrestrials...
Graphics will change too to a retro future design.
The Dragon Cat's purpose is to enrich my favourites universes with a new personnal mythology and show you how I draw and how I tell stories.
I hope it will tempt you to discover my full original universes for other comic projects. ^^
Now a comic wait for you just here. Go! Have a good reading. ^^