Author Archive: Jules Rivera
I am the author of the webcomic Valkyrie Squadron (http://www.valkyriesquadron.com) and artist for webcomic Hard Graft (http://hard-graft.net)
Buy #30! – Valkyrie Squadron: Book 1 by Jules Rivera
Valkyrie Squadron follows a crew of four young women part of an alliance with all of humanity to fight a war against the drones in space. The drones have been attacking innocent colonists for reasons unknown to the Alliance. The story opens on the Valkyries during a routine rescue mission that takes a very strange turn. Collects Prologue and Chapter 1 of the webcomic.
Story and art by Jules Rivera, 52 Pages, Full color
Price: $7.50
BUY HERE!
Character 3 – Ren Razorblade
Following up on the storyline of Atlanton (working title), the oceanic hero who stumbles upon 7500 kilos of cocaine in the ocean, this is Ren Razorblade.
Ren is a member of the hacker organization “Have a Nice Day” who has recently declared war on the drug cartel responsible for losing the 7500 kilos of cocaine in the ocean. Elliot, the story protagonist, implores the organization for help, as the enemy of his enemy is his friend. Ren agrees to work with him after he shows her his super suit.
Ren herself is a no-nonsense punk with little faith in the system and maybe a little too much faith in her own abilities. Where Elliot is absolutely terrified of his situation, Ren fears nothing. However, when dealing with enemies as dangerous as she does, a little fear can keep you alive.
Character 2 – Rodrigo the Were-Chupacabra
Supernatural romance seems to be all the rage these days, especially with teenagers (or teenagers at heart) who either love sparkly vampires or slutty vampires or slutty Anna Paquin. For me, this is good news because this means an opportunistic vulture like me can try to cash in on the craze because I love money. I love money.
Rodrigo is a dreamy, sexy Latin lover man who works as a farm hand in the hot, sweaty swamps of Florida. In said swamps while working hard on the farm, he often takes his shirt off, baring his glistening muscles in the sun for any and all to see. Did I mention he was sexy? He’s sexy. Ladies. Rodrigo, however, harbors a terrible secret…by the light of the moon, he turns from a large, beefy man with rippling abs and flowing waves of hair to a hideous creature! Half man! Half CHUPACABRA! (goat-sucker for uninitiated). Did I say he was hideous? I lied. He just grows a couple of silly ears, his eyes go black, and he gets fangs. He’s otherwise just as hot and foxy. Ladies.
[Side note: Google image search isn’t all that helpful when finding a Chupacabra for reference. These things can look like anything from a fangy tarsiers to a bug thing. So, he’s a half-chupacabra. Just go with it!]
Anyway, being a farm hand around livestock all day is tremendous temptation for Rodrigo, a poor, Latin immigrant who sweats shirtlessly through the day. Did I mention he was sexy? Things become more complicated when a young goat-herding woman on the farm (or man, depending on what you people are into) finds herself falling for Rodrigo and his sweaty, Latin sexiness.
Golden ideas, people. I take Paypal, and Square payments.
Character 1 – Atlanton
Let’s start off by saying making an aquatic-themed hero is a challenge. Most aquatic heroes are considered pretty lame by the comics-reading community for a number of reasons: their super powers aren’t so “super.” Few cape stories take place under water. They have silly costumes (when they wear any at all). They’re just not relevant. Yes, most aquatic-themed superheroes get no respect, but I had a recent bout of inspiration that may change that.Â
Elliot Vargas is a young college student who lives in San Diego, CA and studies physics and astronomy. One the young man stumbles upon a suit of armor of what appears to be alien origins that he finds while stargazing in the middle of the desert. He dons the suit which quickly sticks to his body and compels him to go to the water. Elliot begins using the suit to explore the depths, and while this all seems fun at first, the magical undersea journey comes to a crashing halt when Elliot discovers a mysterious submarine in the waters not far outside of San Diego bay. The submarine is revealed to contain 7,500 kilos of pure, uncut cocaine.
If we could have a thought bubble coming off him right now, it’d probably read “Holy f*cking sh*t!”
Elliot anonymously notifies the authorities of the monstrous find, but he soon finds himself being pursued by drug cartel killers and government agents interested in the suit. Elliot’s life ultimately becomes a complicated mess of running, juggling school, and being compelled to go back to the water night after night by the suit.
2011 Challenger: Jules Rivera
My name is Jules Rivera and this my second year tackling the 30 Characters Challenge. I am a webcomic artist responsible for writing/drawing comics Valkyrie Squadron and previously Marsh Rocket. I am also taking up artist duties on Hard Graft in the near future. As far as published comics goes, I am credited with color assists on Joe Mulvey’s SCAM.
My intent with this year’s challenge is to develop my character reportoire in new, different directions with a focus on character design on production (i.e. turnaround sheets). I’ve always meant to expand my portfolio and I feel that this challenge helps me to accomplish that.
I met a few cool challengers from last year and I look forward to meeting even more new people this year. Good luck everyone!
BONUS! #31 The Android – Net Avatar
Okay, I was pretty sure I was done with this, but I had one more killer ass idea…
Got the inspiration for this after trolling the TV Tropes archives and coming across the lovely article about Humanoid Abominations (Wow, I’m twisted). He’s not technically a new character, but I figured since the firefly and the master AI have incarnations that only appear on the droids’ network, it’s only appropriate our old buddy, the Android, have the same thing going for him.
So if you’re floating around the droid world’s computer network, this is what the Android looks like. Feel free to run in terror when you see him.
#30 The Master AI
The Master AI is the leader of the droids. This is its form as it would appear to other droid intelligence on the droid network. No one, not even the droids, know its true physical form.
#29 The Android
In the Valkyrie universe, seeing an android is a lot like seeing a coelacanth or a dodo bird. Put simply, it shouldn’t exist. Humans themselves ceased production of androids nearly a century earlier and the droids themselves have no interest in perpetuating machines that look like their enemies. Since the droids have begun to manufacture themselves, android bodies were broken down to supply making other types of droids, and their consciousness downloaded to other models.
But this…well…thing was spotted recently in deep space and the humans don’t know what the hell to make of him.
#28 Tarantula
Ah, high octane nightmare fuel. Here we go.
To call this thing a droid is somewhat of a misnomer because it’s not necessarily a discrete inorganic organism so much as a fortress with legs. Standing at about 30 feet tall, seeing one of these on the field is enough to make any Valkyrie or Odin weak in the knees. It’s nigh invulnerable to traditional weapons, has enough turrets on its sides to rival any battleship, has anti-air defense missles and can house a number of droids inside, such as Spiders, Scorpions, or even a few Dragonflies.
Really, only heavy duty bombs are the main course of neutralizing this thing.
#27 Hornet Droid
For this particular droid, I drew inspiration from Item #1 in this little slice of nightmare fuel, the Giant Japanese Hornet. I needed a droid that was bigger than a dragonfly, but not too big. So, the resultant is the Hornet.
The Hornet is bigger and more heavily armed than a dragonfly and designed to be a fear factor like the scorpion. While not quite as agile as the dragonfly, the Hornet is rarely used to engage fighters. Much more often, these guys are used as bombers, laying waste to anything below it.
#26 Dragonfly Droid
The Dragonfly is an airborne combat model droid. It measures about the same size as a fighter jet and has the maneuverablility to match. In fact, it’s their agility that makes them so dangerous to the human fleet, often outflying and outgunning human ships whenever they’re sighted. The one thing they can’t match the human jets for is top speed, so the main tactic when dragonflies are sighted? RUN.
#25 Scorpion Droid
When the droids redesigned themselves into new bodies during the droid wars, human psychology played a significant role in the resulting form. The machines didn’t want a form that just functioned, they wanted a form that would be intimidating, decimating their human enemies emotionally before anyone ever pulled a trigger.
A 14-foot long metal scorpion does that quite nicely.
Beyond the form, though, the Scorpio is a combat droid that is equipped with shield generators and a mean set of claws. It has no projectile payload simply because the machines felt the maneuverability, efficient stabbing weaponry, and sheer fear factor made it an effective enough ground combat droid.
The machines don’t like to waste resources, like extra guns, if they don’t have to.
#24 Mosquito Droid
The mosquito is a surveillance droid. It only measures about 1 ft tall, but these little guys are capable of sensing many different kinds of radio waves, light waves, infrared, ultra violet light, and even EMF imaging.
#23 Spider Droid
The spider droid is the foot soldier of the droid world. They are fairly easy to manufacture, so the underground factories put them out in droves. Their combat capabilities are somewhat limited, but it’s their mass numbers that is their greatest strength. An entire field of these coming at you looks a lot more intimidating than just one (they only stand about 18 inches tall).
The funny thing though is that even though are dedicated to field combat, thought and reasoning is not beyond them. What roboticist wouldn’t kill to know what these little guys are thinking…
#22 Mel aka Firefly Droid
And now things are going to get interesting. The next few characters are going to be droid models.
This is Mel. Mel is an AI that primarily lives on “the net,” that connects all droids.  Its particular model is called “Firefly” as its primary function is to “enlighten.”
What, you didn’t think droids had a sense of humor?
In seriousness, the firefly model of droid is mostly AI. It serves little to no combat purpose. They are responsible for maintaining code, monitoring the functions of the droid plants, and providing reprogramming to any errant droids. They’re definitely the “thinkers” of the droid world.
Mel, in particular, has the very specific purpose of indoctrinating other droids with instructions, training programs, and the like. While the machines primarily call it by its serial number TXN750018, it goes by Mel to better serve the purposes of its job function.
After all, Mel doesn’t just indoctrinate droids.
#21 The Maintenance Worker
There are many maintenance workers on Valhalla station, but this one is special. He weaves in and out of people’s notice, calmly cleaning or fixing things on the station, but keep your eye on him. Keep your eye on him.
#20 Admiral “Slade” Chavez
I love Battlestar Galactica (new series, not the disco glitter catastrophe from the 70’s). Let’s get that out of the way. I love Battlestar Galactica and it should be no secret that it was a major influence on me in developing Valkyrie Squadron. There’s a lot to love about the show: intense writing, amazing performances, really hard-hitting themes, sweet ass battles; but for all there is to love about BSG, there were parts of that show I didn’t love.
Namely, the familial DRAMAAAAA. From the get-go, we find Commander Adama and his pansy crybaby son, Lee, entwined in some serious DRAAMAAAA following the death of Lee’s brother and the Commander’s Son, Zak. Now, don’t get me wrong. Deaths in the family can fragment the whole crew, but their griping was just OVER THE TOP. Everything AND I MEAN EVERYTHING was a big blowout, usually ending with Lee storming off in a huff and the commander gritting his teeth. It bordered hilarity and merits parody.
So here we are.
Admiral Chavez is the commander of the space forces overall, his power trumps even that of Commander Duri, highest ranking officer on Valhalla station. He is a “good ol’ boy” and macho almost to a fault. He sets the standard for hard-nosed leadership in the upper echelons of the United Space Forces. He’s an aging meathead. He’s basically Lt. Leon Zantha plus 30 years.
Speaking of Zantha, Chavez hand-picked him to make a man out of his “sissy boy” son, Aidan, by assigning his son to Odin Squadron 4. He doesn’t get along with his son at all, because the Admiral would love nothing more than to have his son follow in his footsteps and that’s not likely to happen. We’ve already established Aidan is a cowardly drama queen, not exactly military bad ass material. What’s so frustrating to the admiral is that his ongoing battle with his son is the one battle he can’t settle with a sidearm.
Damn sensitive sissy boys.
You’ll notice the Admiral has a prosthetic eye. Officially, he lost his eye in a key victory against the droids ten years prior, though unofficially, the injury might’ve had more to do with this…
For the record, CMO Bastion does not approve of playing with fireworks while drunk.
#19 Reverend Celia Dalton
Reverend Dalton is the head of the Valhalla station chapel. She tries her best to keep up faith and warmth in times of war and inspire parishioners but her job is an uphill battle. The chapel itself is actually a converted storage compartment that makes a funny crackling sound near the crucifix and in times of war, much of her time is spent consoling victims of tragedy.
Not the most cheerful gig, but it’s a necessary one.
#18 Dr. Astrid Lotus
Oh, my. Did I let my Famke Jaansen girl-crush seep into my character design? Cut me some slack, guys. It’s not like I’m without purpose here.
Dr. Astrid Lotus, unlike Dr. Artimedes, is a psychiatrist/counselor on Valhalla Station who doesn’t suck at her job. On the contrary, she’s quite good at what she does. Dr. Lotus is a kind, compassionate woman who takes the time to help her patients work through their issues, no matter how long it takes, no matter how many hard questions need to be asked, no matter how much information needs to be shared. She is much less likely to go doling out prescriptions just to get you out of her office so she can go on her next coffee break. No, Dr. Lotus wants to know all you have to share.
That she’s so good at her job makes her an even bigger puzzle to the people around her than Dr. Artimedes. What makes this woman so devoted to her job? It isn’t the money, that’s for sure. And the clientele is especially difficult. So why does she do what she does so well? Most people on Valhalla think it’s because she simply has that much passion for her work.
Or at least that’s what they hope.
#17 Dr. Mina Artimedes
I’m going to preface Dr. Artimedes’ design by saying that the most useless character in the main cast of Star Trek TNG was Counselor Troi. For the majority of episodes, she would just sit there in the beginning, the bad guy would spout some garble over the bridge screen and she would respond with “I sense uncertainty.” And that was pretty much her function. She would just go around and “sense” uncertainty, or deception or fear (stuff most aliens feel when dealing with one another ANYWAY) and report as such to the Captain. Why couldn’t Enterprise not afford a REAL TELEPATH in their ranks, which would’ve been far more useful than just sensing people’s feelings? Even Wesley Crusher, God damn his miserable being to the anus of Borg space, got more shit done more than Troi.
But I digress.
For Valkyrie Squadron, I wanted to design a counselor who was also useless, but in a more dangerous way. Now, your question would be “why would Valhalla station, for all its power and might, hire a useless counselor?” but the answer is simple: They have to settle for what they can get. For an engineer or scientist, Valhalla is a badge of honor and to work there can be a huge boost to one’s career. Not so with psychiatrists. In this future, very few psychiatrists want to give up their cushy lives wherever they are to counsel a bunch of folks gone murderously space mad or with PTSD. So, whenever Valhalla station does find someone willing to take the gig, they are eternally grateful.
And Dr. Artimedes knows this.
Dr. Artimedes is not someone you go to if you want any actual counseling done in your life. Her MO is to listen for key words in conversation, like “sad” or “anxious,” and prescribe medications accordingly. That’s it. She’s basically a drug dealer with a couch. It’s not entirely clear why Artimedes takes such a simplistic approach to her treatment. Is she lazy? Is she a total cynic about her profession? Is she secretly trying to drug up all of Valhalla to take it over? Nobody knows for sure, but very few people question her methods. After all, she’s a pretty good source to score some Xanax, so why screw up a good thing?
Why, indeed.
#16 Medical Officer Ana Bastion
Ana Bastion is the highest ranking medical officer working the swing shift in sick bay. A 30 year veteran of the medical field, she’s seen it all, but she doesn’t come off as jaded (much). Instead, she has a warm sense of humor that helps her patients along in their healing.
For those of you wondering, yes, this character is very heavily inspired by my mom. She’s earned her stripes, trust me.
#15 Katrina Killian
Not every technical professional at Valhalla station is a third party intellectual mercenary. Some are employed directly by the station, such as roboticist Katrina Killian. Katrina not only specializes in understanding the function and intelligence of the droids, but also their psychology. In a small way, she finds herself identifying with her subjects, appreciating their design and unique ability to humans, but this is not something she’d easily speak of. Being the wife of the station’s second-in-commandLt. Cmdr. Killian, the only opinion she’s allowed to have of droids is that the only good one is a dead one.
And somehow, she’s not totally okay with that.
#14 “Professor Hipster”
“Professor Hipster” aka Preston is an failure analysis engineer working at Valhalla station, who works alongside Trey Zantha for third party defense firm, Aperture Tiburon. The nickname was coined by Zantha not so much to make fun of him (okay, he’s making fun of him a little), but more to point out the obvious. “Professor Hipster” is a hipster. And an engineer. In space. And much like chocolate-covered bacon he’s something that shouldn’t exist, but yet he does.
Preston himself is a nice, cheerful fellow. He’s very knowledgeable and always willing to help his fellow hipster man. He enjoys drinking horribly cheap beer and eating very questionable recipes (like chocolate-covered bacon) for irony’s sake. The man must have an iron constitution because for all his carousing, he never calls in sick. The only real reason anyone might take issue with him is his bizarre hipster fashion sense. And the chin beard.
Seriously, I dare you to go through a business meeting and NOT stare at that thing. It’s haunting.
Don’t stare at the chin beard.
#13 Trey Zantha
Behind every screaming meathead, there is an exasperated family member wondering how the hell they’re related to him.
Trey Zantha is Lt. Leon Zantha’s younger brother and a signals analysis engineer on Valhalla Station. In stark contrast to Leon, Trey is the skinny intellectual of the family, having a master’s in signals intelligence under his belt.
He’s the sort of guy who, at first glance, appears to have his life together. He’s smart, well-educated, knows how to dress himself, and has a good paying job. He’s the guy your mom points at when she spots you loafing on the couch and says “Why can’t you be more like him?” However, beneath the surface he’s actually quite an unlucky bastard, hence his position day 13.
His job is a depressing step downward from his previous experiences. His former employer used to have him writing signals intelligence algorithms for CIA technology, but due to gross mismanagement, the company shut its doors and left Trey broke and desperate. Now he’s reduced to looking at graphs and going “look, there’s a spike!” and noting as such. Furthermore, he’s got chronic health problems that seem to be getting worse and a personal relationship he’s trying to keep secret or else he’ll get fried by both his job AND his brother.
In spite of all that, there are people who care. Even if he is a hard luck case beneath the surface, he’s still got family.
Awwww.
#12 Squadron Leader Leon Zantha
Leon is the Odin Squadron 4 leader and the male counterpart to Priss (although spiritually, he’s more like the male Casey). He’s your quintessential meat head. Whether it’s going all out in a battle, hitting the bars, hitting on girls, or eating a really big steak, Leon is all about it. To call him a jock is an understatement.
As far as assets goes, he’s a very enthusiastic fighter and he’ll always have his bros’ backs. However, he’s not too bright and has all the social graces to fill a thimble. His track record with women seems to be much better in his head than in reality because he has an incredible knack for aggravating most women he meets. And even to the people he cares about the most, he can be highly overprotective. He has good intentions that usually seem to go awry.
Overall, Leon isn’t a bad guy. He’s just kind of a gorilla.
#11 Special Lt. Avi Ben-Aron
To anyone familiar with my previous work, it was only a matter of time before a guy like this showed up. Avi is a special ops guy on loan to Odin Squadron 4. Originally trained with the Israeli Anti-Droid Tactical Forces, Avi has a great deal of experience and tenacity behind him. He is currently assigned to Odin 4 to share his training and experience with the rest of his team and so far he has proven to be a great asset.
Just don’t ask him if he knows any jokes. The answer is no.
As a side note, his armor is designed to be stealth armor. The red lights on his armor are meant to confuse the droids, as red light panels are common on their own apparatus.
Appropriately, the most badass member of Odin Squadron 4 gets published on Veteran’s Day. I didn’t plan it that way, but it’s pretty apropos. Happy Veteran’s Day!
#10 Lt. Theron Jones
The pilot for Odin Squadron 4, Theron is a solid pilot with a solid flight record. In stark contrast to the Valkyrie’s Lt. Gomez, Theron is not an outright daredevil. He relishes the thrill of flying, but he also likes staying alive after doing so. He’s often serves as the voice of reason when his teammates want to go off and kill something without a plan or just cry in the corner.
Poor Theron. He’s surrounded by lunatics.
#9 Ensign “BooBoo” Chavez
And now for the male fighters of Valkyrie. Oddly, we start with the least manliest of the Odin Squadron 4, the male answer to the female Valkyries: Booboo Chavez.
Like Adia, Booboo is the resident science officer of his team, though he’s more of a signals engineer than an academic researcher. He is given his silly nickname for his rather melodramatic antics. He usually gets into flagrant fights with his father, a high-ranking officer at another space station, and nine times out of ten, he’s the guy on the team who’d throw up his hands in a combat situation and shout “We’re gonna die!” Yeah, he’s that guy.
He really wouldn’t even be in any Odin squadron if it wasn’t for his father, <a href=”http://www.30characters.com/2010/11/20/20-admiral-slade-chavez/”>Admiral Chavez</a>, the leader of the entire Space Forces. Booboo doesn’t get along with his father, who would love nothing more than to transform him into a military badass and make him follow in his footsteps. Booboo would rather be ANYWHERE but a battlefield, but he can’t seem to escape the stranglehold influence of his father. He was paired with his fellow Odin squad team members to man him up, but he’s pretty resistant to the idea if only to spite his old man.
#8 Lt. Cmdr. Finn Killian
Okay, so technically the character Finn Killian is actually an homage to the character Alec Killian from Titanium Rain, but he’s also an homage to my good pal Josh Finney who is famous for screaming and ranting quite a lot about anything and everything.
What can I say? I cast my stories according to personality.
Lt. Commander Killian is the right-hand man to Commander Mona Duri. He takes great pleasure in dressing down lower-ranking recruits, particularly if they say something stupid. In fact, the only subordinate who seems to be able to get away with murder under him is Ensign Anders (this might be due to a somewhat misguided crush, though this hasn’t been confirmed). Killian definitely has no problems calling people out on their failings, but this goes for superiors as well. He really, really, really sucks at playing nice for political purposes. Needless to say, his military career isn’t going to go very far.
I’m so going to enjoy drawing this man shouting.
#7 Commander Mona Duri
To say Commander Duri is a woman not to be trifled with is an understatement. Commander Duri is a fierce woman who takes very little guff from anyone. Serving as the space station site lead, Commander Duri is the one in charge of overseeing military operations. While she never wavers in her heavy-handedness, there are some rumblings around the station that her loyalty may be a different story.
#6 Eve Schuzengel
Eve is a sweet girl who finds herself caught in the droid conflict. A simple contractor for the forsaken colony, Addison-Prestwick, Eve begins our story being held hostage by the droids. When Eve finally makes her way to the arms of safety, she finds that there were greater implications to her robotic hostage crisis than just dehydration.
#30Characters Chatter…