REVELATIONS: The secret past of The Eight

[Steve Requin]

You know, The Eight, the storylines and the characters isn't something we pulled out of nowhere, just like that. There's a long history that lead to the creation of The Eight, an history that goes way back to 1996.

Back then, I was publishing a fanzine named Requin Roll, for which I made this 3-pages one-shot, story and art:











My unnamed vampiress became very popular very fast, and I began receiving requests for a sequel. Unfortunately, back then, I was rarely making series, only one-shots. For, you see, the fact that she was a vampire was the punchline here. I had no plans for making stories starring a character already established as a vampire. Hence, despite the many demands, I never did more than a few random pics and pin ups with her:



A few months later, I came up with the idea of a Vampire Hunter, Patrick O'Bennett A.K.A. Eau Bénite. That's a story I'll give you later. Mazoku-chan too, will talk about how she took some of the characters she created before she even met me, and made them Jason's gang. We'll also show you some of the early The Eight sketches.

[Akyho]

looks sort of how the characters of mine get created and continue to be molded just they never get any further than thoughts or online rpg sites. i did do a story for school with a character by the name of my username (which i have created typ it in google you will find all my forums dealings and stuff) but when i write stories and essays and that and read over them they look aboslutly perfect i get it back a week or a month later and the teacher may mark points or may not but i read it and say "did i realy write this what the hell was i thinking this is terrible" its as if some one els writes it while on drugs.

so my point is you may just create a character for a few minutes but they can stick for many many years.

[Steve Requin]

Oops... I realise I cannot give too much info about the background of The Eight yet because that would spoil some of the issues that haven't been treated in the comic so far. Still, have no fear, I've got info-a-plenty.

Early 2002, meaning 2 ½ years before I met Mazoku-Chan, I began sketching some of the characters of The Eight. Can you guess who that is ?



What you have here is the way I originally pictured Jason: a Brando-esque young man in his early twenties, athletic, a little bit moody, a rebel in his looks only, but in a small town like Harmony, that is enough to be seen as a bad boy. Girls like him, and he likes them too, but not as much as he loves his cars and motorcycles. Yup, Jason was a real man back then: smoking, drinking beer, watching sports, scratching his balls, you name it. When I see the wimp he finally turned out to be under Mazoku-Chan's pencils, the real male in me wants to cry. But since real men don't cry, well, I did not. Besides, SHE is the expert in manga style, so when she said Jason's new look and personnality would fit better with the story I had in mind, what could I do but agree. (what choice did I have ? She's the penciller )

Patrick O'Bennett, a.k.a Eau Bénite, was created in early 1997, as a vampire hunter. At first, he was not a priest, not even an ex-priest. He was nothing more than a human on the run in a world inhabited by vampires.



Later, just for the fun of it, I imagined what would result in an encounter between Eau Bénite and Katia:



As for Katia, well, she was basically the same since day one, except for her clothes. One of the reason why I wanted Jason to have a 50's rockabilly leather-coat,-jeans-and-T-shirt look is because it can be worn by both male and females.

More details later.

[Dragon]

YOU JUST GAVE IT AWAY! I SEE THROUGH IT NOW! KATIA IS JASON! YOU GAVE IT AWAY!

[Steve Requin]

I did ? When ?

oh !

One of the reason why I wanted Jason to have a 50's rockabilly leather-coat,-jeans-and-T-shirt look is because it can be worn by both male and females.


D'OH !

Oh well, you'll see it in a couple of hours anyway, when I update with the last page.

[mazoku]

Steve, [glow=red,2,300]YOU SUCK!!!!! [/glow]

[Steve Requin]

mazoku-chan said:

Steve, [glow=red,2,300]YOU SUCK!!!!! [/glow]

And you don't ! That's why you can't keep a boyfriend !

( Ok, it's not true, but that was too easy to let pass ;D )

How about posting some of the background history about Miroku and riends, assistant penciler dear ?

[Akyho]

atleast there no storylines should be ruined!!!
*kicks steve*
but i live in scotland so times are diffrent and when got here it was already up and read it so no spoiling for me

[Dragon]

Fragadapolops! Where did I come up weith that. Anyway. Now that I see who Katia is. I would MUCH rather prefer going out with Isabelle.

[mazoku]

yeah! I could.... but not now! ;D probably gonna do it while whipping you with a chain dec 30th!

[Akyho]

can ya feel the love between steve and mazoku-chan

think they will start rocking the bed together?

[Dragon]

Akyho! Get the camera!

[Steve Requin]

Oh, sure ! All we need for us to do it is my girlfriend's and her boyfriend's agreement with this... and each other's !

But hey, so far, she manipulates my pen !

[Steve Requin]

Funny how characters evolve. About 4 months ago, I decided to make an announcement on my Artiztech College webcomic page, about The Eight. Back then, we didn't even have any pictures done in black ink yet, so I did what I could with the sketches Mazoku-Chan pencilled. Here's the result:




And this here is the first page of the first appearance of Eau Bénite, from 1997:

[Steve Requin]

These are sketches of pages of The Eight. They were plans, done in 2002, two years before I met Mazoku-Chan.



Before Miroku was added into the story by Mazoku, Jason had a male friend, and I don't even remember what his name was. He was Jason's only friend, but he didn't appear much in the story. His main job was to provide dialogues for Jason to talk about himself. As for Isabitch, version 1 was named Lola, and she just appeared twice: Once in school when she told Jason he was an asshole for standing her up last night, and once at Doggie's (a hot dog joint, now the Sub-Whey), sitting a couple of tables away from Jason. Compare with The Final Version
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Basically, it's the same as The Final Version, except that I changed the first panel at the last minute, the better to show what Jason was thinking what happened last night. Also, the 4 last panels were supposed to show the same shot of the woods Jason loses himself into. Final version's 4 last panels can be seen as one very long panel, in which we see jason getting farther away.
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That page is also very similar to it's Final Version, but Mazoku didn't like at all the too-dramatic way Jason gets up in last panel... "Too american", she said ! Pfeh!
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Finally, the last page. You can see the original Eau Bénite, the way I designed him back in 1997, and katia's "too American Comic-Books pose for Mazoku's taste" as she appears on the rock shaped like a gigantic egg. You can compare that pages to the final version, here