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A question that drives me nuts!

Started by positronic, 15 April, 2017, 03:51:28 PM

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Steve Green

The camera is used as a plot device in a couple of strips.

There have been 4 helmets I know of.

The Termight One

http://www.termight.co.uk/helmet.html


A cosplayer spotted on the forum

https://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php?topic=37186.0


And the one I made a 3D model of and got printed out for the fan film.



There was also another one someone was getting made, but don't have a pic of it.


So there are a few, it's just a bit trickier to make than the judge helmet.

positronic

Thanks again, Steve! You certainly have answers to questions.

Hey, is it just me, or...  does this one look like some kind of kinky Gerry Anderson parody ? I find it subtly disturbing on some level...


positronic

Now this one looks... maybe a little too "pointy"? Slightly more angular, than rounded, in front? JMO, don't take it too seriously! The one above is obviously way too far in the opposite direction, but even the production design drawings Carlos did for the movie look different in shape (not just the circular parts which were revised as auxiliary cams, more of the overall shape) than what he drew in most of the 1980s stories. I guess it depends on which panel in which story you're looking at, and what angle his head's pointing, as well. I guess it always does tend to look different when viewed head-on, at 2/3 angle, or in straight profile. On the other hand, your actor is well-cast! And apart from the slightly-too-pointy cam lens part, this is overall the best version, as the "cheeks" look right, as well as what I can see of the top sides and back.

Steve Green

I based it mainly on Carlos TV pilot proportions.

He gave it the thumbs up.

Also consulted with Jock, the first versions were more rounded, but looked too banana-like.

Can also get a bit front heavy, so it was slimmed down.

Carlos can draw it quite pointy as well.



There's not a definitive version, it's just an adaptation of a comic that changes over time.

JayzusB.Christ

Quote from: Steve Green on 15 April, 2017, 04:23:41 PM
b & g

When they were producing the TV bible Carlos retconned the domes either side to contain cameras as well, and there was a holoscreen dropping down in front of his eyes.

The nose camera has been there from the start, to record evidence.





Design wise, I think it just followed an insect-like theme - including the stripey top that he often wears.

The Starlord helmet varied a bit from the one that popped up after the merger with 2000AD, it had another dome in the centre, and a poster from an early concept had some little antennae either side of his eyes.

Jimmy Nail was obviously odds-on to play Johnny.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

TordelBack

#20
In 'Life and Death' Middenface refers to Johnny's reclaimed helmet as 'one of your buckets', implying he had several, so given how much the rest of his kit changes there's no reason there should be a single definitive version. It's not part of a uniform, it's a tool.

Also never try to understand Johnny's eyes in the terms set out in the story: as we all learnt in school,  if it was possible for a stream of high mass/ strong absorbtion Alpha particles to be sufficiently energetic to penetrate stone and body mass (cosmic rays, for example)  there would be enough ionising radiation to kill anything in their path long before they detected a hidden blaster. Whatever's going on in Johnny's Veerd Eyes it ain't Alpha particles (I've speculated his powers are psychic in nature and the glowing-eye-thing just a coincidental mutation, but that's just fanwanky head-canon).

Dash Decent

Quote from: positronic on 15 April, 2017, 06:27:41 PM
I had a short think about why the camera helmet might be so important to Johnny Alpha. It can't be that documentation is an actual requirement in order to collect a bounty on an outstanding warrant, because most S/D Agents don't seem to have them.

In the Strontium Dog audio "Fire from Heaven", Johnny plays back some footage of an old capture to a third party to see if they recognise the criminal.  He explains that it's a requirement that SD agents properly document the arrest.  McNulty butts in with a surprised "It is?", so it's obviously news to him.  Alpha explains it's a regulation more honoured in the breach, etc.

(As an aside, the audio also tallies with some of the other points made by positronic, e.g. in the old capture footage, Alpha states the date and says he is claiming the capture in advance of anyone else who makes a later claim.)
- By Appointment -
Hero to Michael Carroll

"... rank amateurism and bad jokes." - JohnW.

positronic

Quote from: Steve Green on 15 April, 2017, 11:31:46 PM
I based it mainly on Carlos TV pilot proportions.

He gave it the thumbs up.

Also consulted with Jock, the first versions were more rounded, but looked too banana-like.

Can also get a bit front heavy, so it was slimmed down.

Carlos can draw it quite pointy as well.



There's not a definitive version, it's just an adaptation of a comic that changes over time.

It's funny how things can affect your perception. Where I was originally seeing "turtle" (based mostly on the color scheme and rounded pads on JA's body armor and the two circular parts on the helmet) and you were seeing "insect", Andy Lambert pointed out the idea of a dog's snout, and ever since he did, now when looking at those full-profile panels Carlos drew, that's all I can see, with the camera serving as the nose. I'm thinking it looks something like a bull terrier.

But clearly in the TV bible design Carlos did for the helmet he's modified the surface curves of his original SD design, with an eye to practicality for prop fabrication, I think. The new design looks more real, and I guess designed more carefully, to maintain consistency when viewed from all angles. I guess the old design is still the one I have stuck in my mind, which seems more blunt and slightly more rounded.

positronic

Oh, and besides the dog's snout profile, there's also THIS that sticks in my head:

positronic

#24
Quote from: TordelBack on 15 April, 2017, 11:56:46 PM
In 'Life and Death' Middenface refers to Johnny's reclaimed helmet as 'one of your buckets', implying he had several, so given how much the rest of his kit changes there's no reason there should be a single definitive version. It's not part of a uniform, it's a tool.

Also never try to understand Johnny's eyes in the terms set out in the story: as we all learnt in school,  if it was possible for a stream of high mass/ strong absorbtion Alpha particles to be sufficiently energetic to penetrate stone and body mass (cosmic rays, for example)  there would be enough ionising radiation to kill anything in their path long before they detected a hidden blaster. Whatever's going on in Johnny's Veerd Eyes it ain't Alpha particles (I've speculated his powers are psychic in nature and the glowing-eye-thing just a coincidental mutation, but that's just fanwanky head-canon).

Well, yes. Comic books are like that. If you insist on strict adherence to physics, you should probably find another hobby. If someone were to point out that the number of nuclear warheads necessary to flatten 80%+ percent of the North American continent would result in a cloud of atmospheric ash blotting out sunlight and years of attendant nuclear winter, then it pretty much puts the lie to any surviving Mega Cities, and so much for your Judge Dredd comic.

But people still like writing those books like "The Science of Superman", etc. We do find some amusement in having some kind of speculatively defined quasi-physics. It's just mental play.

positronic

I guess we should just acknowledge flat out that anything like the idea of radioactivity producing science-fiction mutations resembling sideshow oddities or superpowers is right out the window. Let's think about cancer, leukemia, and the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki instead. If you want the real world, then forget about 2000 AD, because 98% of the series are balderdash. You should be reading Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen.

TordelBack

Well quite. But I was only addressing your own earlier musing:

Quote from: positronic on 15 April, 2017, 04:47:42 PM
And now that I think of it, does the 'X-ray vision' effect come from something like emitting alpha particles/waves from his eyes and a resultant reflective effect in a spectral range that only Johnny's eyes can perceive? Like radar or sonar, only involving alpha waves?

Seemed like an effort to explain the effect in terms of real-world physics, which I was cautioning against.

positronic

Quote from: TordelBack on 16 April, 2017, 08:28:41 AM
Well quite. But I was only addressing your own earlier musing:

Quote from: positronic on 15 April, 2017, 04:47:42 PM
And now that I think of it, does the 'X-ray vision' effect come from something like emitting alpha particles/waves from his eyes and a resultant reflective effect in a spectral range that only Johnny's eyes can perceive? Like radar or sonar, only involving alpha waves?

Seemed like an effort to explain the effect in terms of real-world physics, which I was cautioning against.

Well, I thought that's what your explanation was attempting to do. When operating in these science-fictional universes that have basic built-in premises (without which the story could not exist) you need to adapt a modified SF version of physics that could possibly fit into that world, because you work backwards from an established premise. Johnny Alpha exists in that world, and has the ability to see through solid objects; so you need to work backwards and find a kind of quasi-physics that works with that. And -- correct me if I'm wrong in this -- I do believe the stories actually establish that his eyes emit alpha particles, or am I just totally mis-remembering that detail?

If you take the opposite tack and say "well, the stories must be wrong then, because that's not the way physics work in the real world", then you have to admit that Johnny Alpha does not really exist, because exposure to Strontium 90 radiation in the real world would not produce the kind of birth mutations seen in Strontium Dog's universe. Cancer and leukemia, yes -- but not Strontium Dogs.

TordelBack

I'm just glad you're here to explain these things.

positronic

It's all in fun, isn't it? Just a way to amuse yourself by buying into the fictional world being served up as entertainment.

"I want to believe!"