9.13.2011

Predecessors: Bonker


Long before there was Pheyden, there was Bonker. You're not reading that wrong, I made a character named Bonker. When I was very young (Elementary School into Junior High) this little white furry alien starred in many of my earliest stories, flying around with his energy field zapping bad guys named after US cities. Why did he have a giant "B" on his chest? Did he come from a world where they used the English alphabet? Who the hell knows, but I have some strong memories of drawing Bonker.

Like any classic sci-fi tale concocted by a child's mind, Bonker had a special spaceship and even a hover bike to tool around in -even though he could fly on his own and didn't need those things. His ship was called the Polaris-1 and I spent hours thinking about how it would operate and what it was like inside. The old Japanese robot cutaway illustrations I would see at my Japanese neighbor's house seeped into my mind and made a permanent place to stay, making it mandatory that I draw the insides of everything. I drew the Polaris many times and was never satisfied with the internals. Maybe I should have just stuffed more vehicles in there!

The main bad guys who gave Bonker a hard time were the Bionic Trio, and a dude named Acron. Acron popped up in a few different forms (scientist/muscle bound beast) and always ended up getting blasted to cosmic bits. Then he would show up again with no explanation as to how he survived. No accountability, I love it. The Bionic Trio were my favorite guys to have Bonker fight, as they collectively filled the anti-hero role in the story. They were three brothers who lost different parts of their bodies when their spaceship exploded. That's it. Why did they want to waste Bonker so bad? Again, no real reason other than to cause chaos. Maybe I should have called them the Anarchy Trio. Either way, I loved drawing them.

For a modern take on Bonker, the Polaris-1 and the Bionic Trio I tried to imagine them in our current Glyos setting. Bonker evokes a bit of every half animal videogame character from the past 20 years. The Polaris-1 looks roughly the same, only now piloted by Pheyden (who also does not really need a ship-only Rigs-ha!) and the Bionic Trio remind me of the Galaxy Ranger's and Crusher Joe's love children.

Bonker will always hold a special place with me, so much so that he was the inspiration for the character Sarvo Halos, who has played a pivotal role in the Glyos System. Sarvo created Prototype Sincroid Exellis along with countless other Mechanoid based lifeforms throughout the history of Glyos and holds many secrets about what is really going on. He might even know what the Bionic Trio were up to. Nah, nobody knows that.

More old files will be explored when I get back from the upcoming overseas trip. Maybe we can take a look at another old series I used to draw called Hermit.

12 comments:

  1. These are great! Definitely see a Megaman influence in these old sketches. Again, thanks so much for sharing this stuff with us. More to enjoy.

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  2. PLEASE tell me you're going to add plates like that to the toy line! I'd love to be able to get my hands on some of those!

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  3. I like the Glyos re-design for Bonker, he looks frickin' awesome. I'm impressed with your comic drawing skills at that age, when I was in Junior High I tried to draw my own comic...it did not look good LoL.

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  4. Wheee! I am so glad you saved all your old stuff. What I delightful peek into the mind and history at the Edge of the Galaxy.

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  5. That Glyos-style Bonker is very cool, he'd make a heck of a custom figure! And thanks for a little peek at your old art, and into a little Glyos history with the Sarvo Halos tale. :)

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  6. I think a combo of the two Bonker designs would look even more fantastic.

    And a little drop of info of the Glyos backstory? Nice! We seldom hear much about Exellis so it's nice to get this little bit. Sarvo Halos? I guess Sarvos is the singular term for Sarvos, or is it entirely different. I guess he had a hand in the Halos Buildmen as well? So little information but so many questions!

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  7. Polaris 1 is sick!I like the look of it. Im looking forward to "Hermit"!!!!!

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  8. You guys are saints for looking at this stuff! Bonker's moment in the sun, and I stress the word moment. Ha!

    I might try and squeak out one more in this series of posts before we leave.
    Instead of Hermit I think another screwball character named Bionic Fury will make his appearance. Man, was I into the word bionic...

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  9. Please keep them coming Matt! I had a friend who liked the word bionic, but sometimes pronounced it "boronic." I need to use "boronic" someday somehow.

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  10. OK... when are we going to see Bonker action figures? Seriously... the redesigns you did later on are KILLER!!!

    And the Bionic Trio? NICE.

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  11. So that explains why Sarvo seems to be a bit...fuzzy in what little we've seen of him. It's cool to not only see the influences on your current work, but to go back and piece together, visually, what your influences were back then.

    Thanks for sharing!

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  12. I love that you have McDonalds in Japanese all over the drawings as well... I see that Burgers have a huge influence in your art ;-).

    next... Bionic Mega Muffin Man

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