MattBrady
12-05-2003, 10:06 AM
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/pic_lrgbioniclecvr.jpg" width="185" height="251" border="0" hspace="1" align="right"><i>by Cliff Biggers</i>
For quite a while now, one of the most successful titles produced through WildStorm wasn’t available to comic fans... unless they were toy fans, that is. The comic is <b>Bionicle</b>, and WildStorm has worked with Lego to produce the comic for members of the Lego club. In early 2004, however, everyone else will have a chance to see what they’ve been missing when DC offers the digest-sized <b>Bionicle</b> trade paperback, reprinting the first fifteen issues of the comic.
If you haven’t paid attention to the toy section of your local department store, you might not know anything about <b>Bionicle</b>. Writer Gregory Farshtey offers a quick background lesson on the concept behind the toy line and the comics. “Bionicle is an epic saga about six heroes, the Toa, who must save the island of Mata Nui and its inhabitants from a dark entity called Makuta. Using their elemental powers (fire, air, earth, stone, ice, and water) and the Kanohi Masks of Power they wear, they have to challenge threats sent against the island by Makuta and eventually challenge his dark power.
“The Toa and everything that they encounter on Mata Nui are bio-mechanical, but just how all of it was created remains a mystery. The mysteries at the core of the story are a big part of why Bionicle has been so successful, and they give us the opportunity to take the story in new directions in 2004.”
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/Bionicle2.jpg" width="350" height="215" border="0" hspace="1" align="left">As Farshtey sees it, the enduring appeal of Bionicle in a time when all too many toys are seasonal fads is linked to “the storyline and the universe, which are incredibly rich. The characters have inspired a lot of fan fiction and fan art, entire fan websites, and a great deal of speculation about some of the mysteries at the heart of the tales. So I think anyone who enjoys a good adventure story and a rich mythos will enjoy Bionicle.”
While many people are looking for a way to break into the comic book market, this plum assignment virtually fell into Farshtey’s lap. “I started at the LEGO Company in late 2000, shortly before the Bionicle sets were first released to the market. In addition to doing the comic, I am a co-writer of the <i>LEGO Magazine</i>, work on the LEGO Shop At Home catalog, the LEGO.com and Bionicle.com websites, and pretty much whatever else needs to be written. As you can imagine, it is a very creative and rewarding job and I have been fortunate to work with some incredible people.
"Prior to working here, I worked in journalism, roleplaying game design, and as a copywriter. My involvement with comics before <b>Bionicle</b> was primarily as a reader - I have been reading them off and on for over thirty years and have twenty-eight long boxes of them in my office at home.”
Farshtey has worked on this project from its inception. “The <b>Bionicle</b> comic started in 2001. We did three issues in 2001 and six issues in each of the two years since. The comic has only been available through a free membership in the LEGO Club.
“The trade paperback, as I understand it, is issues one through fifteen of the comic, which is the entire Toa saga on Mata Nui. Starting in 2004, we are focusing on a new set of characters and a new setting.”
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/Bionicle1.jpg" width="185" height="191" border="0" hspace="1" align="right">While Farshtey has written the comic from the beginning, he is not the only person involved in planning the book’s direction. “The overall plot for the year is developed by the Bionicle story team, made up of representatives from Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the US. Once an overall concept has been arrived at and a story bible written, it is the job of the comic to break it down into a story that can be grasped in bi-monthly increments and to generally flesh it out. Probably the biggest challenge writing <b>Bionicle</b> is that there is so much story it can be hard to fit it all into the comic!”
So is there any chance that the trade paperback will pave the way for <b>Bionicle’s</b> move from the LEGO Bionicle club to the comic shop rack on a regular basis? Alas, “as far as I know, there are no plans to change <b>Bionicle</b> being distributed solely through the LEGO Club. So the trade paperback is really the first time the comic story has been available to the general public, other than through giveaways at retail, etc. And it’s the first time the entire first three years’ worth of story has been collected in one place.”
<b>Bionicle</b>, a digest-sized collection of fifteen stories written by Greg Farshtey with art by Carlos D'Anda, Randy Elliot & Ray Kryssing, is scheduled for February 18th release.
Online versions of the comics can be found here (http://www.lego.com/eng/bionicle/assembler.asp?pageid=comics&contid=intro).
<i>this article originally appeared in Comic Shop News #859</i>
For quite a while now, one of the most successful titles produced through WildStorm wasn’t available to comic fans... unless they were toy fans, that is. The comic is <b>Bionicle</b>, and WildStorm has worked with Lego to produce the comic for members of the Lego club. In early 2004, however, everyone else will have a chance to see what they’ve been missing when DC offers the digest-sized <b>Bionicle</b> trade paperback, reprinting the first fifteen issues of the comic.
If you haven’t paid attention to the toy section of your local department store, you might not know anything about <b>Bionicle</b>. Writer Gregory Farshtey offers a quick background lesson on the concept behind the toy line and the comics. “Bionicle is an epic saga about six heroes, the Toa, who must save the island of Mata Nui and its inhabitants from a dark entity called Makuta. Using their elemental powers (fire, air, earth, stone, ice, and water) and the Kanohi Masks of Power they wear, they have to challenge threats sent against the island by Makuta and eventually challenge his dark power.
“The Toa and everything that they encounter on Mata Nui are bio-mechanical, but just how all of it was created remains a mystery. The mysteries at the core of the story are a big part of why Bionicle has been so successful, and they give us the opportunity to take the story in new directions in 2004.”
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/Bionicle2.jpg" width="350" height="215" border="0" hspace="1" align="left">As Farshtey sees it, the enduring appeal of Bionicle in a time when all too many toys are seasonal fads is linked to “the storyline and the universe, which are incredibly rich. The characters have inspired a lot of fan fiction and fan art, entire fan websites, and a great deal of speculation about some of the mysteries at the heart of the tales. So I think anyone who enjoys a good adventure story and a rich mythos will enjoy Bionicle.”
While many people are looking for a way to break into the comic book market, this plum assignment virtually fell into Farshtey’s lap. “I started at the LEGO Company in late 2000, shortly before the Bionicle sets were first released to the market. In addition to doing the comic, I am a co-writer of the <i>LEGO Magazine</i>, work on the LEGO Shop At Home catalog, the LEGO.com and Bionicle.com websites, and pretty much whatever else needs to be written. As you can imagine, it is a very creative and rewarding job and I have been fortunate to work with some incredible people.
"Prior to working here, I worked in journalism, roleplaying game design, and as a copywriter. My involvement with comics before <b>Bionicle</b> was primarily as a reader - I have been reading them off and on for over thirty years and have twenty-eight long boxes of them in my office at home.”
Farshtey has worked on this project from its inception. “The <b>Bionicle</b> comic started in 2001. We did three issues in 2001 and six issues in each of the two years since. The comic has only been available through a free membership in the LEGO Club.
“The trade paperback, as I understand it, is issues one through fifteen of the comic, which is the entire Toa saga on Mata Nui. Starting in 2004, we are focusing on a new set of characters and a new setting.”
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/Bionicle1.jpg" width="185" height="191" border="0" hspace="1" align="right">While Farshtey has written the comic from the beginning, he is not the only person involved in planning the book’s direction. “The overall plot for the year is developed by the Bionicle story team, made up of representatives from Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the US. Once an overall concept has been arrived at and a story bible written, it is the job of the comic to break it down into a story that can be grasped in bi-monthly increments and to generally flesh it out. Probably the biggest challenge writing <b>Bionicle</b> is that there is so much story it can be hard to fit it all into the comic!”
So is there any chance that the trade paperback will pave the way for <b>Bionicle’s</b> move from the LEGO Bionicle club to the comic shop rack on a regular basis? Alas, “as far as I know, there are no plans to change <b>Bionicle</b> being distributed solely through the LEGO Club. So the trade paperback is really the first time the comic story has been available to the general public, other than through giveaways at retail, etc. And it’s the first time the entire first three years’ worth of story has been collected in one place.”
<b>Bionicle</b>, a digest-sized collection of fifteen stories written by Greg Farshtey with art by Carlos D'Anda, Randy Elliot & Ray Kryssing, is scheduled for February 18th release.
Online versions of the comics can be found here (http://www.lego.com/eng/bionicle/assembler.asp?pageid=comics&contid=intro).
<i>this article originally appeared in Comic Shop News #859</i>