M.D. Geist Ground Zero part 1, 1996
In the summer of 1995, my partners and I at Studio Go! embarked down a unique road indeed. For the first time I can think of, American artists collaborated with a Japanese creator to produce a comic book prequel to an anime film. Yeah, that’s a pretty narrow category to stake a claim in, but it’s exactly what happened.
As previously recounted, one of the first projects on our docket once we signed on with CPM Comics was to adapt the 1986 M.D. Geist OAV (Original Anime Video) into a 3-issue color miniseries. (Read all about it here.) What I didn’t mention in that article was that our comic was only the first in a series of M.D. Geist projects to come.
Thanks to heavy investment by John O’Donnell (president of Central Park Media), both a prequel and a sequel to Geist were conceived at roughly the same time. The plan was to release them together in a “double assault” for the 10th anniversary year of 1996. The sequel, Death Force, would be a new anime film made in Japan. The prequel would be a comic book. Both would be conceived by Koichi Ohata, creator and director of the original, but there was no practical way for him to manage both projects. That’s where the Studio Go! boys came in.
We were made aware of this grand plan the year before as work was underway on the first Geist comic, but other projects came and went while the puzzle pieces moved into place. Summer 1995 is when the puzzle took shape. (Side note: around that time, John O’Donnell was also negotiating with Sunrise for my favorite anime series, Armored Trooper Votoms, and media rights along with it. Put a pin in that, because it will come up again later.)
The first step was taken in June 1995, when Koichi Ohata wrote an outline for “M.D. Geist Zero” (working title) and we received a translated version from Editor Michael Lindsay at CPM. In 9 pages, Ohata laid down some ground rules for the story and summarized the beats. After some back and forth, John Ott and I responded with a 7-page outline that refined and connected the beats into a plot that could be adapted into comics.
Something I keyed in on during the process was my own disdain for the main character. Geist may be “Most Dangerous,” but he is also paper thin and devoid of any personality whatsoever. This was the point; he’s supposed to be an unstoppable machine a la The Terminator. Ohata certainly achieved that goal in the 1986 anime, but it didn’t exactly make for a compelling story.
Rough mecha designs by Koichi Ohata
To engage my own personal interest in this prequel (which would consume several months of my life), I thought we should take the opportunity to comment on that very fact. What would the other characters in this world think of a guy like that? Specifically, the commanding officer who is forced to take Geist into his unit? Wouldn’t it add an interesting layer if this officer demanded that his men not only be effective soldiers, but also effective human beings? This is what I wanted to explore. Fortunately, Ohata agreed.
I also thought “Mad Dog” could make a good title for the prequel, an alternate take on the “M.D.” designation, but when that didn’t fly, I suggested that we turn “M.D. Geist Zero” into “M.D. Geist Ground Zero” instead. I’d already created a comic of my own titled Ground Zero, but this was obviously going to be a different animal.
In July, Ohata flew to the San Diego Comic Con as a guest of Central Park Media, and we all convened for the first ever story conference for a project of this kind. (Again, it may still be the only project of its kind.) We went over Ohata’s outline and our response, I took down all the notes that were discussed, and we hammered out exactly what would happen in all three issues. Our questions were answered and we were all united in making 1996 “The Year of Geist.” Little did we know that invisible forces within the comic book industry were conspiring to make it the year of something else. But that’s a story for the future.
Rough mecha designs by Koichi Ohata
The next task was to design mecha for the story and write the script for our first issue. Ohata gave us roughs for a few things, but I came up with all the rest. In order to save themselves some money, CPM provided the first draft of the script, which was essentially a pass at dialogue. I then wrote the second draft, which fleshed things out where needed. This work wrapped up in early November 1995, and I finally got into the fun part.
All the pages for issue 1 were drawn in about a month, finishing in early December. This wasn’t being adapted from an anime, so I couldn’t use my frame-capture process, but I did stick with the page format we’d become used to and drew everything in pencil to cut out the inking stage. I sketched out a cover idea which was drawn by Koichi Ohata. He was working on the Death Force sequel by then, so he didn’t have time to do any interior pages. Honestly, we were 100% okay with not having to wrangle that within our tight time frame.
When I finished the art, I turned it over to Bruce Lewis for lettering and coloring. When his work was completed, it was off to the printer. We kept it up non-stop for the next two issues, flowing through December and January, and they were published monthly from March to May 1996.
Presented here are all the steps described above. Step through them one by one and you’ll see the entire first issue bloom before your eyes.
Read a brief (but favorable) review here
Bonus round: Armored Trooper Votoms
Remember that pin we put in earlier? Here’s where it pays off.
As I said, while the Geist projects were in the oven, John O’Donnell was in heavy negotiation with Sunrise to bring Armored Trooper Votoms to the English-speaking world. I can’t remember precisely when the deal was signed, but it happened prior to the end of 1995 and delivered one of my greatest wishes: I would finally get to create a Votoms comic book.
The video series would be released by Central Park Media (under their U.S. Manga Corps label) in 1997, so 1996 became a year of preparation. It was decided to publish a 4-issue Votoms miniseries that summer as early promotion. And before it appeared as a title of its own, we snuck it into M.D. Geist Ground Zero.
I’m pretty sure this was my idea, since I’d experienced something similar back in the Malibu Comics days. Eternity Comics did occasional cross-promotions by serializing comics as bonus features in other comics. Geist and Votoms were cut from similar cloth, so I suggested that they would fit well together. Thankfully, CPM agreed.
This time, everything was in my hands. I adapted the first TV episode into 24 pages, so 8 pages appeared in each issue of Geist Ground Zero as a “Votoms preview.” I had to move quickly, drawing and coloring the first segment in February (after finishing Geist #3 in January) so it could be published in March. Votoms kept me going all the way through the summer, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
In fact, I’ve already written about that entire project and the unexpected fate that befell it. Read that account here.
Next time: M.D. Geist Ground Zero issues 2 and 3 from cover to cover!