Kraken Scrapbook

Backstory From My Old Comics: Kraken is a really mean fish-like demon from another dimension. He delighted in being an absolute jerk. He had a magic medallion that could open a portal between the real world and the dimension he came from. But in the real world, the medallion's power was weaker, so in order to open a door between the two worlds, he had to sacrifice a human soul. He was trying to open a permanent portal between his home dimension and Phainein so that he could call forth his followers and conquer both worlds. Nucleo McRaven rescued a young girl named Gaelia from Kraken that he was planning to sacrifice for that purpose. The professor, along with help from Chance and his friends, succeeded in sealing him in his own dimension (the storyboards were unclear as to how since Gaelia wasn't killed). Even better, Nucleo secured Kraken's medallion so that he could (supposedly) never return.

However, Kraken did return later in an episode in which Chance's entire group got shifted to and trapped in Kraken's home dimension. Kraken took his anger out on Nucleo by kidnapping and threatening his daughter, Cory. He made Nucleo return his medallion in exchange for her life, but even though Nucleo complied, Kraken boasted that he was going to "keep her". (Crap almighty, that's why I'm always saying that series needs a rewrite!)

Kraken's only weapon, besides his own claws and brute strength, is the mysterious medallion that he wears around his neck. Although the main purpose of the medallion was to open a portal, it also augmented Kraken's own magic as well as grant him use of spells he wouldn't be able to cast otherwise. Kraken's age is unknown.

Character Design Notes: Kraken is a fish-like demon who only appeared in the early episodes of Image Arcane. I don't really remember anything about how I came up with his design. I just drew it and that was it.

Kraken in the RAU Gallery: Kraken was killed by Christopher Paladin in the original series, so an appearance in the new one is unlikely.


All of these images of Kraken were drawn in either 1987 or 1988. The better-looking ones are from the second episode he appeared in that I scripted and drew in 1988. The more poorly-drawn sketches are from the original episode that featured him in 1987. Kraken is a cartoonish villain from an era when my writing wasn't very good. I didn't, at that time, know how to write with theme and subtext or even much about writing good dialogue and thus most of my early plots were simple good guys vs. bad guys fare that relied on a lot of cliches. Because of this (and the fact that he was killed in the original storyline), this character has been retired and probably will never be used again.

Kraken from the 1988 Episode

Kraken's first appearance in this episode is in his concealing cloud form.

Kraken trying everything in his power to get himself on the receiving end of Nucleo's wrath. He's taken Cory hostage in revenge for Nucleo's interference in his earlier plans to take over Phainein.

Kraken continues to make demands of a reluctant Nucleo while dangling Cory from a rather high altitude (yeah, long before Michael Jackson did it). Unfortunately, Cory didn't inherit her father's mountaindevil wings, so she's in a bit of a predicament.

Kraken's big scary mug. I've come to realize in time that I really hate it when a cartoon character's face fills up an entire screen or panel like this so I probably would never draw a scene like this again.

   

More storyboards. Nucleo attempts to make a deal with Kraken - he'll return his medallion in exchange for Cory's life. But of course, the evil bastard breaks his promise. Told you I had a lot of cartoon cliches in these old storylines.

Okay, Nucleo's fucking pissed that Kraken reneged on his deal and he's prepared to fight the shady demon to the death. Kraken isn't at all worried, despite having an enraged mountaindevil on his case.

Kraken sets Cory down and again taunts Nucleo to come after her. After all, it's not really Cory that he wants...and I appear to be missing the rest of the panels involving him after this one until...

...bam! He's killed by Christopher Paladin. There was a scene in the middle here where Kraken trapped Professor McRaven and got the upper hand on him. Kraken was about to kill him off when he decided he would kill Cory first to hurt Nucleo even more. But all the while, he didn't notice the young desert-elf working his way up the mountain to save his friends. Christopher got the job done with a surprise attack, but he's still rather clumsy and his bum-rush method caused him to tumble over the side of the mountain. Thankfully, he landed on a lower ledge but knocked himself out. (Yeah, my writing rather sucked back then.)

Kraken from the 1987 Episode

Kraken casting a spell. He'd always become surrounded by cloudy smoke when he did that.

Kraken looking over the side of a bridge. Don't really remember too much what was going on here, who he was talking to, or what he was saying. As bad as the 1988 episode scripting was, this one was far worse.

Kind of wavy there.

Kraken, in his form-concealing cloud cover, consults with his lizard-like servant. Although that guy was Kraken's helper, this is the only panel I could find that had both together in-frame.

Kraken pulling the "Michael Jackson" thing on Gaelia this time. This story was written when I was very young and it made very little sense. I ended up hating the Gaelia character in the end because I fell victim to a very common writing mistake: Using a generic "child" character to garner easy sympathy in place of writing an interesting character that we learn to care about through the story. It's not even clear what the heck Gaelia is supposed to be - she looks like an elf, but what kind? Who knows?

Rough storyboard of Kraken gloating with some typically bad cartoon villain dialogue.

Kraken casting spells.

Yep, that's Kraken's arm. And Gaelia doesn't look too happy about it.

Gloating, gloating, gloating. Slight water damage from apartment fire.

Heh. Boom. Some ink damage and discoloration on this one.

Kraken, in his concealed cloud form, is getting irritated with Nucleo for trying to take Gaelia away from him. (Nucleo and Gaelia are in silhouette.)

Don't really know what's going on here.

This was probably one of my better drawings of Kraken from this era. I put a little more work and detail into this one. Too bad it was damaged in the apartment fire.

"That oughtta do it! Thanks very much, Ray!"

Another one that suffered heavy water and ink damage, but it was rather old and crappy anyway.

Nucleo hits Kraken from behind with a dark fire spell.

This really didn't make any sense at all. Somehow, Kraken succeeds in halfway opening the portal by draining Gaelia's life force halfway. But Nucleo does some shit, gets Gaelia away from him, and causes this mess. (Supposedly, cutting off the energy feed to the portal before it expanded all the way caused it to rapidly collapse and form a vaccuum that pulled Kraken and Nucleo into it. I know. It doesn't make sense.) Nucleo basically knew that he would end up getting sucked in (HOW?!) before he did this, but decides to stop Kraken anyway in order to save Gaelia. (This was, by the way, before I revealed Nucleo had a daughter of his own. That served as an explanation for his paternal behavior in this episode.)

I'm missing a lot of panels and storyboards, so I'll try to explain what happened next: Nucleo grabbed ahold of a nearby wooden post to keep from getting dragged into the portal, but Kraken grabs Nucleo and tries to take him with him. Nucleo's friends finally show up (they had a problem getting to where Kraken was because he had knocked a bridge out - Nucleo could fly there, but the others couldn't. Well, you're probably thinking that Jack could, but IIRC, he had a broken wing at the time.) Anyway, McRaven's friends grab ahold of him and try to pull him back away from Kraken. They succeed, but just as they pull Nuc away, he grabs Kraken's medallion and snaps it from around his neck. Kraken is sucked back into his own dimension as the portal finally closes, without his medallion that allowed him to make the portal between the two worlds in the first place, so he can never return. Christopher uses his light magic healing powers to restore Gaelia's life force and that was it.

Kraken Conceptual Art

Kraken sprite. This is the first drawing of Kraken I ever did and was meant to give me a basic idea of what he would look like.

First full-model drawing of Kraken. It's very rough.

More conceptual art. This one is a Kraken 3/4 back view pose that was reused for a scene in the original Kraken episode.

This one was drawn later than all the others. It's my favorite picture of Kraken. It's a remake of a panel from the first episode he was in that was drawn for a demonstration in a junior high art class, but I don't remember what year that was.

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