#thundercats

Last but certainly not least, the bravest of them all, Snarf! Really happy with how he turned out, he's so frickin CUTE.

Process under the cut

A new era for the Thunderan refugees begins this October as Dynamite announced Friday that writer Greg Pak and artist David Cousens will take control of its ThunderCats comic book. Also along for the ride: colorist Igor Monti, letterer Jeff Eckleberry, and editor Nate Cosby. Following up on the crossover with SilverHawks earlier this year, the ‘Cats now share Third Earth with the Hawks, Mu’tants, and countless others species and civilizations. And although Lion-O still yearns for action and adventure, he is starting to learn the subtitles of diplomacy thanks to Tygra and Calica. In fact, he’s ready to reach out to the other groups on the planet to create a lasting peace.

That’s when a meteor streaks across the sky, leading to a change in the various tribes of Third Earth. Is it all the work of the “Feral King”? Is he friend or foe? And what will his presence mean for the status quo on the planet?

“I’ve been hungry to dig into a story like this for years,” Pak said in a statement. “Anything can happen on Third Earth, and if you’ve ever watched the original ThunderCats cartoons, you know that anything and everything did. There’s a huge element of surprise and wildness to this particular mix of science fiction and fantasy, and we’re taking it as far as we can. I’m also thrilled to be working on a story that feels deeply relevant about heroes slamming up against the limits of monarchy and teetering between triumph and catastrophe as they struggle to become a free people. Huge fun, massive action, big emotion, and searing relevance? You want this book!” (source) So my thoughts on this are mixed. HUGELY positive on the writing change (and not just because I'm happy to see Shalvey gone). Pak's done some very good work on titles like Mech Cadet Yu, Kingsway West, Lawful, and Ronin Island, and I'm always happy to see his name pop up.

Cousens is...fine. I'm very happy to see Tygra's Red Baron mustache gone, and I'm generally positive on the redesigns; these actually look like a new take on the Thundercats as opposed to the slightly off-brand previous designs. But his art on Cheetara: Worldbreaker was some of the weakest of this iteration of Thundercats, and it's been a little too stylized on other books for my taste. But we'll see how he does.

The continuing "Thunderverse" push: meh. I didn't watch Silverhawks growing up, and the most recent comics did nothing for me, so this is a big snooze as far as I'm concerned. I'm not thrilled with a bunch of characters who couldn't manage a full year of their own book taking up space when Thundercats already has a massive cast (no few of which are missing from this cover - Cheetara has a solo coming up, here's hoping the rest are in good hands).

Greg Pak + David Cousens take on the ThunderCats this October

We're back babey! This time it's Panthro's turn, the scars and prosthetics are for backstory reasons as you may soon read. I always thought Thunderians being "bald" (presumably they've still got fur on their heads) wasn't rally my bag. I didn't wanna go with the way 2011 did it and wanted to reinforce the Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Carribean influences that partly inspired this redesign. The pants are Capoeira inspired and the top is loosely based on a sleeveless martial artist uniform top. I think the next time I draw him the fur and eye/mouth marking distinction will be a bit sharper but I'm otherwise pretty happy with how he turned out!

Panthro's Reborn Origin Story

Though Panthro was born during the Plundarrian occupation, his early childhood would be untouched by its horrors. Growing up on a small archipelago between the lands of the Jaguar & Leopard Clans. Born from a people gifted with shadow dappled fur otherwise a rarity to their ancestral clans. Panthro would spend much of his youth (when he wasn’t bringing wild animals home as “pets”) helping his parents’ in their repair shop.

His peaceful little island community was able to thrive thanks to sitting atop a rich deposit of Thundrillium, steadily and carefully extracted via bio-mining. Of course, when the Plundarrian war machine learned of this, the world Panthro had come to know would come to an end. As Ratar-O sent one of his favorite Generals, Pterror the Bat and his War Cauldron to conquer the islands.

It started with the raids, Pterror and his aerial units would distract the adults by snatching up cubs and dropping them into the ocean. Panthro being among the victims, with the scars to prove it from the times he fought back in midair. While the adults numbers thinned to retrieve their kin, Pterror’s ground and sea units would steal and destroy anything within claw’s reach. Again and again, stripping them of means of providing for, let alone protecting themselves. Poisoning their waters with more “efficient” means of extracting their precious livelihood.

(The rest of his origin and my art process photos are under the cut! Feel free to submit any questions you'd like!)

He was alledgedly a commoner. Could Pumyra do that, if the situation were right? Could Bengali?