Creator/Writer
Marianne de Pierres has won awards for her science fiction and crime novels and had her work adapted for RPG and animation. The Sentients of Orion took five years of her life to research and write and to see part of it adapted into a graphic novel by such a talented artist gives her an enormous thrill.
Artist – Wayne Haag
Wayne Haag was born in Melbourne, Australia. He received his B.A. in Photography at RMIT in 1994 and started his professional art career matte painting on The Fifth Element and Red Corner at Digital Domain, LA in 1996. Wayne have matte painted for Farscape the TV series and The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and most recently painted concept art for The Wolverine film. Wayne’s real passion is painting science fiction in traditional oil paint.
An Interview with Wayne
Have you always been a fan of SF? Who or what are your artistic influences in SF?
Been a fan of SF since reading Andre Norton’s The Zero Stone as a kid. SF artistic influences are mostly that group of English artists, Jim Burns, Tim White, Peter Elson, Peter Jones, John Harris etc. John Berkey the American illustrator. Moebius, Juan Gimenez and Philipe Adamov the European comic artists. This list could actually go on all day!
What are the highlights of your career so far?
Matte painting on The Fifth Element and finally painting my own SF ideas in oils. Everything I’ve learned in the film industry I’m now applying to my own vision which is very exciting. I am also about to teach basic Illustration at TAFE and that may actually become one of those highlights too!
What has inspired you to create your first graphic novel?
I’ve been a SF comic book fan since the beginning, not super-hero stuff, but the predominantly European graphic novels. I’d like to create my own graphic novel one day based on the scenes and ideas depicted in my oil paintings.
The Sentients of Orion graphic novel is entitled The Hue. What made you chose that particular scene from Mirror Space?
I’ve loved the series and when Marianne mentioned we should do something together it just popped into my head. That scene jumped out as encapsulating everything Mira is. It could be illustrated without giving away the overall plot yet have the reader come back and want to know more. It’s Mira at her lowest and highest point. Her bond with Insignia (the organic ship) is also firmly cemented in this scene.
FAQs
What does the Sentients of Orion: The Hue graphic novel cost?
Nothing. It’s entirely free.
Will there be more?
That’s a distinct possibility, but if there is, then there will be a small cost. Starving writers and artists have to eat and you will be getting top quality work.
