scans_daily: Like humans do

stubbleupdate (

stubbleupdate) wrote in

scans_daily,
@ 2012-03-09 10:26 am UTC

Entry tags:

creator: jonathan hickman, creator: nick pitarra, title: the manhattan projects

Like humans do

One panel from this week's Manhattan Projects #1

This is Dr Oppenheimer, nuclear weapon mastermind, being recruited to join the Manhattan Projects

And this is Dumbarton's own David Byrne, former lead singer of Talking Heads

Is it just me and my mate that see a similarity?

Hopefully at some point before #10, Hickman will have Oppenheimer build a nuclear powered death suit that is 20% larger than a normal suit.

(16 comments) - (Post a new comment)
(Flat) (Top-level comments only)

	no subject biod 2012-03-09 11:25 am UTC (link)
	"I'm breathing iiiiin, I'm breathing ooooout WOOOoooOOo~oH" One of the very few Windows-inclusive songs I fully liked. (Reply to this)

	no subject atom_punk 2012-03-09 11:43 am UTC (link)
	Oddly (or perhaps appropriately) enough I'm getting strong Bond-villain-esque feelings from the good Doctor. "You zee Mistah Bond, I haff developed a new veapon. One powered by atomic fire. And with it, zee world shall fall under my control." (apologies, I cannot produce a vaguely eastern european accent in text) (Reply to this)

	no subject mrosa 2012-03-09 12:42 pm UTC (link)
	Hm, I hope they're not going for demonization in the series; these scientists were fairly too complex to turn into simple caricatures. (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 9 comments) (Show 9 comments)

	no subject stubbleupdate 2012-03-09 12:50 pm UTC (link)
	Without giving too much away, I can safely say that Robert Oppenheimer's character and reputation will not suffer too much in Manhattan Projects (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 8 comments) (Show 8 comments)

no subject

mrosa
2012-03-09 01:08 pm UTC (link)

You mean his pop culture reputation? I'm sure there's a lot of credit to it. But according to Michio Kaku, who knew him personally, he wasn't the monster usually painted. And Diana Preston's Before the Fallout gave him and all the other MP scientists deep, complex lives. I just hope Hickman's done his research, that's all.

(Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 7 comments) (Show 7 comments)

	no subject stubbleupdate 2012-03-09 01:10 pm UTC (link)
	I read what you said and know what you mean and, without giving too much away, I can safely say that Robert Oppenheimer's character and reputation will not suffer too much in Manhattan Projects. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

	no subject mrosa 2012-03-09 01:11 pm UTC (link)
	OK then :) (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

no subject

mrstatham
2012-03-09 01:32 pm UTC (link)

I've never seen him painted a monster, personally. I know the United States, the FBI in particular, basically stirred up a shitload of dirt on him in completely unfair ways (but then it doesn't seem J Edgar Hoover had a nice side at all), but I think even basic research will show him as somehow.. Noble, really. He was yet another one who got caught up in the anti-Commie nonsense of the time, and although he didn't help himself by actively opposing the Hydrogen Bomb, he was obviously treated unfairly.

I mean, that's the impression I get of the guy, and I did a small amount of research last year for something related to my ongoing project as a concept designer. And Hickman's a professional - this sort of thing isn't alien to him.

(Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 4 comments) (Show 4 comments)

	no subject kamino_neko 2012-03-09 07:51 pm UTC (link)
	I've never seen him painted a monster, personally. Same. Rather the opposite, actually. I had to look him up to be sure I was thinking of the right guy after seeing that. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 3 comments) (Show 3 comments)

no subject

mrstatham
2012-03-09 07:56 pm UTC (link)

I'm not sure whether some people perhaps get the wrong vibe about him thanks to his most famous quote. Which, admittedly, in the wrong context, could sound utterly egotistical and all about power. But the 'destroyer of worlds' thing always sounds chillingly sombre, to me. Like someone realising the capacity of what they've contributed to.

(Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 2 comments) (Show 2 comments)

	no subject kamino_neko 2012-03-10 12:53 am UTC (link)
	I suspect you're right about that. (About people taking it wrong...I know you're right about how Oppenheimer actually meant it.) (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

no subject

glprime
2012-03-10 03:09 am UTC (link)

I've always contextualized it as a man speaking with unbearable hopelessness and anguish. He's saying the same thing a rifleman might say after shooting his first enemy combatant "today I became a murderer."

But, y'know, instead he's set off the most destructive force ever created by man. So, yes, I am a dark and destructive god. (Or rather, not a mortal with mortal feelings and morality)

(Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject vitruvian23 2012-03-10 01:26 am UTC (link)
	Well, I think the good Doctor looks rather more like himself than like David Byrne - although oddly much more like he would look several decades later on. This is more what he looked like after he'd been working for Groves for a while - not balding, hair not yet white. Is this the older Oppenheimer traveling back in time or something? (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 3 comments) (Show 3 comments)

	no subject halloweenjack 2012-03-10 01:38 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, the artist might try working off some photo references next time. The guy in the top picture looks more like a scrawnier version of latter-day Brian Eno. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 2 comments) (Show 2 comments)

no subject

arbre_rieur
2012-03-10 04:27 pm UTC (link)

The discrepancy's on purpose:

http://www.multiversitycomics.com/2012/02/nick-pitarra-prepares-to-drop-bomb-in.html

Pitarra in the interview: I kind of realized that, in people's heads or from the reader's perspective, they have these classic ideas if they know of Oppenheimer. Our Oppenheimer is much younger, he has a crazy 1940's haircut, but for people who might've seen Oppenheimer, he has a shaved head with wrinkles on his face, so I went with the older version even though it's happening at the wrong time for that. Since it's a revisionist take and since everything is so over the top and crazy, the iconic romanticized versions of the characters work better, and are more fun to draw. I wouldn't want to draw that really short mustache and the spiky haired version of Einstein, I want to do the white-haired Einstein. Feynman's pretty handsome, and Yuri Gagarin, who is the Captain America of the Soviet Union since he's the first man in outer space... we're definitely taking more of a classic look to all the characters as far as fleshing it out, and I think that's what I'm at the most proud of. It's like I said earlier, from the Red Wing to the Manhattan Projects, making those type of artistic decisions and not necessarily being a slave to reality, but still grounding it to make it all believable.

(Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject philippos42 2012-03-11 04:59 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, the way the earlobes stick out is strange. Oppenheimer barely even had earlobes. Did look a bit like David Byrne, though. http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/O/Oppenheimer.html (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

(16 comments) - (Post a new comment)
(Flat) (Top-level comments only)