THE CONCEPT ALBUM, VIDEO GAME and SCREENSAVER….

It all began as a concept album with my band, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets back in the late 1990’s. We wanted to try something different, new, and exciting! So not only did we produce a soundtrack to an alleged forthcoming feature film, we also included a video game and screensaver on the disc!

Spaceship Zero: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (CD album) by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets

Spaceship Zero the Video Game for PC [download]

THE ROLEPLAYING GAME…

Myself and bandmate Warren, being big tabletop roleplaying nerds (Dungeons and Dragons etc), decided it would be cool to expand the lore of the concept album into an RPG. Having worked with Green Ronin Publishing for years as a freelance illustrator, I ran the idea by them and they agreed to publish it! The book took home an industry award for best independent roleplaying game! Some miniatures for the game were also produced.

Spaceship Zero the Roleplaying Game

Here’s a review of the RPG

Toren also made some SSZ ‘ads’ for a livestream play-through of the introductory adventure “Slave Ship of Despair” one of which is presented here:

THE COMIC BOOK….

I decided to take a course in comic book production at VanArts here in Vancouver, taught by Steve “Queen & Country” Rolston. The course involved writing, drawing, inking and lettering a four page comic. Doing a prequel to the story seemed a natural go-to. Unfortunately I couldn’t fit the story into just 4 pages, so some time after the course I completed the 5th and final page.

The comic is written and drawn by Toren Atkinson, lead singer for The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets and co-creator of Spaceship Zero, and appears in the following anthologies:

Exploded View (Cloudscape Comics)
Strange Aeons Magazine #3

Panels for the comic are included at the end of this blog post. They are lettered by Ed Brisson.