Air Raiders Cartoon, Part 2

In my previous post, I showed a folder with various notes on a cartoon pitch for Air Raiders by Sunbow. The inside of the folder had some amazing art plastered across the whole spread. The style is not reminiscent of what they used on the box art and other areas, it’s more like a comic book. But it’s still wonderful to see! (I know Richard Marcej said he worked with Bart Sears who became well known for his comic work. I wonder if this is his?)

Here’s the whole spread below.

Check out that Air Raider assault on what has to be an Air Refinery. I love the smoke and gases pouring in/out of the mountaintop along with the strange rock formations. Really cool visual. The perspective on this attack is very nice. In fact, it’s so well done that the comics seem to have reused it!

Some of the details are interesting too (below).

On the left is an officer of some sort taking aim with a really cool gun. The officer reminds me of the earlier color palette for Lieutenant Noble.

And just like the comic I’m wondering what is the Storm Dagger shooting? There’s no weapons mounted up on the nose. Unless that cloud trail is the missile on the other side. Please note now the art shows the missiles mounted on the exterior. I always put mine on the interior like a submarine torpedo. Now I wonder what was the right way to do it?
In the middle are two Enforcers about to counterattack the Storm Daggers. One has a big cannon while the other has some sort of power source for it (I think)! I love that; makes me wish they had given some weapons to the figures. Baron Volt seems to be in the background, getting blown off his feet but I can’t be sure. On the right is the Dragonwind and the glider drone which look really different from what it eventually looks like.

Next is the Air Raiders attacking some sort of large stone idol. I wonder if this was a cartoon plot point that was never touched upon because I can’t think of any reason why this would happen. The idol is even breathing out fire to destroy a Storm Dagger! There’s a character in the foreground that looks like an older Admiral Fury (or Zaliens). He has a cool looking blaster in his hand. There is a smokey, dirty quality to this art, It looks different from the main piece. I’m not sure if that’s because of the coloring or inking or something else.

Next is a Tyrant assault on the Command Outpost. Another neat perspective angle although the proportions seem to be off. General Rokk (Stag) is sitting up top with a soldier while wayyyyy down below are some rebel vehicles charging into battle. Is the Outpost on a cliff? Not only that but I swear one of the doors are opening and a Man-O-War is coming out.

Last but not least are some character shots. I’ll assume that they are (l-r) Emperor Aerozar, General Rokk and Eeleta (or Aerrengar, Stag or Kyle and Eeleta).

Oh and one more thing; here’s the folder spread and how the pages would have slid in. Thanks again to Eric Spikes for providing this awesome folder and it’s contents.