Outlaws of Phalysium: Behind the Scenes (part 1)

In a world where boys are secretly girls...

Outlaws of Phalysium is my first attempt at a more serious kind of TG story, one that I developed in collaboration with Grumpy-TG. If you haven't read their two amazing comics which connect to the beginning and end of Outlaws, you should check them out at patreon.com/GrumpyTG  

Curse of the Woahman and Invasion of the Woahmen are excellent comics (and frankly hornier than my entry into the series.) I wanted to tell an adult story that still featured a good amount of action and suspense, but wasn't so focused on titillation. I think the Phalysium setting is worth exploring from that angle, even if it has its roots firmly planted in sexy soil.

So why "part 1?" Well that's because I've been developing The Wanderer character for over a decade, but that's sort of outside the context of the Phalysium setting. So part 1 of this BTS will be about Phalysium and its origins while part 2 will be about where The Wanderer came from.

Right, let's get into it:

CONCEPT

Grumpy-TG came up with the basic pitch for The Phalysium Chronicles in the summer of 2023. We were chatting in a Discord call and they laid out their rough idea of a scifi world where it was all men, but the men were secretly women. I was instantly excited to chime in with some ideas and before we knew it we were partners collaborating on a setting. We must have sounded crazy that week, because we would be in the middle of a group chat and one of us would have a great idea about the setting and we would drop everything to discuss it.

The setting is essentially split in half between the ongoing story on the ground in the city with Curse and Invasion, and what is happening outside of it with Outlaws. The funny part is Grumpy and I are interested more in the opposite sides of the setting from what we're writing. In our talks I developed a lot of the quirks of the society of Men and what their whole deal is, how their infrastructures works and such. Meanwhile Grumpy is very interested in the biological and scientific angle of Phalysium. It was their idea to have a great equatorial shadow cast from the planet's stationary ring. They also came up with the biology of the walking trees and the other flora-fauna creatures on the surface of the planet.

Grumpy's depiction of Phalysium's surface

Honestly we should write a story bible at this point so we don't forget anything. I could go on about the details of the terraforming project or the origin of Manifest Destiny or why the world's surface is so barren, but that's stuff better left to your imaginations. The plot is what really interested me.

STORY

So Grumpy made Curse of the Woahmen last year and I knew that I wanted to do a follow up to it that expanded the setting somewhat, but kept true to the basic premise. As I'm sure you're aware by this point, I am a huge Star Wars fan. One of its core problems is the inability to move on from the events and aesthetics of the original trilogy. I didn't want Phalysium to fall into that same trap, so I wanted to tell a story specifically about the people who lived outside of the established order of the city. Curse established the rules, so Outlaws would break them. So by the time Grumpy was wrapping up production on their first entry into The Phalysium Chronicles, I was already developing my own ideas.

First ever Outlaws sketches

Land vehicles were originally going to play a big part in Outlaw society. I wanted to do a Mad Max thing where they would ride through the ring shadow to raid the city in order to get parts for their rocket ship. The first version of Outlaws was much more high octane, less ponderous.

God this rocket train was so cool. Definitely want to do something with this eventually. Also featuring an early version of The Duke

As for the ship in orbit over Phalysium and its connection to the city, I don't want to speak too much on that because its definitely going to come up in a future book and I don't want to spoil any surprises. Just know that we know where we're going and all will be explained eventually.

My first attempt at the ship page layout, months before starting the actual comics project. I believe this is the first visual representation of the Woahmen ship.

Eventually we realized that Outlaws was going to be the connective tissue between Grumpy's books, so things had to take a certain shape. While a focus on travel was still important, there were certain elements which needed to be explored in more detail and characters to put into play.

CHARACTERS

'Nitro Quake' was later renamed Quake Nitro because I literally forgot which way around her name went until it was too late. True story.

So originally the Outlaws were going to be more like a gang. They would cause trouble for the city of men and the council would suppress their activities. I had an idea for One Piece-style posters for each of the key players in the Outlaws, but I realized that wasn't exactly what I wanted to focus on. Yes, the Outlaws were all kicked out of the city and were now living a sort of free-wheeling existence in the wasteland, but that didn't make them criminals necessarily. Who knows? Maybe the wanted posters will come back at some point. Either way, I realized I had my sort of 4 core outlaws to explore in Quake Nitro, The Duke, The Wise Man, and The Wanderer. Sticks and Amogus were late additions because I really just needed some more people around. I've never been particularly good at crowd scenes and I didn't want my Phalysium to feel too barren.

Early version of the Wise Man. Sometimes a good beard is all you need

The Wise Man's story is sort of shared between Outlaws and Invasion. Grumpy goes into more detail about her history and motivations. She is the sister of a starship captain and the would-be shepherd of the city of men. She is not interested in the status quo or respecting authority, but rather doing what is right for the people around her. If she had not discovered The Wanderer's mysterious connection to the captain (more on that in part 2), she would still have tried to fly up to the ship to reactivate it somehow. She's shrewd and she uses her wisdom to guide the people around her to greater heights.

Quake Nitro is a direct reference to the wrestler "Macho Man" Randy Savage and the various characters he inspired throughout my childhood. Wrasslor from Dexter's Lab and Bonesaw from Spider-Man being the big two here. She's essentially a big brute who respects that there are people who know better than her and people who are stronger than her. I have a whole backstory idea for her that I might explore further down the line, but I can give you the Cliff's Notes. She was a juicer in the city (see Curse of the Woahman for more on that topic) and used her freakish juiced-up strength to fight in prohibited underground wrestling matches. Eventually she gets caught and kicked out of the city. Because of her overuse of guylenol, her body was permanently changed into the mountain of muscle we see in the comic. The gender swap just gave her tits. She managed to make her way across the ring shadow and was taken in by the Wise Man, who helped her come to terms with her new feminine form. Unlike the other members of the quartet, she's completely happy expressing herself as a woman. She thinks it gives her a good silhouette.

The Duke was the first Outlaw I designed. Based on Prince, Bootsy Collins, and Ruby Rhod (The Fifth Element) with a little Immortan Joe sprinkled in, he's supposed to represent the Outlaws who still wish to retain a part of their masculinity. The Duke is very big trans vibe. He wears a binder, he puts on makeup to fake facial hair, he packs his trousers. He's somehow an AMAB transman. I wanted to show that not everyone is interested in accepting the femininity which has been impressed up on them by their lack of guylenol. He is not supposed to be a tragic figure however. He has found power in the pageantry and plays with the gender norms of Phalysium culture. He's supposed to be the guy running the show, with the Wise Man being the power behind the throne. The Duke is a fair leader and the outlaws respect him. He has everyone's best interest at heart, even if he can be a bit much sometimes.

The Wanderer is the subject of my next BTS post, so I won't go into too much detail here. I will say that their concept is really just a hero that represented someone more like me. They're a non-binary person who didn't really come to that conclusion until later in life, when their gender was questioned. I think that's an interesting hero to put into a scifi story that is interrogating the very nature of gender expression. They're driven by a singular passion: Exploration. They don't want to colonize or extract value from anywhere they go. They simply wish to observe and then move on to that next frontier.

CONCLUSION

A sketch of the city and its infrastructure

Outlaws of Phalysium was a risk. This is my first attempt at serious science fiction since I started making TGTF comics. I wasn't sure how the audience would receive it. I'm still not sure. To be perfectly honest, I'm writing this on the morning of July 19th after finishing the last page of Outlaws yesterday. We haven't even gotten to the space stuff yet, so y'all might completely turn on me by that point. We'll see! Either way, I expect to make more comics in the universe of Phalysium, both about the planet and about The Wanderer and their adventures in space. That probably won't happen until next year, but I am very proud of the work I've done so far. I could even see a more longform webcomic-style approach in the future.

If you have enjoyed Outlaws, please let me know! Comments and likes are definitely appreciated. Do you like the more serious angle? Do you wish there was more sex or action or scifi concepts or something else? I'm genuinely curious.

I cannot thank you enough for reading my comics and supporting me. I hope this was coherent. It's currently 5am and my brain is turning to slop. Part 2 will be up next week, where we'll get into the secret origins of the Wanderer and you'll get a peak at some never before seen artwork and some old comics of mine from the vault! See you then!