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Star-Fall: An Origin Story

By S.J. Dann

D'Compose, an Inhumanoids character sculpted D.R. DannIt all began in a basement in upstate New York …

In the spring of 2013, I was down in my father’s basement sculpture studio in upstate New York. I was busy taking apart preexisting action figures and reassembling their pieces into new figures. It was down in that very basement that my father had worked as a sculptor during the hologram craze of the 80s and 90s. There my father had sculpted officially licensed models for Spider-Man trading cards and comic book covers, Batman trading cards, Superman comic book covers and trading cards, Image Comics comic book covers, Star Wars book covers, Dragon Ball-Z trading cards, Jurassic Park book covers, Ghostbusters cereal, the Visa credit card dove, Goosebumps book covers, The Visionaries toy series, and countless others. He also did original sculpts for toys and action figures for The Inhumanoids toy line, GI-Joe, Littlest Pet Shop, and My Little Pony. It was within these hallowed walls that Star-Fall was born. I began building a new figure from spare parts that I had in my collection. As the figure began to take shape I began to consider who she was. Where was she from? What universe or storyline did she belong to? What was she doing? How did she wind up with a robotic leg and a robotic arm? Early on I decided she wasn’t part of any preexisting story. She needed her own story and her own universe, but first she needed a name.

Lt. Nef'Fenya Naa created by S.J. DannNef’Fenya Naa Amantra became the first character that would be a part of the Star-Fall universe. Shortly after, more characters began to emerge and take shape. The second Star-Fall character I designed was the robot Aves, Nef’s manservant and caretaker. After that the story was off and running and ideas for new characters kept immerging. Some characters started as figures that then needed their own backstories, and some started as concepts that then needed figures.

The more figures I created the more fleshed out and fully developed Star-Fall became. Initially Star-Fall was set to be a limited run of independently produced action figures based on the custom figures I was making. The Star-Fall action figure line was originally intended to be an homage to 70s and 80s toy lines like The Visionaries or Masters of The Universe. Featuring 80s color schemes and over exaggerated concepts of right and wrong, the Star-Fall figures fought a never-ending battle of good vs. evil in space.

As I was looking for someone to sculpt the production mock-ups for the line I realized that the backstory for the toyline was growing larger and faster than I could keep up. Star-Fall couldn’t be contained to a series of short blurbs on the backs of action figure packaging. The more characters and concepts I created and incorporated, the more I knew I needed to focus on getting the story written. Star-Fall: The Novel Series will center on Nef’Fenya Naa and her allies as they explore the Altarus Star-Cluster and fight to save their universe from impending evil.

Why a webcomic?

"Buzzard," a Drone created by S.J. DannOnce I had created enough characters for Star-Fall, I approached the incredibly talented artist, J. S. Loomis about doing some concept sketches based on the custom action figures I was making. It was exciting to see how the beautiful art that Loomis produced captured the essence of each character and added a new dimension to the story. Because we both enjoyed the work and the characters I suggested the idea of doing a comic series and I asked if Loomis would do the art. He said yes, and thus began an exhilaratingly intensive 4 and half month process of getting everything ready from the ground up. With the writer and artist in place it was time to assemble the rest of the Star-Fall Webcomic team that now includes our webhost, web designer/graphic artist, PR fairy, and several guest artists and writers. If you’re reading this, it means we’ve succeeded and Star-Fall: The Webcomic has gone live!

As a huge fan of the sequential art medium I wanted to pay homage to the amazing stories and art that has touched my life over the years. The webcomic has added a visual storytelling component to the rich and diverse universe that Star-Fall encompasses. Because Star-Fall is such a massively lore-driven universe, having a regularly published webcomic will allow us (the creative team) to explore its history and mythos in a nearly infinite capacity. A webcomic also affords us, more freedom in storytelling and allows for a much larger cast of characters and a wide variety of stories to tell. This way, we have more room to play and that means less of our ideas have to end up on the cutting room floor. The events that transpire in the webcomic take place roughly 1,000 years in the past and tie directly into the plot of the novel series.  The novel series and the webcomic can be enjoyed separately from each other, as there is no need to read one to understand the other, however, to get a deeper, richer, Star-Fall experience, we recommend reading both. The webcomic series functions as an indirect prequel to the novel series.

Imperial Shipyards

The website imperialshipyards.net is a Star Wars fan site devoted to the unique hobby of custom action figure and toy creation. While not limited to only Star Wars related work, the site hosts a diverse community of fans and creators alike that come together over their shared love of the saga. It was on the forums run by Imperial Shipyards (ISY) that I began cutting my teeth as a custom action figure creator. In 2011 I started a blog dedicated to reviewing Star Wars action figures. One thing lead to another and I found myself on imperialshipyards.net. As I poured over thousands of pages of custom action figures from creators all over the world, I began to take apart my own figures and reassemble their parts into new figures. At first the assemblages I made were very basic. My first custom figures were done without any glue or paint. I took apart only the easily removable pieces and accessories and swapped them with other figures, a technique in the greater model making hobby known as ‘kitbashing’. The members of ISY were incredibly welcoming and very supportive and they offered me useful tips and feedback for making even better custom figures. The site is full of fantastic tutorials and resources for anyone looking to get into the hobby. With the encouragement of the members there, I decided to try my hand at making some fully glued and painted figures. As for anyone starting something new, my work was crude and I needed a lot of practice, but I was hooked!

I kept working at customizing, never shying away from seemingly impossible ideas and crazy concepts. I turned Stormtroopers into zombies, I combined Batman and Mandalorians from Star Wars, I even made a custom Tank Girl figure with tiny removable Band-Aids and a removable ‘rocket bra’. After several years, multiple commissions for my custom work, hundreds of dollars in parts and supplies, and a break from the hobby to return to college, I had honed my skills to what I considered to be a much more professional level. It was after graduating from college that I created Nef’Fenya Naa and I devoted m custom action work exclusively to developing Star-Fall. I first posted Nef’Fenya and the other custom Star-Fall figures I made on imperialshipyards.net to get a sense of what people thought of the skills I had developed and the characters I was creating. Each main character that will appear in the webcomic will be based on a hand built and hand painted custom action figure. Each of these new figure will be posted exclusively on imperialshipyards.net and can be viewed on their website. Shawn Groves, aka Tamer, the owner of Imperial Shipyards, is a member of the Star-Fall team as our webhost. He has been a constant source of support and the community he has built on Imperial Shipyards is truly one of the most welcoming and coolest places on the web. If you are interested in making custom action figures and toys let us know and we’ll get you pointed in the right direction.