YOUNG JUSTICE: INVASION: TSENG PUPPET

WB Animation Character Design, YOUNG JUSTICE, Secretary General Tseng. Pencil, Digital Color.

In the Season Two opening episode, "Happy New Year," intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo appears in New York City in search of -- Secretary General Tseng??? Yes, indeed! And, despite the concerted efforts of Wonder Girl, and Batgirl to thwart him, Lobo succeeds in ripping Tseng apart to reveal the man to actually be a sophisticated mechanism, a puppet! Inside is a diminutive controller, an extraterrestrial being who is Lobo's true quarry.

AN EXTENSIVE PEEK INTO THE CHARACTER DESIGN PROCESS

This design was difficult, as well as great fun. There was a bit of misdirection at first, as the episode director and the show producers had different ideas about how this human puppet was to work. Obviously, with this being a cartoon show for kids, we couldn't make things too gross. There must be no blood-and-guts gore, but the action must still be believable, and cool.

- Director Mel Zwyer's initial concept on the storyboards was super-cool, with an angle towards darker sci-fi, a la Ridley Scott. The little alien was to be curled up almost in a fetal position within the Tseng-Shell's torso, manipulating the puppet through means resembling telepathy. As much as I loved this concept, I had two problems with it. One: I had already been given a different direction based on an earlier section of the boards (This happens sometimes during a schedule rush, with different portions of an episode's script being handled by a team of storyboard artists.). Two: Given the scale requirements, I didn't feel it was believable for an alien of the size described in the script to be curled up inside an average man's body that way. Preliminary designs for the alien just didn't allow for this brilliant concept to work, in my opinion.

- Producer Brandon Vietti's concept was lighter, borrowing from the 1997 film "MEN IN BLACK" (inspired by Lowell Cunningham's comic book). In line with this, I designed a driver's seat for the alien, along with some control "joysticks." Because I still had an issue with the required scale, it was agreed that I design an alien subspecies, simply labeled as "Krolotean Drivers," which were even smaller than the regular Krolos.

Owen Sullivan's storyboards depicted Tseng being shredded by Lobo. Working from this, I meticulously designed a robot Tseng body with a convincingly human exterior, and an interior with mechanics that were readily comprehensible in function, yet still extraterrestrial in design. This was one of the more challenging assignments, but lots of fun!

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