Cyberfrog
| Cyberfrog | |
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| Cyberfrog leaping with logo behind him Cyberfrog by Ethan Van Sciver |
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Cyberfrog, also stylized as CyberFrog, is a fictional anthropomorphic frog superhero created by American comic book artist Ethan Van Sciver. The character had its first full appearance in Cyberfrog #1 published by Hall of Heroes in June 1994 and a second, more well-known, release under Harris Comics from 1996 to 1997.[1] The character was dormant for much of the 2000s but there has been a renewed interest since the announcement of a crowdfunding campaign by Van Sciver in March 2018.[2][3][4]
Character[edit]
Bio[edit]
Cyberfrog (Birth name: Trikk Rhan) is an organic and cybernetic frog-being from a planet outside Earth. Cyberfrog comes from a hyper-advanced space-faring race called the Pyrdani. The Pyrdani were aware of a coming invasion of Earth by malevolent vespine aliens, and attempted to thwart the invasion by dispatching a mothership to Earth. The ship possessed the technology with which to create powerful organic/cybernetic warriors based on a genetic scan of any living thing. It also contained Kjell Sinn, a powerful Pyrdani synthetic intelligence that is able to augment the offensive and defensive capabilities of the cybernetic warriors, adapting them to any situation.
The Mother Ship landed in New Jersey in 1996 and the Pyrdani intended it to find human hosts to scan, but the ship had landed in the middle of a swamp and no humans were present. Instead the ship scanned a frog and a salamander and the Pyrdani warriors Cyberfrog and Salamandroid were born.
Description[edit]
Appears to be an anthropomorphized green frog, roughly 5'00" tall and with various cybernetic components to his body which can change and adapt at will. Cyberfrog's 'base' appearance features fully cybernetic metallic limbs with rounded, seemingly transparent-or-translucent domes (housing machinery and circuitry) on his shoulders. The only parts of Cyberfrog which do not appear to be cybernetic are his torso and head.
Inspirations[edit]
Ethan Van Sciver has mentioned inspirations for Cyberfrog as including Ed Wood films, science-fiction films such as Alien, superheroes such as Spawn and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and science-fiction TV series such as Mystery Science Theater 3000, among others.[5]
Publication History[edit]
Hall of Heroes[edit]
Hall of Heroes, an independent comic book publisher, was based out of Elkhart, Indiana where Van Sciver and other creators would sometimes promote and sell their comic books at the county fair. The first full appearance of Cyberfrog was Cyberfrog #1 in June 1994. Prior to Cyberfrog #1, the character had a full page preview in Hall of Heroes' Vortex #5. While being published under Hall of Heroes, Cyberfrog experienced limited success due to the low exposure nature of the independent comic book market. Van Sciver sought more exposure with other publishers.[5]
Harris Comics[edit]
In 1996, Van Sciver took Cyberfrog to Harris Comics where the character saw significantly more success. A four-part Cyberfrog mini-series was published from February to June 1996 followed by a two-part mini-series titled Cyberfrog: Reservoir Frog in September and October 1996. A follow-up #0 origin issue for the initial series was released in March 1997. Numerous variant covers as well as one-shot issues were released throughout the late 1990s and as late as 2001 with a one-shot titled CyberFrog: Amphibionix.[6][7]
During the height of Cyberfrog's popularity at Harris Comics, Van Sciver was met with the possibility of licensing the character. Playmates Toys had begun work on an action figure line while Mainframe Entertainment, now known as Rainmaker Studios, had begun plans for a cartoon series as well as a deal with Fox Kids. The plans fell through, however, after a series of terminations by one of Playmates business partners.[7][8]
Later popularity[edit]
During the 2000s, Van Sciver repurchased the rights to Cyberfrog with the hope to reintroduce the character at some point in the future. In March 2018, after having left his career as an artist at DC Comics, amidst the Comicsgate movement, Van Sciver began promoting Cyberfrog: Bloodhoney on his YouTube channel "ComicArtistPro Secrets" and launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo which went on to become the highest grossing crowdfunded comic book of all-time.[3][4]
ALLCAPS comics[edit]
Van Sciver self-published 'Cyberfrog: Bloodhoney' under 'ALLCAPS comics' in July 2019 after raising nearly five hundred thousand USD in crowdfunding through Indiegogo. It had 14,942 backers who contributed $859,575. The number of backers will be lower than the number of sales, as there are several tiers in the campaigns which offer multiple copies of the book.[9][10][11]
References[edit]
- ↑ "ComicBookRealm.com: The Free Comic Book Price Guide & Community - Use our database to track your comic book collection". Comic Book Realm.
- ↑ Pulp, Talking (13 July 2018). "Talking Pulp: Comicsgate and the Sustainability of Crowd Funded Comics".
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Track Ethan Van Sciver's CYBERFROG:BLOODHONEY Comic Book's Indiegogo campaign on BackerTracker". BackerKit.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Van Sciver's Cyberfrog Tops $400,000". scoop.previewsworld.com.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "WC10: Ethan Van Sciver Spotlight - CBR". www.cbr.com.
- ↑ "Series search for cyberfrog". Comic Book Realm.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Comichron: A Resource for Comics Research". www.comichron.com.
- ↑ "Ethan Van Sciver's CYBERFROG:BLOODHONEY Comic Book". Indiegogo.
- ↑ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ethan-van-sciver-s-cyberfrog-bloodhoney-comic-book/x/20726378#/
- ↑ https://igg.me/at/-b7qIjh-e7g/x/20726378#/
- ↑ https://igg.me/at/Cyberfrogteamupvariant/x/20726378#/
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