Once upon a time, before they were rock stars, some of the cast of the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series lived very different lives. They used the powers of fire, wind and lightning to protect the Earth from an evil alien empire. They transformed and wielded swords and magic powers to defeat their enemies. They were SUPERHEROES.
Remember in my last post when I mentioned writing 46 other books which led to Our Lady? Actually it’s more like 50. Anyway, if it wasn’t for these books, there wouldn’t be an Our Lady. If Amy Edwards hadn’t led a band of female warriors who used the powers of the elements, she wouldn’t have picked up a guitar in Our Lady. If Rob Zickye hadn’t used his class ring to transform into a superhero, he wouldn’t have become Our Lady’s drummer.
I had originally planned a series of comics and graphic novels, however, I knew I could write the stories faster than I could draw them so I ended up writing books instead. I was heavily influenced by Japanese anime, especially Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena. I had used the characters featured in OLORR in other stories, but developing them as superheroes was an idea that seemed to take off on its own.
Enos
The Enos series takes place across 19 books, which are divided into three parts: Enos, Enos Revolution and Enos Remix, which is a retelling of the original series. Five alien girls on the planet Natca are born with the ability to control the elements, and they train in secret to learn to use their powers to fight a neighboring empire which has invaded their planet. They die in battle and their powers are passed on to some familiar OLORR names: Amy, Vanessa, Carmen, Delfino (Dee) and Yvonne (Vanessa’s younger sister). They learn to use their newfound powers and become responsible for protecting the Earth. What you see pictured above are the covers of the first Enos book I wrote in 1996, and the revised version from 1999 which led to the other books in the series. Altogether, the series was written in 1996, then between 1999 and 2007.
Of course, there had to be a male superhero at some point…
Degenerate R
The female-dominated world of Enos needed a male counterpart. Enter Rob Zickye, a.k.a. Militant Warrior Degenerate R, who transforms through a chip implanted inside his high school class ring. Degenerate R has 15 books in three parts: Degenerate R, Degenerate R Ultimate and Degenerate R Glorious . No aliens in this one; just superpowered anthropomorphic cats fighting each other for the control of the fictional city of St Moral, and later, the world. This series was written between 2003 and 2004.
Connection to OLORR
While I don’t have any plans to publish any of the Enos or Degenerate R books, there is a way I can publish the stories in their intended graphic novel form. If you’ve read the first Our Lady book, Degenerate R received a shout-out. In Chapter 26 Amy mentions a comic Rob was drawing, featuring a character who dressed like her: t-shirt, army jacket and jeans. This character is Degenerate R. So maybe, in the future, I will release “Rob’s comics” in graphic novel form.
Character Design Development
One of the best things about the Enos and Degenerate R series is the opportunity it gave me to develop the designs for my characters, especially the characters I transferred from Enos. Vanessa and Yvonne underwent the most changes. It took a few years to get the looks that I wanted, and to this day I’m still tweaking some of the designs. I’ve decided to close this post with some old artwork I drew for the Enos series in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Next time: more books that led to the creation of OLORR, including the original handwritten OLORR. Until next time.
