Ben Templesmith’s Black Sky Teaser Unveiled

Debi Moore |

Dec 1, 2010

It was back in April of this year that we got the first word on Black Sky, the new project Ben Templesmith has teamed up with Halo-8 Entertainment to create, and finally today the illustrated film’s teaser has hit online.

Black Sky is created and illustrated by Templesmith (co-creator 30 Days of Night) and directed by Halo-8’s Matt Pizzolo (Godkiller). Templesmith designed Black Sky from the outset to be produced as both an illustrated film and a comic book series.

According to Pizzolo, “The difference between an illustrated film and a motion comic is kind of the difference between a movie that was shot in 3D versus a movie that was shot in 2D but got a 3D post-conversion. We’re not repurposing an existing comic book here; we’re building something unique from scratch.”

As for what Black Sky is about, here’s how Templesmith described it in The Ben Templesmith Blog Thing:

“It’s going to be an interesting ride, and Matt Pizzolo, F.J. DeSanto, and gang at Halo-8 are giving me a fantastic chance to explore the new dynamics opening up in storytelling media… So far, all I can say is sort of Band of Brothers…but with SQUID. (Well, Cthulhu-ish ideas and my love of all things tentactular.) Yes, it’s a war comic. Want to get all emotional and down and dirty with it. Not exactly comedy in the vein of Wormwood… It’s post apocalyptic. It deals with a small group of soldiers, as the human race is reduced to relatively low tech solutions to claw back their planet, the new religion that drives them on to this goal in the face of hopelessness…and all the stuff that comes from such things. Many horrific and, hopefully, some touching ‘tales from the front’ in many ways. And of course, they’ll end up being players in a major event that may define the now generation’s long conflict. Lots of action but with an actual point to it I hope, rather than an excuse to simply draw ‘cool’ things.

Humans are such fragile things.

Squid, not so much.”

Check out the teaser and some early concept art for Black Sky below, and keep it here and on Halo-8 for more.