Fantabulous Adventure of M Hardoon Rotman - (Week 9)

[Previous Week Plot Review]

The two pieces the Old Man wanted Rohardoon to retrieve were a Jade Cong and an Amethyst. He climbed down from the dome ceiling, but just as he landed on the 3^rd floor balcony, he immediately noticed something wasn’t right.

Through the dark glass wall, he saw the Security Chief of the museum was forced by two masked Japanese Ninja into the Electronic Control Room. They reactivated the freight elevator, cut off the basement security system, then tied up all three security staff.

Rohardoon realized the Ninjas were here for the same purpose as his! He accelerated his action…

[FOUR – A Ninja Holding a Sword Closing In]   (Week IX)

In the basement, Catherine wondered why the freight elevator was used at this hour! If the guard wanted to talk to her, they had keys to passenger elevators on the south end. She stood up and walked to the electronic pole entrance.

Suspiciously she peeked toward the north end from the walkway, but immediately noticed that all the surveillance lights on the poles were out! Which meant the security system has been turned off!

She tensed up and turned back. Totally startled she saw a Japanese Ninja in black robe with black cloth wrapped around the face was descending the steps into her office from the walkway on the opposite side. The Ninja was holding a samurai sword with shinning blade!

She ran to Cass, shielded her daughter and shouted: "Stop! Don't come near! What do you want?!"

The Ninja stopped, stood by the end of the long working table.

Cassandra whispered behind her: "Maman, they are here for the blinking eye…"

Catherine did not understand: "What blinking eye?"

"That crystal eye."

Catherine instinctively ran toward her desk, to get the amethyst first. Suddenly a sharp metal star flew over and cut into the wooden desktop next to the amethyst.

"Don't move!" A shout came from behind her.

Two more Ninjas appeared on this side of the walkway, wielding their samurai sword and slowly stepping into the office area.

Amidst this commotion, nobody noticed except Cassandra, the sound of opening and closing of the Fire Exit door at the far end.

Catherine's first thought was to reach the crystal before these Ninjas could get to it, but Cassandra pulled and struggled her mother backwards, until they could hide themselves behind another desk.

Seeing the mother and daughter had retreated, all three Ninjas put their sword back into the sheath. The first Ninja bend forward to grab the trophy. But before that could happen, the amethyst instantaneously flew up, shot out of the office, and flung into the mosaic mural, then vanished completely.

[FIVE – “The figures in the painting are moving!”]

Of course, that was Rohardoon’s doing, he came out of the fire exit and raced down the walkway to the office area, just as he arrived at the mural, he saw the Ninja’s hand reached out for the amethyst.

Instantly he picked up the CONG from his chest and pointed it at the amethyst, the amethyst flew over and attached itself to the CONG as it was a magnet.

Rohadoon looked at the three Ninjas, the archaeologist, and her daughter, all of them were staring at mural with eyes wide open, trying to understand what had just happened!

Not obliged to offer them any explanation, he made a funny face to the little girl then turned around and ran toward the fire exit.

In a split second, as Rohardoon ran pass the mural again, all 3 ninjas and Catherine saw what happened in front of their eyes, collided head to head with their senses.

As their eyes delved into the mosaic mural in search of the dissolved amethyst, in a split second, all of them saw the figures in the mural began to move; at first Pious the 7th suddenly stood up, and sat down again, followed suit by Napoleon lowering the queen's crown on Josephine's head, then Josephine extended her neck to take the crown; behind her, her two ladies-in-waiting fanned out her crimson coronation mantle, tossed those little golden bees up in the air.

One of the Ninja exclaimed in Japanese: "The figures in the picture … are moving!"

[To be continued next week]

Digital Illustration for Character Design

Mahako - One of 3 major female characters in Novel: "Beauties from the Golden Vase." Digital Art.

麻葉子 － 『金瓶麗人』三位女主角之一。

Tang Mayie at the Opening Party

This is my illustration for Sci-Fi Graphic Novel: Fantabulous Nanomorphique Adventure of M Hardoon Rotman.

Tang Mayie attended the Opening Party, but did not participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony, only sitting at the VIP seat, wearing wide-brimmed hat and dark sunglasses.

[To read the story:  www.fantabulousnarrations.com/copy-of-test-1 ]

(A pick grew out of the Newt Suit from the invisible hand of Rohardoon, so he could open the glass case and grab the Cong.)

[Previous Week Plot Review]

Rohardoon was really comfortably lying on the edge of the ceiling's grid frame. He was sleeping up there, to avoid the crowd in the rotunda.

The Old Man sent him here to pick up 2 pieces that the Old Man claimed had lost a long time ago!

The Old Man gave him a cool “Newt Suit,” by wearing it, he became invisible and was able to craw and stay on any type of surface.

Now the museum had closed for the night, and it was time for him to move!

[THREE  –  Lying on the Ceiling]  – Continue  < WEEK VIII >

Stealing antique artifacts from a world-known museum was not an easy task, but with this cool and invisible suit, he could get anything he wanted without any problem!

He had watched and studied the museum for two weeks, it was under the Oldman’s instruction, to observe and learn all the operation protocols and the routines of the guards. Just as now, he watched one of the guards making the night’s first patrol.

There were 2 night guards and they would take turns to perform this duty. Tonight, it was the chubby one first. He slowly covered the fire exits, the elevators, and the first, the second floor; then returned to the control room on the third floor. Panting visibly, he joined his colleague at their post in front of the monitors.

Control room's glass wall gave the guards a bird's eye view towards the rotunda, but the dark glass obstructed the view from outside, only the lights from the monitor screens might be vaguely discernible to visitors.

But visitors were ordinary people! Rohardoon was not! He had the “Newt Suit!” Newt suit allowed him a vision that no optical tricks could successfully erase! He could see clearly through the dark glass, and survey every movement in the control room.

The chubby guard sat down and immediately dug into the leftover sweets from the cocktail party. The other guard worked on the control panel, turning on various buttons.

In the rotunda, thousand threads of the infrared lights now dissected the dark silence and entangled the space with a deadly web waiting to catch a prey.

Rohardoon stretched a little, then turned and crawled off the dome, passed the rose window, and landed on the third floor balcony. Through the dark glass wall he saw museum’s Chief Security Officer, Etienne Fournier entered the control room. Fournier should be off-duty by now, but perhaps because this was the first day of a major exhibition, he stayed late.

But immediately Rohardoon knew something was wrong, Fournier's facial expression alerted him first, then he saw the two masked figure behind Fournier, they were Japanese Ninjas!

Once inside the control room, one of the Ninja ordered the chubby guard to activate the control of the freight elevator and to switch off the surveillance system in the basement. The other Ninja tied Etienne Fournier and the second guard to the chair.

Very obvious, these ninjas had the same purpose as his, and for the same things too! But they ordered the freight elevators to be activated, and only the basement surveillance be cut off, Rohardoon concluded they came here for the amethyst only, because it was not included in the exhibition and was in the basement right now under Dr. Denver’s possession.

Rohardoon hurried up, he nimbly jumped over the balcony banister, and landed in the rotunda. The infrared web had no effect on him, he was a prey that they could never capture.

Stood in front of the glass case of the CONG, he extended his index finger towards the little lock on the base of the glass case. Immediately a small pick grew out of the Newt Suit from the fingertip and he pushed the pick into the key hole. The case opened and he grabbed the jade CONG.

Strangely he felt in his palm the jade CONG swelled, but returned to normal in a split second, as if its body need a stretch after a long rest.

Without thinking, he placed the CONG onto his chest, it stuck to the suit. He swiveled around and ran for the fire exit at the north end of the building, and headed for the basement to grab the crystal.

[To be continued next week]

Fantabulous Nanomorphique Adventure of M Hardoon Rotman - (Week 5)

[Previous Week Plot Review]

Catherine and Cassandra followed the flows of the visitors through the display cases in the rotunda. Cassandra kept telling her mother that there was a man lying on the ceiling. Catherine checked but did not see any strange things on the ceiling.

It was almost the closing time, they went to the elevator and descended to the first level of basement where Catherine’s office was located. She decided to take another look at a piece that was not included in the exhibition – an Amethyst with bizarre “behaviors.”

 & TWO  –  Mosaic Replica of “Napoleon’s Coronation”    < Week V >

The entire basement was an open space, all the items it stored, no matter a box, a drawer, or a shelf were in full display. The dimension was about 50 meters long and 20 meters wide, but its height was rather deceiving, because of a sunken area sat in the middle.

This sunken area was enclosed by a walkway about 2 meters wide along the four walls. At each corner, and in the middle of each side of the walkways, a small 5-step cement stair descended into the sunken well. Thus, this unusual layout gave the basement an extra height, almost equal to one and a half level of regular floor.

Three large desks, a long table, with chairs, and several filing cabinets were arranged at the south end of the sunken area, here, Catharine and two assistants performed their daily duties.

But as one stepped out of the elevator, the real eye catcher was not exactly the vast space, nor its massive storage. The first thing one’s eye would encounter was a huge mosaic mural on the east side wall. Expanding almost half of the length of the wall, the mural was a replica of Jacques-Louis David's ‘The Coronation of Napoleon.’

The historical event of Napoleon and Josephine’s coronation happened on December 2nd, 1804; and the location was Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. David’s painting depicted the very moment Napoleon holding the crown aloft for Josephine’s coronation.

Jacques-Louis David started this painting in 1805, and finished it by the end of 1807. The original painting, now in the Louvre, was gigantic 6 meters by 10 meters. But this mural focused on the two major roles, particularly Josephine whose kneeling figure, with the long train of the coronation mantle embroidered with gold bees, covered two thirds of the lower half of the replica. Also because of it was in mosaic style, the entire mural resonated a breath-taking effect of mesmerising fabrication of color and shape!

This mural became museum's hidden gem; via special request, organizations and groups were granted permission to descend to here and to be marveled by this art piece of its own.

The elevator door opened, and Cassandra bounced up and down all the way to the mural and stood in front of Josephine, the slightly bowing head of Josephine was just about at her eye level. This was almost a ritual whenever she had a chance visiting her mother’s office, stopping in front of the mural first. She would stand there for a long time, not staring at Josephine, but at her mantle, imagining and counting how many bees could be embroidered on it. She had counted with Napoleon’s mantle a few times already.

Catherine went directly to her office, but said to her daughter: "Don't stay outside too long, coming back to the office soon." The "outside" was the walkway, the sunken well naturally was the "inside;" because along the inner edge of the walkway, 18 electronic surveillance columns were installed. 7 at each long side, and 2 at each short side.

The columns were made of aluminum alloy, stood from the floor to the ceiling, and equipped with the most advanced electronic surveillance technology. The columns threaded a 3D invisible grid of complicated net, securing the entire collection on this floor. Each column was about 3 inches in diameter, the surfaces were covered with irregular shallow cuts of lines and iconic designs and they in turn were encrusted with crystal glasses. From these shallow crystal inlays, green florescent lights flashed at random intervals, scanning the outside world. These watchful rods and lights added a surreal atmosphere to the entire basement.

Storage cases, boxes, cabinets were orderly arranged in this sunken well, several movable stairs were available for reaching object on the higher shelves.

This advanced electronic security system was all controlled from the third floor Security Room at the south end, overlooking the rotunda. The room was in fact a glass box, with floor to ceiling walls of black one-way mirror.

All the artifacts stored here, no matter its size, as soon as received by the museum, would be scanned into the system, and the system would start tracking it 24/7. Therefore, to steal or smuggle any piece of the collection out of the museum would not be possible!

Catherine swiped her ID card through a slot on the Electronic Column, then entered into her office. She wanted to take a closer look at the piece she insisted not to be included in the exhibition, a crystal looked like an amethyst.

[To be continued next week]

Coloring the comic strip

Finally I figured out how to color my comic strip.

Also the Buddha stature in my illustration is based on an amazing Gandhara Buddha stature, here is a photo, the original is in Guimet Museum in Paris.

Fantabulous Nanomorphique Adventure of M Hardoon Rotman - (Week 4)

[Previous Week Plot Review]

The Jade Exhibition held at the Pellimet Museum in Paris attracted great audiences, but the most eye-catching item in the exhibition rotunda, was a huge poster, hanging over the balcony banister from the 3rd floor to the middle of the 1st floor.

The poster was a lovely photograph of a couple – Alfonse de Baux, the original owner of the ancient Chinese artifacts, and his fiancée, Chinese movie star Tang Meiye; both in Chinese period costumes.

This highly anticipated exhibition was about to open in two days, but what happened next stunned the entire city of Paris! Alfonse de Baux disappeared into thin air!

With such unexpected happening, Parisians were even more anxious to see the exhibition, therefore it was a block buster on the opening day, and the museum almost received non-stop visitors from the morning to the night!

Catherine and Cassandra stopped by in the early evening and followed the visitors through the exhibition.

But Cassandra raised her head and looked up again and again, the mother asked what she saw, she said there was a man on the ceiling.

ONE  –  The little girl looked up again and again  – Continue  <Week IV>

Catherine again squinted her eyes and looked at the vault ceiling, still, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. But she somehow knew that she could not ignore her daughter's acute senses. She discovered that Cassandra, at a very early age, exhibited telepathic abilities.

 "A man? on the ceiling? How is that possible?"

She focused on the stucco surface of the diamond shapes, searching for signs of cracks, flaked paints, or even remote possibility of a bird nest illegally set up in a hidden corner.

If any of those cases happened, she would have to report them to the engineer department of the museum for repair jobs to be done; but the ceiling right now looked in a mint condition to her.

"There is a man lying on the ceiling." Cassandra said.

"How can a man lying on the ceiling?"

"like a lizard."

"Lizard is crawling on the wall, or on the ceiling, with its four legs, not lying there."

A group of visitors led by a guide moved to the glass case where they was viewing.  They heard the guide said: "In this glass case, we see this jade piece, caused quite a debate in the academic world. From the shape and color of the jade, it should be, as Chinese scholars would call it, a CONG, it is a ritual piece used in various religious ceremonies, but when the museum received the collection, it was mixed among a small amount of Mayan jade pieces. Our researchers wanted to raise the question to Mr. de Baux directly, but unfortunately, Mr. de Baux suddenly disappeared several days ago, right now, searching efforts were launched all over the world, yet all in vain; therefore, unless we find Mr. de Baux, otherwise, no one could answer this question: why a Chinese jade was in the midst of Mayan pieces."

Cassandra saw that her mother's attention was shifted to the visitors, listening on the guide's explanation; she tucked on her mother's clothe again, and pointed her finger to the vault.

Catherine looked at her wrist watch, then softly said: "Silly girl, let's go back to my office, there is another piece, I need to take another look."

Catherine's office was on the first level of basement. Mother and daughter had to take elevator at the north side of the circle, where the entrance to the rectangular building connected to the rotunda.

Pellimet Museum had two levels of basement, where all museum's collections were stored. But the basement space was not as big as the entire street block; because there was no sub-level underneath the rotunda.

She picked up her daughter's hand and went for the elevator by the entrance to the rectangular section of the building.

The third floor of this rectangular building was mainly offices for the employees, with the Electronic Control and Security Room at the south end, overlooking the rotunda.

The first and second floor were various sized room for themed exhibitions.

On the first floor, the entire space was divided into 3 sections by two walkways. The middle section was larger than the two flanking sections of equal size. They were utilized for specific themed collections of the museum.

Two passenger elevators were located at the end of the west section. The space in front of the elevators, was a 6-foot wide “curved” corridor separating the rectangular section with the rotunda.

Only elevator number two stopped at all five floors, i.e., from the third floor to the second level basement. Elevator number one descent down to the top level basement only, skipping the second level.

At the north end of the building, two more service elevators situated next to the fire exit, one at each corner. The one on the east side was a freight elevator, three times larger than the stander size, to accommodate any over-sized artwork.

At the end of the east section, in the middle of the curved corridor, a beautiful and grandeur spiral staircase twisted and twined from the first floor, through the second floor, landed on the third floor balcony. It was pretty spacious, wide enough for a two-way traffic, as long as each using the right side.

Only a packed exhibition like this one, the museum kept it for one-way traffic only, upstream in the morning and downstream in the afternoon; any wrong direction at the wrong time, would have to wait for the elevator.

(To be continued next week)