FROM THE BOOK OF HELIOS

"...And Zarael was cursed by the gods to live a life no longer than men... to succumb to the earliest death. To perish in youth. And his children will suffer after him. Father he lamented to great Zeus.

Why hast thou cast me from the light of your eternal splendour?

The gods of Olympus decreed silence. Your father is dead, Faunus. Weep well,

For it is you who have devoured him.

...The god Faunus died. And his children grieved. They turned to their sister Nekhbet.

And they told her to devour Faunus, for she was the queen of darkness, the soulless one.

And he, Faunus, the horned god of the animals, of fornication and chaos, would be reborn.

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Beast-Mode Sketches

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The demonic beast-modes were deliberately withheld to tell a story of young superheroes and their struggle to do good deeds. Aesthetically, the focus became primarily on their human sides, and not the nightmare creatures within.

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Be sure to check the Facebook page for character insights and "Corben's notes"!
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Vultura Character Sheet

Losing her sanity... and self... after a series of psychologically traumatic events submits her will to the team's morally questionable practices, Zoe suffers an identity crisis, modifying her costume to better suit her personality.

This physical change into what I like to call "Vulture Couture" occurs about halfway through the book, and represents a newfound confidence within Zoe, and her need for individuality. It also serves to foreshadow her destiny. This is Zoe's dark fairytale, so I needed something for her to really stand out, bold, with a hint of menace. I was inspired by Disney witches.

Cartoon cancelled for offensive content, TV Guide, March 1984

In an industry first for TV networks, a cartoon about superheroes who feed on human flesh has been taken
off the air by executives at NBC.
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Beastforce follows the lives of "five animal-morphing teenagers" as they struggle to cope with their
natural urge to eat human beings.
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"There were too many complaints. Frankly, I'm at odds as to how this got funding in the first place" NBC
Network Chairman Dale Rutherford said on Wednesday on the eve of the uproar.
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Parents and Children's advocacy groups have labelled the cartoon sick and distasteful, calling for a review
on the standards of acceptable content in Saturday morning cartoons.
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"Our children need to be sheltered from this violent, sex-saturated world we live in" says Marsha
Weinberger, president of the American Parent's League Against Sex and Violence on Children's Television
(APLASVCT).
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"After the show aired, my son started biting his sister, eventually taking out a chunk of flesh from her
arm. When I asked why he did this he said 'I'm hungry, like Beastforce. I want to eat people'. We just
don't need our children aspiring to be cannibals right now, it's too weird and disturbing."
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There have also been reports of adolescents engaging in inappropriate behaviour with their siblings after two
characters on the show who displayed sexual behaviour were revealed to be brother and sister.
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The show's creators declined to comment.

Above: A scene from the offending cartoon.

Extract from "Fairies and Boogeymen - A World of Children's Stories" by Jacinta Avery

Cave painting depicting the arrival of animal-men, Namimbia, roughly 25,000 BC

"...Perhaps most noteworthy of all bedtime stories in east Africa is this cautionary lyric of animal men, passed orally through generations, which children sing before sleep, supposedly to ease their nightmares. Similarly, like in several parts of the world, animal men are used as the figure of the boogeyman, of which this poem offers comfort from; the last lines chanting "we wait for them to die". This is almost identical to the Moroccan tale of the boy and the snake man, where the child waits for the beast to die, before cutting it's stomach open to free his father, who had been swallowed whole."

Bhimbetka rock painting of the Snake Man walking among men, Mesolithic Period, 12,000 BC

"We Wait" Old African nursery rhyme.

Nobody knows where the animal people came from.

Nobody knows why they are here.

They talk like a man, they can even sing songs.

Nobody thinks to fear.

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Nobody knows where they go at night.

Everybody hears them creep.

Run little boy. Hide inside!

Nobody knows who they will eat!

They eat and eat til there's nothing left.

They eat til you disappear.

They eat your bones, they eat your soul.

They will even eat your screams.

Nobody loves them, but they look for a mate.

We wait til they die.

We wait. We wait.

Nobody loves them, awaken, awake.

We wait til they die.

We wait. We wait.

Contemporary painting depicting an animal man dancing,

Niagara Art Collection, original oil on canvas

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Beastforce Character Designs

Each member of Beastforce is outfitted with a morph-suit, designed by Dr. Corben, which bonds with its wearer on a molecular level, allowing for expedient transitions into beast-mode. The Defence Gauntlets are constructed of titanium alloy, which possess an in-built video communicator as well as a repository for supressor pills.

The suits were modelled on the LZR suits of Olympic swimmers, and with the team working in the gym, I thought a lycra-based look was the best way to demonstrate fitness and uniformity. Dino was the exception who, like other alpha-grade were-people who become team leaders, need a suit of armour to act as a containment device, as they often lose control when allowed full rein of their capabilities.

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