Thanks for digging these up, Sadie! I really like the character studies on Roger/Red Beard--he looks more like a fit, adventurous rogue than in the final comic. Those tryout pages are awesome! I had to laugh at the epic one that looks nothing like LEGO at all, but it's definitely taken directly from the Golden Medallion. (That's definitely how I imagined the Pirate theme was, though. ) I ran the documents through an online OCR and then Google translate, here's the translated proposal:
LOGO Publishing wishes to the following briefing paper to create a concept on the theme of pirates / pirates / privateers. The concept must include the following: Person Characteristics and names. The characteristics must be built-in opportunities for conflicts to an-facing presence in fiction products. Be it books - comic Games - role playing - role play - film. The target audience is primarily boys aged 7-12 years with emphasis boys 9-11 years. Individual characteristic must include both physical and mental characteristics. Required photographic material will be sent when it is released. The drawing an environmental characterization in order to both toy assortment and fiction program. Environmental characteristic must be able to provide a framework for the characters' appearance in "the universe". It should be an attractive visual backdrop for every imaginable product types. Photos of the models be sent when they are released. WE KNOW 26.08.1987 Hold 1 Hold 2 pirate captain governor 1.styrmand deputy 2. Officer soldiers, sailors, civilians including one female (evt.een female figure) figure monkey (these figures is also requested name-parrots, given and character set) The scenes are the Caribbean sea years 1750-1800. There seems a pirate ship of the frigate type, a søfort, one treasure, evt.han-delskibe and warships. It is important in concept to capture the mood and karkteregenskaberne not in any way conflict with the LEGO Group's overall objective. This briefing paper is of course subject to the clause of confidentiality submitted aktalebrev. LEGO PUdsnMp Tele0e0ee I.e3 31 30 11 88 tEGOFIwa MS Telex 80787 Mpe6k 2 Denmsrk _ e R.199999
I wonder what the photographic material mentioned looked like; whether it was mostly preliminary stuff to start with or if it was close to/actually was the finished product. Those trial pages vary widely on how close they are to the actual sets/minifigs. The story synopsis didn't come through the process as coherently, but from what I did get it was pretty clear that it's actually a synopsis for the unpublished second Pirate comic.
TC