It’s my podcast interview debut on Sci-Fi Saturday Night, which originally aired this past Saturday! I start babbling around the halfway point – with hints of what to expect in the next few months of the Hero Business.
Thanks to Dome, Krianna and the rest of the Sci-Fi staff!
For this week’s Rough Monday, I’ll offer up a sneak peek at a new character appearing this Thursday. He’s a doctor, but his bedside manner is, shall we say, lacking.
With the holiday, this week’s “Rough Monday” is actually “Rough Tuesday.” Welcome back to work, drones!
This week, I’m posting my penciled page from the upcoming “Japan Needs Heroes” Project. Here’s how organizer Benny Powell describes the book: “JAPAN NEEDS HEROES is a comic book featuring numerous creative talents from both the Webcomic and Print comic worlds coming together for a common cause. 100% of the profits for this book will go to benefit the victims affected by the tragedy in Japan. The book’s theme will be about uplifting stories of hope in the face of tragedy.”
Here’s my page from the book:
As for the finished product…. You’ll have to buy the book to get the first look!
With DC’s recent revamp announcements, I’m a little taken aback with the push to make everyone “bad-ass.” And, apparently, “bad-ass” also means overly complicated costumes with a lot of needless lines and seams all over the place.
So, I found this sketch I did a coupla weeks ago. It was just a doodle of Aqualad and his gal pal, Aquagirl. From artist Nick Cardy, on the introduction of Aquagirl: “I think it stemmed from the idea that the Aquaman character had Mera, while Aqualad was sort of left out. So George and Bob wrote in a young girl character, Tula. Like with Mera, I designed Tula’s outfit and overall look. She was Aqualad’s companion, being of the same age, they could relate to one another, or oppose the elders. We played up the fact that she was this wild, “hip” 1960s modern girl and Aqualad was more reserved and introverted.”
I dunno. Maybe I’m crazy…. but I think a lot of these characters had untapped potential. Not every hero needs to be a grim dude, all super-serious about his crime-fightin’. Sometimes they can be fun-lovin’ teen heroes with goofy haircuts. I’m fine with that.
So when I developed The Hero Business, I wanted each of the characters to be distinct. And that means they would also DRESS distinct. I decided on color schemes for each of them, but then I vary up the ensembles. It gives the comic some variety, and allows the characters to express themselves a little differently. The exceptions (for now) are Bravado and Malefactor, who wear more-or-less costumes, like old-school comic book characters.
This storyline, there’s quite a number of outfit changes for Bravado, but there’s also lots of different wardrobe selections for Parker, Simon, and Morgan, too… because things take place over several days time.
For Parker, I want her to look youthful and a little on the alternative side. She usually has black nail polish, heavy eyeliner, wrist cuffs, leather boots, and cute tops and skirts. So her outfits vary within that theme. Here’s a sketch of what she’s wearing in the next couple of strips (Thursday!). I always sketch out the outfits before I draw it on the page:
