Today kicks off a short, long overdue flashback showing just what the heck happened to Dark (Star) Maiden after she left Las Vegas. While the 400th strip played out as a fun reveal, I really did see it as a promise of an untold story I’d have to tell one day. Enjoy.
Why do you think Dark Maiden joined up with the invading aliens?
Greetings, once again, SuperFans! Marc here with another illustration to share. This time it’s not superhero or comic book related, though so I hope you’ll enjoy it. The other day I thought it would be fun to draw one of the most iconic performers of the 1970′s punk scene, Joey Ramone.
I was experimenting here with a more fluid and cartoony style than I normally use for The SuperFogeys. The basic structure of the drawing is inspired, oddly enough, by Dr. Seuss. Seuss is a huge influence in my house, and having just celebrated his birthday this past Saturday (3/2/13) his style was fresh in my mind. (Fun fact: Dr. Seuss was born in the city I call home!)
Here's a pic I snapped of the blue line roughs I sketched out for this piece.
After sketching Joey out in a Seuss-esque style with a light blue colored pencil, I then inked over it on a sheet of marker paper taped over the original sketch.
Nearly complete inks.
For the inking, I wanted the look to be bolder than what I normally do, so I opted to use a black Prismacolor marker with a nice fat brush tip for all the heavy lifting. I then went back and cleaned up some of the line work with a Pigma Micron pen. The original actually measures 14″ x 17″, much bigger than I normally draw at.
After scanning, I colored in my usual fashion in Photoshop. When I color, I usually create a solid color layer for each major color in the piece, then create a layer mask based on a selection of the area I want colored. This allows me to easily adjust the colors if I need to after it’s all colored in without any hassle. For instance, I originally had Joey’s hair set as a darker shade of grey, but after laying in the background color, it didn’t “pop” like I wanted, so with a quick adjustment I was able to play with it and get it just right. The background also has a subtle grainy layer over it to give it some texture. This was created by making some quick gradients then playing with some noise, half tone screen, and blur filters.
So, there you have it. I hope you didn’t mind a little insight into my process. Let me know what you think and if you’d like to see more postings like this one.
Do I see another flashback come on…
There… on the horizon… yes, I think I see it, too!
Thinking that you can control the mentally unstable, extremely powerful person has always been a villain mistake.
But one of these days… one of these days it’s gonna work!
Because she’s gone back to her evil, pre-Summer of Love ways? Someone needs a ‘brownie.’
Somehow, I doubt even a ‘brownie’ would mellow out Dark Maiden.
Dark Maiden v. River Tam. Now THAT’s a battle I’d like to see.
I wish we had upvoting on this site.
Old Bezuel seems to have grown fonder of his daughter since her ordered her mother to kill her as a baby and then betrayed her after she conquered their home world. I’m surprised she kept “Unidentified Military Officer With Fashionable Scarf” – which is so what you should call him if/when the Super Fogeys toy line comes out – around. Unless I’m mistaken he was also in on her betrayal the last time. I’m guessing memory loss is a side effect of the poison they used on her.
Sadly, Unidentified Military Officer With Fashionable Scarf already has a name–it’s General Makus. I believe an upcoming strip will make that clear. And you’re right–she seems to have accepted them, but we don’t know all of what happened before they all came to Earth. You’ll find out a little more next week, but not all.
I like that one general alien dude guy for some reason. Maybe it’s just the design, maybe because he seems to just be trying to do his job for the most part.
Nice.