Saturday, September 08, 2007

So Super Duper

Brian Andersen's "So Super Duper" is a fun, frenetic little comic about a motor-mouthed and deeply closeted twink, and his travails as the least-powerful member of a rather bitchy JLA-type team called "the Amazin'naughts." Andersen's artwork is cartoon-styled (it reminded me a lot of DC's old "Angel Love" comic) but his character's faces and poses are so expressive that there's never any doubt as to what's happening in a panel. Also, some of the costumes are so well-designed that I wanted to try my hand at depicting them in a slightly more realistic style.

Here's the star of "So Super Duper", the empathic (and that's it) Psyche. He often strikes these kinds of melodramatic poses in the midst of all his swanning about. To bring a sense of that into my own drawing, I based his posture on a photo of a cheerleader. A teenage, female cheerleader.

sosupduppsyche



One of the many other superheroes to be found in "So Super Duper" is Comet, who is also in denial about his sexuality, and who seems to have a little crush on Psyche. Comet is one of the few genuinely sweet characters in the book. (Seriously, poor Psyche is just surrounded by jerks, the poor guy. Let's hope these two crazy kids manage to hook up!) This is my favorite out of all of Andersen's character designs. The icing on the cake? Comet and his twin sister Star have matching cheek-moles. Adorable!

sosupdupstar



Remember those jerks I mentioned? Here's one of 'em! ...Okay, so he hasn't had much panel time -- in fact, I have no idea what his boots look like so I just mimicked the style of his gloves -- but he seemed pretty snide to me. And it wasn't even anything he said! I guess it's just his face. Which is par for the course, since he has fire powers. Heck, I can't think of any heroes with fire powers who had gently-arching Joel Hodgson eyebrows. There must be some kind of genetic link between pyrokinetics and angry-looking Romulan eyebrows (with red hair).

sosupduphothead



There are also a lot of female superheroes in "So Super Duper" but to be honest, most of their outfits either veer perilously close to Hoochie Mama Territory or just flat-out plunge right into it, off a cliff, like Thelma and Louise. But then, Brian told me he wouldn't mind me posting some costume redesigns for his characters, so... I'll work on some for next week!

8 comments:

Bill S. said...

It so relieves me that you use your powers only for good!

Phillip said...

I read the previews... Pretty entertaining stuff!

Anonymous said...

Indeed, it sounds interesting.

I rather like this new style you're experimenting with here, BB.

Jeremy Rizza said...

Thanks!

No, really, thank you, Chawunky, because it was your Blockade Boy costume submission that inspired me to try my hand at a freer, more expressive drawing style. Especially on the faces. I've had a lot of trouble in the past coming up with a way of drawing eyelids that I was happy with; when I'd try, my characters would always come out looking kind of snotty and jaded, like the people in Doonesbury and The Boondocks and... Garfield. I dunno. It's kind of hard to explain. Similarly, I had trouble drawing mouths much beyond "close-mouthed smile" and "close-mouthed frown". But your cool rendition of Blockade Boy inspired me to practice again until I came up with some solutions. So now I can draw a much greater range of expressions without having to rely on photo reference, and I think my work is finally starting to take on some personality.

So thanks!

Fun fact: photo reference for Comet's pose: Greg Louganis (torso and legs only), inverted.

Anonymous said...

Jeremy! Your work is AMAZING and so fun! Thank you for the awesome take on the So Super Duper characters!

Anonymous said...

Well thanks, man!

Anonymous said...

Psyche kind of looks like Harold from the Red Green show in that first pic.

Anonymous said...

Get So Super Duper spoilers from Brian Andersen at:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/368785/so_super_duper_comicbook_creator_brian.html