Another Lady of "So Super Duper"

It's time for another So Super Duper costume redesign! Here's Fly-Girl, who I managed to really screw-up last time. I even got her name wrong! Because I'm a doofus! But at least I can draw pretty. If you give me enough time.

So here she is in all her Jennifer Lopez-inspired glory. Now I think about it, Jennifer Lopez was a "Fly Girl", on that old TV show "In Living Color." But that's just a weird coincidence. See, I like to design female super-costumes around real-world fashion elements, because it makes for more varied and flattering results. In Fly-Girl's case I was inspired by a picture of Jennifer Lopez in a long-sleeved top with her hair completely hidden by a scarf. I don't remember the color of it, but I'm pretty sure it was light. Fly-Girl has wind powers, so I made her costume an airy silver and sky blue, with a red hurricane symbol on her chest to focus the eye. And before any of you wiseapples tries to tell me it's a "target" I'd like to point out that she's going to be fighting in the out-of-doors, with the bright sun reflecting off all that silver, so anybody who tries to look directly at her will be blinded. There. Problem solved. Although her teammates might be screwed. Also, I decided to let Fly-Girl's hair stick out of the back of the scarf, to soften up her look and keep her from looking so formal/old/like some woman trapped in a creepy cult.

Update: Here's the photo that inspired the costume design. I found it on "Go Fug Yourself."

I guess it made more of an impression on me than I thought, because I even emulated Lopez's pose -- albeit from a different angle. And while I did use photo reference for the pose, it was from Buddy Scalera's "Comic Artist's Photo Reference People and Poses" (with guest author Greg Land, I shit you not). Only in the original photo, both of the model's arms were hanging at her sides, so I put one hand on her hip to make it more interesting. And now I know why!

Weird. That's what it is. Weird.

The Ladies of So Super Duper (Well, Two of Them, Anyway)

Brian Andersen's "So Super Duper" has some solid costume designs, but I think some of the female characters could dress a little more... professionally. So with Brian Blessed -- er, I mean Brian's blessing -- I tried my hand at redesigning a few of the ladies' costumes! I worked on three of them but my "Sky Girl" picture turned out pretty effed-up looking, to be honest, and just as a good chef won't serve a meal that's sub-par, I'm not going to post it. (Seriously, she looked like Quasimodo, as played by Jennifer Lopez. It was a nightmare.)

But at least I can show you my designs for Sass and Tink!

Here's Sass, the team's super-tough strong lady. I gave her a semi-relaxed afro like Beyonce wore in that Austin Powers movie she did. The collar on the one-piece is based on real-world fashions. I wanted to make sure the bottom was cut low enough to be practical (i.e. it wouldn't ride up or require a bikini wax). Ladies, you'll have to let me know if I succeeded or not. There's a clasp/brooch on the waist where a belt buckle would be (one of my trademarks) and I added a short cape for the nostalgia factor and to give the eye a rest from all that purple. The clasps on the shoulders mirror the design of the "buckle."

I still have a lot of practicing before I can draw women as easily as men, so maybe Tink was easier for me because she's a fairy and I wasn't trying to make her face or bodily proportions as realistic-looking as I did with Sass.

I replaced Tink's cheerleader duds with a straight-up superhero costume because I liked the visual/conceptual contrast it made with her fairy body, wings and all. I gave her longer hair, styled how some of the retro pin-up gals like to wear it -- pinned back with two flowers in it. I continued the flower theme by putting a stylized lily on the bodice. And although Tink looks like a total ditz in "So Super Duper" I liked the idea that she might have a dark side, and that the airhead thing was all an act. That's why I drew the "mean" face in the lower left-hand corner. You don't want this thing angry with you. Trust me.

Oh, and about Sky Girl... you can find my idea of her new costume amongst my other scribblings right here... she's the gal in the J-Lo/Rhoda Morgenstern headwrap, with the hurricane symbol on her bosom.

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.

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!

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).

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!