The Hero Business

A piece for CBR’s “The Line it is Drawn” tryouts. The theme: “Turn a famous person/character into a superhero or supervillain.” Here’s a famous red-headed mop top as an anti-hero(ine). It’s a Hard Knock Origin, punk!

I wanted to do a riff on The Punisher’s first appearance:

Here’s my original rough:

And the finished piece:

It’s week two of the Comics Should Be Good “The Line Is Drawn” try-outs. The theme is “team ups” and “two comic characters that have never teamed up before.” You have to choose from a selection of fan-tweets, so I chose Booster Gold and Wonder Man.

My “genius” idea was to do a riff of those corny Hostess ads that ran in the late-70s and early-80s. You can check ‘em out here. My idea was to portray the Hostess ads as a real paying spokesman-like gig. Yeah, perfect for two fame-seekers like Booster and Simon.

So here’s the pencil sketch:

I originally had Booster and Simon in their retro-80s era costumes; Then, I decided to keep it modern…. with the conceit that the snack food company had fallen on hard times and could no longer afford the likes of Superman and Spider-Man. And here’s the final:

Also, a reminder: If you’d like to see more of this stuff, vote for me in “The Line Is Drawn” poll, right here!

A few weeks ago, The Hero Business hosted the return of Stiletto. She was my first published comic creation – a hard-edged heroine with a sharp blade and killer heels. Originally a joke shared with a few friends, the character took a life of her own, serving as a satire for comic books but “sexy under-dressed 90s anti-heroines” in particular.

After Stiletto’s Hero Business debut, I shared her secret origin along with the very first ashcan issue. For this week’s Rough Monday, I bring you a holiday tale of the ages: The Stiletto Christmas Special. Hope you enjoy!

Happy holidays, heroites!