SubscribeNote: One of our P:R favorites Joel Carroll returns to us with an enterprising collection of redesigns of some great Golden Age Public Domain heroes. These designs were done for John Slater‘s Mystery Men role-playing game, which you can playtest here and get a copy here. Whether you get the game or not, these designs are a hit in the P:R offices. – Chris A.
Fantome
Sean
/ August 19, 2011Is it a good or bad thing that I instantly thought of the following characters in relation to these drawings? Designs seem VERY similar….
Wildfire = Scarlet Witch
Black Fury = Black Terror
Magic Agent = Dr. Occult
Fantome=Phantom lady
Miss Victory=Supergirl
Mr. Q
/ August 19, 2011I love these golden age redesigns. Very sharp yet still retain the look and feel of their original garb. Wild Fire looks incredible as does Fantome and Miss Victory. I could see these character in the now as well as the past. Fantastic job, Joel.
Mr. Q
Itlas
/ August 19, 2011THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY AWESOME,this is one of the best redesign i have ever seen,Joe Carrol has stayed in touch with the original concept,giving these heroes a bit of modernity keeping them totally recognizable by readers.
Dedpool
/ August 19, 2011Nice! I was going to take on a few Public domain heroes myself.
mario silva
/ August 19, 2011Very good, very simple but all redesigned… Very Nice!
dan
/ August 19, 2011I personally think you’re stretching some of those comparisons — esp wildfire and ms victory, Sean but can respect that you’re getting echoes in general (which is fine I think esp. given that these are modern updates of GA characters, a bit reaping what they sowed imho).
hoylus
/ August 19, 2011Hey, love these. Would it be possible to find out what programmes/tools the artists use for their designs on P:R soon?
Thanks
Andrew Kilian
/ August 19, 2011Nice Stuff all around. Miss Victory looks pretty Yummy. Hey, Magic Agent; now I know where Nick Fury came from.
Jay
/ August 19, 2011All are great, especially like Wildfire and Captain Triumph. Beautiful work. That crossbow dude reminds me of Boba Fett
Shiner
/ August 20, 2011Always liked Captain Triumph and wished DC made more use of him – his concept could be used in a lot of fun ways.
Anjin Anhut
/ August 21, 2011@Sean It’s neither good nor bad that you related some of the designs above to other superhero designs. Yeah, the designs are similar, but that is simply because that around world war 2 many companies wanted to cash in on the patriotic super hero craze and came up with rather similar designs or blatant knockoffs to already selling heroes from other companies.
Though I think that your comparisons of “Wildfire = Scarlet Witch” and “Miss Victory=Supergirl” are a bit far fetched. Brown hair and red costume to me aren’t enough to make a Scarlet Witch and regarding Miss Victory, characters like Liberty Belle or Star Girl (masked and directly america themed) spring to mind.
Oh and BTW Fantome doesn’t just look similar to Phantom Lady (very good call, Sean), it IS her. http://pdsh.wikia.com/wiki/Phantom_Lady
FossilLord
/ August 21, 2011How is this not in retrofix?
Chris A.
/ August 22, 2011good question: the artist didnt do the process part thats part of retrofix.
Strannik
/ August 22, 2011Like Anjin Anhut said, Fantome is the Fox version of Phantom Lady. The name was presumably changed to avoid trademark conflict with DC Comics.
Vito Delsante
/ August 22, 2011Joel has some of the best instincts when it comes to superhero design. The guys who picked him to do art on this game were very smart.
Great job, Joel!
jonmcnally
/ August 22, 2011Not only are these deceptively simple and splendid redesigns, the drawings themselves suit my fancy also with their clean, sparse lines. Well done, Joel!
Joel Carroll
/ August 23, 2011Hey, thanks for all the kind words, guys!
I changed Phantom Lady’s name to Fantome, simply because both DC and AC Comics are using Phantom Lady. She still looks the same as the original.
I didn’t “redesign” these guys so much as just streamline them a bit….which is why I didn’t necessarily think of them as a Retrofix.
Dedpool
/ August 25, 2011@Joel- All around great job! These guys could easily fit into Project Superpowers or something.
fodigg
/ October 19, 2011I love Swiftarrow’s Boba Fett-style helmet. And the cape flipped over his shoulder, showing the gray underneath. You almost never see that.