Note: One of our most industrious P:R Regulars Daniel Govar returns to the site to give us more from his imaginative take on Marvel’s New Mutants. Continuing on from his New Mutants Collection from last year, Govar given us new takes on Dani Moonstar (aka Mirage) and Warlock, with a little Cypher and Karma thrown in if you look close enough. Who wouldn’t want to see this in action? – Chris A.
Note: Artist Daniel Govar is back with three new additions to his earlier Justice Society of America Collection. His renditions of Hawkman, Sandman and Starman really bring the majesty of these long-time heroes to the forefront. What do you think? – Chris A.
Note: 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.
Note: This collection by Ilias Kyriazis is inspired by DC’s recent revamp of the Teen Titans for “The New 52,” but the artist takes those heroes and puts them through a rigorous set of costume revisions to come to this amazing final product. After the finished pinup, look below for Kyriazis’ amazing concept sketches. – Chris A.
Here’s what Ilias had to say about the design:
These were done with the DCnU reboot in mind so I knew that:
1- They should have a team look. (“Titans first, sidekicks second”).
2- Red Robin should have wings.
On the other hand I didn’t treat this as a complete “they-meet-for-the-first-time” relaunch and I kept some things from they past costumes like Superboy’s bracelets and Impulse elements in Kid Flash. Red was a common in everyone’s part costumes so it was an easy choice for a team color. I incorporated “T” logos and downplayed individual logos (Superboy getting an “S” in his shield could be a plot point). I kinda based the final illustation on Brett Booth’s cover and I threw in my take on “coal girl” (I don’t know if it has been announced who she is yet).
Note: After wowing people with his new take on Marvel’s New Mutants, Daniel Govar is back and taking on DC’s original super-hero team, the Justice Society of America. Govar is no stranger to DC having won the Zuda competition with his webcomic series Azure, but today’s illustrations see him take that style to DC’s old-school heroes. – Chris A.
Green Lantern – I went back and forth on eliminating his cape entirely, and finally settled on keeping it as that and the red on green are what are most identifiable to me. I wanted his high collar to be part of his top, as opposed to his cape to modernize his look. Making the pants tan and making the boots match his belt and cape seemed to make his costume feel more natural to me.
Flash – Not wanting to stray too far in his design, I thought sliming his helm and making his costume more of a running suit – complete with running shoes seemed right. The metallic shiny finish to his suit was also something inspired by track athletes and the Roman god Mercury, from which Flash’s helm is derived. Additionally – I always saw Flash with a runners physique – not so bulky as he’s typically depicted – more of a distance runner.
Dr. Midnite – Going for a falconer’s look, but less medieval, I wanted his costume’s cut to have more graceful features. Also, I felt his moon motif should be more subtle – killing the symbol on his forehead. Aside from that I didn’t want to change his colors much, just tone them down a bit.
Dr Fate – I chose the spiral pattern as a motif throughout his outfit (a repeating pattern in nature), and thought of his costume as being something that grew over him once the helm was worn. I put a little more detail into the shape of the helmet, and wanted the cloak to be slightly more regal, with the two split pieces coming over his pectorals.
Hourman – I confess to not knowing much about him before researching the character for this piece. After reading about him – I couldn’t shake the thought of him being this uber parkour runner, popping a pill to increase his abilities for an hour at a time. That being the case I did lose his cape, but went with a hoodie, running shoes, and fingerless gloves. I also would put a stopwatch on one arm under the hoodie so he knows when his time’s up – his trademark hourglass turning into a logo.
Note: Longtime P:R readers know Jemma Salume. She won our Black Canary Canary on the Catwalk contest and did a great Collection of would-be Sorcerers Supreme in the Marvel U. Now she returns to the mystical arts to bring a new fashion sense to Doctor Strange’s most potent foes — and a special image at the end! These pieces will have you saying, “By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth!” – Chris A.
Dormammu & Umar
Jemma: It’s can’t read about Dormammu and his sister Umar’s history as Faltines without seeing parallels with real mythology – Namely the Islamic concept of a Djinn and the story of the fall of Iblis/Shaitan. For that reason, I pulled the majority of their design influence from pre-Islamic Middle-East (with a dash of a shout-out to Guy Davis’ second Black Flame from BPRD for flavor). Umar is in a psuedo-Egyptian garb, with a collar and crown fit for a queen, and Dormammu is in disintegrating armor, most of the cloth and flesh of his upper body burned away by his own fiery power. With an army of Mindless Ones at their command, only Doctor Strange stands between our universe and their all-consuming ambitions!
Shuma-Gorath
Jemma: Marvel’s Lovecraftian horror! Well, one of them. Doctor Strange was willing to kill the Ancient One to prevent this guy’s manifestation on Earth, so any redesign has to underscore visually how much of a threat to our realm he really is. Making him too huge to exist is a start, and I went further by basing him on a crown-of-thorns starfish, with deadly spikes on his back and creepy tube feet adorning his horrible tentacle arms. The single hateful bloody eye stays, of course.
Satannish
Jemma: My favorite thing about Doctor Strange’s rogues gallery is that there’s really nobody whose abilities rely on physical prowess. Most of what we see of these jerks is an illusion anyway – What need do they have for huge muscles? There’s other ways to look like you’re going to mess someone up, and Satannish served as my proof of concept. I tried to build him like a hateful, emaciated old man, stretching his face to resemble something from one of those old etchings of Satan or Ba’al, and worked to up the creepy factor on that face in his torso. The guy’s in the biz of stealing souls – and while having your soul stolen is bad enough, you really don’t want to be the one he gives to his second maw to gnaw on. Naturally, he is still on fire, because demons on fire is awesome.
Nightmare
Jemma: Nightmare is a fantastic concept. Humans brush against the borders of his realm every time they close their eyes, maybe even wander in a little and wake up screaming, drenched in a cold sweat… And once in a while, someone gets pulled in so far it’s up to the Sorcerer Supreme to get them out! It’s like a tug-of-war with people’s sanity. But man. Demon horse? Green longjohns? I’ve seen scarier in videogames. This new Nightmare’s taken design cues from medieval kings by way of Slenderman, with ghostly little servants running around his feet, perhaps shades of the people who fell into his grasp long before there was a Sorcerer Supreme to save them.
Baron Mordo
Jemma: A classic – Baron Mordo! The cockiest and cruelest of the Ancient One’s students, I kitted him out in a variation on an Eastern European military dress uniform to reflect his noble Transylvanian background. His eyes have been darkened by his alliances with shadowy powers, and his sleeves bear the burning eye of his earliest benefactor, Shuma-Gorath. He doesn’t need swords, really, but I gave him some anyway – He strikes me as the kind of guy who, despite his imposing mystical power, would derive a lot of satisfaction from personally cutting Doctor Strange to shreds. Sans magic.
Note: Artist Daniel Govar (winner of our recent Aquaman: Sea Change contest) has taken his mind and drawing hand to the second generation of Marvel’s X-Men, the New Mutants. This are characters close to Daniel’s heart as well as more than a few fans, and these innovative designs are a testament to that. – Chris A.
Cannonball was the first in my doodles where I think I nailed down the idea for the uniformity in each of the costumes. I wanted them all to have a unique quality that spoke to their region, in cut and style, but also retain the group motifs. For Cannonball – I knew I wanted greys and blacks for his colors, and played around with a few round shapes and patterns early on, abandoning those for something that bespoke “speed”. I remember turning tight in the comic was always an issue for him, and thought retractable tail-fins would work. The military bar strips at the top of his flight jacket I thought were just to touch to say “leader.”
This was actually the first I did. Thought the tattoo version the best way to preserve the uniform look of her character when she was all flamed up. In her orange and red outfit- I wanted something off the shoulder so her tat was visible, and thought the curves and peaks in the boots, top, and bottom were nods to her fiery nature.
I wanted her costume to truly function – the idea being that the lower portion of her costume peels back when she transforms, to either side and she has a place for her shoes as well. Again, I wanted to keep the duo-tone leathery look as a constant, but with Irish nods – braids, knotwork in belt and top… This one is one of my favorites.
Bobby – coming from money, I figured would have the nicest threads. I also saw him as slightly detached from the others – not having any particular buddy or pal. I originally gave him an all white loose-fitting uniform, with an X badge belt-buckle, but the more I thought about him the more I pictured posturing wrestlers. I tried going for an ornate version of a WWE belt. I gave though to giving him an “X” tattoo as with Magma, only inverted – sort of the yin-yang of each other, but abandoned that idea.
Her outfit was probably the toughest for me to wrap my head around. She has such a mish-mash of styles going on by default with the Eldritch armor, and demon portions – bringing in her own identity – was hard without going too far one way. The badge/communicator X and the duo-tone leathery motifs being the pieces that married her to group. I tried to give what was there of the cut and blade style to be Russian with a twist.
Note: Marko Djurdjevic has become a prolific cover artist and character designer for Marvel Comics, but he first got noticed by doing some X-Men redesigns for fun back in 2006. Although these designs are years old, they display an immense creativity that made Marvel quickly snap him up. – Chris A.
Note: We’re still accepting Static redesigns for Dwayne McDuffie Tribute Week. Details here. Today, though, we’re looking at unused Captain Planet (he’s our hero) redesigns by P:R Pal Thomas Perkins. I love all of these, but I think the last two are my favorites. – Dean Trippe
Today marks three years since the passing of one of the best artists and kindest guys in comics, Mike Wieringo. Longtime Rooftop Readers will recall our tribute to Mike, the Faster Fashion, Bart Allen! Wieringo Week event, calling for redesigns of the character he’d co-created with writer Mark Waid, Impulse. If you missed it, click here. Today I’d like to present the redesigns Mike posted at his amazing blog either for me or for Rooftop, for our pal Warren Ellis‘s awesome Remake/Remodel threads at Whitechapel, or for one of my earlier Draw… memes.
I only had the pleasure of his friendship for a couple of years before his passing, just meeting up at cons and swapping happy emails and blog posts, but ‘Ringo was an excellent friend and an amazing artist, and his not being here breaks my heart every time I see his name or art. I’ll owe him forever for his contributions to my development as an artist, and for the example of kindness and encouragement he set for creators in this very small industry. So please enjoy these drawings by Mike Wieringo.
- Dean Trippe
Superboy (originally posted here)
Lightning Lass (originally posted here)
Supergirl (originally posted here)
Butterfly (originally posted here)
Buck Rogers (originally posted here)
Sherlock Holmes (originally posted here)
Witchblade (originally posted here)
Note: For more of Mike Wieringo’s art, click back through his wonderful sketch blog and check your local comic shop’s back issues! – D.T.
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