Who was the Star Pirate?

First Appearance: Planet Comics #12 (May 1954, Fiction House). Billed as “The Robin Hood of the Space Lanes,” Fiction House’s Star Pirate was created by a writer who went by the nom de plume of Leonardo Vinci, and originally illustrated by Al Gabriele. Set in a far-flung future, Star Pirate acted as a raygun-toting dissident against evil aliens, criminals, corrupt dictators and even the galaxy’s police force, the corrupt Space Patrol. Piloting a ship dubbed “Revenge,” Star Pirate had no powers per se, but was equipped with a variety of technological tools such as rocket boots and laser guns. He was joined by a rotating crew of sidekicks that ranged from a one-eyed alien, a Martian mistress, and a former rival named Blackbeard.

Why the Star Pirate?

Chris: Here’s my idea for Star Pirate — Adam Strange meeks Han Solo. The lonely pilot of a ship called “Revenge,” he’s living high off a big score but gets bored of the sheltered life and gets back into space. He’s bored with being rich, but also bored with people and has a quick succession of co-pilots. He’s in a future where space is explored pretty well, but he liked the “Wild West” unknown of it all back in his early years and is still trying to chase that down.

Dennis: Let’s do it. What’s the next step?

Chris: Next step is to talk about character design. What are you thinking for Star Pirate?

Note: Read on for the RetroFix and the final design! – Dean Trippe

RetroFix: Star Pirate, Round 1

Dennis: Here’s the visual direction I’m thinking. Just quick sketches.

Chris: I like it. I dig the star logo. I’ve been doodling trying to figure out a way for a star to also be a skull, but haven’t done it yet. I like how the kneepad looks like the shoulder pad, and I agree on the look of the robot and ship. I like the mask because I could see him not wanting people to recognize him from his military years.

Dennis: Yeah I messed with star as skull or stars as skull eyes but it all looks cheesy. I think the skull on Poly is enough. I think I am leaning towards the ankle boots. The knee pads matching the shoulder pads make weird triangle shapes that draw the eye away.

I like the basic shape of the ship, however I probably won’t keep it black. I think our guy in the black suit walking on the hull of a ship is a cool visual. You only really make him out because he blots out the stars.

I like our guy maskless most of the time. Figure he throws pants and trench over the spacesuit when he’s planetside / not in action.

I also figure he doesn’t call himself “Star Pirate.” People just call him that because they focus on the suit star. He is probably fairly infamous as a pirate. There’s probably a lot of people that want to take revenge on him since they perceive he’s weaker without his crew and ship. Then they look at his mean grizzled mug and change their mind.

RetroFix: Star Pirate, Round 2

Note: With some ideas bounced back and forth, I sat down to come up with a profile for the character while Dennis did his work with a pencil and sketchpad. – Chris

Chris: Neil Sterling was a decorated Admiral in the Space Patrol who retired after years of service. Stir-crazy after years of retirement, Sterling took to the spaceways as a grey market transporter (space trucker) but took up the wrong crew, who mutinied and took over his ship. Star Pirate escaped in a service vessel (think a tugboat) dubbed “Revenge,” which he’s retrofitted into his own one person vessel, albeit with a robot crew that won’t mutiny anymore. This turn of events has ironically enough revitalized Sterling at equal with his early military years. In many ways, he could be seen as an futuristic Teddy Roosevelt.

The moniker “Space Pirate” was given to him in recent years by the tabloid journalism of the day, after he was wrongly pegged with a particularly insidious theft which was actually done by his crew. After the mutiny though, he has taken up the name in an effort to raise fear in others.

Appearance-wise, Sterling is in his 60s and resembles Terrance Stamp somewhat. He has a missing left arm from a Space Patrol mission, which has been replaced with a robotic one. This unit has several attachments – think Swiss army knife. He wears a slimming black jumpsuit (think Diabolik), and throws on pants and a trenchcoat over it when going planetside or not in action. He has magnetic boots for zero-G operations, and carries a sawed-off shotgun type gun.

His primary liaison with his now robotic crew is a floating robot named Polly.

His renegade crew, now in command of his ship, are led by the three-person group of cyclopean being known at Togdelytte (“Tody), a green-skinned woman named Gura, and a human who calls himself Blackbeard. In addition to this, he is also known to have raised the ire of several prominent females on both sides of the law.

Dennis: Relooking over your write up my only thoughts was in my mind he’s a little meaner. Instead of a gray market trucker, he’s a pirate so mean his crew abandoned him in space and now he’s going after them for revenge even if he has to completely eradicate all piracy to do it.

I see the three aliens as only the tip of the iceberg, They were coerced into mutiny by a guy trying to unify all pirates in the system so our guy’s vengeance ultimately pits him against this “king pirate” and that conflict could put him on the same side as your prominent law enforcement female (or non pirate criminal females).

He’s sort of like Parker from the Richard Stark novels. Space Parker.

Chris: I like this. In any other story, he could be a villain. His military domineering skills kept up when he became a pirate, and he’s kind of taken it too far. We’ve got to figure out something to make the readers like him. Maybe it’s the 1 versus the millions kind of thing … he’s the underdog in a fucked-up sort of way.

I imagine him pretty acerbic, like Hugh Laurie in House M.D. or a more saucy Sherlock Holmes. But maybe people could like him due to him being willing to do anything to get by. And smart cracks that makes even his foes wince.

Dennis: Yeah House is sort of along the lines I am thinking but also think about Stacy Lawless in Criminal and again the Parker novels handle the bad guy as lead perfectly. Essentially he’s a PROFESSIONAL and these other pirates are not. He has a code, he’s a craftsman and he held his crew to rigid standards and they all profited from that. Except his crew got greedy and fucked our guy over and because they are not professionals and do not have a code they got sloppy and our guy survived . Now he’s angry.

I think we can use other characters he meets in his travels that can make him more likable but he’s always going to stick to his personal code and in that regard I think that consistency builds likability. I also think our guy tries to be loner and the robot crew might take away from that. he keeps Poly around as a tool (and maybe poly can be used to lighten the mood in a r2 sort of way) but a whole crew of even robots undermines the vengeance angle. Think Lone Wolf & Cub or Wolverine who works solo until he gets stuck with Kitty Pryde. We can always bring our own Kitty Pryde but eventually our guy goes back to being the loner with a mission (until the Pryde type gets thrown back into his life or whatever).

Chris: Ok, this is all really good. Let’s retreat to our corners and come out for the final round.

RetroFix: Star Pirate, Final

The man the tabloids named “Star Pirate” is an ex – an ex-husband, an ex-space cop and ex-leader. After years of service for Space Patrol on the outer fringe, Neil Sterling was the scapegoat of a political coup and found himself stranded on a spaceport with no money, no pension, and one less arm than when he joined the force. After seeing the failings of his former employer and the lawlessness he used to manage, Sterling decided to make his own way in his latter life as a freebooter on the outer fringe. Years in the outside hardened Sterling, and made him into one of the most infamous pirates in his time. Using his skill and professionalism in a largely unregulated and unorganized field, he excelled at the pirate’s life. However he eventually found the quality of men under his command as a pirate even more lacking than his former crew under Space Patrol, and after a forceful mutiny Neil Sterling found himself watching his pirate ship, the Revenge, recede from view while left stranded in a space suit in the vacuum of space.

With just a few inches of synthesized fabric separating between him and the deathly grip of open space, the so-called Star Pirate Neil Sterling does what any ex-military, ex-pirate captain would do: seek revenge. After getting to safety, Sterling methodically accumulates the resources to get his revenge. With no trust left for anyone with a pulse, the Star Pirate instead relies on an all-robot crew in a retro-fitted space tug with all the weapons and animosity it can carry.

Black-listed by his government and left for dead by his mutinous pirate crew, Star Pirate is taking on the galaxy.

Evan Bryce

Who was the Unknown Soldier?

“When the cause of freedom and democracy is threatened, then, from out of the blue sky, shall come the Unknown Soldier – dauntless American champion of all who fight under the Stars and Stripes – from the smallest child to the bravest doughboy. Who is he? Nobody knows! Where does he come from? Nobody knows! He is just…the Unknown Soldier.” His abilities include superhuman strength,invulnerability, flight, and the power to spin in the air fast enough to generate a tornado. He carries a “nitro gun” which fires explosive bullets.” – from http://pdsh.wikia.com/wiki/Unknown_Soldier

Why the Unknown Soldier?

Vito: I like this version of the Unknown Soldier, but, pardon the pun, I know very little about him. My affinity is based purely on what I see. A soldier in a mask is quite possibly the purest of comic characters. Captain America came out first (March of 1941 as opposed to Unknown in August 1941), so we know the Solider is an imitator (one of many patriotic heroes that surely followed in Cap’s wake), but his name is so strong, that when DC created their own version, they had a strong enough concept to really give Cap a run for his money (let’s call it down the middle…DC War comics in the 60′s were absolutely brilliant!). Seriously, this dude is money, the way his hat and mask are one piece…that’s a win! Those shorts are such a Golden Age trope, though, and I have no idea who started it. In most cases, this is an OK, kitschy costume, but for our purposes, we need to change it up.

Note: Read on after the jump for Vito and Edi’s discussion, as well as the initial sketches and final RetroFix redesign! – Dean Trippe

The RetroFix

Vito: The biggest hurdle with the Unknown Soldier is the fact that DC Comics/Vertigo already has an Unknown Soldier. So, first things first; we’re changing his name. Our version will be called Sergeant or Captain Secret. There is another public domain character whose name we could steal, but when I think of Phantom Soldier, I think of something else entirely.

Edi: I agree; name changer needed. “Sergeant or Captain Secret” still feels old fashion to me. This list can be strange or weird but there is something I like about them:Top (Cop) Secret, Secret Agent or Soldier or Sentinel, The Privateer or something with Private (like Steve Rogers was, infantryman before the serum made him super), Foo-Fighter (UFO’s, Bogey)—unidentified names—he’s the first hero/man to take flight into space, never before seen?

Vito: Right. He’s the first person to actively hunt and fight aliens. He’s a one-man army, hence the powers needed to take the task on. The best way to think of him is that he is an anonymous volunteer. He can be from any branch of the Armed Forces. I like the Secret Soldier…or what if he was just The Soldier? If no one knows who he is, then does he need more than that? Or how about the Unknown Sentry?

Edi: I like keeping the name simple, one word. Ellis created a character named The Captain in the book Nextwave. I like the Soldier, yet still generic, very used. Let’s call him The Private (a nice double meaning, a double entendre)

Vito: Let’s go with The Privateer! It has a great meaning (check out the definition on Wikipedia). Ok, second, those powers are overkill. Strength and invulnerability, you come over here. Unassisted flight, I have an idea for you, so stand still. Nitro gun and tornado powers, you need to leave. Thank you for coming.

Next up, I thought we could take the character in a different direction. Rather than just be a patriot protecting the US and it’s allies, we’re going to have him protect the world, or even the universe. The Axis were bent on taking over the entire globe, so why should our character be limited to just the Earth? So, we’re going to take him into outer space. My idea is that we combine two of the best “Rogers” that have ever hit comics; Steve (aka Captain America) and Buck. So what we’re looking at is a patriotic hero that is also a space faring adventurer, sort of Captain America meets Adam Strange (but be careful…Captain Battle had a jet pack!).

Edi: Totally, no weapons needed when he has a jet pack and himself a living weapon. Especially when he has no idea what he’ll be up against or what will and won’t work on his enemies from outer space. Just crash their vessel and use their own devices against them. Like a self propelled missile. A hero who likes to get his hands dirty, your down to earth kind of guy. Maybe his creators are the UN of Earth’s interest, the first green team. Not caught in national disputes but the Earth’s well being and all life that lives on it. Thus creating a “Captain Planet” hero in the form of a super soldier.

Vito: Guys your age all seem to love Captain Planet, heh heh! But you’re on to something. Coming out of the Depression, he would be someone that is very hands on, and since he’s invulnerable and has the strength to match, he could do a lot of damage. I would hesitate to call him a “human bullet,” but he’s a soldier; point him at the enemy and let him go. As for the “greener” aspects of what you suggested, keep in mind he’s a product of his time; there wasn’t a UN yet, so he’d probably be a, pardon the term, “tool” of the Department of War.

Edi: I hated Captain Planet, but he was the modern Voltron, “with our forces combined” thing, that’s always cool. It’s funny The UN and NASA were created after WW2, maybe there is a link somewhere, our character could be the start to those organizations.

Vito: Let’s do this Who’s Who style, since that’ll answer some more questions and flesh him out a little more:

Real Name: Unknown
Identity: Secret
Occupation: Captain (US Army)
Place of Birth: Washington, DC
Citizenship: United States of America
Marital Status: Single
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 250 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Brief History: While the Earth made first contact with alien life in 1898*, there have been several subsequent meetings between man and alien. It was during the Second World War that one of these meetings occurred when a race of alien called the Thules made contact with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. While many heroes fought the Thules off, only one was sent into space to battle them directly and prevent them from ever returning. This unknown soldier volunteered for a secret procedure that would make him the pinnacle of human achievement, giving him super strength and invulnerability. Just before he entered the rocket that would take him into space, a nurse offered to contact his family for him, in case the mission failed. She asked his name, and he replied, “The Privateer.”

Vito: What I attempted to do here is give a reason for him to be “unknown,” so I chose a top secret mission, an anonymous volunteer, and something so fantastic, that no one would believe it was true.

NOTE: We’re referencing War of the Worlds with this date, tying Unknown Soldier to not only the Wold-Newton Universe, but also to many other public domain characters, so he’ll feel as if he already fits in fictional literature. – Vito

Initial Sketch

Edi: For the uniform let’s say goodbye to: the shorts, the hat/mask. The keepers: color and stars. By instinct a darker brown and green color to the uniform could really modernize the military aspect of this character. What’s New: A jet pack, but because they are overused, lets get crazy with some kind of device around the waist, a harness of sorts. Overall I envisioned “the Privateer” to look be a mixture astronaut meets soldier meets mysterious superhero, who fights on land, sea, air, and space. A patriot of Earth. The terra defender.

Vito: I dig it! I really like the colors and the pattern of the stars. The accessories and the use of color are all appropriate for military wear. The Earth patches are a nice touch, but I think we should reference his military status on one of his arms…or maybe elsewhere? Maybe captain’s bars or some other rank? They can be painted on the helmet, on a lapel or maybe we save the original hat for his “down time/at ease?” This way we have a connect. Helmet for business; hat for other times. Either way, we should see some reference to his military service. Let’s kick this into overdrive and take her home, Edi!

Final Redesign

Edi: Better yet let’s leave everything secret about “the Privateer” except for his affiliation with the US military. Let his rank equal that of a hero and his badge be the 5 pronged star icon on his chest. As for the harness it’s fitted with disk propelling devices by twin ion thrusters, able to rotate in any direction to give him unsurpassed maneuverability. And top it off a helmet/visor mask fit for air/space flight, with a decal design of the electro-powered age and a homage to the original alien’s hairstyle who crashed to earth. Awe yeah!

Vito: This guy is AWESOME! He’s a very real character to me now! I can’t wait to see this guy in action!

Mike Maihack

Shane McDermott

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.

Joe Quinones

Maris Wicks

Bonus Sketch!

Daniel Irizarri

David had this to say about his Aquaman 2099:

The drown body of environmentalist Davis Jones becomes reanimated as a vengeful water elemental when it washes up on the shores of a remote energy research facility in the South Pacific!