This was done for the This Week Jam, the subject of the week being Fray, a comic created by Joss Whedon, banking on his popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series.

Malaka Fray is a future Slayer, so it’s sort of like vampiric Cyberpunk business in that book. Great art (Moline rocks,) great writer, and after the first issue, I lost interest… but that’s because I just wasn’t feeling futuristic vampire hunting. Frankly, it’s the same problem I had with the Blade films. But it looked pretty cool, and this character’s hair especially made me interested in giving this jam a whirl. I sort of out-whirled myself, however, when the piece moved beyond sketch and into the realm of Time Sucking Illustrative Nightmare.

Fun though.

You can see the full version herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Moondragon here was done for the recent character jam on Erotic-Comic-Cartoons 2 (elistas) and was, I believe, selected by Tulio. This is a character I have indeed drawn in the past, but in her old green 70′s witchy-poo costume. I drew some Defenders stuff in Junior High, because a friend, in our Marvel RPG game, had a character who had joined the team in a particular campaign… only to be killed accidentally when Hercules dropped a tank on him. But anyway… Moondragon. I did some research on the character as she has moved forward in Marvel continuity, and discovered that, not only did I not know what she had been up to in the years since then, but I didn’t really understand the character at all. I had no idea about the Thanos, Drax, Dragon in the Moon connections, all of that. I always just thought she was sort of a rip-off of DC’s Raven from Teen Titans, but bald and lesbian. But it seems she became a bad nasty for awhile, perverted by the Dark Side, I mean, the “Dragon in the Moon” or some such business, eventually stuck with some enchanted headband that chilled her out, by Odin. Eventually, it appears, she was on Universe-guarding duty with Infinity Watch, before that fell apart, and is now tutoring the new Captain Marvel. Or something. But she got this spiffy new costume somewhere along the way that I quite liked, so I used it.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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A little while ago, our friendly Moderating bucket o bolts Ironlung requested a very interesting commission. You can see the thread here:

http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/forum … .php?t=762

His request: Draw up a sexy, vampy villainess from Adult Swim’s nutty Venture Brothers late night toon… but the catch: he described the character, and I designed the look based on his description, never having seen the Venture Brothers version. He wanted to see what my version would look like, without pre-conceived notions from the show. Now, I still haven’t seen the real deal just yet. But this is what I came up with.

You can see the illustration here in the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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A little while ago, I posted a comment about how I enjoy commissions which ask that I draw unusual, obscure or originally-designed characters far more than I do mainstream popular characters, and this was largely a true statement. There are some exceptions…ask me to draw Iron Man, and I’ll do a backflip every time. But especially the truly iconic characters give me pause, because I’ve never been able to do them very well. I had a successful Wonder Woman last year, but in her golden age garb. I’ve done a few decent Batmen. But Superman is of the worst for me. I don’t dislike drawing him, but I’m rarely pleased with the result. So when I was asked to do an illustration of the Big Blue Boy Scout for a friend’s son, I was hesistant. If I can’t draw Superman to look like Superman to MY eyes, how will I do a convincing piece for a 12 year old with that laser keen eyesight and media-saturated memory the kids today wield? So many talented artists have put their stamp on the guy, that while I’m struggling with finding the right look for Jor-El as a balance between his classic comc style and my mental image of him as an iconic figure, this young fellow has been spoiled by multiple, varying interpretations of the hero from today’s hottest, or at least most popular, artists.

Anyway, I ultimately decided to do a version that captured a synthesis of his longest-term costume design, the more traditional sense of him being powerful without being overbuilt, and focus my energies on his face and expression: Superman to me has always been impossibly powerful, but an outsider yearning to fit in, and carrying an impossible optimism and youthful naivete into very messy human affairs. I don’t … Read on for more awesome…

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This is one of my favorite original characters.

The ink, if not legible, is kinda neat: on her shoulders, the targets contain the words "lady" and "killer", which was her handle in her competition days. The script over her breast is the name of the first victim to die in the ring. She also has ink on her back and on the back of each hamstring.

You’d think I had a penchant for kickpoxing or something, but I really don’t. But given that I have tried to base the TRDL Universe in a more realistic setting, I thought fighting championships were a good rationale for female characters to have some combat training exclusive of a military background. But I do have a good friend who practices, and it’s neat!

Concept and Art: Thom Chiaramonte
Abilities and Origin: Thom Chiaramonte

:::

Pugilista

Name: Paige Lincoln
Affiliation: Bad Seeds

Melee: 50
Reflex: 30
Muscle: 30
Vigor: 50
Acumen: 10
Observation: 20
Will: 10

Life: 160
Influence: 40

Abilities:

Hardened Physiology: Pugilista wears micro-weave kinetic mesh and polymer cellular sheathing provides protection from physical attacks [30 AP], energy attacks [20 AP], and thermal attacks [30 AP]. This hardened physiology is self repairing at her normal healing rate.

Combat Acuity: Pugilista has years of experience in grueling hand-to-hand combat, and as such, takes two actions to her opponents single action. She also enjoys increased reaction time, influencing her speed of attack and response: at the beginning of each turn, all opponents roll d100 high to determine action order. Pugilista may reverse dice order to optimize percentile (ie. A roll of 3 and 7 may become 73.)

Muy Thai: Pugilsta utilizes Muy Thai kickboxing technique in hand-to-hand combat, with +2CS for determining stun/ slam (or opponent defends at -2CS) when using kick attacks. She also … Read on for more awesome…

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This was done for the This Week Jam, the subject of the week being Viper, formerly Lady Hydra, and at one point in the late 90′s, the surprise wife of nemesis, Wolverine. I didn’t read those issues, being part of the unsettling dynamic between Chris Claremont and Lenil Francis Yu, which didn’t give Yu enough to do. But it’s an interesting premise, mimicking the classic plot device of the hero being imprisoned/ stranded/chained to/ etc. their enemy. Plus, Viper is one of the better female foils for Logan: tough, skilled and lethal. And, presumably, intended to be Asian.

For this piece, ostensibly about the Viper character, I decided to show her doing what SHE does best: being a pain in Logan’s side. I used her most current costume, from a recent, abysmal throw-away Claremont arc in Uncanny X-Men (featuring a reformed Hellfire Club led by the new black king…Sunspot… I kid you not) which I thought was pretty cool, being all leathery and cool with the spiraling snake motif and the exposed belly region for no reason. For Wolverine, I used his old brown costume, even though this is an incongruous continuity-violating pairing…let’s just say it’s from some unseen Exiles scenario or whatever. Anyway, I told someone in the R3 forum that I would be doing the brown costume soon, and so I did. He was wearing this in those #170′s issues that I was first reading as a youngin’ so it has special significance for me.

You can see the full version here in the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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This is Queen Bee of the Injustice League. In my research on the character, I discovered that she has a fair amount of history in the DC universe. I however, was only familiar with her in Morrison and Porter’s JLA arc on the revamped Injustice League. I thought her design was pretty awesome. Frankly, she’s a tidy fusion between Alice Krige running things as the Borg Queen, and some classic Yellowjacket imagery, but I found her costume compelling. The goal, on this one, was to do a JLA villain.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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here!… Read on for more awesome…

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