The Reptilian is an arms dealer caught on the wrong side of the posthuman war, transformed against his will into a hideous creature… but still really good at weaponsmithing, so why give up what you’re good at, right?

Concept and Art: Thom Chiaramonte

:::

The Reptilian

Name: Guillermo Ortiz
Affiliation: n/a

Attributes;

Melee: 50
Reflex: 15
Muscle: 20
Vigor: 40
Acumen: 10
Observation: 50
Will: 30

Life: 125
Influence: 90

Abilities:

Mutation: The Reptilian has undergone an involuntary, permanent biological mutation, which continues to evolve over time. His skeleton, and most of his biomass, have enlarged and elongated, giving him a falsely reptilian appearance. As a result of the mutation, he enjoys certain physical enhancements, including increasingly resilient, natural body armor [20 AP to physical and energy attacks, 30 to thermal attacks], increased night vision [+3CS to Observation], and hyper-sensitive olfactory glands [+4CS to Observation].

Neurotoxin Spray: The Reptilian can spray a neurotoxin from the spiny flanges along his spine, causing an area effect attack [10 RV], with targets requiring a Vigor Save or suffering blindness for 1d10 rounds, as well as damage [20 DP] that ignores physical and natural resistance to injury.

Weaponsmith: The Reptilian is a brilliant designer and engineer, with expertise in crafting weapons technology, developed from years as a weapons engineer and a lifelong passion for scratch-building innovation. He is constantly developing new weapons and armor, derived from a variety of traditional and cutting-edge technologies. Weapons may be designed at the discretion of the GM [40 IV]. For every day spent on development, one Intensity Level of damage effect or armor resistance may be designed into the object, or one additional type of deployment may be included in a composite design, up to an Intensity Level of 50 points.

Origin:

Experimental black-market weapons engineer Guillermo Ortiz was doused in a lethal concentration of heavy metals during a pre-dawn raid of his warehouse laboratory in Mexico City. While managing to escape the police dragnet he found, to his horror, that his body was undergoing uncontrollable mutations, giving him a scaly, reptilian appearance and a deformed skull and spinal column. Partially maddened by the blood poisoning from the accident, and enraged by the destruction of his lab and confiscation of his equipment by the authorities, he studied the duty patterns of the officers responsible for his ruination, and schemed for retribution.

Two months later, severely mutated and driven by a primal hatred for his foes, he hurled himself through the front doors of the local station which housed the evidence impound for the investigation, tearing the skeleton crew of police administrators apart, and squatted within the darkened building. As the officers returned from their shifts, they were picked off one by one and eaten alive by the psychotic Ortiz, and soon law enforcement officers from surrounding neighborhoods had gathered at the site of the seized station, set up barricades, and demanded hostage release and the surrender of the barricaded criminal element within, not realizing it was the work of a solitary, mutated man

. After receiving no response, a SWAT team entered and tripped a sophisticated booby trap Ortiz left for them, detonating the building and killing several of the officers outside. Meanwhile, Ortiz escaped in the fire and set up a new laboratory in an abandoned paint factory, assembling a new weapon development house and became the most sought-after weaponsmith for the Mexican underworld, which would increasingly seek defenses against the growing surge of posthuman adventurers in Central America and the United States.

Despite his macabre appearance, The Reptilian would grow to enjoy a certain mystique and street-level fame, blurry snapshots or artist’s likenesses being printed onto posters, T-shirts and other paraphernalia and worn by the youth throughout Mexico, growing eventually to become a cool status symbol for the Central American university culture. The increased awareness of his existence would cause difficulty for The Reptilian, but he largely ignored it, until a popular shirt design depicted a stylized illustration of his head, presented in the familiar Che Guevara propaganda imagery. In response, The Reptilian had the designer located, a 19-year old Biology student, and broadcast a viral internet video of him eating the boys head, because, as Ortiz stated in the broadcast, ‘Che was a punk.’

:::

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Universe Gallery.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Character Factory, No. 111: Adder
2. TRDL Character Factory, No. 39: The Mantid
3. TRDL Character factory No. 14: Humble

This is the first of a pair of commissions for one of my longtime clients, Tom. He collects Zatanna pics, among others, and when I asked him who some of his favorite other superhero babes were, top of his list? Marvel’s Black Cat. The connection was pretty hard to resist, so I drew it up! Hope you like it!

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Zatanna
2. TRDL Tribute – Zatanna: Hare-Raisin’
3. TRDL Tribute- Zatanna (Cards)

This piece was done for the This Week Jam, the character being Leelo from the 5th Element.

Joao couldn’t just bang out a super hot Leelo, with one of the best poses he’s ever illustrated… he had to throw in a smokin’ Emma Frost, as well. Making us look bad, Joao…

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. This Week Jam: Leelo from 5th Element
2. TRDL Tribute- Emma Frost [Joao]
3. TRDL Tribute: Emma Frost 2

This piece was done for the This Week Jam, the character being GunCandy, by the one Joao Marques!

Wow, so in a shocking plot twist, Joao pulled out another uber-hot babe for the This Week Jam. It’s starting to become a noticeable patter, dude. Love the dead victim in the foreground. Unintentionally seems a companion piece to mine, too!

Great stuff…

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute – GunCandy
2. TRDL Tribute: Dazzler (Joao)
3. TRDL Tribute – Bloodstorm

This is the second of a pair of commissions for one of my longtime clients, Tom. This was a pretty simple concept, and sure, it’s an excuse to draw Zatanna in a variant TRDL redesign… but really, I think the visual complexity of the fairly simply drawn bunnies helps focus you to Zatanna and her assets, so that was cool. I must have drawn the ‘sssh’ hand about five times. And while I still can’t draw a rabbit, I think I got the face right on some of them!

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Zatanna
2. TRDL Tribute – Zatanna: Cat in the Hat
3. TRDL Tribute- Zatanna (Cards)

This R3 Designer Jam is easy. As Dark Knight production begins, take a moment to rethink Batman’s early days. Redesign his costume and appearance based on how you’d draw it if given a ‘Year One’ project. It can be basically your style illustration of Mazzuchelli’s costume above, or your re-interpretation of the classic big-eared Batman of the past, or a completely new concept. Just make it low-tech, Batman, and fun!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Batman: Year One
2. TRDL Tribute: Batman Year Zero [TRDL Redesign]
3. R3 Designer Jam: Superman Redesign!

You probably recall Luc Besson’s tragically mismanaged science fiction opus from the late 90s(my opinion) which did nonetheless have it’s good points, and for many a viewer, one of them was Milla Jovovich writhing around as the Divine Alien Leeloo.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119116/

Now’s your chance to illustrate her!

PS Here’s my favorite illustration of the character, done by Danelope as a homegrown movie cover:

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute – Leelo (5th Element)
2. This Week Jam: Lois Lane
3. This Week Jam: Jimmy Olsen

Well, we’ve been hinting at this for months now, but a 6 month long endeavor is finally ready to share. It’s no secret, to longtime followers of Third Rail Design Lab and readers of the R3 Forum, that there is a master plan to the TRDL Universe. When Joao came aboard TRDL in 2006 I shared with him my TRDL story bible’ which was, at the time, just voluminous notes about how everything was connected, and how the TRDL Universe, unlike the sandboxes of publishers of conventional serialized periodicals, the TRDL story takes place over a period of time, with more than one generation of players, with a beginning and an end. The publishing plan has always been to do worldbuilding first, and then tell stories within that framework. As anyone knows who’s read the origins of the TRDL characters published to the site, they exist within a world similar to our own, but changed by the advent of the supernormal. It is less about the adventures of costumed heroes, and more about a world where posthumans are celebrity, soldier, commodity, actor and propaganda… and it’s not an easy role to play for any of them.

We are very pleased to announce the release of the first TRDL Sourcebook. Within, you will find the official TRDL Timeline, on which the major events that illuminate the TRDL universe occur, as well as the interactions of characters with which many of you will be familiar, and several you’ve never seen before.

The TRDL Timeline tells you how it all began, and how it got messy thereafter

Joao began designing characters and concepts with me for the TRDL Universe, and many more we designed together. The development of the official history of the TRDL Universe has been a labor of love for us, the product of more than a year of emails and messages, sketches and concept renderings, mock ups and notes. We built the major history framework last year as a master document, and then spent approximately 6 months building the TRDL Timeline, which appears here for the first time. Many characters were developed exclusively for this release, and stories and concepts in the TRDL universe which you will hear more about in the future, appear here for the first time as well.

Several new characters are found within for the first time!

The TRDL Sourcebook contains the TRDL Timeline, 71 original characters with complete powers and origins, 10 complete posthuman teams, seen here together for the first time in exclusive team illustrations, and more. As you flip through this book, you will have the opportunity not only to see illustrations of characters we’ve been discussing on the site, but new characters and history content that we hope you will find of interest.

It’s 33% more real in print, I tell you.

We’ve also published, for the first time, the first chapter of the Finit-e graphic serial in it’s entirety. It’s something else to see it on the page, i have to say. Kind of exciting!

Lastly, there’s even a coupon within, offering a discount towards your nest TRDL commission.

Don’t let Civil War politics prevent you from enjoying TRDL like the billionaire rockstar you are.

I hope you will find the interest to pick up a copy of this labor of love. It’s 100-pages, perfect bound, glossy cover, will hold it’s own against your other trade paperbacks quite nicely, and best of all…. it’s only the FIRST volume, with much more to come. Joao and I each have loaded it up with art and content, and I think you’ll like what you see.

The price is $30 + shipping, which i know ain’t cheap, but I hope it’s worth it.

To order your copy or copies, send me an email with your full name and address, number of copies you want, whether you want them signed/annotated/dedicated to someone as desired, and I’ll send you an invoice, payable by paypal, money order or check (or melon.)

Want your copy of the TRDL Sourcebook?

Orders outside of the United States will likely be shipped to you by Joao directly, but we’ll sort that out as it comes.

Thanks for reading, and participating in TRDL and R3, and we hope you love this book!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL- a Special Announcement
2. Q: What the Hell is the TRDL Character Factory? UPDATED
3. Announcing the 2010 Friends of TRDL Gallery Project!

Ivory is a member of KODIAK, the Vozrozhdeniye-developed science guardian team to gain international prominence after the coup. Her bleached skin and inky black hair have become a fashion statement emulated by women throughout Western and Eastern Europe, who have no awareness of Ivory’s dark past.

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

:::

IVORY

Name: Alena Gordeyeva
Affiliation: KODIAK

Attributes:

Melee: 40
Reflex: 30
Muscle: 20
Vigor: 30
Acumen: 35
Observation: 25
Will: 15

Life: 120
Influence: 75

Abilities:

Physiological Enhancement: Along with the Attributes above, the posthuman process has granted Ivory resistance to physical damage [30 AP] and energy damage [10 AP], and her Life regenerates at an equivalent rate (Life lost to physical attacks is regenerated at a rate of 30 points per round, energy attacks 20 points).

Edged Weapon Attack: Claws: Ivory’s claws are non-retractable, and cause Edged weapon damage [30 AP], halving the effects of physical Body Armor.

Origin:

Alena Gordeyeva was a moderately successful lingerie model in Russia, whose career was on the rise, having been asked to model for a European runway show by a high-profile French designer. Unfortunately, she had also become of interest to Anoly Lemenov, an influential don in the Russian mafia who controlled the territory surrounding and including Kiev. Lemenov used connections within Moscow to prevent Gordeyeva from acquiring a travel certificate, and made certain the authorities in France were made aware of a low-level criminal fugitive attempting to escape the local authorities by trying to travel to Europe under the guise of professional modeling activity. Her reputation and travel status unfairly compromised, and her modeling contract within Russia suddenly terminated over the conspiracy of her supposed rampant drug use and fugitive status with the local authorities in Moscow, Gordeyeva was despondent and bewildered by her nearly overnight change of fortune, when she received a visit from Lemenov’s agents.

Realizing with clarity the futility of resisting the wishes of boss Lemenov, Gordeyeva agreed to return with the agents to Kiev, and become a guest of Lemenov at his palatial estate. Guest status, of course, included what amounted to prostitution, as she was provided fabulous clothes, jewelry and a massive suite in the mansion, but was expected to be on call to be Lemenov’s companion, along with the dozen or so other woman on the grounds. Convinced of her lack of options, and desiring some of the finer things to which she had just started becoming accustomed before her career’s collapse, Gordeyeva took to the task of pleasing Lemenov. Like all things she committed to do, she would only settle for being the best at it, and soon became Lemenov’s favorite companion, and enjoyed the greatest influence among the household, despite her youth. Within three months, she had survived two assassination attempts, presumed to have been orchestrated by other companions at the palace but designed to appear as accidents, and her resilience became even more threatening. Lemenov was merely amused, though he took note of Gordeyeva’s resourcefulness. Indeed, when her chief rival, Tania Vilidovich, was found drowned and stuffed into the palatial infinity pool’s filter compartment, Gordeyeva was granted a Maserati, as a sign of lemenov’s pride in her. Of course, she wasn’t allowed to leave the property in it.

In the months preceding the Vozrozhdeniye Coup, the Russian mob became aware of the impending change to their political reality, and while the majority of the loosely-interconnected mafiyas dug in and attempted to secure their fortunes and influence with the soon-to-be overthrown Gritsai administration, certain dons, Lemenov among them, saw the inevitability of their changing fortune, and chose not to resist it. Realizing that the ideological construct of the Vozrozhdeniye movement was incompatible with the style of corruption under which the mob thrived in modern Russia, they soon realized that the way to secure power in the changeover would have to be to gain bargaining chips in secret, to undermine aspects of the coup that would be able to potentially weaken the new government if the dons who took this route were threatened under the new regime. As agents for the Vozrozhdeniye movement began scouting for potential recruits for the soon-to-be KODIAK program, Lemenov saw a perfect opportunity to gain a very powerful leverage point: his own posthuman insider.

Utilizing all of his lower-echelon connections, he arranged for Gordeyeva to be planted in Moscow with a false employment cover, as a bodyguard for the jewelry trade. Her connection to Lemenov was masked, her brilliant blonde hair shortened and dyed an inky black, and after some training by Lemenov’s own security detail, Gordeyeva was placed in a Moscow-based jewelry house as a the bodyguard of a local diamond entrepreneur, who unfortunately owed Lemenov a hefty sum. Steering the Vozrozhdeniye scouts in her direction, Lemenov’s plan worked perfectly, and she was invited to participate in the still-secret posthuman development program the new regime-to-be had been clandestinely preparing.

For her part, Gordeyeva wasn’t stupid. She saw an angle to gain independence from Lemenov’s influence, through close ties with her new hosts, the potential for personal power that would render her less beholden to Lemenov and his subtext of the threat of violence towards any companion that dared deny him, and frankly, an opportunity to be a part of something unique and exciting, as her modeling career had once been. She became one of the earliest graduates of the KODIAK program after the fall of the Gritsai administration, and was installed as the science guardian Ivory.

Within weeks of KODIAK’s highly publicized debut, two incidents occurred that would change her relationship with Lemenov forever. First, a small-time journalist, under surveillance for sedition by the new government, was recorded preparing to publish an article claiming to expose Ivory as a former model and mafia whore. Second, Lemenov summoned Gordeyeva to his estate as an early test of her obedience, using well-masked intermediaries to deliver the message so as not to alert the Vozrozhdeniye intelligence operations at the capital. Gordeyeva saw this as an opportunity to address both the questions about her past, and the tenuous connection to Lemenov. Traveling covertly, Gordeyeva kidnapped the elderly journalist, delivered him to Lemenov’s estate, and then decimated Lemenov’s security detail through silenced weaponsfire. She then forced the weapon into the journalist’s terrified hands, and sent him hurtling into Lemenov’s bedchamber, where the don, and a host of his companions, were sleeping off a weekend bender. The ensuing panic saw many of the women injured, and Lemenov critically wounded by the journalist’s desperate defensive attack, before he was strangled by lemenov himself. In the aftermath, Ivory entered the room, and seeing Lemenov still struggling to breathe from his chest and neck wounds, carefully, softly nicked the obese man’s jugular in order to cause him to bleed out more rapidly. Police were summoned, and found the crime scene to be the fatal shootout between an unstable, delusional former journalist and a loathsome criminal. Ivory returned to Moscow and continued in her role as a member of KODIAK, relieved to have freed herself of the past once and for all.

What she did not know, however, was that Lemenov survived the assassination attempt, and was in intensive care, in hiding tended to by one of her former companion rivals who had also survived the attack, but did not know of Ivory’s involvement. Lemenov suffered brain damage, unable to communicate, but events would be set in motion to threaten to reveal Ivory’s secret in the future.

:::

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Universe Gallery.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Character factory, No. 33: Chenkerov
2. TRDL Character Factory, No. 93: The Golden Gamayun
3. TRDL Character Factory, No. 124: Fria

Guncandy is Brian Stelfreeze’s most memorable, if most cheesecakey, character. It’s a back-up strip to the 12 Guage book The Ride, though it now has it’s own book as well. Lacie, who’s parents were murdered, is crazy, and is a ridiculously out-of-control assassin aimin, so to speak, for revenge. The loosest of plots. Mostly, tall fit blonde in catholic skirt and knee socks sucking on lollies and murdering folks.

So, I think this might be a challenge. Keeping it, you know, PG-13 and the like…

http://www.12gaugecomics.com/ride/gc-mg-01/fc.html

These page samples should be viewed, even if just to admire Stelfreeze’s work.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

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1. TRDL Tribute – GunCandy
2. This Week Jam: Body Bags!
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