This was done for the R3 Illustration jam on Third Rail Design Lab’s R3 Forum, the subject being the late-70′s superfad KISS-tie-in character Dazzler, formerly notKnown as Disco Queen, in the hands of Casablanca.

I never, never, NEVER liked Dazzler. I was born in the early 70s, but I wasn’t old enough to disco or what have you, and so this sort of music had supplanted Cream, the Beatles, the Doors and the Stones as the annoying music piped out of the fraternities across the street from my childhood home near UCLA. Granted, I don’t remember disliking the psychedelic rock particularly, it just made for awkward background music for my action figure action. But the disco? Hated it, even as a kid. So when Marvel was shoe-horning Dazzler into continuity to take advantage of the KISS promo books, I wasn’t having it. Over time the character kept coming back, and was a small component of the greater problem in the X-books when I left comics for awhile in the Siege Perilous years. MEH! Of course, 33,000 hours of studying my Marvel Handbooks, followed by a good run of a Marvel RPG campaign in which I believe she was strangled by Doctor Octopus, helped me at least see the character as part of the Marvel Universe, not just a bad superfad angle. And as an adult reader, I look back on pretty much everything from those days with the same level of wonder and nostalgia, and it doesn’t even bother me anymore. She’s just another attempt to sell books, and who can fault that.

Anyway, OK. This TRDL pin-up was envisioned as a fictitious movie poster. You’ll note I’m not a great caricaturist, but that’s supposed to be Isla Fisher as Dazzler, in full 70s regalia. Probably should have feathered the hair out, but hey. You’ll I’m sure wonder about Peter Weller as Galactus, there. True continuity! She had the power cosmic at one point. Yeesh.

Anyway, please enjoy!

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You can find a larger version here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Process Notes:

So I was all over the place on this jam project. I wanted to redesign the character, first of all, but then I started thinking about how much I hated this character as a kid, and realized this was an opportunity to draw a formerly disliked character and try to find a way to like them. Thinking about the costume, which I thought I’d be the only one to do, and was wrong, as you’ve seen in the jam thread, I started seeing the look as a real costume (since it really WAS just a disco stretch leisure suit, after all) and thinking about the hair and the attitude I started visualizing this as a weird R3 Fantasy Casting exercise. This was very late at night, with a sick baby waking up a lot. Anyway, thinking about the 70s hair sent me in the Amy Smart direction, but then I fell into Isla Fisher and it was a go.

Here’s Isla Fisher, for those that aren’t familiar. Shame on you.

As is often the case, I had a concept for the pose but was working some options out on paper, relying on Photoshop to merge the selected choices later. I wanted a casual, flopped on the dance floor, putting on her roller skates kind of feel, that same sort of vibe you’d get if you kicked the disco stage left and brought in a bachelor pad set and put a bearskin rug under her and a fondue pot somewhere.

After bluelines and inks, I decided on the skate facing away from the viewer, as it was more natural than straight out in profile view, which would have been more of a dancer pose. Because the costume is a one piece stretch suit, I wanted to emphasize the curves and smoothness of her body shape, so I kept the colors soft.

Once I was putting the poster together and naming the actors involved, I started cracking up at the idea of Galactus being in this film, based on reading her absurd bio on wikipedia. But that led me to the dorktastic exercise of trying to cast Galactus. I think Peter Weller is a fine choice. That thespian!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Dazzler (Joao)
2. R3 Jam: Dazzler
3. TRDL Tribute – Thor 2010

This piece was done for the TRDL R3 Jam, the subject being Mulan. Not just the Disney version, but any interpretation of the classic Chinese lore. I haven’t seen the cartoon, but I liked the design work I saw of it, so I picked a version of her costuming from movie stills, and went with that. Granted, I armed her in one of her casual non-combat costumes, but whatever. It’s hard to include a cartoony, zany sidekick creature when I work in my usual style, but I gave it a shot.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

Process notes:

This was my original sketch rough. But Torsten put up something similar and very cool, so i went back to the drawing board…

Inks:

I was laying around quite a bit with the face. Lots of photoshop edits.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Black Widow
2. TRDL Tribute: Maria Hill
3. TRDL Tribute: Dagger

A powerful and ill-designed villain from Alpha Flight. Nightmare’s illegitimate daughter. Have fun!

tons of panel scans:
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/f98/t463411.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamqueen

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. R3 Jam: Talisman
2. R3 Jam: Mockingbird
3. This Week Jam: Aurora

Well-timed, given the recent release of the Gatchaman movie poster!
Anyway, the jam this week is Princess, from Gatchaman, or Battle of the Planets, or G-Force, depending on how you may have watched it!

Jun the Swan / June/ Princess/ Susan / Mala of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman…

Also, please note, in her civilian identity, she has the best tee shirt and overall branding…

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Jun 02 [Gatchaman]
2. TRDL Tribute: Jun [Gatchaman]
3. R3 Jam: Princess Leia

You *may* remember this character from some old sci-fi films…

and my favorite costume for her:

Draw away, young padawans…

PS, this is a nice little contextual discussion about the challenge of making Leia…Leia, back in the day:
http://www.movietrain.net/princess-leia … -distress/

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Princess Leia
2. R3 Jam: Space Girls
3. R3 Jam: Princess [Gatchaman]

This piece was stuffed down the barrel of a TRDL shotgun, aimin’ to kill two illustration birds with one metaphorical stone. The beautiful femme fatale Silk Spectre, as re-imagined int he Watchmen movie, is all sorts of awesome: part Bettie Page, part superheroine, and all Carla Gugino. So I took inspiration from the vintage pin-up illustration done for the film, and made this little Thanksgiving card, serving as our holiday release and also as the entry in the Watchmen R3 Jam… see, economy is the name of the game in these troubled times!

Wishing you a great Thanksgiving, my R3 Army!

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Silk Spectre
2. R3 Jam: Watchmen
3. Happy Thanksgiving from Bots THREE

New Submissions, New Parameters, More Art!

Hey gang

It’s a good time to make some more subject requests for the jams.

For the This Week Jam, I would recommend that you propose names that are maybe a compromise between the really popular and the really obtuse. The more intriguing or nostalgic the selection, the more likely you’ll get responses to the jam when the time comes. Any character is within limits: present mainstream comics, classic comics from your past, old favorites, pulp characters, movie heroes, anime characters, video games, etc.

In addition, I’m going to make a tweak to how this works: I’m going to fold the R3 Designer Jam into the This Week Jams, to make simply R3 Jams. The Designer jams have incredible potential for creativity and fun, but being 6-week jams and being off the pattern of the quick weekly routine, i think they get lost. And that’s unfortunate for folks who have proposed that we draw their own creations, for example.

So, going forward, I still want you to give me the following:

3 characters from any property, in the This Week fashion

and

3 design challenges: either propose a design what-if (draw a character gender-bent, like a she-Thor) or a redesign (redesign Scarlett Witch!) or a creator-owned design (draw your interpretation of a creator-owned character)

I will pool these selections into the master pot and pull at random.

This way, each week we might have a new character to draw OR a new design challenge, but a new topic will occur each week regardless. AND, all will always remain open.

So send me your nominations via PM or email, and I’ll add them to the mix!

I hope this will also help spark some renewed interest in the design and personilzation of all the jams. Make your mark on these characters!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. R3 Designer Jam FAQs
2. R3 Designer Jam: Amoeba Man and Company!
3. TRDL Tribute: Mecha Maiden

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, put those Tec-nines and hand grenades away, because we’re leaving the gritty world of Body Bags behind, and entering the cross-gendering, swordfighting, heavily-allegorical world of Revolutionary Girl Utena. The character for the jam this week is the enigmatic, mysterious Akio Ohtori.

Read about the series here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Girl_Utena

And read more about Akio here:

http://www.flowerstorm.net/disa/Gallery/anti-akio.html

http://akio.ohtori.nu/10_moviemanga.htm

http://www.animegalleries.net/album/393

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Akio [Utena]
2. R3 Jam: Dr. Who
3. This Week Jam: Retro Girl (from Powers)

OK, G.I. Joe fans… or fans of, uh, women…

This round, the R3 Designer Jam challenge: redesign Snake-Eyes from G.I. Joe… as a woman! You don’t just need to shift pleasure points around, but redesign Snake-Eyes’ look while you’re at it! Have fun with this one!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake-Eyes

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute – Snake-Eyes [TRDL Redesign]
2. R3 Designer Jam: K.I.T.T. Challenge!
3. R3 Jam: Re-Re-Redesign Wonder Woman

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