Leopard Girl Arrives...

So, after a lot of overcomplicated false starts I finally decided to return to a pretty basic design for my female lead, Leopard Girl and her costume. She'll be the only character raised in the sprawling urban superhero playground and the only character other than The Tengu who saw this world and its inhabitants in a more active time than its present sleepy condition...



When creating her I knew I wanted super-speed and "cat power" (you'll see...) to be her page action dynamic. I figure I already have flying, fisticuffs, and swords. Like I said in the last post, I want good visuals and feel I'm capable but working these set pieces into a good story is the more difficult task...




As far as her personality, I wanted her to be the girl who holds her own and coordinates well amid an almost exclusively boy's club. Not exactly freezing The Apparition, Solar Son, & The Tengu out, but seeing them as rivals just as much as collaborators when adventure arises (but yeah, she'll have hierarchy/opinion on all the guys).



I wanted her to be an ambitious, resourceful, and practical protector for whom this world actually mattered, getting to the "Jungle Queen" archtypes of pulps past while staying with the quick cat of the outback style.

Here's the profile sketch that ended up being how I modeled her mask...



And here's this very rough sketch of what would become the final costume, at least basic shape-wise...



But before any of that there was this overly-"cutie pie" drawing that got the ball rolling before I even knew I needed a Leopard Girl. I was thinking of making her a magician along the lines of Zatanna, but opted for a more active power...



Well, I am just one more character design, some work with my drafts/arcs/outlines, and some ballpoint page designs away from the magic that is the labor of production (pencilling/inking/scanning/toning/lettering pages). Stay tuned for the progress...