"Hey, give it back! You know I don't like anyone looking at my unfinished work!" Matt protested. His friend, Brian, walked quickly around the room, studying Matt's sketchpad. he nimbly used the furniture to keep some distance between himself and his friend.
"I dunno, Matt, she looks pretty good to me. I thought you were moving away from comics in favor or more commercial art?" Matt and Brian had been friends through high school and college. Matt had studied art and design, while Brian pursued an MBA. They hadn't been able to make much time for each other before this weekend, and they had a lot of catching up with each other to do.
"It's for a contest. Remember Amy? The short Asian girl in my drawing and painting class? She clued me in on this contest being sponsored by Amalgam Comics. They're accepting original designs for a new all-female hero universe. The winners get their characters included, design credit, and a percentage of profits made from the title."
Brian whistled. "Sounds pretty sweet. No wonder you're giving this a shot. If this blows up as big as their Reformers film series, you could end up a rich man."
"That's a long shot," Matt said. "I'm more psyched about the exposure. If I get my design on a comic cover, that's going to open all kinds of doors for me."
"I'm impressed," Brian said. "You were never one for long-range planning, but I think you really have a shot at this." He handed the sketch pad back. "Care to tell me about your super-babe?"
"I'm still working on her backstory," Matt said. "They want fully realized characters, not just a uniform and a set of powers. So I'm basing her off the character I played in that Mutants and Masterminds game we did in high school."
"The debutante? I remember her. She was a martial artist with duplication powers, right?"
Matt nodded. "That's right. And some short range teleportation thrown in. I liked her because she had a lot of issues to work through: coming to terms with her own privilege, being rejected by her family, having to come to terms with some racist attitudes, and reconciling her Christian faith with her bisexuality. Seems like the moment is right for a character dealing with all of that, you know?"
"Good luck with that," Brian said. "I like her uniform. Though you might want to make her boobs bigger. Woke readership or not, cleavage sells." Matt scowled in response, but then he immediately erased the breasts on one of his sketched figures, replacing them with an enhanced pair. He had to admit, she looked pretty good.
Brian continued. "So is she going to be a hero, villain, or what? I remember your character walked a pretty narrow line between the two?"
Matt continued to fine-tune his pencil sketch while he answered. "Well,..."
Fri May 31 18:56:45 2019
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