Lady Moonkiller was born when I was brushing my teeth one day and my mind was wandering as usual. I started thinking about my t-shirts reflection in the mirror. This particular shirt has a copy of an old Star Wars comic cover on it, with all the main characters arrayed in that typical SW movie poster look. It's a pretty cool shirt and it made me think of my youth.
Comic youth
I spent a lot of my youth reading comics. All kinds of comics. From Tintin to X-men to Valerian to Tex Willer to Star Wars, you name it. In particular I remembered the feeling of anticipation you got when you got your hands on a new comic issue and you were looking at the cover, thinking of what you'd find inside. That's a pretty cool feeling too.
So I wondered (again) whether I could pen my own comic and if it would be any good. And (again) the sheer amount of work in imagining and drawing all the panels that make a comic book made me shrug and abandon my foolish dreams. Seriously, I tip my imaginary top hat to all the actual comic artists in the world. But maybe you don't need the whole comic book to evoke those same feelings?
Maybe I could draw just the cover of a comic book? Yes, I could do that. Could I create the whole world of the book in the viewers head with that one image? Even if it's only in their imagination. Maybe I could do that?
How does one draw a lady?
So I thought of a cool hero(ine) in a dramatic pose, with dramatic lighting and suitably dramatic setting. Something straight out of Frank Frazettas paintings. This world would be of the fantastic kind, but rooted in the real world. I imagined Wonder Woman, but as someone more like Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. Not modern but not medieval either. Maybe something like the golden age of piracy? Someone exotic in form while familiar in fabric.
The cover of Lady Moonkiller Issue #1 was the result. The name Lady Moonkiller was just a random association of things in my head. The movie "Killers of the Flower Moon" had just come out at it had stuck in my head for some reason. Just the name, I still haven't seen the movie. And since this hero was a lady it naturally became "Lady Moon". Only that was a nightclub in Helsinki (not a good one) in my youth and this led to the band Killers which again brought up the movie title... only my lady definitely wasn't a victim. So we now have "Lady Moonkiller".
We stand on the shoulders of giants
I eventually did a few different versions of the image. The original, minimal image of the Lady is quite striking in my opinion. Especially against a white background with the huge orange moon giving a splash of color to the high contrast black and white portrait.
The image composition may be quite like Frank Frazetta as a whole, but the portrait style is drawing much inspiration from such illustrators as Frank Miller and Mike Mignola. I've always admired their ability to create forms with shadows and negative space. So I will gladly pay homage to them with this one.
I also went to town on the comic cover concept and I hope you find it as entertaining as I do. There's just something about comic book covers that invokes the imagination. Without even turning a page (there are none with this one) you can step into the adventures that wait behind the portal.
Anyway, that's how Lady Moonkiller - Issue #1 came to be. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my work as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'll get back to you when Issue #2 comes out.