Marginalia

An archive of early drawings and sketches of some of the characters and themes that run through my work

March, 2004: I'm searching through some stacks of old drawings - some of which date back to the early 1980's - looking for pages I drew for a Satin Steele story I'd planned to publish shortly after issue #3. Instead of the action-oriented "superheroine"-style saga that formed the basis of the series at that time, this story was a lower-key "slice of life" drama centering on an incident early in Satin's bodybuilding career (before she'd even adopted the "stage name" of Satin). This story would have been published as a "special edition" separate of the regular series, and a continuing series of such stories about Satin's "early days"might have run as an "adjunct series" if demand warranted it.

As regular readers of this site no doubt know, I've recently made the decision to reorient the Satin book toward this more "realistic" drama and abandoned (at least for now) the more "outrageous" adventure angle. (But since the "new" direction starts at a point some years before the previous series, we will be heading up to the point where the previous series begins and quite possibly...)

So I'm searching through these old drawings, and I'm finding stuff I'd almost forgotten I'd drawn... sketches, partially-drawn pages, stories that I'd started but never got around to finishing. And some of it is actually presentable! So I thought I'd share them with you, in the hope you'll find it as interesting as I do. I've broken the "stack o' stuff" down into three categories: Satin Steele, Tetsuko, and Miscellaneous.

Sketches for lingerie studies. These date back to about the same time as the previous sample pages. Back then, the Fredericks of Hollywood catalog was at least as much an inspiration for my art as Women's Physique World magazine, so I imagined Satin as a Frederick's lingerie model for what was supposed to have been a series of pinups of her in various pieces of sexy lingerie (and various stages of undress). Needless to say, the art never progressed past the preliminary sketch phase, else they'd have already been put on display in the main Satin Steele galleries. But I got a kick out of seeing them again, and hope you do too, and sigh over "what might have been." (BTW, that's the back of a chair she's supposed to be holding in the first pic. Pic #4 isn't really "lingerie", but it was in a FOH catalog...)

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Two more pages of comics. These were intended to be the first two pages of the issue immediately following "Bloodpaw!" (#3). I liked this scene because it could be dropped in front of whatever story I decided to tell in #4; at the time, however, I didn't know exactly what story that would be. By the time I decided on "The Hundred-Year Itch" (now shelved indefinitely), I'd forgotten i'd even drawn these pages. But they're complete and ready for publication, although I think I would redraw Panel 2 of Page 1 to correct some anatomy i think is a little wonky.

Page 1	Page 2

I love the scene as well; it's a nice "fake-out". The idea started with the large close-up panel of Satin flexing a huge, impressive biceps, while Matt comments from off-panel, "It's too small!" By the latter third of the next page, we learn that it wasn't her muscle that Matt had deemed too small, but a scar on her right shoulder from an injury inflicted by Bloodpaw in the previous issue. Satin was concerned that the scar could work against her in a close contest where the judges are looking for any minor flaw to break a tie between two otherwise equally-matched physiques, and Matt tried to reassure her that the scar is too small to be noticeable on a contest stage. ...But you got all that from reading the pages, right?

This story actually begins with the second page of art; the first page was a montage of action and glamour poses of Tetsuko, along with a face closeup. (Alas, that page no longer exists; I found the paper it had been drawn on, but I had erased it in apparent dissatisfaction. I did get around to drawing a different splash page, though.) So the page numbering is out of sync with the sequence numbers: "page 1" here is actually page 2 of the art, and so on. Also: in some areas, the art is not as clear as it should be (and would be if I'd gone back and tightened the pencils - a lot!!), so I'll be describing (as much as I can remember) the action in the panels, and how the dialogue runs (in a general way). So... click on the thumbnail for the first page below, and on the page itself to advance to the next page. (You'll know when you've read all five pages when you end up back here.)

And as long as we're on the subject of unrealized Tetsuko projects... I was rummaging through more of my piles of stuff, and found a cute comic I'd written and laid out, but never got around to drawing or submitting.

I was a fan of the comic Ninja High School by Ben Dunn, back in the late '80's when Antarctic Press itself was getting started and NHS was its first title. Soon after it began establishing itself as a "cult hit" (meaning that, for a small-press black-and-white book, it was doing respectable numbers, but not anywhere near a Marvel or DC book), AP announced a contest of sorts: fans were invited to submit stories involving Ichikun (AKA "Itchy Koo"), Princess Asrial and the other wacky characters for possible publication in a special Girls of Ninja High School book. (Whether the winning entries actually won any money, or just a chance to see their submissions commercially published, I don't remember.) But I saw it as a way to get a little "mainstream" notice for my then-newly-created Tetsuko character (with, of course, the hope that Tet-chan would draw enough positive reaction that AP would then approach me about publishing her in her own book); so I began working up a story involving Tetsuko with the NHS characters.

At this time there isn't much to Tetsuko besides the first name and the fact she's a tall (but in this version, not abnormally taller), muscular and super-strong woman. I hadn't settled on how or why she'd become so powerful, nor had any inking of an occupation or a supporting cast yet.

As to why this story was never finished and submitted: certainly time was a factor. But also, I recall, submissions had to run no more than six pages, and this runs eight. And try as I might, I couldn't get it down to six pages without cutting out much of the action or humor.

So keep in mind as you read this: these are very very very rough layouts, just enough linework to indicate where a character is supposed to be and what pose he/she is hitting; in many cases I have to write the name of the character by the figure so i could tell who it was intended to be. But I hope that you'll be able to follow the sketches and dialogue enough to get an idea how the story was supposed to play out. So... without further ado, you're invited to watch as "The Girls of Ninja High School Meet... The New Gym Teacher!"

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MISCELLANEOUS

Now this... I'd forgotten all about this! Jogging my memory, I think this comes from about 1992 or so; I think I'd just discovered LH-Art about this time, and drew this up on spec, to see if they'd be interested in publishing it. I remember wanting to execute it in shaded pencils instead of inked, for a more "realistic" (i.e., photographic) look.

The story was titled "Barroom Blitz", inspired by the title of a song by The Sweet, "Ballroom Blitz".* We spend two pages watching as a woman (whose name, unfortunately, escapes me) works her muscles hard in the gym. The third page shows her conversing with another member of the gym, a slim girl who doesn't like heavy workouts (and apparently doesn't much like to see Our Heroine do so either). She makes a remark that's meant to be cutting, but the buff chick sloughs it off and responds with a comeback of her own. Then we see the bodybuilder babe checking herself out in a mirror as she flexes her biceps; Snide 'n' Skinny gawks as she watches her muscles explode, but Biceps Girl evaluates herself a little more critically: maybe she should get her arms even bigger? Click on the thumbnail below for Page 1, then keep clicking the page for the next, and after the third page, you'll be whisked back here. (Ain't technology wonderful?)

Watakushi no kioku ga tashika naraba (if my memory serves me correctly), the rest of the story went like this: after her workout, our girl takes a shower to wash off the sweat of her workout (oooh, gratuituous nudity?), blow-dries her hair, and gets dressed to meet a friend at a local bar. She reaches the bar only to find a message from the bartender: her friend can't make it, has to work late or something. So now she's got a whole evening to spend alone. An artist sitting a little farther down the bar decides to make his move: he walks up, introduces himself, compliments her on her physique, and tells her of his admiration for muscular women. In fact, they're his favorite subject for drawing; would you like to see my portfolio? They're looking over his work, she's really impressed by his talent, and they're really hitting it off... when up stomps this hulking gorilla of a loutish boor. He's already had a few too many, and has decided he's got issues with women trying to build their muscles, and with guys who like these kind of women, and heaps abuse on both of them. "Art" gallantly attempts to defuse the situation by politely asking him to leave them alone; his response is to trash Art's portfolio and hurl Art himself into a nearby table. This enrages Our Heroine, who responds by methodically taking the lout apart, along with a sizeable protion of the bar. Vanquished at last, the creep can only whimper for mercy from the Amazon, who demands apologies. Finally, she's satisfied the situation is under control, she puts Art back together. "If you feel up for it, there's still a lot of evening left in which we can enjoy ourselves," she tells Art with a flirtatious twinkle in her eye...

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And there you have it... a smattering of art from the archives, and some long-winded exposition as accompaniment. I hope you've enjoyed it.

*Actually, the first couple of times I heard the song, I thought it was "Barroom Blitz"; well, it made sense! Oh, well, off it goes to the Archive of Misheard Song Lyrics, where it can take up with Warren Zevon's purple-furred werewolf. ("I saw a werewolf drinkin' a pina colada at Trader Vic's/ and his hair was purple perfect." - Werewolves of London) 'Scuse me while I kiss this guy... BTW, clicking the song title up there links you to the song at the iTunes Music Store, where you can hear a 30-second sample of the song, and even buy it for 99 cents if you want. And the man in the back said "everyone attack!" and it turned into a ballroom blitz! And the girl in the corner said "Boy, I wanna warn ya it'll turn into a ballroom blitz!"

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© 2004 David C. Matthews