As I detail elsewhere, I'm a fan of women bodybuilders and muscular women in general. This admiration left me frustrated whenever I'd try to find a movie, TV show or comic book that would show these women in action. So I decided to create my own. The most "well-developed" (pun intended) of these concepts is Satin Steele.
The series chronicles the adventures of the title character, a professional bodybuilder who, like Murder, She Wrote's Jessica Fletcher, "just happens" to stumble upon danger and adventure everywhere she goes... most of it the product of the machinations of the clandestine terrormonger Tiger's Paw. (And most times she "just happens" to be wearing her signature stage costume of bikini and cape when danger strikes...)
An early sketch of the Satin Steele logo
The name came out of nowhere; but it is among the creations I am proudest of, since it perfectly encapsulates what Satin (the woman and the series) is about; evocative of the saying "an iron fist in a velvet glove". I think the Billy Joel song "The Stranger" might have been a subliminal influence, as the first verse (which talks about the masks or "faces" we all wear "when everyone has gone") contains the lines "Some are satin, some are steel..."
So, Satin Steele was born out of a desire to see noble "Wonder Woman"-type heroines with sexy, muscular physiques. I can't say exactly when all the elements came together in the form of the dynamic blonde with the killer bod and the stray forelock, but it must've been around 1984 or '86, when these drawings - the earliest ever drawn of this exciting (to me, anyway) concept - were done.
During this time I had a dream that influenced the visual look of Satin Steele. A simple dream, at least what I remember of it: Loni Anderson, as she appeared in WKRP In Cincinnati, wearing a black swimsuit. She smiled at me, raised her arms... and flexed baseball-sized biceps! Soon after, the sketches you see above were drawn. I was not deliberately trying for a likeness of Loni Anderson, but when I saw what I'd drawn, I decided to let her be the inspiration for Satin's "look". (If I were to have that dream today, it would probably feature Kristen Johnston of 3rd Rock from the Sun; she's got Satin's dimples, if not her physique...)
As I continued to produce drawings of Satin, she began to look less and less like Loni (and more and more like Satin). This method of allowing a well-known face influence my character design would appear again when it came time to design another of my characters, Starburst.
The cape was added to give the character and the book more of a "traditional comic book" look. Unlike most comics characters, however, Satin had a good "legit" reason for wearing a cape... it's part of her performance costume, since she is a professional bodybuilder. (Which also gives her a reason no other superhero/ine has for being portrayed flexing her muscles.) I figured I could get away with the gimmick of having most of the adventures that Satin finds herself embroiled in occur while she "just happens to be dressed" in this white bikini/pink-and-purple cape posing suit.
I'd toyed with the idea of giving Satin superpowers - superhuman strength, flight, invulnerability. etc. - making her a sort of "80's" version of Supergirl. (Well, it was the 80's when she was created, even though she wasn't published until 1990.) But I decided that not giving her any powers, and only as much strength as she could develop from weight training, might give her readers a better chance to "identify" with her, as a more-or-less "normal" human facing these outrageous challenges that test her courage, her wits, and her considerable strength. (The "superpowers", as you'll see, would resurface in the concept for Starburst, which was to come later.)
To keep this page from getting too much longer, I've put the story behind the creation of Tiger's Paw on another page.
Back to Satin Steele's home page
©1998 David C. Matthews. The images and text in this publication may be freely distributed, as long as authorship and copyright information remain intact, but may not be altered or commercially distributed without express written permission.