From the Files of Isis Champion :: Firsts

"My first real "first date" was not what I had hoped it would be. I wasn't able to attend...I wasn't even aware I had been invited!

The year was 2004 (late bloomer ;) ) and Physics classmate Jimmy Lincoln approached me to ask if I would like to get together for dinner and a movie. The only problem was that he didn't ask me...he asked my evil doppelganger Antith-Isis (another first - my first run-in with that lunatic from another dimension.)

Apparently Antith-Isis had been running around pretending to be me for some time. I was getting blamed for all kinds of stupid things I didn't do - Painting the White House "off-white", carving Groucho glasses on Mount Rushmore (everyone but Teddy Roosevelt of course), removing shopping carts from entire chains of grocery stores world-wide and replacing them with other chains' shopping carts. Dumb things like that.

I just couldn't figure out exactly what was going on. Until Jimmy came up to me in class with pictures of "us" from one of those picture booths at the mall. He told me we were supposed to meet later that evening for an ice cream and to "give that 'ol Statue of Liberty right back to the French."

(Photo Source: Associated Press)

Here I am later that day giving Antith-Isis a piece of my mind...moments before she gives me a piece of her right hook. (First #3 - the first time I ever unintentionally orbited Saturn.)

She's saying something like "You talkin' to ME?!?!"

I hate when the bad-guys quote DeNiro."

From the Files of Isis Champion :: What's Up, Paradox?

"In my future I will be in an Earthquake that happened 100 years ago.

Make sense? Yeah, don't you just love time travel. Paradoxes always drive me nuts!

Let me explain.

You see, I was at the San Francisco museum a few months ago where they were doing a show on the Great Quake of 1906. I've never been a real big history buff so I never payed much attention to things like this, but a friend had gotten tickets so I figured what the heck.

So I'm gazing at the displays and the photos and something catches my eye. There is this one pic where a Super Hero is holding up a building (I'll post it if I can find it online.)

(Editor's Note: Photo Source, Wikipedia.)

No big surprise - we all know the Heroish community was a part of the San Francisco landscape, although not very large, at the time of the Great Quake of '06.

I look as closely as my microscopic vision can get, wondering who the person might be.

Imagine my surprise upon seeing that the Hero was in fact an older version of myself! Me, clearly me, same outfit, different hair, but undoubtedly me! I've never been to 1906, nor have I ever had that particular hairdo, so I know this event has yet to happen (at least to me - see?)

So anyways, sometime in my future I am going to:

1) Cut my hair and give the sides a bit of a "flip"

2) Travel to 1906 and assist in the efforts surrounding the San Francisco earthquake

At least that's the simplest explanation. There are others that involve alternate realities and timelines and evil / alternate versions of myself (I once met up with someone calling themselves "Antith-Isis", claiming to be my evil twin from a parallel dimension, but I digress,) but I hope for my sake that it's as simple as a mere future time-traveling excursion into the past.

Plus, the hairdo was cute."

From the Files of Isis Champion :: Fashion Sense Tingling

Editor's Note: A couple years ago I created a profile for my character Isis Champion on a new social media startup. The site was a sort of online journal, and the idea was that Ms. Champion was a real "person" who was writing about her life like everyone else on the site.

For this incarnation of Isis, I created the concept of one being 'Heroish' as a sort of cultural/religious way of life. The domino mask therefore was not an item used to disguise one's identity, but a cultural clothing item on par with a yarmulke.

The startup went nowhere, but there are a handful of postings and accompanying illustrations that I have recently been reviewing again and I figured they might be fun to share with my loyal blog readers.

I'll let Isis take it from here.

"I love Yellow, Red and Black. Those are my colors, and I tend to wear them exclusively.

The practice of color scheme exclusivity is cultural, similar to the Scottish Tartan. Within the Heroish community we tend to pick a color or combination of colors early and stick with them our whole lives. Even when dressed "normal" a Heroish person will generally carry their colors into their standard attire.

Sometimes the color choices are passed down from parent to child or from master to sidekick. Sometimes they define your powers and abilities. Sometimes they just look good with your hair or eye color. My choices fall under that last category. Being of fair complexion and hair, I chose bright primary colors contrasted with bold Black. Spiffy!

It also helps with P.R. - "Look, up in the sky, a yellow dot carrying an incapacitated jet-liner...it must be Isis Champion!"

"What was that yellow-red blur that just saved my child from falling into the Grand Canyon? It must have been Isis Champion!"

Hey, we all want credit for a job well done ;)"

Stages

These are the basic stages I go through when drawing a character.

First comes the idea.


Then comes basic layout to get a feel for the structure of the character and how said character will fit on the page.


I then clean up the basic structure so I have the full body visualized. Sometimes this occurs on the same piece of paper (thanks to the ever magical eraser) but often I will trace over the existing structure on a new piece of paper.


I then start to add the details. In this instance, you can see I drew the cape in a bunch of different positions, trying all sorts of angles to get it right. I also drew the head on a separate piece of paper after too many scribbles and erasings on the original. No big deal, just trace it all onto another piece of paper when ready...


...and voila! Finished pencils.


I then ink it by hand. Again in this case I inked onto a fresh piece of paper using my light board.

Isis Champion

This is a character I created named Isis Champion.