S E E Quine: Supervillain Extraordinaire?

` Never mind badly-scribbled bathtubs, dragons, bathtub-dragons, dinosaur cyborgs, insane squirrels and Jar Jar Binks keychains, which tend to fill the left-over spaces of my sketchbook. I actually had one rather interesting not-from-real-life inspiration which occurred months ago, sometime after I asked one of the Zebra Girl forum posters what their avatar was supposed to be of.
` This poster's handle was 'Desty', and it turns out that the image was from a somewhat chibified drawing of a manga/anime character, Desty Nova, drawn by the Princess of Horrifyingly Dark Cute, Shiro.
` ((Shiro's also done some pretty kowai kawaii fan art for Zebra Girl, if you're brave enough to take a peek - and I just love the quote she put on her website from the author of that comic.))
` So, *ahem*, yes, the forum poster called 'Desty' alerted me to the Gunnm/Battle Angel Alita character, Desty Nova, which I don't really know much about, though I did find several more pictures and I really, really dig the high-tech goggles! A lot.
` Since I sometimes see myself as kind of a closet comic book villain for a few reasons (as evidenced here, though thankfully that tirade of mine earlier was somewhat cleansing), I decided that it would be kind of appropriate to draw myself as one for my avatar in the ZG forum. In fact, I'd been using a thumbnail of someone else's self-portrait as a frightening mythological character for quite a while to make up for the fact that I couldn't scan any of my weird self-portraits in.
` However, even if I had had a scanner, my demented self-portraits are all at my mom's house, so I'd have to make a new one. And, so, in searching for ideas, I decided to try this Desty Nova, and Googled this very picture (which had also been made into someone's avatar), and I thought it looked groovy enough to try...


` Contrast and compare! Mua ha ha ha ha ha haaaa!


` Eh... I coulda worked on it more, but I was too distracted by shiny objects.
` All I had to do was mod the same image again (and shrink it), so I can now have the satisfaction of having made my own Keenspot avatar, rather than freeloading, for once!
` I just wish the goggles weren't kind of misaligned - well, hey it was my first attempt. It's not like I could erase it or anything...

` Now, a little further into my sketchbook, I decided to draw a third comic strip (my second is too moronic by far to publish) based on a real event - and subsequent fantasy - in Phil's life that had signaled the end of his Christmases that were Merry.
` You see, last month, when he and EdgeWalker were laughing at what he wished he could have done years ago instead of being a piano-playing slave, I thought to myself; 'Wouldn't it be messed up - and somehow fitting - if my twisted comic book villain was the protagonist instead? After all, comics are where she belongs!'
` And so, my first comic with this poor character - which I later punnily nicknamed 'Cassie Nova', which is horrible, I know. Shut up. I'll explain later. (...no offense, Cas.)
` G'head and clicky to read it!


` Lame, no? But I'm actually showing this to you, so you might as well show some appreciation, human worms! However, I liked her so much that I thought I'd continue making more Dr. Nova comics - and I'll tell you when I do.
` Unfortunately, that means I needed to learn how to draw her, for consistency, so I spent a little while working on giving the goggles a more definite shape and making the hair a little less dorky...


` I'm not quite sure how these goggles are supposed to look around the side of the head, so that took some speculation on my part...


` Thankfully, I had a good intuition for their angle.


` On top of this, I clearly don't know how to draw a regular lab coat, so I used other pictures of them as references. As this was soon failing miserably, I just said; 'Bah! I'll just make up something!" which resulted in this concept:


` I likee horizontal stripes. Never mind the fact that I really messed up on the head and neck that time... Stripes are pretty!!! I've also attempted to draw her doing something mad scientist-ish. I didn't come up with any ideas that struck my fancy, so until then, let's just say she creates the horrible creatures that decorate my sketchbook margins.

` Such as bathtub-dragons. Mmmheh heh. "Their pitiful sarcastic complaints inspire me..."

` Also, I guess it's time I add that from this endeavor I learned that no matter how I draw this character - because I'm using my own, so incredibly hot body as a template - she always looked... kinda... sexy in some odd way.
` Uhm... yeah. I don't want to talk about it. ...So I drawed about it!!!


` You see, this is when I first started using the less-tentative name 'Cassie Nova' - because like me, she might be able to seduce almost any man, as long as she just stopped acting weird and... antisocial for long enough.
` Which I've never done, nor wanted to do. But I'd be willing to bet...
` (This reminds me, apparently, I also have something else in common with Desty - no apparent sex drive!)
` The reason why I even mention this is because at least sixty strange men (in my adult life) have flirted with and/or sexually harrassed me before I decided to become a recluse. And I'm only 23! (Granted, over half of those men were probably sick, perverted bastards.)
` Heck, even before that, I purposely avoided men - as I've had problems with them since I was eleven! - and I still couldn't escape their, um, attention. (However, I don't think the guy who hit on me as an 11-year-old was a perverted bastard - supposedly he thought I was eighteen, which I did look at that age...)

` This kind of treatment, of course, led myself to want to look really intimidating, and I expect Cassie would work best if I reflected that in my drawings of her. 'Cuz she's supposed to be not very nice. Even so, I'm having the same concerns in the drawing world... like, nope, can't have cartoon characters that look like me starting to attract men! Or women.
` But I'm sure it is a fruitless effort, assuming enough people ever see this character.
` Notwithstanding, for inspiration I've managed to find a really intimidating picture with Desty Nova (with his creations and failures) on the internet - of which this is a section:


` No, you don't want to see the rest of it. Anyhow, I figured; 'Hey! That would be really creepy if I drew my character just like that!' I know it's quite unoriginal, but I draw best when I'm working with things I can actually see in front of me.
` So, here's what wound up in my sketchbook:


` Bingo! Ye-es, that is disturbing! In fact, I was able to use Photoshop to make it even more disturbing!! (In fact, I had to stop before I got carried away...)
` Behold!!!!! Mua ha ha ha hahaaaa!

` Mmm, blood. Yeah, being tortured by a mad doctor and then then being thrown into an insane asylum because the ER medics don't believe you can cause images like this one to want to pop up in your mind.
` No, really! Try it and see!
` Maybe my next comic strip will involve Dr. Benninger becoming an unsightly stain on his office walls. That would be so deliciously ironic.
` Mmn, nah.
` Seriously, I feel that this 'Cassie' Nova has a lot of quite new adventures to be drawn into. (No pun intended.) Does anyone else have any more ideas about names or adventures for this sadistic and twisted character? Or other characters?
` Really! I'm crazy enough to draw them! You know I am!!

` I'm listening...