Bad Starfish

Every hero needs a an evil doppelganger. "Lily" is created by the Triumvirate to psychologically attack Starfish.

The Instruments of Destruction

Above is a sketch of two more Starfish baddies... They are brothers Warrhead (right) and Bomblast (left) and founding members of an organization called The Instruments of Destruction or IOD, terrorists for hire. They eventually become a recurring bane to Starfish's existence.

Starfish: A Modern Myth

I've always been intrigued by the idea that superhero stories are the myths of the modern era. We like stories. Furthermore, we like stories that reflect a struggle. I doubt any of the ancient Greeks fought the many-headed Hydra creeping around in their backyards, but I feel they could relate with Heracles' battle as he chopped one head only to see another one grow back in its place. This concept is not new, we see it everyday trying to handle our own problems as we solve them and more appear just as we think we're done. This is the power of myth and almost all storytelling, we are entertained by seeing ourselves in our heroes.

This is what I'm attempting to do with Starfish, tell a modern myth. It's not a completely original idea, but I'm hoping it will be an interesting take. My hope is to have a layered story and try to explain what the modern concept of evil is through images and metaphors that fit our times. How would a young person, given immense power, deal with the world around us. When evil takes the form of cancer or terror, natural disaster, or even fear, how do we fight. This is Novie's challenge as she grows to realize saving the world isn't as easy as punching holes through jet airplanes.

Bring 'em on!

Presenting The Triumvirate of Evil....

from left to right:

Zeitgeist: A fiery entity able to influence the darkest corners of the human psyche on a mass scale.

Metastasis: A bogeyman-like demon controlling disease and decay.

Cataclyst: A demi-god able to create and manipulate natural disasters.

These three make up the crux of Starfish's adversity throughout the series. Their power originates from a cancerous dark energy ripping its way across the cosmos. Their goal is to unravel all of creation and snuff out the light of the universe. It's Starfish's mission to put a stop to their plan and find the connection to the power that fuels her jet pack.

#2 @ ZUDA!!!

Thanks to everyone voting! I'm really amazed at how much progress has been made in just a few days! I'm thrilled to no end.

And the name that said on him was ZUDA!!!!

Starfish is live on Zuda comics!!! http://zudacomics.com. Vote early, vote...uhhh... once. Last July they announced this whole Zuda thing.... about June, the month just before, I was a little fed up by submitting to normal print comics and never actually seeing anything materialize. I decided to self-publish Starfish on the web. I was starting to gather information on what dimensions I should reformat my pages so that they would appear better on a computer screen when the launch of Zuda was announced and the now famous 4:3 aspect ratio was put into place... it was really strange how all of that worked out. Anyway, some retooling and I finally got to submit just before New Year's... pretty soon after, I was accepted and informed I would be competing in February's contest. Here it is...now it's official. Starfish, she be published!

Why Starfish? Part II

Even though I had abandoned submitting a proposal to the Epic line over at Marvel using the Rogue character. The idea of a youthful and rebellious female activist superhero stuck with me. I've coached Individual Events Speech at the local high school for almost 15 years now where about 75-80% of the team are always girls. In competition, I get to see a side of girls not reflected in most of popular media. In comics especially, heroic women are almost always portrayed as cutesy power puffs, voluptuous sex-starved vixens, or at the very least, some derivative of a male superhero. I've hardly ever seen a heroic girl take the "hero's journey" with a sense of strong ambition to do what's right or even a sense of responsibility to the world around her. I began to take the best attributes I found in coaching these young women, their ambition, their work ethic, their desire to win, and build a character around them. I used the name of a girl who I had nicknamed Starfish for a reason I can't even remember now. Starfish had recommended a song to me at the time, Jet Pack by Eve 6, and like most music, it inspired a story.

Concept Art

Below, in the previous post, is a fancy slideshow with music depicting some artwork already produced over the last couple of years developing Starfish. Some of it was aimed to be published as a printed comic book, other stuff is just doodling. Some images may be reworked for the webcomic. You'll see glimpses of the supporting cast and maybe a villain or two, enjoy!

Starfish Teaser

Why Starfish? Part 1

I'm going to use a series of these posts to talk about how the character of Starfish came about, probably more for my own posterity, but it may be interesting trivia for those who want to know how ideas are often formed. It all pretty much started when I wanted to make a pitch to Marvel's now defunct Epic line for a Rogue solo series a few years back. I was getting a little frustrated at how her portrayal was shaping up ever since she and Gambit became an item over in X-Men. She went from being this southern rebel baddie fighting on a good guy team to this simpering lovestruck belle always bemoaning to touch her beau. I wanted to get her back to her namesake. WHY is she called Rogue? I constructed a story where she rescues a terminally ill child from a hospital fire. The girl turns out to be a mutant too, a once powerful mutant with Carol Danvers-like powers. The girl's last act is to touch Rogue before she dies, in a hope she will in some way live on. Because Rogue totally absorbs her powers and personality, it restores her flight, superstrength, etc... It also restores her sense of youth and she goes on a spree to right the wrongs she sees in the world around her. This is, after all, how a child sees the world, black and white, good and bad. It's why we like the idea of superheroes in the first place. The conflict comes in that it's not a black and white world. If there was someone flying around, and you know, stopping wars and such, you'd have a problem with The Powers That Be, those interested in keeping the status quo. A superhero would be besieged by governments, they might even be labelled a terrorist.
Alas, the pitch never came to be. But the idea of a rebellious teenager flying around upsetting "the way things are" kept buzzing around my head like the sound of a jet engine.

Starfish Rising

Welcome to the Starfish Lighthouse. In this blog I plan to document Starfish's journey from the initial sketch on lined notebook paper to what I hope will one day reach iconic status in the eyes and minds of people everywhere. It's been a lifelong pursuit of mine to tell a story complete of my own imagination. I've been doing it since I could first make marks on any flat surface. When I was five, my mama gave me a portable chalkboard. I would draw Superman (in stick-figure fashion) looking through a wall with his x-ray vision as a distressed Lois Lane sat tied up in a chair at the hands of the evil Lex Luthor, the just released Superman Movie's Main Title March pumping through my vocal chords rather amateurishly. When I finished rendering the scene, I'd erase it and start drawing Superman busting though the wall. At the time I wasn't aware I was constructing my first comic book panels. As I get ready to start this adventure with Starfish, I find myself humming along with those opening trumpets.