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On the boot-clad heels of the 1997-era illo of Gen13's Roxy Spaulding (aka Freefall) that I posted yesterday...
...here are the two pieces of artwork I drew to accompany my proposal for the 1998 three-part Wildstorm miniseries Gen13: Magical Drama Queen Roxy.
For those who've not seen it, Roxy was one long, surreal dream sequence, dragging a distinctly Sailor Moon-style "magical girl" version of Freefall through a goofy gauntlet of none-to-subtle satire recasting her Gen13 teammates in various bizarre roles. Green critter Qeelocke becomes her furry "familiar" (or whatever the hell the animal sidekicks are called in magical girl anime); Fairchild, a life-sized and lethal Barbie doll golem; Burnout, a fiery Music Fascist; Rainmaker, the obnoxious, NPR-buzzphrase-spouting PC Queen; robomaid Anna, a giant mecha with a reality-deconstructing feather duster, and so on. Notably, an idealized version of Roxy's boyfriend Grunge gets split into two halves, one a bestial, horny, animalistic douchebag and the other a simpering, milquetoast, Sensitive New Age Guy, as seen in the right-side illo. (The "P.W.A.P." logo on his boxers stands for "Person With A P***s," as truly sensitive males hate to refer to themselves as "Men," due to all the hateful, sexist, patriarchal, paternalistic, phallocentric baggage attached to that word.*)
All this, plus Tuxedo Camel, the onslaught of Roxy's Ex-Boyfriend Lame-O-Rama**, and an Eva-style sequence where the narrative degenerates from page to page, devolving from full colors to color guides to inks to pencils to layouts to script-page only! And hey, what about the odd fact that none other than Leonardo DiCaprio (well, sorta) makes an appearance in a story that's one long dream sequence? COINCIDENCE? (Well, yes, it is.)
Anyhoo, the project wound up being a three-part miniseries, in the odd format of 32-page stories in 40-page issues. The concluding issue, #3, holds the odd distinction of being the very last "Image-era Wildstorm" book put out before DC took over the company. Sadly, the book was never collected in a TPB version, though we repeatedly (and futilely) pitched DC the idea of a "combo collection" compiling the miniseries together with the GRUNGE! The Movie arc from Gen13 Bootleg. Oh, well.
I've always been a tad ambivalent about MDQR, due to the fact that, at the time, I had the opportunity to pitch sequels to both of my (sorta) high(ish)-profile projects that came out in '97: GRUNGE! The Movie and the Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone one-shot I did for DC. I chose to go with a Gen13 pitch because my concept for a Titans sequel*** was so epic, sprawling and ridiculously overambitious that I wasn't sure I could pull it off. Hell, I'm still unsure if I could've handled the artload, given that the theoretical project would've comprised four 48-page prestige-format books (equivalent to almost nine issues of a "normal" DC title) crammed full of "widescreen" SF mayhem, devastation, 50-mile spaceships plunging through galactic cores and so on. Very shortly thereafter, the brief window for a Titans sequel closed, once Dan Thorsland, the editor who'd spearheaded the Scissors, Paper, Stone one-shot, ended up leaving DC. In the years since, I've occasionally made sad attempts to pitch DC on revisiting the characters, but the company has no interest in 'em whatsoever, alas.
So, yeahp, that's why I view MDQR with some degree of ambivalence. On the other hand, folks really did seem to like the miniseries a good deal, and the project arguably paved the way, two years later, for my 18-issue writing gig on the regular Gen13 title, which I enjoyed immensely. Also arguably, MDQR's portrayal of a deeply insecure superheroine struggling with self-esteem issues paved the way for my later work on Empowered. So, uh, yay, Magical Drama Queen Roxy!
*This, believe it or not, was not a whimsical joke; the term "Person With A P***s" really was, in fact, used by some very, very, very Sensitive Males back in the 90s.
**Why, one might even consider them a "League of Evil Exes," given that they attack Roxy and Grunge(s) en masse in a zombie-like horde... Hmmmm.
***Hyper-obscure, utterly pointless trivia: the proposed sequel would've been titled Titans: The War in Heaven.
...here are the two pieces of artwork I drew to accompany my proposal for the 1998 three-part Wildstorm miniseries Gen13: Magical Drama Queen Roxy.
For those who've not seen it, Roxy was one long, surreal dream sequence, dragging a distinctly Sailor Moon-style "magical girl" version of Freefall through a goofy gauntlet of none-to-subtle satire recasting her Gen13 teammates in various bizarre roles. Green critter Qeelocke becomes her furry "familiar" (or whatever the hell the animal sidekicks are called in magical girl anime); Fairchild, a life-sized and lethal Barbie doll golem; Burnout, a fiery Music Fascist; Rainmaker, the obnoxious, NPR-buzzphrase-spouting PC Queen; robomaid Anna, a giant mecha with a reality-deconstructing feather duster, and so on. Notably, an idealized version of Roxy's boyfriend Grunge gets split into two halves, one a bestial, horny, animalistic douchebag and the other a simpering, milquetoast, Sensitive New Age Guy, as seen in the right-side illo. (The "P.W.A.P." logo on his boxers stands for "Person With A P***s," as truly sensitive males hate to refer to themselves as "Men," due to all the hateful, sexist, patriarchal, paternalistic, phallocentric baggage attached to that word.*)
All this, plus Tuxedo Camel, the onslaught of Roxy's Ex-Boyfriend Lame-O-Rama**, and an Eva-style sequence where the narrative degenerates from page to page, devolving from full colors to color guides to inks to pencils to layouts to script-page only! And hey, what about the odd fact that none other than Leonardo DiCaprio (well, sorta) makes an appearance in a story that's one long dream sequence? COINCIDENCE? (Well, yes, it is.)
Anyhoo, the project wound up being a three-part miniseries, in the odd format of 32-page stories in 40-page issues. The concluding issue, #3, holds the odd distinction of being the very last "Image-era Wildstorm" book put out before DC took over the company. Sadly, the book was never collected in a TPB version, though we repeatedly (and futilely) pitched DC the idea of a "combo collection" compiling the miniseries together with the GRUNGE! The Movie arc from Gen13 Bootleg. Oh, well.
I've always been a tad ambivalent about MDQR, due to the fact that, at the time, I had the opportunity to pitch sequels to both of my (sorta) high(ish)-profile projects that came out in '97: GRUNGE! The Movie and the Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone one-shot I did for DC. I chose to go with a Gen13 pitch because my concept for a Titans sequel*** was so epic, sprawling and ridiculously overambitious that I wasn't sure I could pull it off. Hell, I'm still unsure if I could've handled the artload, given that the theoretical project would've comprised four 48-page prestige-format books (equivalent to almost nine issues of a "normal" DC title) crammed full of "widescreen" SF mayhem, devastation, 50-mile spaceships plunging through galactic cores and so on. Very shortly thereafter, the brief window for a Titans sequel closed, once Dan Thorsland, the editor who'd spearheaded the Scissors, Paper, Stone one-shot, ended up leaving DC. In the years since, I've occasionally made sad attempts to pitch DC on revisiting the characters, but the company has no interest in 'em whatsoever, alas.
So, yeahp, that's why I view MDQR with some degree of ambivalence. On the other hand, folks really did seem to like the miniseries a good deal, and the project arguably paved the way, two years later, for my 18-issue writing gig on the regular Gen13 title, which I enjoyed immensely. Also arguably, MDQR's portrayal of a deeply insecure superheroine struggling with self-esteem issues paved the way for my later work on Empowered. So, uh, yay, Magical Drama Queen Roxy!
*This, believe it or not, was not a whimsical joke; the term "Person With A P***s" really was, in fact, used by some very, very, very Sensitive Males back in the 90s.
**Why, one might even consider them a "League of Evil Exes," given that they attack Roxy and Grunge(s) en masse in a zombie-like horde... Hmmmm.
***Hyper-obscure, utterly pointless trivia: the proposed sequel would've been titled Titans: The War in Heaven.
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© 2010 - 2024 AdamWarren
Comments77
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Magical Drama Queen Roxy was probably my favorite Gen-13 comic! I loved your artwork, and the story had me laughing my head off! Kudos all around to all involved!