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One of my main male actors, Ben (who plays the corrupt cop Detective Mark Drake) is also a longtime artist, aspiring to publish comics. We had a meeting yesterday where he brought over his portfolio and it was quite extensive. Ben and I have decided to start Heroineburgh Comics!

The plan is to publish the first issue as a compendium of three stories, featuring characters from the series. The three eight-page stories would ostensibly take place between the events of Season One (which concludes soon with EPs 11-13) and Season Two (which begins in early 2019). The stories would involve 1) Feline heroine Savanna fighting a drug gang in her neighborhood;
2) The goth DJ superteam Dark Dominion banding together to defeat a mysterious menace assaulting clubgoers; and 3) the tech-savvy X-Machina building a mecha-suit to battle a giant monster that accidentally busts out of a university lab.

We hope to have three different artists draw these stories, and also a local colorist and letterer. But for starters, here are some samples Ben drew for me. Admittedly, the Arcana drawing is a bit raw, but the other three (Savanna, X-Machina and the villainess Serpenta) are pretty hot. Let us know what you think about his style! When we have more information on this effort, we'll update the thread.

Another drawing by Ben Barnett for Heroineburgh Comics proposal.
Two versions of the Dark Dominion (Etherea, Arcana and Lunessa).
Let us know what you think!

Ben actually never finished the Dark Dominion drawing. Here it is, fully inked in. Thanks for your patience in watching it reach completion.
I hope you agree that it's pretty hot.

This is going to be the style of at least one of the three stories in the #1 Heroineburgh issue.

Our intrepid artist at Heroineburgh Comics, Ben Barnett, is working on a full page of panels so that we can try out some colorists.

Actress Stephanie T (who plays X-Machina in our series) is an accomplished artist and graphic designer, and we are going to try her out as a colorist because we definitely want as much participation of female artists in the comics project as possible (as long as they can draw superhero style).
So, when Ben is done with this page, we'll give it to Stephanie and see what she can do with it. She'll be coloring her own character, so there should be some added incentive and interest.

Here are some of Ben's panels. Let us know what you think!!

Long-range shot of X-Machina's lab, with Dysphoria in the restraining force field. Closer shot of Dysphoria restrained in X-Machina's force field machine. Laboratory bondage peril! Close-up of the nanomachine gloves which X-Machina quickly builds for Dysphoria to help her control her powers of decay. Close-up of X-Machina explaining to Dysphoria about the use of the gloves. Ben has really made X-Machina look quite beautiful here.

Looks great!

very nice work!

2 more images by Ben Barnett of X-Machina and Dysphoria posing. These will be turned into full-color prints to be offered
at the Steel City Con, along with Savanna and The Dark Dominion (Etherea, Lunessa and Arcana).

Ben Barnett's first interpretation of the violent villainess Vaporia!

Ben has finished the first page of the X-Machina storyline - this page is a flashback to the laboratory scene in Episode 8 where Dysphoria is restrained
in a force-field machine by X-Machina, and then given new nanotech gloves which X-Machina quickly designs and builds using her machine powers.
The rest of the story will be a brand new tale involving X-Machina teaming with Arctica to stop an out-of-control threat at Carnegie Mellon University.

We're going to have Stephanie T (the actual X-Machina! she's an accomplished graphic artist) do a test coloring job and see how it works out.

In the meantime, this gives everyone a taste of what Heroineburgh Comics' first issue will look like, at least in the interior pages.

SH Forum readers are the first to see this on the Internet. Let us know what you think!

Ben has come up with the first drawing of Arctica! She'll be teaming up with X-Machina in an eight-page story in issue 1.
Some shading and inking, and we'll have a very powerful and sexy mistress of the deep freeze!

More Ben Barnett work!

Arctica's logo
Serpenta's evil scheming
X-Machina in thought
A giant lizard is loose on campus!
The mecha-robot punches out the foe.
and another completed page: X-Machina builds her mecha-robot! She is levitating in the air using her magnetic powers.

Ben continues to knock it out of the park. Here's an incredibly detailed page of the villainess Serpenta administering her growth serum
to a monitor lizard, which then grows to the giant size depicted above!

More progress by Ben (aka Zeus).
Two different angles of the completed X-Machina logo.
And an almost completely colored Dark Dominion front page for their story. (Etherea, Arcana and Lunessa)
(the purple costume and hair highlights still need to be added to Etherea on the left)

X-Machina sheds her lab coat, donning her costume and mask.
Dr. Atticus is the rival herpetologist at Carnegie Mellon whom Serpents resents for the success of his experiments.
Dr. Atticus is knocked out in his lab by Serpenta.
Serpenta peeks around the corner, ready to cause her mischief.
Serpenta extracts the lizard from its cage.

And the panels keep coming!

X-Machina inside the head of her new Mecha-Robot
Lizard monster attacks Dr Atticus
Lizard monster invades the Carnegie Mellon campus

Monster smash! X-Machina's Mecha-Robot takes a beating from the giant lizard.
Ben did an awesome job on this one, though we're probably going to show a bit more of X-Machina's face and body reaction (she's too hidden from view here). But with a little tweaking it'll be perfect!

The first complete lettered and inked page from Heroineburgh Comics #1 - a scene starring the sexy Serpenta.
Note that the use of Comic Sans is a placeholder - we're going to be replacing it with two specialty fonts - one for dialogue and one for narrative. But you'll get the idea from this:

Ben's fantastic pinup for the character of Arctica, the ice queen!

Another great page by Ben. (no text yet)

Serpenta gets away. The lizard that she dosed grows into a monster and attacks Carnegie Mellon. X-Machina sees the monster on the news. She must spring into action using her mecha-robot!
Behold the ferocious giant lizard monster!

Two pages lettered. These are sequential. The font we're using is called International Superhero.
Pretty much ready to be colored. Any comments?

Our intrepid artist Ben Barnett continues to hit it out of the park with his ongoing interpretation of the battle of X-Machina vs the kaiju monster
Then the magnificent ice queen Arctica also enters the fray, and evens the odds.

These are preliminary drawings which will be filled in and inked, but you can definitely get the idea of how the story is progressing.
The giant lizard crunches the robot, and X-Machina emerges from the wreckage of the cockpit to see a huge foot bearing down on her.
Peril is afoot! And X-Machina is the sexiest mechanical engineer you will ever see, and very brave under pressure. Take that, "Hawkeye Initiative"!

We then jump ahead a few panels to the one where Arctica is greeting X-Machina after defeating the lizard monster (don't worry, we'll fix her face, it's a preliminary drawing attempt). Being Icelandic, Arctica is a head taller than her Chinese compatriot, but as a budding bisexual with a healthy libido, she's not afraid to make a pass at X-Machina, grasping her hand and inviting her out for a date to celebrate their heroic victory. Unfortunately, Arctica's crush is unrequited as Kim Chiang has her boyfriend Bobby waiting back at the lab to take her out for Mexican food. Arctica will simply have to crush on Fianna instead! (see Episode 14 when it comes out)

Changed the last panel of page 2 of the X-Machina story - we thought it was better to get a perspective from X-Machina's point of view, and notice how her figure gets closer to the viewer over the course of the page. Ben drew a beautiful face for Kim. More page revisions below, too. X-Machina story is coming together nicely!

Very excited to announce Jason Wright's first draft of the cover page for Heroineburgh Comics #1!!!

On the cover..X-Machina in the back with her powerful magnetism. Lunessa on the left with her light beams. Spectrina on the right with her lasers.
Arctica in the front with her ice blasts. And the Cathedral of Learning, a Pittsburgh icon, with the Heroine League headquarters at the top.
And also an inside panel by Ben Barnett drawing himself as the devious and diabolical Detective Drake (of the Black Faction).
And finally Ben's started to work on the inside coloring - here's the first page of the X-Machina / Arctica story, almost fully colored.

An 8-page story starring X-Machina and Arctica starts to come together!

And yes, we are still fixing some art, that's why it's in progress. But the first page will give some idea of how the coloring will look.

Apparently I can only do six attachments per post..here's pages 7 and 8 in progress.

As Ben is wrapping up the initial art for the X-Machina / Arctica vs Serpenta and the Kaiju Lizard story (tentatively called Pick On Someone Your Own Size), he's now beginning work on the second story for the issue, featuring members of the Dark Dominion (goth superheroine team).
Here's the first panel: Arcana sipping her signature glass of wine like in Episode 7. So beautiful and graceful. Ben is killing it!
The second panel depicts Mesmera hiding out in her fleabag hotel room after escaping the prison. She is plotting her moves for revenge.

For those of you who have been following the development of the Heroineburgh Comics debut issue, we're getting closer, and here's a big step:

Jason Wright (DC Comics veteran) did this unbelievable cover. This is going to attract people both to the comic shop stands, and online when the Indiegogo launches. We couldn't ask for more! Can't wait to debut this in about a month and a half (hopefully).

Let us know what you think of the cover if you're still following this thread!

i love the arts of this comics

Serpenta communicates with Drake about her successful science experiment. The violent Vaporia celebrates with her husband.
Arcana, mistress of the shadows, caresses a glass of blood-red wine while she makes her playlist for the DJ night. (finished / colored version)
The sequence of panels where Arcana eats Chinese food in the Heroine League headquarters and falls asleep due to Mesmera's hypnotic spell..her face plopping right into the noodle carton. ( lol-so-random humor. women eating food. am I becoming an NPC? oh noes!)
Preliminary sketch of the shadow demons that emerge from Arcana's mind while she's asleep, furthering Mesmera's evil scheme. They'll be terrorizing the students at the university. Who will be able to stop them?

Ben finished the first panel of the Arcana story with lettering!
Two more shadow demons!
Marcel has started working on the back cover - preliminary sketch of Jinniyya flying through the air high above the city!
He's going to change a couple of crucial things: 1) the hair needs to cascade over the corners of the mask, and 2) legs and boots need to
be smaller and longer ('foreshortening'). The back cover will have some text about 'coming next issue - Jinniyya the Arabic superwoman!'.

More work and screenshots by Ben from the second story in Heroineburgh Comics #1, featuring Arcana and Mesmera, and a few more heroines.
Work on the comic continues apace - it won't be ready in May but we'll surely have it released by July, and we have a couple Cons to go in the summer.

Background drawings of the Cathedral of Learning interior, where some of the main action scenes will take place.
A screenshot of Arcana stepping off the elevator into Heroine League headquarters with her bag of Chinese food.

(Yep, we can write about food, too, as well as any comic book writer can.)
Drawing of the villainess Mesmera in her battle pose.

Ben is completing more pages for the Arcana (et al) story. Everything is looking amazing.

Mesmera uses her hypnotic powers to gain access to the computer system.
She waltzes past the guard at Cybertech, then entrances Sabrina (aka Cybrina) in her civilian form to give up the Heroine League's monitor roster!
Arcana falls victim to the hypnotic spell of Mesmera, falling asleep face down in her Chinese food while unleashing a whole army of shadow demons
from her nightmares!
Preliminary sketch of Lunessa wielding her moonlight blasts. So gorgeous!
Mesmera slips into her tight costume in the hospital bathroom, right before she hypnotizes Arcana. Sexy stuff by Ben.

Sketches for the developing fight scenes of the superheroines Lunessa and Spectrina vs. Arcana's shadow demons.
Two examples of University of Pittsburgh students screaming or fleeing in terror.
Two more intricate backgrounds for the scene inside the Cathedral of Learning.

More great work on the Arcana / Mesmera story by Ben!

Mesmera whispers her mental commands into the ear of hospital nurse Arielle Kane (aka gothic mistress of darkness, Arcana).
Arielle is under the hypnotic control of the villainess. What will Mesmera make her do?
Mesmera leaves the hospital room, reveling in the evil plan she has set in motion.

Most of these are screen shots (i.e. literally shots of Ben's screen), but they are well-presented enough that it'll give everyone a good idea
of what the second story in Heroineburgh Comics #1 is starting to look like. Nearing our goal of putting out the book by July!

Cybrina dazed on the floor from the hypnosis by Mesmera.
Cybrina rouses herself to give the alert to the heroines on her phone.
Closeup of Lunessa in her secret identity as Vanessa Luna.
Lunessa in her secret identity as Vanessa, at her massage parlour, powering up to transform.
Lunessa in mid-transformation!
Spectrina and Lunessa run to the scene to battle the demons.

Another finished page by Ben!! and a screen shot of Spectrina, fully colored in her rainbow-powered glory. Spectrina and Lunessa combine their powerful 'cages of light'.

More progress from Ben - we are so close!

The finished page for the Spectrina and Lunessa light cage battle in the Cathedral of Learning. Battle panorama featuring Spectrina and Lunessa. Another battle angle featuring Lunessa and Etherea. Shot of Cybrina arriving on the scene in her cyberpunk costume. Preliminary drawing for the final panel of the Dark Dominion story!
Arcana, Cybrina, Lunessa, Etherea and Spectrina meet on the floor after the battle.

Ben is killing it! Another finished page from the Dark Dominion story, featuring the battle in the Cathedral of Learning.
The text needs a couple of editing corrections but we'll take care of that.
Closeup of Etherea teleporting into the Heroine League headquarters...to find Arcana groggily awakening from her hypno-trance, her face soggy
from the Chinese food. Etherea's teleporting sound effect will be "Funf!"...I'm sure X-Men fans can figure out to whom that is a tribute!

Two more screenshots from the final page. Ben is almost done!

Spectrina and Lunessa rush into Heroine League headquarters and encounter Etherea.
Cybrina arrives at League headquarters by emerging from cyberspace.
The "red laser grid" look is going to be her canonized appearance for when she is transforming back from living data.

Serious update on the comic book:

The cover is done, and all 16 interior art pages are done and laid out.
The back cover is inked (see below) and just needs to be colored and captioned.
Tonight I'm working on the inside front cover and inside back cover, which will have photos and art from the Heroineburgh website and a general
explanation of the series plus a character roster for the issue.
The comic will be ready for the comicons in Erie and Pittsburgh in late July and early August, and then it will be launched worldwide.

Here is Marcel's pencilled and inked back cover for Heroineburgh Comics #1 - a lovely pinup of our amazing actress Kristin as Jinniyya, the Arabic mistress of the wind, flying over the Three Rivers and playing amongst the birds.

I can't wait till he adds the colors. Simply exuberant!

Finished back cover by Marcel. Such a great job by him!

First stack of physical comics to be printed in two weeks.

After several months of Heroineburgh Comics #1 being out in the regional shops...we are in the "pantheon" of six Pittsburgh comics creators.
This store (our LCS since the 80s) has a great local creators display!

For those who live in or near the New York City area, Heroineburgh Comics #1 is now available in three boroughs!

JHU Comics (481 3rd Ave., Manhattan) 12-8 Sat-Tue 9-9 Wed 12-9 Thu/Fri
JHU Comics (299B New Dorp Lane, Staten Island) 12-8 Sat-Tue 12-9 Wed-Fri
Anyone Comics (1216 Union St, Brooklyn) 12-9 Mon-Sat 11-7 Sun

Let us know if you picked one up! Post here in the thread, or [email protected].

Heroineburgh Comics #1 is featured on some more Youtube comic book channels!

Blake from The Splintering gave the comic a thorough and constructive review:



Nile from Crowdfunding Comics opened the Heroineburgh package on their livestream, complimented the artists Jason and Ben,
and even gave us a 'wrench' for their chat. The Heroineburgh segment starts at 1:34:35, but we wouldn't blame you if you watched Cara Nicole's interview first about her crowdfunded comic, Firebitch. (She's in her costume!)



More interesting responses to come as various comics website and Youtube channels react to our packages in the near future.

In the past couple weeks, with everyone sitting around trapped at home, Youtube exposure for Heroineburgh Comics #1 has risen quite a bit. We got a review on Florida's Comic Chat Authority channel, a panel interview on Comic Corps channel (the organizers of an upcoming online Con called Mainframe), an unboxing on the Comic Uno channel with Kat Calamia (creator of the superheroine comic Like Father, Like Daughter), and another panel interview during Geek Insider's Geek Out Virtual Con (during which actress Mauricia, who plays superheroine Vendetta, was also present and talked about her own comic book project as well).

Now, tonight (Tue Apr 14) at 7 pm EST Heroineburgh Comics #1 will be featured on "Minute to Skim It" with Jen King of Space Cadets Collection store (Oak Ridge TX) on her personal page https://www.facebook.com/spacecadetscommanderking.

And then again on the Comic Book Shopping Network Facebook Group during their 8-10 PM EST "New2U" comics show at https://www.facebook.com/groups/409470939573503/.

We'll be there live, commenting and answering any questions about the series. Thanks so much to Jen (pictured below)
For the love of superheroines...please stop by!

Heroineburgh Comics #1 got a nice plug during Dan Shahin's interview with former DC Comics publisher (and current Metal Men writer) Dan Didio on the show. Fellow Pittsburgh comics creators The Edge and Music Maker were also shown.
Of our cover artist Jason Wright (also Metal Men colorist), Didio said: "He's killin' it, man!...We're putting him through the wringer on that book, and he brought the color, the scope and the depth.." Major props!

If you want to watch the Dan Didio interview where he talks about his whole career and his time at DC Comics - it's linked here, and the Pittsburgh comics, including Heroineburgh, make an appearance starting at 1:44:05.

Heroineburgh Comics will be on Critical Blast's Youtube channel at 8 pm EST on Mon June 22 along with Marvin Wynn from The Edge Comics and Mauricia from MusicMakerComix.

For those of you familiar with the live-action series, Mauricia also plays Italian superheroine Vendetta in several episodes. And get a good glimpse of Marvin, because he'll be debuting in Episode 18 as the criminal mastermind Cor'Von.

Tune in and get a triple dose of Pittsburgh comic book energy!