grimm fairy tales – Bikini Armor Battle Damage

March 4, 2020February 19, 2022

Zenescope – Sweater Edition Part 2

Nataliya the Witch (I think)

“I think” because she looks completely different every time she’s drawn. Doing a quick Google search, I found the following:

Cue the confused Funky Kong noises.

Based on the crown and sometimes the nose ring, let’s assume this is her. So, her backstory is that she’s a Romani witch, I guess. The comic synopsis blurb on the Zenescope website uses a different word, ~ guess which one it is. ~ ? I did not know about this “backstory” when I was doing the redesign, which means it doesn’t exist anymore. Yay!

My version is a smarmy doesn’t-talk-much-unless-it’s-to-insult-you gal.

She’s got like 18 accents she switches between depending on who she’s talking to. Whenever someone asks her where she’s from (probably cause of an accent), she gives a different answer. Her motivation is to get out from her service to the Tarot, and her relationship with them has this undercurrent of bare minimum tolerance. She doesn’t even like the main character dude, but she helps him undermine the Tarot for her own reasons. She’s probably a lesbian, and her character arc involves her learning to work together with others and maybe warming to the idea of coffee dates.

Now for the actual design. I did try to fix her body as much as I could in the time we had. I decided to give her a more edgy sweater to match the face changes I did, because I just couldn’t stand that makeup and TEENY NOSE. What is this, a nose for ants?? I ended up giving her some whiskers, cause sometimes a girl has a ‘stache (I personally remove mine), and it just looked nice with her face shape.

I also included the bra straps since the sweater wouldn’t be able to cover them, and you don’t want to chafe your nips. If this fantasy universe can have whatever the hell is the original version, it can have bras.

I really do like this bad girl look I ended up giving her, considering I have not even an iota of a clue, of what the original design was supposed to convey (besides maybe an Elektra ripoff, in the comic itself). I think Ozzie suggested the final touch of the middle finger, aimed squarely at Zenescope. ?

-Icy

October 24, 2019February 19, 2022

Fixing Some Grim Designs ?, Part 2

Thanks to my forgetfulness, Throwback Thursday and Wednesday redesign switched places this week. Hope you don’t mind!

It’s the return of the bikini armor edition of Zenescope’s Baba Yaga! And she still looks like a rando shmexy lady, with no indication of being an old powerful hag from Slavic fairy tales. Because who needs knowing who a character is just from looking at her appearance? Certainly not the Grimm Fairy Tales ~~porn~~ comics! ?

It wasn’t a very inspired stream for me, so I basically worked from a Zenescope artist’s default mindset. The difference is, my priority wasn’t “MOAR BEWB”.

Most major edit was sharperning her facial features, so that she looks like an old lady we expect Baba Yaga to be. She doesn’t need to be “sexy” to disguise her dangerous nature – looking like a grandma already did that! Also gave her greying eyebrows and got rid of those random golden rectangles (warpaint?) on her cheeks which, because of outlines, looked like adhesive bandages and added nothing to the design.

I’m not as happy with her new, older face as I am with Arhian, but anything’s preferable to Generic Hot Lady Face #9575.

Another obvious fix was turning this ~~bodypaint~~ boobplate into something resembling a breastplate. Not my best edit, and I left the center of the chest kinda barren, but I did extend her pseudo-gorget to somewhat normal size for this armor piece. Now she can’t die of stabbing in the cleavage!

The lesser edits, after those, were thickening of her noodly arms and putting a red dress under her plate armor pieces. Not exactly realistic or practical padding, but still preferable to gratuitous skin display.

Definitely among my worse redesigns, but I hope you like it in comparison to the original anyway!

~Ozzie

October 16, 2019February 19, 2022

Fixing Some Grim Designs ?, Part 1

Well, it was inevitable that we’d tackle Zenescope in a livestream, considering the kinds of terrifying art that they pump out. And I’m not even talking about their Terror comics.

I decided to fix this cover from Grimm Fairy Tales, since I promised to y’all that I was going to redraw this gal. And I discovered what her name is! It’s Skye, and this is her… combat outfit? Her mom had a similar swimsuit, maybe she stole it off her corpse. Is that spoilers?

I basically ended up doing my usual: give the poor woman a breastplate and comfortable clothes, except I noticed that her bent leg looks weird. There aren’t a lot of comic heroes with physical disabilities that I know of, and I thought, why can’t we have a fairy tale about a disabled woman kicking ass?

I actually liked her face in this one, so all I gave her were thicker brows and a few battle scars. I also tried to make her at least a bit distinct from her mother by giving her some red hair.

Overall, I was going for a warrior who was plunged into the fighting life after her mom died, but maybe she still also wants a life of her own. I don’t know what the actual character motivations are, if they even exist.

Maybe I should have given her a different skirt shape…

-Icy

January 13, 2019February 19, 2022

What do you mean this character is NOT a result of semi-incestious relationship between Angela and female Thor? Wait, this is supposed to be… Baba Yaga?

Zenoscope’s Grimm Fairy Tales never disappoints in being disappointing.

~Ozzie

June 3, 2017February 19, 2022

While Grimm Fairy Tales is an extremely low-hanging fruit, I couldn’t help but snicker at how “creative” not only the costume, but all of those covers with the same heroine are – at least two poses get reused a lot with very slight modifications, like a closeup. And her expression on a vast majority is all the same.

Also it sums up GFT’s “mastery” at conveying character through their design – I suppose this is meant to be Snow White by the apple motif on her arm-warmer and the vaguely Disney-esque color scheme (aaand that alternative #2 cover).
Though didn’t she wear glasses and dress differently in those comics? Is that… a reboot? No, apparently it’s a sequel series and this is her daughter. Even in a legacy-based relaunch, Zenoscope isn’t capable of changing the status quo.

But, of course, random conventionally attractive women in battle leotards* posing “sexily” with swords totally tell me all I need to know about this mature take on fairy tale stories and characters.

~Ozzie

I wonder what they could have been inspired by…