Mandalorians are trained in many forms of combat, such as the battle bikini rubber spine style.
(Cover of Escape From Monster Island #1, Zenescope Entertainment)
Okay, now we’ve all recovered from the psychic damage caused by this… not-anatomy, I’d like to make matters worse. This is the “cosplay variant” cover which I guess means its “inspired” by a cosplayer… possibly in the same creepy manner J Scott Campbell was with some of his personal artworks.
In order to find out who they did this to, I had to do a worrying amount of searching: It’s Leeana Vamp (who I have met in person and can confirm, she is very lovely) cosplay of Boba Fett, lingerie version specifically:
Now that may not be all of it – because early in the searches my first thought was that based on the face and hair, it was inspired this is the cosplay by Lauren Browne and was very confused why they’d altered her outfit so much and removed her tattoos.
That’s because in a lot of Vamp’s cosplay pics, she’s wearing pants (conventions are usually family friend events) and the helmet… because Boba Fett; and Lauren just happens to look a little more like Generic J Scott Campbell Paul Green Babe.
It’s almost impossible to match a “likeness” with in individual using this “style” typical of companies like Zenescope, which take objectifying women to new levels. Neither Zenescope, nor the artist himself gives any vague credit to any cosplayer.
And he has a whole calendar of this shit that Zenescope is selling (note, this artwork was from 2016 ):ites, he doesn’t follow groups run by cosplayers – he looks at those creepy as fuck “sexy cosplay girls” sites/groups that don’t credit the models and are avoided by cosplayers because of the comments sections.
And he has a whole calendar of this shit that Zenescope is selling (note, this artwork was from 2016 and the current year is 2021):
So what I’m saying is: Fuck Zenescope
– wincenworks
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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. ?
What the hell was the thought process behind the outfit is beyond human or Munchkin comprehension. I refuse to believe that evil magic is what keeps this thing on her body. It’s just too nonsensical. Thankfully, with the sweater theme I didn’t have to reinvent the costume from scratch, just throw something comfy on top. I went with a loose turtleneck tunic, matching in color the inside of her cape and her hat’s detailing. I didn’t fix anything about her pose, but she did get pants/tights that match her gloves.
Thing I noticed rather soon was that after covering all the gratuitous flesh she became a blob in various shapes of purple, especially since her hair blended with the hat and cape. I figured that if her skin isn’t supposed to be green, then at least her hair can be, both for contrast and to match the overall image’s composition better.
I didn’t remember it while editing, but other images of the Witch we had on the blog actually did sport very dark green hair, along with sickly pale greyish skin. Whoever changed the color scheme for that particular cover made a mistake and stripped the character of the last bit of distinctness.
Very casual redesign overall, and while much less detailed than the rest of the image, I’m rather happy with the improved color scheme and the shading I did to match the cape. Hope you like it too.
~Ozzie
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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 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 bodypaintboobplate 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
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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 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
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I feel ya, Dorothy, I am also appalled at what passes for clothing in Zenescope’s Oz. Are clothes taxed per inch of fabric in the West?
Have you ever looked at L. Frank Baum’s books about a land ruled and influenced by strong, complicated women, and thought “man, I wish these characters were drawn like plastic dolls by J. Scott Campbell so I could masturbate to them”? Well then, do we have the series for you!
(We also recommend you find actual people to interact with, we’re worried.)
Not technically armor, but I know 0 people who would wear this fabric scrap in real life. I guess J. Scott Campbell* knows more people than me… who are imaginary. At least Dorothy over there is wearing what might pass for clothes. I don’t even know what to call the Wicked Witch’s…. bodily coverings.
At least the series doesn’t fall into the Evil is Sexy trope, since everyone is barely allowed clothes? Yay?? ?
-Icy
My eyes, upon seeing Zenescope’s idea of what “Kansas Farmgirl” and “Powerful Evil Witch” look like:
~Ozzie
* I realize Campbell may not have had any input on these character designs, but it’s just the sort of thing he would design, so he still gets 0 points.
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“Mission Impossible meets Grimm Fairy Tales in this new intense spy mini-series from Zenescope!”
The cleavage flaunting catsuit (how with hood option?) is pretty much a standard in the espionage and heist genres… but it seems Zenescope has decided that not only are they going to be an exciting and unique way to market their pulp… but what people want are sexed version of the Queen’s Guard.
Of course, they’re not the first ones to come up with idea. The French cabaret club Crazy Horse has had a Queen’s Guard themed act for years, only their act is actually a homage to the discipline of those troops… not a generic pinup with a fuzzy hat and a red top.
This is supposed to be a spy story so… am I supposed to believe that’s going to a disguise that she uses? I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.
– wincenworks
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As someone named after a Rudyard Kipling book/character, I would just like to say: Fuck you Grimm Fairy Tales, now this is personal!
Assuming this is distaff-sexy-Mowgli (because that’s the only story popular media features from The Jungle Book and I’m pretty sure she’s not Rikki-Tikki-Tavi!) how did she get the daggers and the tattoos? Did Baloo set up a tattoo palor to get some extra honey!?
And of course, when it comes to the “something brown so maybe leather” bikini and wraps design… what else can one say but:
