ASH Art Second Heroic Age Last Updated: 10/30/21 Union Label and Flower Power added. Back to the ASH gallery page

    While I didn't do a lot of new art for Coherent Super Stories, I did mine a lot of old ideas, which means old art. Rather than further bloat the main gallery, I decided to just spin this stuff off from the get-go, which led to the full re-org of the gallery. It'll be split into three sections: ancient (pre-college), old (early 1990s, mainly) and new (made after I started writing CSS). As usual, please don't copy or hotlink without asking.

• Dragonfly: My first drawing of the character, done in colored pencils over a #2 pencil drawing (no inks). Done around 1984, if memory serves. Created as a character in the then-new Marvel Super-Heroes RPG. The only other drawing I did of this version was for a team shot. See Fan Art for Joe Singleton's update on this design.
• Phantom: Drawn in pencil and colored in crayon in 1981 or 1982. I changed the name ot Fantom for CSS. Redrawn in 1984, then quietly retired.
• Weapons Master: Drawn shortly before or after the Dragonfly pic. Yes, that's a Hellfire Club goon he's kicking, he's another MSH RPG character. The crate reads "Hellfire Club Property This End Up". This is the first time I ever tried drawing two characters interacting. Done in pencil and colored pencil in 1984. I later decided that Dragonfly made his little jump belt thing. I've redrawn this concept a half dozen times or so since then, but except for the team shot pics in 1984 and 1986 I don't really consider them all to be the same character, so I won't be scanning those. I will, however, scan this one, done during the short but embarrassing to think about period when I actually thought Liefeld was worth emulating instead of mocking (1990, for reference). Felt tipped pen and colored pencil.

• Antiochus V: I actually introduced the character into the game in the 1993 organic-bot form on the right, but retconned in the 1970s robot once the players did some historical research. I figure this is still about what he looked like in 1973 after a round or two of upgrades. I think I inked him in Grumbacher technical pen and did most of the coloring in Crayola colored pencil, with some marker work.
• Ladyhawke: Drawn as an NPC for my Champions campaign in 1991, as the retired superhero mother of ASH member Rad. That's not a filter on the fleshtone parts, that's just really thick colored pencil. The rest is marker, and I think I inked this one in quill and ink (I picked up that tool over the summer of 91 and used it until discovering technical pens in spring 1992). See Fan Art for Joe Singleton's interpretation.
• Delta Rose: Drawn in 1991, this is more or less what her 1970s costume should look like, although she probably accessorized with a backpack or beltpouch or something to carry other gear. Inked in pen and quill, the pink and white were colored pencil while the reds were marker.
• Powerhouse: This was originally just a design for the heck of it, but I later brought him into the ASH campaign as an old foe of Ladyhawke's, and father of the girl who ended up as Rad's love interest. Pressing the jewels in certain combinations releases various chemicals through the harness. Inked with a fine point felt-tipped pen and colored in markers. Desperately needs some highlighting in with all that brown. I think I must've just bought a set of brown markers that week.
• Valkyrie: Actually my PC in one of the spin-off ASH campaigns (at one time, four people were running games in the setting), I've adjustd her timeline so that she was active late in the Second Age, albeit mostly as a behind the scenes sort. Based on a Freyja miniature. Felt-tipped pen and colored pencil.

• Dragonfly: Pose taken from Frank Robbins art on Captain America #186, with the Falcon coming in for a landing. I wanted a 1970s feel, and reinforced it with the Sharpie inking and the non-gradiented colors. Pencils. 5/3/07.
• Lady Lawful I: Done by Andy Burton using City of Heroes' character creation system.
• Brightsword: Patriotic hero with an alien cutting torch and powers unleashed by alien experimentation, powers he passed on to his daughter. Fought the communist agent Darkshield in San Francisco in the late 60s and early 70s. Drawn in a blatantly Kirby style, Sharpie and Prismacolors. As with Dragonfly, I shot for minimal gradients, counter to my usual coloring style. 5/5/07.
• Fantom: Purely done in Prismacolor markers. No penciling beforehand, no inks. The swirling grays didn't blend as well as I'd hoped, and my initial concept had this being much looser and spookier, but I'm reasonably pleased with how it turned out anyway. 5/6/07.
• Union Label and Flower Power: I was shooting for a "60s style but not completely a copy of Kirby or Ditko" with deliberately flat colors here. In the pencil art I had a somewhat more angry looking Union Label, and different details on Flower Power. The inks are only missing the shirt patch (which is both an homage to Davan from Something Positive, and also the shape of the garment workers union label). Inked 10/25/21, finished 10/30/21.