EXCLUSIVE: Is she heroine or villainess? Either way, artist Jamal Igle can at least tell you how he did that nifty cover — and designed Fortune City’s Dominoed Daredoll…
The essential Dragonfly & Dragonflyman #3, by Tom Peyer, Peter Krause and Andy Troy, is out from AHOY Comics on Wednesday, Jan. 8 — so it’s time for another EXCLUSIVE cover commentary by Jamal Igle.
Not only that, Jamal will show off his design for the issue’s big debut: Lady Dragonflyman — what is her startling secret identity?
(Side note: Best name ever for a superhero. Reminds me of when Providence College’s women’s teams were called the Lady Friars. Think about that for a second.) — Dan
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By JAMAL IGLE
So, Tom threw more a loop with this cover: “INTRODUCING… LADY DRAGONFLYMAN! That’s right! Gossamer Goliath meets Distaff Detective! What is her shocking secret?”
We’re introducing a brand new character into The Wrong Earth mythos. Since this is our first time meeting her, I needed to design her.
The idea really came from looking at another distaff heroine from comics history and figuring out how to create a familiar yet different version of our hero and how to introduce her.
Usually, I spend a bit of time thinking of the cover and paring my ideas down to a single sketch before presenting it to Tom and our editor Deron Bennet. With this cover I submitted three versions because I couldn’t decide which worked best.
We all agreed the third sketch was the best and I went about designing her.
I wanted to ‘feminize” (for lack of a better term) the Dragonflyman costume. High heeled boots, purple hair coming from the base of her hood help in that regard. I also decided to add something that would separate her even more. LDFM’s goggles have a heart-shaped attachment holding her antennae, but lack the lights in her lenses that Dragonflyman and Stinger’s goggles have.
I also decided that she wouldn’t have the “Gear Gauntlets” the others have, taking a page from characters like Golden Age heroine Sun Girl, the original Kathy Kane Batwoman and initial Barbara Gordon Batgirl by giving her a purse — here, a fanny pack — to hold her gear.
This would also be the second cover in the series with a much more realized background and I did a bit of research to make that pop a bit.
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MORE
— JAMAL IGLE on Creating the Cover For DRAGONFLY & DRAGONFLYMAN #1. Click here.
January 6, 2020
Not a big fan of the wing design. They are too flimsy looking and appear more gossamer like than looking like the tougher, stronger, stiffer wings of a real dragonfly. The shape and size looks good, but give them more inner structure and a clear translucent look like real dragonfly wings.
When I see a dragonfly the two things that strike me the most is their speed and flying ability and those cool wings. Sorry, but these comic characters wings look flimsy, like colored toilet paper. “Needs improvement” is what a teacher may say on a students paper.