This model sheet rounds up some of the characters introduced in the second portion of StarStrikers: First Strike!, frequently referred to as "The Darryl Arc". In some ways this has been the most challenging of all the model sheets so far, because I had to draw these guys for reference... and I didn't want to! I guess you could say I had cold feet. There are a few allusions in the book towards Will and Lars's appearances, so I at least had something to work with there, but I had next to nothing for the other two, for reasons I'll go into in a moment.

For the uninitiated - which now that I think about it, is just about everyone, since book 1 is still vaporware - Will Rockwell is Darryl's mentor and something of a surrogate father figure. Before I could start drawing him I had to acquire a lot of reference material, but unusually, it wasn't a person from which I was drawing inspiration. I decided that he would effectively be like a big (mostly) shaven bear, with huge paw-like hands and feet. His proportions, the slope of his shoulders, the shape of his head, even the tufts of hair above his temples are all designed to convey this. He marks a further expansion in my design philosophy: up until now my focus has always been on maintaining solid human anatomy with my characters, since they had always drawn so much scorn when I was starting out. I think by this point I've proven that I have some idea what I'm doing, and so where appropriate I'm making some of the supporting cast for StarStrikers a little more quirky and interesting. In a way, I'm bringing the cartooning element back into my art a little more.

I really didn't know about Will's design at first. He's one of those characters that seemed to lack something at the lineart stage, but really came to life during coloring. It probably also took a little time for me to come around to the unconventional aspects of his anatomy, but now I've warmed to him. FUN FACT: Will is the second-tallest character in StarStrikers; Sylvia is 1/10 of a head taller. ^_^

Lars is the leader of the Black Mondays, a gang that terrorizes a wealthy district of Los Angeles. His design was very loosely inspired by Kiefer Sutherland's character in The Lost Boys, though his description in the book helped me more. Mostly it was a case of filling in the blanks. Note that the lighting for the gang is different to that used for Will and the other characters so far; I figure they usually appear under cover of darkness anyway, so I colored them in keeping with this.

Dwayne is the closest thing Lars has to a right hand man, but as such he never really gets the chance to define himself in the novel. About as much as we knew about his appearance was that he was slightly shorter than Lars and sported sunglasses. This meant I didn't have much to work with, but I decided to turn it around and view it as a lack of limitations, as a blank slate, as free reign to do as I pleased as long as the final design fit the character. Somehow I ended up with this almost androgynous looking fellow. This design was a big gamble, but one that I feel paid off. He may be my favourite of this bunch.

During the rewrite process it was brought to my attention that Darryl's arc is in some ways similar to the idea of the extended Foot Clan in the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. As it happens I just recently went back and re-watched the film, and so I decided that Freddy's design would be a little homage to the character of Danny, one of the kids who falls in with the Foot Clan in said film. Freddy already had the headphones, so I also gave him a Danny-esque shirt (replacing "SID" with "BPM", to bring things a little more up-to-date). He's not quite as threatening as the others, I'd say he's more vacant than anything.

Though not as blatantly as Will, there's a little animalistic influence in the Black Mondays too. They were patterned after the four wise monkeys: Dwayne has the sunglasses (see no evil), Freddy has the headphones (hear no evil), Darryl has a somewhat oversized mouth (speak no evil), and Lars is just all-round bad news (do no evil). More often than not "do no evil" is omitted, but yes, sometimes there's a fourth. All the members of the gang, including Darryl have slightly larger-than-normal ears in keeping with this design philosophy. Like Vigo, they have been baaad monkeys! ^_~

I'm actually quite happy with all of these guys now. They took much longer than they should have, especially considering that only one of them gets any page time beyond the second arc. But it's fun to see these characters, who have all been part of the Strikerverse in some fashion since the early days, in illustrated form.

NEXT: I'm gonna diverge from model sheets briefly to finalize designs for logos, weapons and other items. Doesn't sound too thrilling but I think some of these designs will be fun.