This is week three of character reveals for MISSES, my comic book/graphic novel series I'm in the middle of creating. So far, there are posts introducing MISS Inform and MISS Able, which can be found following the links.
Meet MISS Peak
Mango Holcum is a contemporary of last week's character, Rhyme Skousen (a.k.a., MISS Able). They both attended the Millennial Institute of Social Sciences (MISS) at the same time. Unlike Rhyme, however, Mango was actually chosen to become the first MISS to undergo elevation treatment.
After spending several minutes in the morphing chamber, it didn't appear that anything happened to Mango. However, later that afternoon while taking a walk, an apparent accident seemed to bring her new abilities to the surface as she saved several people from dying.
Like the other girls who secretly took part in the MISSES Endeavor, Mango arrived at MISS with an ability that was generally regarded as an impediment. With rather uncanny precision, she would say or blurt out things at the most awkward or inappropriate times, and do so in a way that was unclear or not quite true.
Because of this, she was dubbed Misspeak.
Needless to say, this regular inability to communicate got her into trouble a lot. She just couldn't help herself. However, despite appearances, her temperament was fairly easy going, and she really meant no one any harm.
After she was elevated, the academics and scientists involved in the process wanted to continue to increase her abilities, which were basically beyond natural human performance. She was now the peak version of herself, and thus became known as MISS Peak, better in every possible way. The officials at MISS, though, felt she had even more untapped potential.
As hinted at in last week's post the experiment ended in tragedy when MISS Able entered the morphing chamber instead. The morphing chamber was severely damaged and needed to be rebuilt. For a time, there was debate whether or not the MISSES Endeavor should even continue. MISS Peak, however, spoke passionately and eloquently about furthering the MISSES goals. She was willing to sacrifice all if it led to saving her world from eventual, inevitable self-annihilation.
A long time later, when the morphing machine was up and running and everything had been triple checked, MISS Peak again went in. It was meant to be a monitoring session, to see where her abilities were and any increases or decreases in them that might have occurred over time.
But something went wrong with the equipment, similar to what happened with MISS Able. Fortunately, MISS Peak was not obliterated, but she was left in a deep coma, her mind seemingly wiped out.
Concept Art
The Sketches
In the previous two character reveal posts, I've mentioned how communication between myself and the artist has been key in getting a character that is more or less what I imagined. With MISS Inform and MISS Able, there were some fairly quick alterations that I requested in the sketching phase to get them close to what I wanted.
With MISS Peak, though, the first sketch was nearly dead on. I didn't want her sleeves rolled up, but besides that and some minor uniform adjustments, MISS Peak was ready to go.
This second sketch came with the first as an optional look. To me, it made her look younger, and while she is supposed to be in her teens, I felt it was too much. So, the first sketch prevailed, and the thing around her neck was also removed, and the aura around her hands were pushed out to encompass all of her, similar to MISS Able.
With the third sketch, we see MISS Peak back to what her face looked like in the first sketch, with the sleeves modified along with the blouse, and now some rather interesting circles around her hands. I think I may have requested some manifestation of energy blasts, and they were showing me different concepts. I decided that energy blasts might be a little too much at this stage, thus the glowing around her body instead.
Inked
With the design concepts pretty much finalized, we entered into the inking phase, where we have the cleanup work done and her her appearance and apparel set.
Colors
Uniform style and coloring exactly like MISS Able's, but with blonde hair and brown eyes. She seems to have more of a sunnier, confident disposition over her counterpart, too. Her aura is more of a golden hue. She looks like she is ready to lead or do something of great importance.
MISS Peak's Concept art was also done by Graphics Manufacture, just like MISS Inform and MISS Able.
That's all for MISS Peak.
Next week, I'll be shifting gears a little bit to present a character from TEAM MISS, the all-female superhero group.
Until next time... Enjoy!
Images courtesy of Glen Anthony Albrethsen