Polypheme and Odyssea, my combatants for Jenn Woodallâs FIGHTZINE, featuring an all-female cast of fighting game characters. These ended up being closer to Dark Souls enemies (maybe my Ornstein and Smough), but hey.Â
I picture these two as invulnerable from the front and weak to the rear, with Polyphemeâs shield and spear, and Odysseaâs gun keeping the player at bay. I imagine youâd get a few seconds to wail on their weaker side before being skewered on Polyphemeâs flaming trident and hurled across the screen.
I knew I wanted to do a pair from the beginning, but I couldnât really figure things out. I tried out some stuff with a tandem bow, one holding and aiming, the other drawing back the arrow, but visually it didnât work. Things didnât really develop until I drew Polyphemeâs giant shield, and even then, it wasnât until the shield became a face with a mouth that the pair clicks. The shield became a cyclops later, after looking at some Indian puppet masks, I think. She became Polypheme, and the other became Odyssea. The trident was a sword originally, but, Polyphemus, being the son of Poseidon, already has a link to the trident. The flaming part of the trident is a small nod to the flaming wooden stake Odysseus uses to blind the cyclops.Â
I have a big reference folder full of matchlock guns from different time periods, culled from a few trips down the olâ Google images rabbit hole, so that popped up. It seems mindlessly scanning Google images or Tumblr or whatever would just be a timesink and nothing else, but you never know. It pays off to keep track of the things you find visually stimulating, just in case.
These are two disparate examples of how I design characters â sometimes a lot of narrative choices go into the character, like in Polypheme, and sometimes itâs just a collection of interesting shapes, patterns, etc, like with Odyssea. The first is active, where Iâm trying to fulfill some mental picture, the second is reactive, where Iâm building the narrative after the shapes come together. They both have their merits.
Iâm happy to add this piece of tonal dissonance to what is otherwise shaping up to be a very fun zine.
