The Phantom Inker

I've had this picture under wraps for a long time. I started it years ago — more accurately, I laid it out years ago, and then last year I started really seriously working on it. It's among the most complex pictures I've ever done, and at the current rate of progress, I'll probably have grey hair before I finish it. But still, I love this picture.

This is the all-girl band, You Go, Mutant Girl. These are its members, starting clockwise from left:

• Neve. Gorgon on the bass guitar. Along with Sara, Neve was one of the two founding members of the band. She's quiet, reserved, doesn't sing, and won't dance, but she plays a mean, mean axe. She wears the John-Lennon-sunglasses to avoid turning people to stone by accident.

• Melanie. Catgirl on the drums. Melanie's a psycho, in a good way. She only sleeps about an hour a night, she talks a mile a minute, she eats only live mice, drinks only thick black coffee, and has more energy than a room full of Muppets. She means well, but she's energetic and clumsy, which means things tend to break around her. She was the third member of the band, brought in by Sara and Neve. Yes, she's wearing a torn ;-P T-shirt.

• Lynne. Cecælia on keyboards. (And tambourine, triangle, wooden block, and pretty much any other stuff they need.) Lynne is sweet and gentle and innocent and gullible, a very girly girl, and prefers to play "happy songs." Lynne is conservative and classically trained, playing piano since she was three. Sara talked her into joining the band because it would be a good way to bring classical elegance to a broader public. Lynne can play the keyboards with her tentacles or her hands, depending on the needs of the song. Lynne occasionally sings backup too.

• Sara. Satyr on lead guitar. Sara is a hardcore rock freak, and proud of it. She knows music trivia like the back of her hand, owns a dozen guitars, obsesses over Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon, and almost never talks about anything that isn't related to music. She talked Neve into starting the band, and the two of them together write most of the songs. Sara makes most of the band's major decisions.

• Celeste. Centaur, lead vocals. Celeste was the last member to join the band, but she's the one everybody knows. She has the voice of an angel, and brings Neve's words and Sara's music to life. After Neve and Sara talked her into joining, they quickly went to the top of the charts, and they've stayed there ever since. Celeste is sweet and kind, and just loves having the opportunity to sing. She was friends with Lynne, and a few weeks after the band brought in Lynne, they heard her sing for the first time and knew she'd be perfect. She's the public spokeswoman for the band as well, and just loves being able to be paid for doing what she loves. (I think she probably sounds a little like Leigh Nash.)

So that's the band. Heh. Me and my storytelling.

Anyway, Celeste still needs clothing, obviously, and the drums need to be fleshed out, and the keyboards, and then the whole thing needs a background and color. But, hey, it's a start.

Anybody have any bright ideas for what clothing Celeste should wear? I often "shop" for clothes for my drawings using actual clothing websites, but I haven't been able to think of anything good for her. She should be dressed in something casual but covering, perhaps a little conservative but not as much as Lynne. I don't really know what she ought to have, but I know I can't leave her like this.

This picture has several different inspirations:

• In the late '90s, there was a series of ads on TV for the Gap at Christmas featuring the all-girl band Lucious Jackson on a white background playing a Christmas song followed by the "Fall-in-to-the-Gap" jingle. The ads were a little kooky and hokey, but they worked, and I thought the girls were cute. The memory of those ads helped to inspire this.
• The band's name comes from an episode of Futurama where Bender says, "You go, mutant girl!" and Leela replies, "I do go!" The band's members aren't monstergirls — they're mutant girls, and proud of it. This band is girl power, all girl power, and for the record, guys actually can find that empowerment kinda sexy, ladies.
• My wife is a singer, not professionally, but her college degree was in musical theater, and she's a good singer. I like to think that Celeste, the lead singer here, has more than a little bit of my wife in her.
• Last summer, the Glee Project aired on TV, and we watched it. And our very own Ellis, ~fluffystenseiga, was one of the competitors on it, and she was good. Damn good. Good enough that she deserved to go a lot farther in that competition than most of them did — but sadly she was sent home in the second episode. But leading up to the show, and during its airing, I was inspired, and Celeste has a bit of Ellis in her too.

So there you have it. Rockin' out with a mutant girl band.