THE BODY AS LANDSCAPE - Sarigar in a laser fight

I had a brainstorm as I was drawing this illo for Carl Potts, creator of Sarigar. I added all kinds of details to Sarigar's body, updating him to what felt like my own version of the character if he was my creation. I hadn't found a Sarigar 'nude' to see what his skin looked like without his outfit, so I made my own. This is Sarigar, nekkid! I thoughtfully left out any semblance of genitalia. As I was drawing, the patterns and details took on their own shape and I started thinking about his surface as more of almost a landscape of details.

Then my brain exploded and I started seeing how other characters could have strange, freaky surface details, too. I've also finished one of The Hulk, with even freakier 'landscape', and will post it soon. I hope this will be a new series for me, as I enjoy this kind of exploration of character design.

Special note: back in the early 1990s, Marvel Comics offered me the position of 'New Character Development'. They liked my imagination. It would have been an ideal job; many creators wanted this position, as you got to just brainstorm and doodle new character designs all day (fun!!!). Plus very lucrative, as any character you designed that was used in books, or which got their own book, you'd receive royalties for forever, as long as that character was used anywhere.

But I was leaving comics, so I turned that wonderful job down. Fast forward to now: I thought I'd slack off and my designs would be minimal; turns out I'm on steroids and I love going overboard with the designing more than ever.

Usually I carefully try to balance my black and white areas; in this case, I had a feeling to just go for all the detail and hope for the best. At times along the inking of this piece, I'd alternatively love it and then hate it, worried that it was being lost in too many details. But when I finished it... I loved it, despite the busyness.