Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece) as Plastic Man by Mindy Steffen (King Con Brooklyn 2012)

I get lots of ideas. If you've been keeping up with my sketches, you'll know that I've been heavy into requesting amalgam/mash-up sketches. In this case: the Straw Hat pirates of Eiichiro Oda's One Piece as American superheroes.

Casting the super-stretchy Luffy as Plastic Man was a no-brainer at first. Then I realized that Luffy doesn't have Eel O'Brien's shape-shifting skills. Luffy rears back, throws his arm out, punches a dude, then the arm snap back. I contemplated an Elongated Man look . . . then I thought, "The heck with it," and went with Plas.

BTW, Mindy Steffen (aka "Mindy Indy") has colored Deadpool Max, featuring art by Kyle Baker . . . and Baker drew Plastic Man for DC Comics years ago. Circle of life! And I didn't realize it until just now!