#2 Sirius Mack

Scourge of the Spacelanes. Merchant vessels fear him. The Confederation curses him. Ladies love him. You’d have to travel pretty far outside the Core of the Four Galaxies to find someone who hasn’t heard the name Sirius Mack.

Legend has it he was once a highly decorated officer in the Terran Armada. It was the academy where he first learned to fly & fight. Basing his technique on the ancient Samurai of Earth, his skill with a plasma blade is truly unparalleled. Upon graduating, he became a pilot. In fact, one of the best pilots, fighting in brutal orbital dogfights of the Great Saldareme War. He quickly rose up the ranks, & was soon commanding his own destroyer class vessel.

Who betrayed who changes, depending on exactly who’s telling the tale. Whatever transpired, it led to Mack stealing that ship & becoming the boldest criminal the universe has ever known. Who else would have the audacity to steal the crown jewels of the Albus, Critea, & Jojunngan Royal families at one gala, or hijack an entire Dyson Sphere?

While Confederation propaganda paints him as this cruel, sadistic butcher, many know it to be nothing more than a lie. While capable, Mack will only fight when he must. Even his victims will often speak kindly of him. While no one ever wants to get robbed, the people he preys upon often express relief, possibly even get a little starstruck that it’s by him. They call him a consummate gentleman, & say that to be victimized by him is almost a badge of honor. And while he may be just a thief, to many, he’s the People’s Thief, fighting a corrupt system.

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Falling behind. But only thing I’ve got to do tomorrow is vote, so hopefully I can get some more done after I get done with that.

This character was the one I was planning on dropping first. When I got bogged down by the detail, I initially thought I’d work on him while I moved on to others. Maybe drop him as the finale. But I hit a wall, so instead I just hunkered down & finished him off. I always wanted to try creating kind of a blaxploitation/space samurai, but never really got anywhere with it. Earlier this year, I started a completely different space pirate thing. It’s on a much smaller scale, not far flung into the future & never leaving the solar system really. But I thought that I could possibly tie that original idea in as fictional character in that world. Like that universe’s Captain Harlock, with a more romanticized view of space piracy. It kind of glorifies the life for the characters in that. The name hit me like a bolt a from the blue one day, but I never got around to actually sketching him up or working on giving him much of a back story. Until now anyway.

The jacket is loosely inspired on a character Otomo had in one of his art books once. I think it gives him a bit of an unintentional Hendrix vibe. Also, I’m not that into Star Wars, but felt weird giving this guy in the far future an actual blade, thus his weird, hard light plasma thing he just kind of projects as his hand mimes holding a sword. That way he’s never unarmed. Other than some tropes in the back story, I think its also kind of meandered from the original blaxploitation vibe I was originally shooting for. I think that was because I decided to play up the space opera elements more.

More soon.

Category: 2012, Fantasy, Scifi