#27 Black Cobra (3)
This one was probably one of the tougher ones to render since it this one is an actual existing character! The first and last two in the line of Black Cobras are all original ideas by me, and the middle three (#’s 3-5) are all public domain characters!
Concept: The Black Cobra/James “Jim†Hornsby – District Attorney/crimefighter.  Not sure if he’s related to #2 (may even BE #2), but if he is, he’d have to be #2‘s son. Jim and his younger brother, Bobby (#5), teamed up in the early days leading up to the US involvement in World War 2 to fight crime stateside. Jim was killed in action by Nazis on US soil.
Design: I didn’t really want to change his look from the original until I sat down with the design. The colors are horrid! So, I simplified it as much as possible (the hood isn’t quite the snake/cobra motif, but works). I wanted him to have the color black somewhere in the design, but couldn’t really figure it out, so I just made his pants black. Not proud of this one, but again, I wanted to keep him fairly recognizable.*
Late additions: Just for fun, I decided to do him less traditionally (ie, similar to the original) and more in tune with the “family” design I came up with.
The hood doesn’t attach to a cape. I just liked having something on his shoulders that made sense of the hood. I’m not opposed to a short cape, but I really didn’t intend for a cape to be attached at all. Sometimes a hood is…just a hood.
Art by Ricardo Venâncio!
Copyright © 2010, Vito Delsante.
Category: Superhero
About the Author (Author Profile)
I'm not exactly sure what I should put here, so here goes. I'm a writer, written for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, AdHouse Books, and Simon & Schuster, among others and his stories have been reprinted in other countries. Mostly concentrating on creator owned work right now, so the challenge suits me just fine. I live in Queens (Astoria/LIC), NY with my wife, Michelle, and two dogs, Kasey and Kirby. I'm not sure what else needs to be said, but I'm sure I'll keep changing this. Oh, here's something. I contribute to the Project Rooftop site. The RetroFix column was kind of my idea, so I feel like that experience will help me out here.Subscribe
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