Author Archive: Batmankm
Father, husband, illustrator, designer and comic book artist. A die-hard Halo videogame addict and zombie apocalypse novel reader. Has way too many comic books and action figures for a man his age. He has had work published by DC, Techno comics, a number of independents and is self published. Currently Kirk is the artist and Co-Creator of the hit indy comic book Z-Girl and the 4 TIGERS. www.zgirl.org See more of kirk’s work at www.studiokm.com
#26 LANTERN KIMA
Back in August of 2008 on a dare a couple friends and myself challenged ourselves to create a new Green Lantern. My friend Jeff Marsick and co-creator/writer of our comic Z-Girl and the 4 TIGERS, wrote a short story about a female Green Lantern called “Kima’s Tale” It blew me away and was the catalyst for our coming together and collaborating on Z-Girl. But Kima never went any further. So when I was stuck for another character to create Jeff suggested I go back to that short story and bring Kima to life. I realize that Green Lantern is not an original character but Kima certainly is. And who knows maybe somebody at DC will be as inspired by Kima as I was and want Jeff to write her story and me to illustrate it. Hey, we all have to have dreams.:-D
#24 ELECTRONICA
Based on a character sketch by my 9 year old daughter. Her version had lap tops for feet! LOL I went a little more conservative in my interpretation of her idea. 😀
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#23 The SCARLET PHANTOM
The Scarlet Phantom is shrouded in mystery. Is he friend or fiend? Dr Spector has run into Scarlet Phantom on a number of occasions. Sometimes on the same side, other times as enemies. His motives are not clear but one thing is very clear. He strikes fear into those he confronts and he wields powerful skills and weapons that leave his targets helpless and outclassed.
#16 – 21 Z-Girl And The 4 TIGERS
Taking a Que from Daisy Chan/dazdays most recent post ( which if you haven’t seen it, go see it because it is killer awesome! As are all of her posts! ) I am putting multiple characters in a single piece to get back on track.
This holiday themed winter battle scene showcases the main characters in the independent comic book Z-Girl and the 4 Tigers which is created by Jeff Marsick and myself. The following is a brief description of each character. The creature they are fighting is not from the book but a character I created for this image:
Starting from the top left corner and going clock wise the characters in this piece are:
CODE NAME: BLACK TIGER:
The Black Tiger spirit is the oldest of the Four Celestial Guardians and is master over winter and water. Michael Wallace is the current host of the BlackTiger spirit and the team’s operations commander, a position he has held for several centuries. Like Zombie Girl, Wallace’s origin is unknown and the explanations of his longevity and innate healing ability are shrouded in mystery.
CODE NAME: Z-Girl:
Legend holds that the father of Taoism, Lao Tzu, followed the stars to a barren field in Mongolia where, in an unmarked grave, he unearthed a mystic woman who had been buried alive. Nameless and without memory of her past, Lao Tzu trained this highly-functioning zombie to be the leader of a group of Chinese warrior spirits, or Tigers, for the purpose of combating monsters and demons that threaten to wipe out humanity. Along the way, the highly-functioning zombie seeks answers to the mystery of her origin and is in perpetual struggle to keep her innate flesh-eating urges under control.
CODE NAME: RED TIGER:
The Red Tiger spirit is master over summer and fire. On the team, Red Tiger functions as weapons specialist and sniper. Secretly, the Red Tiger is also responsible for dispatching Z-Girl should she ever revert to baser instincts and become a threat to her team or humanity. How this secondary responsibility came about is unknown. Valerie Tardiff is the current host of the Red Tiger spirit and the team’s relative rookie, having recently assumed the spirit after the death of the prior host while quelling a zombie uprising in Mumbai.
CODE NAME: WHITE TIGER
The White Tiger spirit is master over autumn and metals. The original White Tiger was the disfigured son of Yin Xi, the Prefect of the Western Pass who had asked Lao Tzu to record his teachings of Tao. Killian O’Bannon is the current human host of the White Tiger spirit and as an innovator of battlefield technology, he is the team’s engineer and mechanopath.
CODE NAME: BLUE TIGER
The Blue Tiger spirit is master over spring and earth. Over the centuries and through dozens of reincarnations, the Blue Tiger has fought his eternal enemy, the Hindu bird-man, Garuda. Eric Taylor is the current human host of the Blue Tiger spirit and serves as the team’s medic and combat mage.
CREATURE DESIGNATION: SNOWZOMBIE
SNOWZOMBIE are ancient creatures that are conjured by a mystical race of transient demons known as the GORE. GORE can only exist in our plane of reality in frozen and extreme cold conditions. They lack any physical bodies, and because of that they create SNOWZOMBIES to do their bidding. GORE were very rare and encounters with their SNOWZOMBIE creations even more rare. However, with global temperatures dropping due to climate change, their appearance in our plane of reality has been on a dramatic increase.
The Z-Girl web site has a lot more if your interested:
#14 Deep Ocean Demon Eel
Dr Spector got a lot of positive feed back, so i decided to start creating characters and creatures from a Dr Spector Universe. This beast is an ancient deep ocean monster Eel that is demon possessed and as such only Dr Spector can prevent it from rising out of the ocean depths and reigning destruction on the world. Wish him luck. 😀
# 8 CAPTAIN BASTARD & STICK BOY
Captain Bastard and Stick Boy is the brain child of my two friends Dave and Scott. When I was looking for Ideas from people for this challenge Dave told me about this comical super hero duo that he and Scott had come up with years back. The short bio on these two is “”Captain Bastard wields the weapon…Stick Boy IS the weapon…and he hates that $@*&!” A dysfunctional SuperHero team if there ever was one. LOL! They gave me no description of what they would look like so I thought it would be funny to do an interpretation based on the classic superhero duo of Batman and Robin. Thanks guys for letting have some fun with your characters!
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#6 TROG BEAST
No freaking idea. Just one of the multitude of creatures that is bouncing around in my head. 😀 Certainly could find a home in the Zgirl and the 4 Tigers universe.
#5 CR-11
CR-11 is one in a series of sophisticated robot observers that record and inventory the history of the universe. Created a millennium ago by a race of space faring beings that no longer exist the CR’s dutifully record the history of the universe like robotic librarians. What happened to the technologically advanced race that created the CR’s is unknown. It is the only history of the universe that the CR’s do not have recorded or preserved, keeping their creators a mystery.
#4 SKELETONIC
Not sure where in my head this came from but it just started evolving and evolving till it got here. HA! I wanted to create a Skeleton Based bad guy that could look like he belonged in our Z-Girl and the 4 Tigers comic book universe. I wanted him to be a fully mobile character but not just a skeleton walking around. So by making his liquid body case transparent we get to see the skeleton clearly. Yet he has weight and substance making him more threatening, but without muscle mass that would obviously cover the skeleton.
#2 FREON The Snowclops
A character that came to me during the crazy October snow storm we had on the east coast this past week. I could easily see FREON the Snowclops becoming a Z-Girl and the 4 Tigers villain.
#1 THE DEADLY PUMPKIN
A Halloween inspired character based on an idea and sketch by my seven year old son.
#30Characters Chatter…