A Body to (Literally) Die For

If you're any kind of comic book aficionado, then the voluptuous piece of womanhood in front of you needs no introduction.  In fact, it's virtually impossible to bring up the "Bad Girls" craze in the industry without this woman's name coming up in the conversation...the Queen of all that is dead and dying...the incomparable, unforgettable...LADY DEATH.

Of course, for those of you who are still a little on the young side and may have missed the boat, perhaps a little background information is in order.  So let me set the stage for you...It was the mid-90s and everyone was going through a grunge phase, whether they knew it or not.  And the comic book industry was no exception, gradually phasing out the Comics Code Authority for a harder edge...even among the women.  The virtues of Wonder Woman and the X-Men were out and the sensual temptations of Vampirella and the girls of Gen13 were in.  At the same time, small independent publications began to emerge (many embracing stories for mature audiences) in the hopes of cementing their own legacies in the industry.  One such entity, a small, upstart publication by the name of Chaos Comics, tantalized readers by introducing them to Lady Death...who quickly took the medium by storm.  Becoming the shining star of the entire Chaos line, she also became one of the most popular comic book characters of her generation...all the more impressive when one considers she wasn't a member of the Big Two.

Speaking of "Big Two", Lady Death was also one of the first characters to dazzle horny male readers with an absolutely MASSIVE pair of tits, which she apologized to absolutely NO ONE for.  At this time, many artists were still drawing females with very much the same proportions across the board, so when Lady Death hit the shelves, her huge endowments (which virtually no other woman at the time could match...outside of possibly certain anime women) were quick to gain attention.  Gradually, this gave rise to other female characters who would appear with fair-sized racks of their own.  However, while most of those who followed (such as Power Girl and again, certain anime women) would deliberately draw attention to their enormous funbags, often as the butt of a lewd joke, Lady Death's proportions were never brought up in any of her stories.  The creators simply "let it all hang out", as it were, and let the audience make their own judgements.  A touch of class, I suppose, especially considering that leather lingerie was typically her wardrobe of choice.

For anyone who's curious, Lady Death actually is still out there.  While the character has fallen from grace over the years, in the wake of Chaos Comics being forced to close its doors, she has bounced around various indie publications, which Creator (and Chaos Comics Founder) Brian Pulido still writing her stories.  Recently, Pulido has taken to trying his hand at a another publication of his own (Coffin Comics) and has brought Lady Death with him.

Which brings us to the pic at hand.  I decided to give Lady Death a try in my DCAU style, which seems to work very well.  At the same time, I also took the opportunity to right something of an egregious wrong.  Over the years, as other artists have drawn the character, most have seen fit to give her something of a breast reduction over the years, so I wanted to draw a pic that would return her tits to their former glory.  That's why I went with a mostly straight-up nude pic.  While lingerie is always tempting (I'm as much a sucker for lace and stockings as the next guy), the idea of obscuring even an inch of those magnificent globes just felt criminal to me.  Maybe I'll get a little more creative if I draw another pic of her in the future.  But this image came into my head, during a wave of nostalgia and I just wanted to get it out of my system and onto the page.

As always feel free to tell me what you think.  I'm personally quite proud of the finished product.  It turned out exactly the way I wanted.  Hopefully everyone else is just as pleased. ^_^