Volume 2 Page 182
Posted February 14, 2017 at 12:01 am

Panel 1: I suspect that Crossword Mook’s face might be based on one of the secondary-character designs of the great Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, one of my key early influences as both a mangaka (Arion, Star of the Kurds, Venus Wars) and a chara designer (Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam). See, there was always a certain sameness to his main-character designs over various projects, with “Yaz”-drawn young heroes and heroines often looking fairly similar from one manga or anime to another. Ah, but by contrast, his designs for all his various secondary characters were a cavalcade—and treasure trove, for lesser artists such as myself—of distinctively colorful, widely varied, often caricature-like artistry.

I should also mention that Yaz was the first artist to draw SF author Haruka Takachicho’s characters The Dirty Pair, which I wrote and drew myself for six (presently out-of-print) miniseries earlier on in my print career. In fact, Ninjette’s short-shorts are almost certainly derived from the low-riding chrome “hip-huggers” that Yaz designed for his take on Kei and Yuri. In fact, lemme insert one fine (and persionally influential) Yaz DP cover illo below:

 

Huh. In fact, those shorts aren't quite as low-riding as I recall! When I drew an unpublished DP story featuring these outfits over a decade or more ago, I must've customized them to the low-riding fashions of the day. (Then again, not like matters have changed all that much a decade later, despite sporadic fashion forays by high-waisted shorts.) 

-Adam Warren

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