Faster, Empire! STRIKE! STRIKE!

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I don’t do a lot of commission jobs but when the geekfather, Patton Oswalt, makes you an offer – you can’t refuse. A brief back story to clarify… obviously anyone savvy to pop culture knows who Patton Oswalt is. He is most known for his numerous television appearances, film roles, and his hilarious stand up. A few years back he mentioned me on a tweet and we threw some ideas back and forth about crazy potential lines. He has been very supportive over the years of my work mentioning it on twitter, in print interviews, and even somewhat basing his character’s hobby in Young Adult on my work.

A short time passed and Patton commissioned me to create one of those earlier ideas. He wanted me to do the re-imagining thing I do but this time rather than an era or genre he wanted me to fuse the line with the wildly fun films of exploitation film maker Russ Meyer, in particular, with the film “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” He gave me a few ideas but really left most of it up to my imagination (which is the way I prefer to work). One catch, because most of Meyers films, 99.9% to be exact, feature busty females protagonists Patton wanted me to gender flip every character making the characters I would usually make men into woman and vice versa. He also had a specific vision involving a mini bar and a GTO.

Click HERE to see Patton’s very flattering write about the line on his Blog “Spew”

LOCATION: When last I heard this line was on display at the Meltdown Comic Shop in Los Angeles


Ole Betty Kentworthy
Betty Kentworhy runs a dilapidated old farm on the outskirts of a small town in West Texas that hadn’t yielded much more than dirt the last few seasons. There was a drought going on and the farm was cluttered with windmills drilling down to dry wells. Betty was disliked and dismissed by the local townsfolk for some unspoken events from the past she resides herself to a solitary existence looking over two teenagers who are not her children by birth.

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For Betty I was going for a tough old Angie Dickenson type that still had figure for a woman her age.


Lucy
Lucy longs to break free of the boring confines of the farm. She dream of adventure, life on the open road, and boys. Forced to work on the farm by Betty who watches over the girl in hopes to shelter from some of the mistakes she made in her youth.

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For Lucy I based the look on one of Meyer’s protagonist from the film Supervixen


Leo
Leo has the intellect God gave a bag of marbles and the muscles of a body builder. Maybe it was all that work in the hot sun that baked his brains and gave him that impressive physique. All of his faults aside he was dutifully loyal to Betty and fiercely protective of his sister Lucy.

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Leo is based on the Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! character of the beefcake known as Vegetable.


Golden Rod
One day glistening in the hot noon sun a golden GTO came tearing into town. The old car was a little beat up but heavily modified to outrun anything the cops could throw at them. As the car roared though main street its occupants noticed a curvaceous farm girl, Lucy, with her brother in town at the feed store buying supplies. The car followed the kids home.

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The car was one of Patton’s ideas. It was by far the most challenging part of the line. Mostly because it is hard to transform a humanoid character into a car and also doing a car in scale would be huge and really outside my normal skill set.


Darla Vade
An Amazon of a woman with a sadistic desire to tease men with her sexuality and then violently punish them. She is leading an all girl crew on a cross country crime spree of sex, violence, and robbery. She is quite taken with the shapely, young Lucy and imagines the chaos that could cause with her in their ranks.

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This was another of Patton’s initial ideas. Basically she is based on the iconic character of Varla, played by Tura Satana from Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!


Stormy Go-Go
Stormy is the flunky and yes-girl to Darla. What ever Darla wants Stormy does. She is actually part of a revolving door of gorgeous henchwoman that Darla enlists and she calls them all “Stormy”.

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She is loosely based on the go-go dancer Billie in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! character


Bonita Flores
She is a deadly murderer and the real muscle behind Darla gang. She says little, but she speaks with action, and her actions almost always leave a trail of dead men.

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I wanted the bad girls to be a trio just like in the film. She is loosely based on Rosie from Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! but I added a western style to her to incorporate a look from my West Wars line.


The Milky Way Falcon’s Van
The beat up old van may not look like much but she got it where it counts. The old thing is pretty beat up but his is Hanna’s pride and joy.

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After I finished the initial line Patton liked the idea of the van in my story so much he commissioned me to make it. I pulled out all the stops and actually made it a functioning RC car with real head and tail lights. I initially made a mural for the side in photoshop but it looked too good. So I hand painted the side mural of to give it the look of a homemade mural done by a band.


Chibetta
Chibetta is the the drummer in the all girl rock band “The Milky Way Falcons”. She is actually from Mexico and speaks no English and can only communicate by relaying what she wants to her band mate Hanna. The band is playing a dive bar in town when Lucy runs in the back door for safety after being chased and harassed by Darla and her gang only to find the huge drummer waiting who takes her to meet the band.

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The roguish heroes posed a real challenge for me. I eventually had the idea of making them an all girl rock band like the one from the Russ Meyer film “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” I thought it worked with the rock n roll attitudes of the smugglers and scoundrels.


Rest / Refreshment Drink Dispenser
As Lucy and Chibetta head backstage they find the band partying amongst a small gathering of the crew and some fans. In the center of the room is a white mini bar that is decked out with all manner of recreations substances. Lucy over hears someone call it the Rest & Refreshment Drink Dispenser as they push it aside to make room for the terrified girl while its wheels nosily squeak and screech.

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Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! character


Hanna “Guitar” Solo
The lead guitarist for . She is a bit of a loner who needs no else accept the adventure of the open road, the occasional groupie, and her band mates. The only thing she loves more than the “The Milky Way Falcons” is her old supped up grey van the band travels in. She reluctantly agrees to help Lucy after she becomes convinced that her family may reward the band and and after Darla’s girls burned up her van to stop them from getting away.

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Again based on the idea of an all girl rock band from the Russ Meyer film “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”


Lanna Calloway
Lanna is a foxy soul singer rock star that is one part Billy Holiday and one part Jimi Hendrix. She is a child hood friend of Hanna’s who only recently reunited with her when they formed the band, “The Milky Way Falcons”. She agrees to help Lucy, but secretly had worked out deal to help Darla to save her bandmates from the violent girl gangs retribution. She changes her mind at the last second steals the GTO during a bar fight that broke out between Lucy and Leo and Darla’s gang to help her band and the kids escape. After a brief chase the group makes it to safety back at the farm.

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Again based on the idea of an all girl rock band from the Russ Meyer film “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”



GROUP SHOTS

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