The rules of the Monday Mashup are simple: I take one panel only from each of ten randomly selected comic books and try to make a coherent — or at least entertaining in an insane kind of way — story out of them. This week brings us “Assault on Taco Bell”!

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I’ve done a number of illustrations for the Uberworld shared RPG universe, but one in particular is notable for its use as a template for a HeroMachine item:

Claymore’s creator, Rob Rogers of “Devil’s Cape” fame, gave the character description as:

Out of costume, Darryl is nondescript, vaguely muscular, and generally dresses out of style, with little attention to hygiene or grooming. In costume, he looks straight out of Braveheart. He wears his hair long and wild, running out from a leather helmet. He wears a brown tunic, a kilt, and leather sandals, and here and there a piece of metal or reinforced leather is attached to him in a wild hodgepodge. His face is streaked with blue paint.

I knew the kilt would be the bit that really sold the portrait, so I spent a lot of time getting it right. The biggest part of that turned out to be in the coloring phase, making sure the tartan pattern followed the folds properly. Ordinarily I’d have inked that in black and white, but I think letting the color carry the load really paid off in this case.

In fact, I liked the basic design so much that I ended up cutting and pasting it into the HeroMachine application so everyone could enjoy a Scottish-themed hero.

(Image and character © Rob C. Rogers.)