Just wanted to post a copyright notice, Cat-Man is owned by DC Comics, Man-Cat is property of Dynamite Entertainment, all artwork posted so far belongs to the respective owners and is used only to compare the different versions of the characters.

Thanks you.

Catman Part 4

Now here is the difference between those are committed to their craft and the guys who half-ass it.
Even though I stopped working on this by noon yesterday, the ideas for Catman continued to spin through my head all day. People will be talking to me and I am thinking of what type of material a furry Catman could wear.





Yesterday I went through all the characters named Cat-Man to see what other people had done, but today we widen the circle and bring in anything that could possibly be used as my Catman, in each of the pictures I post there is a seed of possibility that could spark the design idea. My main concern right now is those damn shorts. Everyone else has replaced them but I want to find a way to make a cool costume with shorts and I am not sure it can be done.

Catman Part 3 - Other Designs

So DC, AC and Dynamite all have their own version of Cat-Man. Dynamite is calling their Man-Cat which I think is a great idea.

Here is the Australian version of Cat-Man:


And the Canadian version:


Both of these are at least 20-30 years old.
Now the more modern stuff:
Dynamite's Man-Cat


And DC's version, my favorite, Cat-Man.

Catman Part 2

From living with tigers for years, he gained superhuman abilities, such as super-strength, enhanced agility, natural night vision and the legendary "9 lives" of cats. Eventually, David returned to the U.S., where he was horrified by criminals preying on the innocent. To stop this, he became a private investigator; later, he would become an officer in the Army. Assigned to stateside duties, he donned an olive and orange costume with a black cat's-head symbol and became Cat-Man.

Cat-Man proved popular enough to earn his own series in May, 1941. In issue #5(V2#10), Cat-Man encountered Katie Conn, an 11-year-old circus acrobat who fell under the guardianship of her unscrupulous uncle after her parents died in the fire. The uncle forced Katie to steal things for him. Cat-Man intervened on her behalf and made sure her uncle was brought to justice. Since she no longer had a guardian, David adopted Katie. She tried to help him fight crime, sewing a matching red and yellow costume and calling herself the Kitten. At first, David tried to keep her from helping him, but Katie eventually proved herself and the two became partners. As the series continued, Katie matured and David was promoted to the rank of captain.



You might have noticed I am spelling his name Catman as opposed to Cat-Man. That is because there is a Canadian superhero named Catman and simply spelling it differently I homage that less popular Catman from Canada.

So onto the Kitten. So here you have a young boy raised to manhood by an older woman in the jungle, who later finds an 11 year old girl thief who becomes his sidekick.
11 is too young, as a parent I can't ever be convinced to use children as crime-fighters. So let's say she was at least 15-16, a little more mature and capable of dealing with the horrors in the world. However, I really can't get past the Sex Kitten aspects of her name, so let's toss it out and call her Ladycat. More class and style I think. But that doesn't have the same Catman and Kitten ring to it does it? Well lets leave that for another time. . .

Na-na-na-na-nanana! Cat-Man!

The first character of the pair I am revamping here is Catman.
From the Web:

The Merrywether family was traveling through the jungles of Burma when bandits killed the mother, father, and sister. Young David was the only survivor. He was found and raised by a Tigress and gradually gained all the powers of the cat family. When he became an adult, he decided to return to the United States. Upon arriving there, he was appalled to discover that the city was full of crime and evil he found. He decided to fight it, both as a private eye in his civilian identity and as the costumed Cat-Man.

So we start with the origin story and the character. Right off the bat there is some interesting stuff there, but I hate his name. David Merrywether? Right off I am going to change that to David Drake. Drake is shorter, easier and frankly I like the Canadian rapper. "Dave" is not a suitable handle for my Catman. Since all Raven Studio comics are for adults, I will point out the obvious sexual issues at play with this character; raised by a Tigress in the woods? Like a couger/sugar mama? So let's assume a beautiful black female hunter takes him under her paw and makes a man out of him. Not a bad origin, huh? Sure it sucks your parents died, but I am sure with all the hot jungle sex and killing he was able to cope.

So Drake becomes a Catman of the jungle, killing poachers and hunters and criminals alone for years. These would be considered the "dark years", the times where he was not strong or morally guided and made mistakes. Like Bat-Man, Catman needs someone to ride along with him and keep the beast inside under control. Which brings us to Kitten.

I am considering teaching a little writing/creating lesson on Facebook using Public Domain characters without getting sued and making them unique, because a lot of people like these characters but don't know how to use them properly.

Either post comments here or on the blog. Which of these two current DC characters, both of which are in public domain, should I redo?

So as a little creative lesson I am going to let facebook friends pick which of these characters I will revamp. Both characters are popular at DC right now so this really raises the stakes, don't you think?

Whichever one gets the most votes will get redone, Raven Studio style.
:)