Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Comic Books >

Project Rooftop

18:25 / 05.04.06

The Pitch.

Project Rooftop is where cartoonists and illustrators bring their costume design skills to task in tribute to the superheroes and villains we’ve grown up with. This site is intended to promote excellence in costume design as well as foster continued interest for these amazing characters.

All characters are copyrights and trademarks of the respective publishers and creators. All of the designs here were created not for profit and this site is used solely for artistic enjoyment.

History.

This site was inspired by a lot of different things, including the recent Batgirl meme, AdHouse Books‘ Project Superior, the television program Project Runway, the videogame tribute site Lifemeter, the introduction of the superhero fashion designer Edna Mode in The Incredibles, and the growing number of indie comics artists, especially on LiveJournal, where superhero redesigns have become something of a trend.[...]

http://www.tencentticker.com/projectrooftop

19:42 / 05.04.06

No doubt a ripoff of this, which came out months prior.
The original idea

21:15 / 05.04.06

Jack, you should totally apply to P.R.

genious.

13:52 / 03.05.06

My Big Barda was chosen. It'll be up sometime this month.

Design References:
Durga
Strength
King Mob
mandrills
Hair Wars
Michael Chabon
Basement Jaxx

15:17 / 03.05.06

Wow, that Barda design is really cool.

My studiomate Chip Zdarsky sent in a hilarious redesign of Spider-Man, covered in tentacles, laser guns and machinery, satirizing the new "Iron Spider" outfit, but apparently the Project Rooftop guys take it a little too seriously and rejected it.

15:43 / 03.05.06

Nice job Cass!

15:52 / 03.05.06

It is a smashing look, aye.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

15:55 / 03.05.06

Holy shit. That's fucking awesome.

16:23 / 03.05.06

ooo, biggg barddda...

very nice indeed. if it was shown to me as a JLU cartoon design I'd totally buy it.

Cameron, if Chip has not posted the Iron Spider at your studio blog [I'll check it now] please tell him to do so. the Z can't be ignored.

16:41 / 03.05.06

Aztec/Mayan Big Barda with a Dark Maul double-saber...very cool. Love the colors especially. Nice work, Cass!!!

17:08 / 03.05.06

Congrats CASS... that's some great work.

17:20 / 03.05.06

Thanks guys! I turned that in months ago, and I was sure I would get thrown out —I'm not a professional cartoonist. Lowly graphic designer here.

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

14:06 / 17.05.06

A preview of my submission for PR - an attempt to redesign the frankly hideous Kid Flash costume. (

14:14 / 17.05.06

Yay Withiel, looks good!

Mine's up this week.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

14:41 / 17.05.06

And it looks way good!

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

15:15 / 17.05.06

Cassandra - yes, saw it and wow. Still blown away by the use of colour and simple shapes, and also by the use of real hair as a texture - makes for a very striking effect indeed.
Now all I need to do is try not to do the Electro-Superman redesign that's been crying out to my imagination...

16:25 / 17.05.06

[Starsky] Doo it. Dooo it. [/Hutch]

22:32 / 17.05.06

Cassandra, your design is awesome. It's like you took Kirby's colour contrasts to another degree, took his sixties-future and thrown it into 21st century-future. (By that I mean how the sixties imagined the future and how we imagine the future)

11:18 / 18.05.06

It's the design sense that makes that Barda-kit work, really. Actually, even the body-type/design is very Big Barda in a way her typically more wall-like ambience doesn't serve... the warrior aspect. I know, logically, a warrior type would probably be best served being a big, blockish, thuggy shape, but the sense of speedy muscle in the revision is more appealing to me. And, redoing her with a Kirbyskirt (Technically, for a Kirby character, she's in drag, innit? Only men where Kirbyskirts... unless the Forever People had a woman in one.) and the megarod as a longer, brighter handheld phallus somehow makes her a little more rightnow-future pop.

I'm the one person who likes the Kid Flash costume as it was, when Wally wore it. And only he should wear it. Bart should have the soup bowl helmet of the original Flash... but I adore the shiny plastic look of this redesign. Reminds me of the One Million Flash, John Whatsisface. And finally, a flash with covered eyes! Sensible as hell considering the current lack of speedforce (and so, windshear like hell right on one's eyeballs).

11:49 / 18.05.06

Thanks DD. Like I was telling Papers earlier, I was trying to go for a more "goddess" interpretation, and a lot of folks see her only framed as a superhero. So I turn into the guy that drew her without a top on.

I suppose it's also telling many people only see her in the armoured warrior context, or only that she's Mrs. Miracle...

14:24 / 18.05.06

Cassandra, the Barda picture that's now up on Project Rooftop is different than the one that you linked to weeks ago, right? (The link above no longer works).

14:44 / 18.05.06

Yeah. When I do redesigns, I use Bruce Timm model sheets. Barda's was one of the original Wonder Woman concepts from early on. They contacted me, and I informed them of this. Guideline 5 says no swipes, so I suggested they not use it. But they responded that they'd be interested in showcasing an original work.

I can draw, but not as well as those already featured. So I replied with the submitted art. I'm a graphic designer, why not play to my strengths?

The Barda submitted is only my first rendition too. Barda v3 displays the MegaRod's other shapes, the "Big Barda" Justice League icon, and her summonable "battlecat". I did all this research and made her franchise an entire design project. Of all the New Gods, she's the Justice Leaguer.

15:43 / 18.05.06

Love the design, Cass.

17:21 / 18.05.06

I have tons of genuine martial arts reference... I bet I can find a photo of a female using an equivilent weapon as what you've designed Barda using...

perhaps I'll covert it into an Illo when free time appears.

17:42 / 18.05.06

That would be lovely. No one's attempted my Barda, but Chris Pitzen character says she's more complicated than Jack of Hearts! I'd love for someone to give it a whirl and tell me if she is in fact that difficult.

20:28 / 18.05.06

good design can we see the 3rd version?

02:21 / 19.05.06

I love that Big Barda design!

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

22:26 / 25.10.06

Well, I gave up on the Kid Flash redesign because the quality of the drawing was beginning to annoy me (I may get back to it at a later date), but I've just spent all day redesigning the frankly offensive Supergirl costume.

Here's my attempt:

(Click for full size)
And a facial close-up because you can't see detail on the image that's here:

The idea was to provide an antidote to the current canon uniform, and also to reconstruct the costume from first principles: although a major part of the character's concept is "female Superman" (reflected in the haircut and facial structure), Supergirl has often had quite radically different colour schemes and/or design elements (good example here), hence the lack of yellow and slightly more austere themes.
I'm sort of toying with sending it off to Project Rooftop, but I'm not sure whether it's quite good enough...Thoughts anyone?

18:19 / 15.03.07

new pics up, this time 're-imagining' Supergirl:

Look, up in the sky!

23:16 / 15.03.07

i loved Less McClane's:

00:46 / 17.03.07

Project Rooftop more often than not comes up with designs that I think are waaaaay better than what's in the comics. The Batgirl redesign meme, this Supergirl one, and even their Alpha Flight all look way better to me than what's currently in the funny books.

These redesigns are so great, and they say more about what the character of Supergirl should be than any of the news about her next creaky, labored redesign.

14:44 / 21.01.08

not Project Rooftop, but a seriously wonderful cornucopia of Stan Lee tribute artwork by some amazing (but unknown to the comics world, for the most part) artists:

Enjoy!