Here’s a quick sketch I did (15 minutes in pencil, 5 minutes to ink/color), a few days ago, because I really wanted to know what this would look like. I worked off of references I’d collected for a while, so the choices were already made. This is for a companion story to my “Rock of Ages” webcomic coming up. While that webcomic is set after the end of season 5 of Xena Warrior Princess, and concerns Eve, Xena’s daughter, this is from a prequel (working title: “Champions”), set right before the final trilogy of that season, which introduces her daughter as a Roman commander, Livia. This story gives us a glimpse of what Livia’s life was like just before her mother reappears after a 25 year absence (frozen in ice!).

This story goes into more detail about her pursuit of the Elijian cult, and since this story will run roughy concurrently to the main webcomic, it will reflect and parallel that story, to a fair degree. Unlike that main story, it’s not a musical, nor involves dance, but music plays a huge role in my creation of it, so I’ll be including links to those inspirational videos as a kind of closing credits score for each chapter.

This scene shows Livia prepared to track down that part of the Elijian cult that dares to reside in Rome’s capital city. Clues point to a downtown art gallery as being frequented by those with insurrectional ideologies, and since the Roman army is forbidden to enter the city itself, Livia decides to investigate and infiltrate them without alerting them of government interest. She’s dressed as an art aficionado, and armed with known slogans of the cult’s belief, to see who bites. The gallery’s owner, Antony Warholus, is a subversive artist and connoisseur of cultural critiques, just the sort of fellow who’d attract Rome’s most dangerous underground movement!

Livia’s dress is based on an actual psychedelic dress design. I chose it for its chakram-like pattern, and its painted ray appearance almost resembling a bloodsplatter. Her green glasses are similar to those worn by the actual Andy Warhol, and in ancient Rome, green-tinted glass was used like sunglasses, to filter out sunlight and soothe the eyes. I was determined to give Livia as many wardrobe changes as I could think of! The actor I based Antoney Warholus on is Stuart Devenie, who played the hilarious villain in Jack of All Trades.

I’m planning to make this parallel story in black and white, but for this one chapter, I will make an exception, since color variety is as important to it as it was to Warhol’s own creations.