Tonight I did a few quick sketches for the prologue to my webcomic, based on Aeschylus’s lost comedy, Proteus*. I drew these from memory, so they don’t exactly match the performers I’m basing them on, but I mainly just wanted to see if I could capture the spirit of the characters, first.

Starting at the upper left is Menelaus, based on Bruce Campbell. I drew just enough to convince myself I could get the basic elements of his appearance. He has the biggest role, and despite the broad comedy, his actions are fairly nuanced, so I’ll have to work on those in context. To his left is the satyr character from Disney’s Hercules, sort of based on Danny Devito.
Below at left is Helen of Troy, and it took me a number of tries to capture the effect I wanted: a comedic blend of hautiness, indignity, & sorrow. You can also see she’s sprouted wings, as she is the daughter of Zeus as a swan. She’s based on one of my favorite Hercules: the Legendary Journeys guest-stars, Lisa Chappell, who appears in a lot of the show’s screwball comedies. To her left is the title character, Proteus, half man half fish, the Greek god of change. He’s based on Michael Hurst, who also played a half man half fish on Hercules (among many other roles). At his left is his mischievous daughter, Dorothea, based on Xena guest star Sheeri Rappaport, who played Otere of the Northern Amazons. Sheeri had mentioned during her Xena convention appearance that she wished her schedule had permitted her to appear on Bruce’s show, Jack of All Trades. I think that could’ve been awesome to see her play opposite Bruce, and since my version of Proteus is very similar to that show, I thought I’d do some wishcasting and include her here.

This short webcomic is maybe five pages long, so a good chance to practice before I get started on the main event.

*In case you’re wondering: even though Aeschylus’s comedy is lost (except for a single line of dialogue), scholars can get a fair idea of the plot if they combine the story from Homer’s Iliad with known comedic tropes used by ancient Greek playwrights. I Xena-fied those tropes to adapt them to this show, and added a few more elements to help this story foreshadow the main webcomic. Key moments of my webcomic drew from this story for inspiration, just as Xena‘s episodes often borrowed from Greek myths, plays, and epics.