9.21.2009

100th post contest winner

well, well, well... here we are finally.  after weeks of slacking off and much deliberation, i've chosen a winner.  may i say thanks to everyone who participated - many, many fantastic ideas.  in fact, this won't be the only one i draw, i will most definitely be drawing a few 'honorable mentions' in the future.  but, for now, rimroll please...

the winning character is....

Madame Mercury by Lindsey Schacherer
great story.  i didn't really feel like i got to know madame mercury, but wanted to.  this was the character most likely to have a story told about her, possessing the most depth, about her betrayal and, ultimately, her revenge.  i liked the potential in madame mercury and kept thinking of ways to expand on her story, her background, her plans, her childhood, her affinity with rats, her love life, sidekicks or people she meets along her way to help and whatever else needed to tell her story.  sure there's a few holes and it's a little sexist, but it's enough to spark my imagination, and i don't think one drawing will do it justice.

anyhoo, here is Lindsey's story...

"After completing her PhD in molecular biology, Marie took a job as a genetic engineer with a big pharmaceutical company, MegaPharm. Things go great for a while: the job is interesting and challenging and the money is nothing to scoff at. She quickly moves up in the company and eventually heads her own lab developing a very new and very top secret cancer treatment. Although Marie's lab discovered this extraordinary compound, known as Agent X, the formulations lab completes the synthesis and the toxicology group readies the drug for human clinical trials. Agent X makes its way through the clinical trials with outstanding results: 95% of all patients go into remission. Marie is beyond excited to learn something she created may be able to help hundreds of thousands of sick people. Soon Agent X is available to the market and doctors across the globe are scribbling prescriptions to cure cancer.
Several months after Agent X's release, Marie read an article with some troubling news: infertility rates across the world were on the rise, with no known scientific cause. Naturally curious, Marie did some research and discovered there was a direct correlation between Agent X and infertility. She couldn't believe this trend didn't show up in the clinical trials before the drug was registered for sale. She demanded information from the toxicology group and was quite coldly told to stick to her synthesis work. Something smelled fishy and Marie dug deeper, sneaking into the labs late at night to dig through file after file of lab notebooks.
It was late one October night when she made a horrifying discovery: an internal memo from the CEO to the lead scientist of the toxicology group with a clear message. MegaPharm was close to a break through on a fertility treatment drug and the toxicologist was to add a compound to the Agent X formulation which would cause infertility, thereby insuring huge market potential for the fertility drug. Marie was furious. She was mad at herself for working for such a corrupt corporation and madder still at the fat cats reaping the benefits off innocent patients. That fateful night, Marie became Madame Mercury.
Madame Mercury put her skills to work and developed an army of mutos, lab rats engineered to be extremely aggressive and particularly fond of ripping the testicles off any fat cat in sight. Madame Mercury's rats listened to her every command and swept into the corner offices of all the MegaPharm board members, stopping at nothing to chew, bite, and devour the balls of the men who had reaped their fortunes by deliberately poisoning millions of people. But Madame Mercury didn't stop there. She sent her army of mutant rats after every corrupt businessman, politician, and Evangelical money-hungry bastard in the country. To those who made their living by stepping on the backs of the little guy, Madame Mercury's message was clear "To hell with you, and give me your balls!"




click it for a superhuge version.

thanks again to everyone who entered, and look for a few honorable mentions in the future.  haw!


6 comments:

  1. GREAT PIC! The front rat needs whiskers, though.

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  2. Woohoo! Thanks for picking my character! She looks badass, nice work!

    -Lindsey

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  3. Awesome job! Madame Mercury is one badass bitch!
    -Shocker

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  4. i like that MM logo, looks good. seems like a kind of pattern for her life having things named with an "M"
    MegaPharm
    Marie
    Madame Murcury
    Mutos
    especially love the use of rats and fat cats where the rats chase the cats
    Amazing short story Lindsey!
    Loads of potential

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  5. aha! whiskers! doh!

    i'll add them to the final i give lindsey

    i like the "m" theme as well, could work for miss mercury like when alan moore constructed a paragraph or two on government using only "v" words in "v for vendetta"

    thanks for the 'ments

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