George Perez’ SIRENS
“Oh my God,” Nik squealed. “You have to meet George Perez. He’s doing a Superhero Showdown tomorrow.”
“What? Why?” We were at Fetish Con and Nik was my comic book writer. He and I were sharing a booth trying to sell my Code Red comic. I say “trying” due to not much was going on other than a parade of latex and nipple rings.
“Because he is one of the biggest names in comics. Because he did The Avengers, Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, Superman, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, Silver Surfer, and the X-Men. Because you’re his type. Because he’ll love you and probably want to do a comic with you,” Nik effused.
“Um…sure. If you say so.”
Grabbing my hand, he pulled me out of the booth towards George. “Just come with me.”
It turned out, Nik was right. The legendary Marvel & DC Comics artist DID want to do a comic book with me. He’d just come out of eye surgery, so things got delayed. For an artist, that could mean the end. But Perez pulled through and wanted to do something for himself. For fun. Sirens was it. What was different about this book is that every character has been based upon a real person. We got a 3-book deal through Boom Studios that was rapidly changed to a 6-book deal when the first issue became the most anticipated comic book of 2014, and outsold everything else.
My character was Agony. She was a kick ass warrior who took no shit. Such a stretch for me to play.
Suddenly, everyone at comic cons knew who I was. I mean, even the vendors did. We didn’t get paid to be in Sirens, but I got product. George started requesting that I do appearances with him. And finally, after years of trying, I got into MegaCon…and was even featured on the cover. Well, Agony, my character was.
George is “what you see is what you get”. He loves what he does and his fans. He’s enthusiastic and polite. He’s loyal to his long time wife, despite being surrounded by busty babes in tiny costumes. He started as a comic artist in the Puerto Rican area of NYC as a teen and has only been doing that since; he’s never had any other kind of job. Isn’t that amazing?
Taffeta Darling and George Perez talk about SIRENS:
Sometimes we do things free in exchange for exposure. In my business, I’m stuck doing that pretty often. What I do doesn’t pay well, overall…wrestling, modeling and comics are always “starving artist, starving photographer” league…but it affords me some freedom, remarkable life experiences and opportunities. I’d have to say that Sirens is one of my career favorites!
