The Comics

Bette Noir, Woman of Mystery

My entry in this week's HeroMachine Character Contest is an illustration of why I'm such a big fan of HeroMachine. Her name is Bette Noir and she's an an unusual entry in a character contest for a couple of reasons. First off, I created her using Hero Machine version 2, not V3 alpha. Second, I didn't create just one image, but a whole series of 9 following her whole career from the 1930s to the present. There's a pulp version, Golden, Silver and Bronze Age characters, a Good Girl and a Bad and the modern incarnation. The first and last are shown here, full sized. The whole series is shown at the bottom of the page. Click on any of them to see a full sized version.

Modern Bette Noir Modern Bette Noir

Not only did I use HeroMachine to create Bette. I also created her sidekicks, the chauffeur Giordano from the pulp era followed by her teenage sidekick Bella Donna, shown here on the cover of their comic book Beauty and the Beast.


Bette Noir Through The Ages

Here we see the various incarnation of Bette through the ages. She starts out as a pulp heroine, something of a female Green Hornet, complete with chauffeur sidekick, then like the Sandman, she adopts a teenage sidekick and a comicbook costume, initially one with a slit skirt like so many femmes fatale, but soon with fishnet stockings like the Black Canary or Zatanna. As the 40's continue she passes first through a Good Girl period and then into a more sedate costume for the 50s. By the 60's she gets a spash of color and a somewhat more campy TV look, paralleling the changes in characters like Batman. The Bronze age sees her return to a darker more mysterious look tinged with an aura of the occult. From there she takes a detour into the world of the Bad Girls, before returning to her roots in a costume that echos many of her earlier incarnations.

Bette Noir, the Pulp Era Golden Age Bette Noir Late Golden Age Bette Noir Good Girl Bette Noir Silver Age Bette Noir Campy Silver Age Bette Noir Bronze Age Bette Noir Bad Girl Bette Noir Modern Bette Noir

To see Bette's full story, turn to her own page. If you would like to see a comparison of HeroMachine V2, Heromachine V3 and Hero-O'Matic versions of Bette, look on my Comics home page.