Alright, here’s a favorite character of mine. Tiberius Chang is meant to be what I’d call an old-school sci-fi/space-opera character, in the vein of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. He’d be featured in stories with all of the classic tropes: faster-than-light spaceships, artificial gravity, ray guns, humanoid aliens, etc.

The idea is that he’s a “space ranger,” basically an intergalactic law enforcement officer. He patrols a particular section of the galaxy, where humans and several other alien civilizations have established colonies on neighboring planets, tracking down outlaws and solving various crimes. He’s also a bit of a ladies’ man, romancing women regardless of their species.

Think: James Bond in space.

The first image I got above was from Keith Howell. I described Tiberius and asked Keith to draw him with a sexy alien woman, and that’s what he came back with.

I later commissioned him to create a second image of the character. I don’t believe I gave him much direction; At most, I may have said something like “draw him in action,” and this was all Keith’s idea:

To provide more background on the character’s creation. Years ago, I read about a planned Star Trek film called Star Trek: The Beginning, which was set to take place before the timeline of the original Star Trek series and to feature an ancestor of James Kirk’s named Tiberius Chase as its lead character.

I always loved that name. So when thinking of this character, I wanted to use it. Except for one problem I’ve always had with this type of science fiction, is that no matter how far in the future the story takes place, the human population tends to look like most American fiction in the present: by that I mean mostly White. But that’s just not accurate for the human race. Back in 2011, National Geographic determined that the most “typical” person on Earth would be a Chinese Man. Although they also predicted that by 2030, it would change to being an East Indian man. So, however you look at it, there are more Asians on Earth than any other group, and that trend is likely to continue. Since this character is meant to exist in the 27th Century, I decided he could be Chinese. And therefore, instead of Chase, his last name would more likely be Chang. I still like the sound of it.

The above image is from Celina Hernandez. It’s the second image of the character that I got, before getting the second one from Keith. I sent her Keith’s first image and asked for one like that, just with a different alien woman.

And then I ordered a commission from Mauricio Vargus:

And, last month, I saw that Blair Shedd was offering half-body art commissions on his site, so I sent him all of the above images and asked for his take on the character:

I appreciate that all of the artists brought their A-game to this work.