Rhapsodies

Leopard Chieftain is the title character of a superhero franchise that is the ruler of a hidden Afro-futurist utopia. Dielle thought Gage dressing as him would help his self-esteem.

I always find it interesting how the muse does her work. When I first did this strip I was stumped on what themed costumes Gage and Dielle would wear. I eventually went with a Wakanda Forever theme with Gage as the Black Panther and Dielle as his bodyguard.

Since I didn’t want Gage to be dressed as the Black Panther for real due to copyright issues, I went through several variations of not Black Panther designs that, while different from all of the assorted versions of the T’Challa’s costume, still looked too much like him at a distance.

I almost hit myself when I realized that the obvious answer was to go from Black to leopard print!