It's Alive!

Creating the perfect woman is hard work!

The one thing to remember when writing a damsel-in-distress story is the damsel! Without a female character for the reader to cheer for in the story the thriller will not be as exciting.

With that in mind, I wanted certain criteria when I first created the Gigi Gutierrez character for Pretty Vacant:

1. Gigi had to be pretty
2. Still Life would want to use Gigi for their evil scheme
3. Gigi would be scantily clad
4. Gigi had to be able to fight back

People have asked who my inspiration was for Gigi. I based Gigi off a real person, Colleen, a sales rep acquaintance of mine. Colleen is always happy to see me (probably because I prepare her tax returns every year), and she was flattered that I thought of her when I created Gigi.

I don’t see Colleen that often, so I used more of my imagination with Gigi. I tried to match Colleen’s amazing eyes with Gigi, but I made Gigi much taller and athletic. I wanted Gigi to match Still Life’s ideal mannequin model, so Still Life would want to keep her in ice as a “body mold.”

Very few people are comfortable showing off their body. It was tough to choose a profession for Gigi that requires as little clothing as possible. An actress, cheerleader or model was too clichéd for me. An athlete seemed ideal, but which sport? Watching the Summer Olympics provided the answer with a sport that has bikinis for uniforms: beach volleyball!

One thing I didn’t want Gigi to have in my first Pretty Vacant story was a gun. I did want Gigi to have a weapon, I just wanted something unconventional. Being a lifelong fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers made the choice simple. A baseball may at first seem harmless, but imagine getting hit by one thrown at 90 miles an hour. It’s not fun!

My greatest thrill in comics is creating. And I created a cool female character in Gigi!