The Making of Destiny's Hand:
Sketch Pad #2 - Sebastian Blaine
Written by DeFilippis & Weir • Art by Buckethead
Captain Sebastian Blaine is the gentleman pirate. When he comes after your vessel, you know two things. First, his ship, Destiny's Hand, cannot be sunk. The second is, if you surrender, no harm will come to you or your crew. His men will hurt no-one, claim your cargo, escort your ship safely to a port, and even tell you cool pirate stories on the way. So, as you can guess, most ships surrender to Destiny's Hand and Captain Blaine immediately. Sure, they lose cargo. But no one gets hurt and everyone gets a memorable experience.
Captain Blaine is the last of a dying breed, though. Today's pirates are meaner, more savage. They live for the fight and the thrill of the kill as much as the lure of treasure. Blaine sees the new breed as dishonorable, and wants his crew to carry on in his style of piracy. But he knows that without him to push them, they may disband and seek jobs with less honorable crews.
Buckethead's design for Blaine took us by surprise. When we envisioned a gentleman pirate, we pictured someone older and more staid. But this design was SO much better than what we had in our heads. Buckethead's Blaine is young, sexy, shirtless, but also very gentlemanly. It's hard to describe what it is about the design that seems so gentlemanly, but we think it jumps out at you without being definable in quick phrases. It's perfect, and our only note to BH was that Blaine should wear the cool coat pretty often.
