Playboy’s Miss 2011 had herself a little chin-wag with TSJ and gave us the dish on co-creating a comic-book character, parading in sexy superhero duds, and why she is all kinds of Wonderous.
The Smoking Jacket: Tell me a bit about this project you’re up to, Miss 2011.
Claire Sinclair: It’s called Wonderous: The Adventures of Claire Sinclair. It’s a digital comic series and Lion Forge put it out. I came up with the concept and Joelle Sellner developed it into an entertaining story.
TSJ: When did you come up with this idea? How did it occur to you that you should be a comic book character?
CS: Lion Forge approached me with a concept. Initially there was a National Treasure aspect to it — it was about Freemasons. And it was a really good story and it was entertaining and crazy and adventurous, but I remember reading it and writing notes alongside of the original concept and it just kind of evolved into a completely different storyline. And I was embarrassed to send back my notes because I thought, I don’t think the writer’s going to appreciate that I’m emailing her back this whole different story!
To my surprise, the next day, they were like, We really like your notes and we’re changing everything! And so that’s what they did. That was about a year and a half ago.
TSJ: Drawing takes a long time — how long did it take them to put it all together once they had a story?
CS: You know, we have an amazing, amazing artist. His name is Rick Burchett – he is an Eisner-award-winning artist — and I would say it was about four months later that the had the majority of the artwork. He’s phenomenal. We’re lucky to have him on this project.
TSJ: I feel like you’re bringing the best of Comic Con together in this Wonderous project. You have the beautiful girl, you have the super powers, you have the sexy getup, you have the comic book… I mean, a comic book character based on a Playmate — it’s so much to take in! [Laughing]
CS: I’ve seen really beautiful girls, Playmates, all sorts of models be involved with comics, but their involvement kind of ended after the photo shoot for the comic book. They weren’t really involved with it, per se. I wanted to be a co-creator, and when I go out to promote it I want to be one hundred percent behind the project. So that’s the main ingredient that’s differentiated our project from others, that’s why I’m so excited about it. I know these characters. And I really care about them because they’re based on people I know. And I think it’s really well-written. It’s not a cheesy comic. You read it and you get completely engulfed in it.
TSJ: Have you done any writing in the past?
CS: No, I’ve never really written anything that has been published. It’s so exciting.
TSJ: Give me a little rundown on what to expect from the comic.
CS: So I’m a broke student, and I volunteer for medical studies–
TSJ: Have you ever done that in real life?
CS: Here’s the thing: The reason why that concept came to be is when I was 18 years old I used to work on Hollywood Boulevard as a character — I was dressed as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and I would supplement my income my mom would always send me these random-ass jobs from Craigslist. One time she sent me a research job for anal temperature readings. It was a joke! And I thought, What better way to get the power but to get it from medical research!
Wonderous Diaries Ep1
TSJ: That’s hilarious — anal temperature readings. I did a medical study once when I was super broke and I needed a new stove… and all my guy friends kept telling me it was fine so I thought I’d give it a shot.
CS: What kind of study was it?
TSJ: It was for a Type 2 diabetes medication. But it was awful! I had to leave in the middle of it…
CS: What happened? Did you have horrible side-effects?
TSJ: I did! And I was just so depressed by the whole process of it, too, I was like, How is this my life! It was awful. But I wrote a short story about it.
CS: At least you got a short story out of it, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.
TSJ: Yeah, it’s kind of a gross story, but for sure. So I think it’s a pretty realistic place to get your superpowers from, a medical testing facility, as far as superpower acquisitions go.
CS: Yeah, I mean, how does one get a superpower?
TSJ: I like it. It’s so new.
CS: Our writer is so good and she took all these old concepts and made them so realistic. It’s so nice to be overjoyed with what they came up with. I wanted it to have as much believability as a superhero comic book hero could have.
TSJ: Do you get a good little getup? Is there a cute outfit that comes with your superpower self?
CS: Definitely. [laughs]
TSJ: Isn’t that sort of the point?
CS: They weren’t going to leave that part out! It was originally gold and silver. And I was like, I want red and black — I want intense colors. But then our outfits are like a hotter version of The Incredibles, the Disney movie, but that’s kind of what it is.
TSJ: Who do you think is your favorite female superhero, in either comics or the movies? You can pick your favorite based on her outfit or her superpowers, or both.
CS: You know what?
TSJ: Are you going to go Wonder Woman?
CS: I mean, she is so iconic! And I think whenever you think of a female superhero that’s the first image that comes to mind. She’s probably number one for everyone. She is so synonymous with female superhero, she’s such a strong figure. And people will be dressed up like her in the next couple of hundred years… she’s not going to be irrelevant any time soon!
TSJ: That’s for sure. Any boy superheros? Any favorites?
CS: Boy superheroes… I’m going to go with… Spider Man… I grew up watching the original series. I’d want to shoot webs out of my wrists!
TSJ: I think we all wish we could do that.
Issues #1 and #2 are out now, available for download via: Comics Plus, Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble’s The Nook Book Store, and Kobo.