Shakira
29 years ago - Shakira is born in Skartaris, either a cat that can turn into a girl, or a girl that can turn into a cat.
14 years ago - 15-year-old Shakira is caught by trolls, and is saved by Travis Morgan. She begins to follow him, becoming his new travel companion. They fall in with a mercenary band, and rescue hapless rogue Aram al Ashir, agreeing to help him hunt for a hidden temple with a supposed secret treasure.
13 years ago - 16-year-old Shakira helps Travis Morgan & Aram al Ashir escape from their enslavement by a hidden civilization of Snake People, fleeing the undercity.
12 years ago - 17-year-old Shakira, exploring on her own while Travis Morgan tries to find a way to break the Theran siege of Shamballah, finds a hidden cache of ancient Atlantean weapons. When they are defeated she makes a new home in Shamballah.
9 years ago - 18-year-old Shakira again joins Travis Morgan as he rides with Mariah Romanova & Machiste to find Jennifer Morgan.
8 years ago - 19-year-old Shakira, Travis Morgan, Mariah Romanova, & Machiste assist Aram al Ashir in retaking a Kaambuku outpost held by the Snake People. She is killed in battle, and Morgan follows her into the realm of the nameless Atlantean Death Goddess, and trades 10 years of his lifespan to save her, forever bearing an X on his chest to show her claim.
7 years ago - 20-year-old Shakira, Travis Morgan, Mariah Romanova, Machiste & Aton find the restored castle Deimos. Aton is killed in the assault, but they breach the castle, where they confront the resurrected Deimos, whose follower Faaldren turns on him, allowing Morgan to finally, truly kill him.
There is something really simple and fun in the concept of Shakira. She joined Morgan's story at a time when he really needed someone who could tell him to his face when he was getting too broody or melodramatic and did so with a sense of playfulness that in retrospect the series really needed. She would go on to easily be his most loyal companion, staying at his side even when no one else did because she just didn't need much of a reason to do it. She goes where she wants, after all.
Shakira's Comic HistoryShakira is a later addition to the lore of Travis Morgan and Skartaris, debuting in issue #32, after Morgan's long stretch of traveling alone after the apparent death of his son. It's plain that there were some very specific needs for Morgan's new travel companion; she obviously needed to have a strong independent streak, while also being unwaveringly loyal to Morgan. They also clearly wanted to come up with a new scantily clad female sidekick, but how to do that without her inevitably falling for Morgan, as all female characters are clearly bound to do, apparently?
As silly and self-imposed as some of those criteria might be, the answer was pretty brilliant: Travis Morgan gets a pet cat. He finds, as he often does, a beautiful scantily-clad woman in peril and saves her, but discovers that this particular girl is a sort of changeling, able to swap back and forth from cat to girl, and it was unclear which one was her true form. She behaved entirely catlike, often going off on her own to hunt. She was independent, unwaveringly loyal, and was even capable of putting him in his place sometimes. The comic had it's scantily clad sidekick, but just as often Morgan could just be depicted with a black cat on his shoulder. |
Our Shakira StoryShakira wasn't glued to Morgan's side, exactly... she was just as often off hunting and getting into her own little side adventures, or stopping somewhere to explore a different city while Morgan went on with his own story. But over the remainder of the series, Shakira would almost always be right at Morgan's side.
There aren't really specific Shakira stories that we need to include in our adaptation of the character, we just need to put her in the world and let her be. One point we really wanted to make sure was specifically stated is that it's not clear if she's a cat that turns into a girl or a girl that turns into a cat. It was never stated what her age actually is, but we actually decided to lean into her sidekick status and make her a teenager when she first meets Morgan. This does sort of tie into a final thought; in most cases, we get that everyone's scantily-clad status is just part of the world of Skartaris, but we wonder if there could possibly be a slightly more clothed version of Shakira in the cards? She can still be a fun cat changeling, but I am just not fully convinced that her human form HAS to be in a fur bikini? |