My World : Princess Nikatonia

Princess Nikatonia is alien royalty from the planet Oraygion. Her mission on Earth is to kidnap women and return with them to her homeworld for unspecified purposes. Predictably, this has brought her into conflict with Captain Satellite and Shelly Ericson. Somewhat less predictably, these battles have led Princess Nikatonia to conclude that Shelly would be an ideal subject for her objective.

Princess Nikatonia wields the Stellar Staff, a powerful weapon she uses to channel a mysterious force dubbed “Jadoo.” The princess insists that the enigmatic Jadoo is the source of her strength in battle. However, no one is exactly sure what Jadoo is supposed to be (other than Princess Nikatonia herself).


The genesis of Princess Nikatonia is a conversation I had with Nicky Flamingo when I had her do a commission of Doppelgirl. As you may recall, Doppelgirl's appearance is loosely-based on that of Kabuki Katze. Since Nicky admires Kabuki and her work, this was a bit of a stumbling block for her at first. She overcame it brilliantly, and we had the following (excerpted) exchange afterward:

CE - "Maybe I should make up a character based on you and have her draw that? ;) (I'm only half-kidding)"

NF - "And I can tell you any superheroine based off of me would be extraordinarily boring =P"

As you might know from the Doppelgirl character, these sort of inadvertent challenges don't go forgotten. I knew then that there would be a character inspired by Nicky. But who and what would it be?

I entertained several ideas along the way before settling on casting this character as not a superheroine, but as a villainess. From there, Princess Nikatonia evolved rather quickly as a concept. I lifted the element of "alien seeking Earth women" from sci-fi movies like THE MYSTERIANS, MARS NEEDS WOMEN, and most especially FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER. Why that movie? Because leading the charge for those aliens was a FEMALE PRINCESS!

So I had a space princess. This led naturally to a character type I'd always wanted to incorporate into the Owariverse: the Amazon Warrior. Since Princess Nikatonia derived from Nicky, it felt only right to add a dash of Sailor Moon to the mix. Throw in some in-jokes and I had something.

(These include "Jadoo," which popped into my head because I was reading about John Keel at the time and it is the title of his first book.)

With these disparate elements in tow, and half a profile, I came to Kabuki Katze. For you see, Princess Nikatonia would be a little different than the usual process. I wanted to collaborate with Kabuki right at the outset and have HER perfect the character's design. She did just that, and you can see her original version right here. You'll be seeing it here soon. I took that and filtered it through my own unique style.

Princess Nikatonia might be somewhat naughty, but she is a testament to the talents of the two ladies who made her happen. Thank you, Kabuki Katze and Nicky Flamingo, for your inspiration!