Pulp RT Shores

"The Pulp Artist"

"No, no, no, no, no!" The artist threw down his easel and slammed out of the room. The models looked blankly at each other.

He stormed back in. "Where is the author?" Nothing but blank looks.

"Who sent you here?" 

"Our agent, Jacob Muller." 

"Get dressed! We will do this differently and he will call you back."

They each threw on a trench coat and left without a word.

"Muller! These costumes do not match the story. I have stopped painting." He waited. "She is supposed to be a superhero from century 21st and she saves him, but you wanted opposite for cover! I do it my way or no way." His accent thickened with anger.

He waited again. "Morning is fine. I shoot tomorrow. You send costumes?"

He slammed down the receiver and went to his costume closet. "Michael!" he yelled for his assistant.

Michael entered, iPhone open and ready to take notes.

"I need a super hero costume, by morning, for the female model here, today." Michael nodded and went to his desk. He entered all the data and ordered the costume. He wondered what the male model would wear. He shrugged.
***
"But I don't know how to be a superhero!" The model pouted.

"Stand in front of him with the rifle and it will look like you are the hero." He shook his head and wondered if they could ever send smart models.

He shot about thirty digital photos and then uploaded them. He kept the best five and called Muller.

"Pick two that you like and I will begin the painting."
***

He tacked two photos to the board and began to paint. This was much better! He would put intelligence in her eyes and helplessness in the mans.

They were a strange pair; the man in almost nothing but ragged jean shorts and the woman in Lycra black with accents of bright turquoise. She just couldn't looked smart though! Her lips had a permanent pucker from collagen and she just looked dumb. She wasn't an idiot, of course, but far from the sharpest tack in the box.

The man was just the same; beautiful, but dumb. Now he really looked dumb, laid out near the female's feet, looking up for rescue, as was usually reversed in romance fiction. Both ways were stupid.

He was glad he hadn't sent that photo to Jacob. He had taken some shots of them as equals, but still in the same outfits; some with her as the hero and the man fully dressed and he preferred the latter.

He would paint that one as well to show them as equal ground even though one had super powers.

The cover was epic! Michael cheered in the reception area and yelling, "Congratulations!"

"Simon! Look at the cover!" He offered it to the artist, who sat down to evaluate the work. The background was glossy red, with fire and destruction behind the two figures. 

The man wore torn khaki  trousers, white dress shirt, also torn and glasses. The woman wore her superhero outfit of black and turquoise with her power symbol of an atom on her chest. 

They looked like partners. She had her hand directed to the sky and it emitted some unknown rays, while "average man" kept a giant antenna from crushing them.

"Good! Just because women rule more of the world now, doesn't mean they need to subjugate men, right?"

Michael nodded. "I agree. Why reverse things? Partners seems the way to go for me as well." He had a serious moment and hugged his partner, very proud of him.

"I love you, dear Simon."

"I love you, Michael."

The cover shined in the overhead lights as the two men held hands and peered at the new world.