"Miss Jessica Truth"

(Copyright (C) William J. Griffin. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.)

Jessica's main nemesis is one of her students, a precocious girl call DaNeesha. DaNeesha's purpose in life is to get her teacher into as many embarrassing situations as possible. The young teenager portrayed in the pictures is my rendition of DaNeesha, and yes, there are some occasions where DaNeesha gets to spank Jessica.

I highly recommend Joe’s cartoon strip, because he is a talented cartoonist and the artwork and humor are unique. His work can be seen at his website:

http://www.zoomgroups.com/group/jivetoonzcomix

http://www.zoomgroups.com/group/cartoonjoesnaughtycartoons

Joe’s series fascinated me to the point that I decided to try my hand at using Poser to create a couple of short stories inspired by his ideas. During the second week of January 2007 I took a break from working on images for my own fiction to do the Miss Jessica Truth renders seen on this page.

This is the first time I ever attempted a Poser interpretation of someone else’s character. I used the DAZ Stephanie Petite model to create my character for Jessica, trying to come as close as possible to the way Joe portrays her. Within the limitations of the facial features of the Sp3 model, I feel I came fairly close, although I would have liked to make the face a bit rounder and the lips a bit fuller. I was more satisfied with how the body came out.

Unlike the pictures from Joe's original series, which are full of people, the technical limitations of Poser kept me from putting more than two DAZ figures in any render that had background objects. For the three pictures with the crowd in the background I used a group of Poser default low-resolution figures and re-rendered the picture several times to add figures 20 at a time. The cops are Poser Don figures, which was why I was able to get more of them into my pictures.

There were other limitations as well, such as the lack of props and some of the hairstyles (such as dreadlocks) worn by Joe’s characters. Still, I very much enjoyed working with the model and the character, and in the future hope to do some more renders with her.

I wish to express my thanks to Joe Griffin for sharing his character Jessica Truth and granting me permission to use her in my own art. Once again, I highly recommend a visit to his Yahoo group.

Series One: Poolside pictures

Series Two: No good deed goes unpunished

The day started out well-enough for Jessica. A nice pleasant Sunday morning…not having to deal with her students…especially that horrible little brat DaNeesha…just a quiet walk in the park to calm her nerves…just what our heroine needed…

In the center of the park there was a statue that had been there since anyone could remember. The funny thing about the statue was that no one had a clue who that guy was. It was a historical monument…but…just…who was he? Anyhow…that morning “the unknown famous guy” was not alone on that pedestal. A cat was stuck up there too…meowing all sad like stuck cats tend to do…

Aww…that’s so sad… Now just how did that cat get stuck at the top of a 30-foot column? Being the good person that she was…Jessica felt sorry for the poor kitty. She would get that poor little kitty down and do a good deed. Uh…Jessica? Don’t you know that no good deed goes unpunished?

Jessica went back to her school and picked up a ladder. Never mind that taking that ladder off school property was a violation of her school district’s policy, but we’ll get back to that later. Jessica…Jessica…is this really such a good idea? Maybe a simple call to animal control would be the better way to go?

Not looking down, Jessica climbed 30 feet to get to the statue and the poor kitty-cat, no small feat for a woman wearing a mini-skirt and loose pumps.

“Hey…don’t be scared…I’m gonna help you…sweet kitty…now come to Jessica…” The cat hisses and…

MEOWERRRRRRR!!! Whoa! It’s not easy to keep your balance on a 30-foot ladder when an angry cat jumps you and is clawing up your blouse, and it looks like Jessica was not up to that task!

With a loud metallic crash the ladder hit the ground, while Jessica grabbed the statue and hung on for dear life. The cat had it a bit easier…sharp claws are very nice for hanging on to things…

…such as Jessica’s skirt! Oh dear…things kinda…didn’t go according to plan, did they, Jessica? Well, at least you did get the cat down.

Minus the cat, her skirt, her underwear, and her shoes…Jessica screamed and hung on for dear life.

Luckily she managed to pull herself up, holding onto the statue of the “unknown famous guy”…but then she heard some ominous “cracks” and “pops”, and felt the statue move…

Oh dear! Now the statue broke loose and tipped over! And what’s even worse; the unknown famous guy’s finger caught Jessica’s blouse…and ripped it right off her!

Oh dear!

And that’s the end of this historical monument. Gone forever…

Oh dear!

Oh dear, indeed, Jessica! Everything ended up on the ground except our heroine: the ladder, her clothes, one very smashed-up statue…

…and of course the cat. The cat was fine. Go figure. After all, they do have nine lives. The cat just kinda wandered around purring and rubbing his face on the remains of the unknown famous guy…and finally walked off.

Feeling sick from vertigo, Jessica took a seat on the spot vacated by “the unknown famous guy”, 30 feet off the ground. It’s funny…30 feet usually is not much at all…except in situations like this one. Sitting on her pedestal, waiting for someone to come along and rescue her, Jessica had one consolation. At least things were so bad, they couldn’t possibly get any worse. Or could they?

Of course they could get worse! And they did! By pure coincidence, who would be the first person crossing the square? None other than Jessica’s “favorite” student DaNeesha!

Jessica looked down with horror, but a tiny bit of hope. Maybe…just maybe DaNeesha…might help out?

Hmmm…judging by the look on DaNeesha’s face, I’d say probably not.

But actually, DaNeesha did come to help. “Hi Miss Truth. Whacha doin’ out here with this school ladder? Aren’t you gonna get in trouble? I’ll tell you what. I’ll take it back to the school and put it away, and I won’t tell anyone you had it. Sound good, Miss Truth?

Jessica…is that any way to talk to a student who is gonna keep you from getting in trouble for taking that ladder off school property? Come-on…she’s helping you out!

True to her word, DaNeesha and her friend took the ladder back to the school supply room and put it away. I guess Miss Truth can thank them later, whenever she’s able to get down.

The morning dragged on and the church bell rang. Hundreds of people showed up for church, but never went inside. Hmm…what was on that pedestal was a lot more interesting than any church service.

The police came and set up for crowd control. It took a very long time to bring a ladder…because the police union and the fire-fighters’ union argued over whose responsibility it was to bring the equipment to get Jessica down…or at least that’s the story they gave the press later on. But really, this is a special case…so…whose job would it be to get Jessica down?

Slow news day…so the media showed up.

DaNeesha granted several interviews and talked all about her teacher. Now, this girl can talk when she wants to. I guess speaking in Miss Truth’s classes helped her get ready for her moment of fame.

Rescue…finally!

Oh Dear! A rescue…but followed by an arrest!

The next day, Jessica, finally reunited with her clothes, was brought to the mayor’s office. To her horror, the mayor had the “unknown famous guy’s” head sitting on his desk. The mayor let her know that she had destroyed part of the city’s heritage. A valuable and historic statue, gone because of a single person’s malicious behavior.

Then the mayor gave Jessica an offer she couldn’t refuse. She could be fired from her job and prosecuted, or she could pose for a replacement statue. “Statues document famous moments of our history, and I’d say what you did yesterday was a famous moment.”

So, the next day Jessica reported to the studio of the city’s most famous sculptor. A few weeks later the statue was ready.

…and Jessica had to appear in public with the mayor so everyone could see how much the statue looked like her.

Jessica’s moment, frozen in time, became the most popular monument in the city; in the entire state, actually. Certainly her figure looks a lot better than that old statue of the “unknown famous guy”. Who was he, anyway? Who cares? Everyone knows who Jessica is, and that’s what matters.