Here we have a variety of supporting characters for the King Roach series. This version of the series is set in the Sentient 39 universe. The technology of the society is about the level of 1950s Earth. There are finished versions of some of these characters in my Epilogue.net gallery.
Alienness
If I remember correctly (this sketch is from 2003) the four tentacled thing at the bottom left is a member of one of the alien races that populate Cthulhu Mythos stories. Unfortunately I’m not sure where my copy of the Encyclopedia Cthulhiana is at the moment and I haven’t been able to find a species in Cthulhu Mythos Wikipedia entries that seems to match so we’ll just have to leave the creature anonymous.
Gyaos and Glaaki
Trapweaver and Void Opal
The trapweaver is one of the “lower” species in the plant/animal symbiotic biosphere. Trapweavers live in small colonies of about a dozen individuals. They weave elaborate structures from the grasses of the great plains. When prey animals enter these structures the weavers work together to pull the structures down, entangling the prey. The weavers then stab the prey to death with their sharp beaks.
The void opal is a precious gem that forms in space. (The words “void opal” and the image of a shining, multicolored gem came to me at the same time. Void opal. I love the sound those words make.)
Symbiote
Another image from that hypothetical Sentient 39 encyclopedia. This is one of those species I’ve never gotten around to naming. It comes from a biosphere where plants and animals have developed a direct symbiotic relationship. Most animals species have plants that grow directly out of their bodies. The plants act as part of their digestive system. The plant is also part of the animal’s reproductive system (as the animal is part of the plant’s). The creature depicted here is a member of the “dominant” species of the world, that is, it’s a civilization builder.
Lili and Mara
When I design a character I try to make him/her distinct enough that he/she could be recognizable if depicted naked with a shaved head. I probably only succeed to the degree that I can recognize the characters when I encounter them again.
Y’golonac
Y’golonac first appeared in the Ramsey Campbell short story Cold Print back in the late sixties. Y’golonac has made an appearance in a couple of the scenarios I’ve illustrated, one in The Black Seal, one in a forthcoming issue of Worlds of Cthulhu. What pleases me most about this illustration was the weight and mass I think I managed to give ol’ Nibblehands. I drew people as stick figures most of the time when I was a kid. When I was doing Misspent Youths the characters still had a pipecleaner skinniness to them. I put extra effort into giving this guy bulk.
Sentient 39
One of these days I want to put together an encyclopedia for the Sentient 39 “universe”. I’ve had this idea on and off for years. I’ll do an illustration or two and then get distracted. I know this fellow was intended for an encyclopedia entry but I no longer remember if he was to have individual entry or if he was an example of one of the many off branches of humanity.
Mara Practices the Horse
It’s the clash of two unrelated projects!
On the right is the male figure for the kung fu dictionary for Mandate of Heaven
On the left is Mara Winikat, King Roach’s alter ego. Wait, you ask, wasn’t Brian Daniels King Roach’s alter ego? Yes he was. And he still is actually. It’s more complicated than I want to get into at the moment. Suffice to say, there’s more than one kid who turns into a giant monster. And while I like Brian he’s not the greatest protagonist. He’s kind of complainy and whiny and spends a lot of time wishing that things would turn out his way. In that way he’s uncomfortably close to … me as a kid. (Probably me as an adult. I’ll leave that to others to determine.)
Sigh.
NPCs
On the right we have Professor Grant Emerson. The professor is an NPC (non player character) who writes scientific articles on weird phenomena for The Black Seal. Graeme Price writes the actual articles.
On the right is … I forget what her name is. She was to be an NPC who wrote about weird phenomena from a scholarly perspective. She was a librarian with access to the vast resources of the British Library (although probably not to the Forbidden Books, the hideous tomes that the Library doesn’t admit to owning and never loans out). Unlike Professor Emerson she was to be a house name at the Seal and could have her articles written by anyone with an inclination.
Once I’d done these portraits I was inspired to do portraits of all the Seal’s contributors as a way of blurring that line between reality and fiction. Emerson and the Librarian were to have their portraits and bios on the contributors’ page along with all the rest of us.
So far the Librarian’s skills have gone untapped.
