Retrospective: Celebrating Shilliam Snakeback's 40 Year Anniversary

Okay, so Shilliam isn't 40 years old, it's still quite a magnificent title, don't you agree? While Shilliam hasn't had much time to shine in the comic recently (which will change very soon, I assure you), he's easily one of the most fun characters I've ever drawn and written.

These three images of Shilliam are some of the earlier images I have. In fact the one on the far left is the initial design of him. Obviously his design contniued to be altered and changed.


Some more design sketches of Shilliam. His neck got far longer, and his body got wider. You'll also notice his 'Eyes in the Back of My Head' move from the opening of episode 8.

And here we are, the most recent and final design of Shilliam. He became a lot heavier on the bottom, but his long neck stayed. This sketch shows him in comparison to Terrance, to give you a general idea of his size. Shilliam is huge, and could probably give Cyro a real run for his money.

The Magical World of Edvard Alton

Edvard was one of those characters that required very little tweaking in terms of character design. His final design isn't too far removed for his initial sketches; he came out looking almost exactly like I wanted him too. Edvard is a fun little character to write and draw for. I like his nose, his big ol' ears, and especially his fun outfit. That's part of the fun of creating characters; you can draw things that you wish you could be.

For those of you who are curious, Ed was named after two people: Edvard Munch, who you should recognize as the artist who painted The Scream, and Alton Brown, host of probably the best show on television ever, Good Eats. That's a little bit of trivia for you fans out there. When I originally put Edvard into Episode 8, it was just for a short sequence. But since then the character has grown on me, and his part has grown considerably. How much? Well, you'll just have to keep reading Lancaster to find out!

Okay, let's get this party back on track. Recently I decided to pick up a new sketch book and dedicate it solely to character, gadget and location designs for Lancaster. There's not a whole bunch in the book right now, but as time goes on there will be, and it'll get posted here. My goal is to fill at least two pages a week (which I've been really lax with so far), but I am off to a fairly decent start. Want to take a look? Of course you do!

The first page of course has to have Lancaster himself on it. I've also been drawing quite a bit of the Attached spirits recently (really sharp Ghost Detectives will also know they're A3 Classified
Self-Aware Apparitions), even though they haven't yet appeared in the comic. But they will, and in a big way, too. Mark my words.