Santa Squatch

Introducing the odd-but-beloved holiday icon in Walpurgis: Santa Squatch!

~ to the tune of "Jingle Bells" ~

Santa Squatch, Santa Squatch!
He is Santa Squatch!
One half jolly old St. Nick, and the other one's sasquatch!
Santa Squatch, Santa Squatch!
Gifts and toys, he's makin'!
Bringing love and joy to all,
and he really enjoys bacon! 
 

• I'm not sure where to begin on how this idea came to be. Boredom, probably, or that I like Santa Claus and Bigfoot (Sasquatch). Knowing my warped imagination, it'd be the perfect combo for something to show up in "Quacktown".
• To keep it simple, he's a sasquatch who acts like Santa Claus and gives presents to all the good children in Walpurgis, so the real Kris Kringle doesn't have to worry about getting attacked by any paranormal threats during his own route in the city. 
• Because of his obscurity, Squatch is somewhat of an urban legend. He leaps from rooftop to rooftop and down chimneys, and while he likes cookies and milk, he much rather have bacon and ginger ale (or bacon cookies if you have and/or make 'em). Oh, and he doesn't need reindeer, what with him being able to climb and jump high- that, and he's respectful to fellow woodland creatures, like Harry from "Harry & the Hendersons".
• Like with "Extra Value Real", I decided use traditional media for this strip, only this time, the watercolor set made its return to the drawing board. I used a Koi water brush for the line-art and random places, and a large, broad brush for the splotches of background. The inked lines were done with two new PITT pens (a fine tip and brush pen).
• The font in the dialogue bubble was one called, "Tall Paul" (pretty fitting for both Bigfoot's height and guttural language).
• I gave him a Chuck Jones-style grin for added whimsy, and made him very ape-like compared to other portrayals (hence the gorilla/chimp-like nose and gnarled hands and feet). 
• One day, I'll explore the mysterious origins of this gentle holiday wood-ape (maybe next year!). Until then, be sure to leave that plate of maple smoked bacon strips out with a cool glass of ginger ale 'cause you may get a visit from Santa Squatch himself!

* MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS & HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY! *

You're a Dour One, Mr. Quack

To get into the Christmas spirit, here's the first of a few holiday-inspired strips.

Quacklad's quite the Scrooge without his smokes.

• I didn't think it could be done, but it's actually possible to combine the titles of three of your favorite Christmas specials/movies ("Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!", "The Year Without a Santa Claus", and "The Santa Clause") and three of the ones you don't like ("Santa Claus Conquers the Martians", "Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey", and "Santa Claus: The Movie") into one big spoof title.
• The initial concept for this strip stemmed from a doodle I made in my sketchbook as a joke with the Duck in a chimney, posed like the Grinch as seen on the video cover, with the caption, "How Quacklad Conquered the Martians on the Night Before Christmas". The only differences between the two are obviously the other joke title was used and that this one was colored/altered with GIMP.
• I nearly wore the bejeebus out of an old VHS of the original Grinch cartoon watching it over and over to get the appropriate colors. 
• To make this strip even "Seuss-ier", I used a font called, "Grinched", for the mock title.
• As I did with the Halloween strip that had the "Peanuts" reference, I added a "- With apologies to..." credit in respect to Dr. Seuss and Chuck Jones. I'm starting to feel like the more pop culture tributes that are made in this webcomic, particularly the ones that hit closer to home with the original source material/creators, the more I should tip my hat to it/them in a "no hard feelings" kind of way.
• Quacklad's probably the first one ever to use an Elmo & Patsy song as a legitimate threat. 
• The word, "dour", suits the Duck just as well as the word, "hyper", suits the Husky. Dour Duck. Hyper Husky. Alliteration at its oddest, folks. 

'Tis the season! Tune next time to see Walpurgis' own unique holiday icon for the season!.

Extra Value Real

What's this? A realistic Quacklad and Tyrra?! Oh, the horror!

Once again, everybody, I apologize for being so slack on updates. The last half of November's had its ups and downs. My job pretty much ended for the season, and I've been back on the close-but-no-cigar search for work. Hasn't been a complete bummer, though. Thanksgiving was nice, and we got to go the Carolina Renaissance Festival. I met one of my favorite fantasy artists, Ruth Thompson, there, and she signed a print of a dragon I bought from her. I had been going through a pretty bad art funk, but thanks to a new sketchbook, looks like it's passed.

• I got inspired by the sixth Sidebar comic of "Meowington" to draw the Duck and Husky this way; Holly drew her characters, Greg and Kimberly, as realistic kitty-cats. Check out more of "Meowington", along with Holly's stuff!- http://meowingtoncomic.blogspot.ca/ & http://lunardawn.deviantart.com/
• Realistic art styles and me have not had an understandable relationship, and despite how artists, as they get older, feel the need to try something they're not used to, I was a bit nervous. All and all, I think it turned out okay; Tyrra looks neat, but Quacklad scares me.
• Traditional media's been set back on the burner in my art-making for a while, but since I've been doodling around in my sketchbook, I thought it'd be cool to whip out a regular .05 mechanical pencil, some colored pencils, an a Stylo sketch pen on this strip for a change.
• I got stumped on what to title this strip, so I just settled on a playful jab towards McDonald's "Extra Value Meal" (again, sorry for the corniness- and I've been cravin' Mickey-D's like crazy lately).

Now that December's here, expect some holiday-related strips this month. Hoping to try my hand at finally doing holiday commission work soon to help with bills and Christmas shopping, so if anybody's interested, just e-mail me. 

See ya next time, guys! Good to be back in the artist's saddle.