FINALLY I’ve done it. The 4 characters, or my new alter egos, have been unleashed upon the world.
There’s a lot to announce, but let me start by explaining what the characters are even for. I was inspired by David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and other alter egos, and by the French comedy with its cast of stock characters. The idea was that if I have a cast of stock characters that appear over and over again throughout my work, they will take on lives of their own. They will, after a time, belong to the world as well as me. They will have their own repetories, their own content, their own (maybe!) following.
In order to do this, I went through my past work and picked out 4 characters that have appeared multiple times. While they have appeared in different forms and different variations, all of them have complex, twisted backgrounds hidden under simple, stereotypical exteriors. That means I get a lot to play with!
Then, I designed their final looks (in collaboration with some amazingly talented people). I did a shoot for their initial images, which are now their basic get ups. While I did shoot a few variations for each character, I’ve only released the main versions for the moment.
And now, here they are! The Girl in the Red Dress, Man in the Suit, Monster, and Jean-Claude/Pierrot. You can read brief backgrounds on my main website.
The exciting thing, though, is that they are more than just images, and a basis for inspiration. I’ve also developed character specific merchandise which I’m actually really stoked about. I’ve uploaded their intro videos as reaction GIFs on GIPHY and made them available for download. There are even phone wallpapers for download!
There’s more coming – digital collectibles, for one, and lots and lots of stories. The very first foray into their content, however, will be exclusively for my Patreons as part of a special character-themed advent calendar. If you’re interested in getting daily character content in December, you can sign up at ANY tier on my Patreon before December 15th!
I’m so excited for what’s to come! But, I have to remember not to rush…these characters are here to stay now, and will hopefully be part of my work for years to come.