Development: Karl von der Beak (Patreon)

Hey folks! Even though this is a development post, I’m sharing this little behind-the-scenes peek with my Colossal tier fans as well as my Ginormous and Brobdingnagian patrons. Enjoy!

Interestingly, my initial conception of von der Beak was to have oversized glasses or goggles, and an upswept tangle of hair. I was also debating between a raven or an emu, though emu quickly won out (as much as I adore ravens).

As I was sketching him out, though, I randomly thought of Rotwang, the archetypal mad scientist from Fritz Lang’s silent film ”Metropolis.” I borrowed his swept-back hairstyle, and instead of glasses, took his heavily arched eyebrows and his sunken, dark-ringed eyes. I included his mechanical right hand for good measure, and was actually quite happy with the result.

von der Beak was originally going to be a throw-away character, but as I was writing dialog for the comic the few lines he speaks revealed more depth to the character than I’d envisioned. So I spent a bit more time on his design, and hope I’ll be able to bring him back in future storylines.

Thank you again for your support! More designs and pages coming soon. :)