Landon
A long time ago, when I decided I wanted to develop a new comic strip, I knew I wanted the main characters to different from what you normally see. I knew I needed to have a traditional straight man and stooge team, and decided to go with a werewolf and a ghost, since all the cool talking animal ideas have been taken. I choose a werewolf for this character because of all the classic monsters, werewolves are my favorite. I especially really dig the classic Lon Chaney look for a wolfman rather than a lot of these modern, overly graphic animatronic and/ or CG creatures. That’s why Landon looks the way he does. Actually, you’ll notice all of the frightful citizens of Renfield Square have a more classic monster movie look to them.
After struggling with the task of designing my little werewolf, I took on what turned out to be an even more daunting task, naming him. I spent weeks upon weeks searching through thesauruses, dictionaries, and pop culture trying to find a suitable name. Finally in a moment of divine intervention, one of my favorite songs came on the radio as I worked at my regular day job. The song was Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London”. Once I had that song in my head, I kept thinking “London, London, London” which then made my brain say “London, no LANdon! Micheal Landon played the lead in ‘I Was A Teenage Werewolf’!” Eureka! I had it! For once the random pop culture rolodex that is my mind did me a favor.
Here’s a peak at some early design sketches of Landon, before I knew who he was:
Serious question here… are we ever going to be able to see Landon in human form or was he born that way… cause i just got an idea for my next fan art!