A real stinker

As a creator, you never know how your works are going to be received.  Things done on just a whim can become your Next Big Thing while your Magnum Opus sits next to it unloved despite all of the blood, sweat and tears that have been (metaphorically, I hope) poured into it.  You release your art into the wild and it’s up to John and Jane Q. Public to sort it all out.

In the same way that ‘stories write themselves,’ characters can take on a life of their own.  “Chris the Watchfur” was intended to be a one-off character in a conbook story titled “The Tell-Tale Tie,” which can be found in the upcoming Con Fluff 2.  The story and character were inspired by my friend Chris Holm, who took it upon himself to draw the character.  A friend also drew the Watchfur as part of an artist Secret Santa, and when I later needed a villain for another conbook story, he made yet another appearance, this time as a supervillian with time-based superpowers.  Oddly enough, other characters I have written for the explicit purpose of  writing a series of stories with them have not managed to escape the confines of their first story.

Not bad for a one-off character, and a crook, no less!