How not to be seen
New Gothenburg (working title) is an urban fantasy concept following three friends named Royanna, Bristol (aka Brit), and Corentine. Each woman is something known as a “charmling,” which is defined not as a person who does magic but rather a person magic happens to.
A charmling can be identified by an aberration in their appearance. For Royanna, it is her halo; for Brit, her blue tongue; for Corentine, her pure black eyes. These traits are only visible to others of their kind. And there’s more of their kind than you think.
Adam is an underachieving demon who gets kicked out of hell and crashes at the next worst thing: a frat house.
A young upper-class tiefling (a race from Dungeons & Dragons). Steve’s defining trait is his pedantry; the name Strünkenweiss references The Elements of Style, a guide to writing and composition commonly referred to by its creators’ surnames, Strunk and White.
The Chance brothers
Slim and Randy (short for “Random”) Chance have floating disconnected heads shaped like a Magic 8 Ball toy and a twenty-sided die, respectively.
The numbered side that faces forward on Randy’s head reflects his current mood (1 representing total despair, 20 representing overwhelming joy). The die inside of Slim’s head works similarly, with positive phrases like “WITHOUT A DOUBT” indicating a good mood and negative phrases like “DON’T COUNT ON IT” indicating a bad one.
Building character
The Lego store near me has a station where visitors can build a unique minifigure out of individual components. I built a woman with a boombox, a pet bat, and a blazer reminiscent of Miami Vice.
I combined these disparate elements to create Luz de la Cruz, a daywalking vampire from the 1980s.
Elves… in space!
Portraits from a science-fantasy universe where elves have colonized Mars, Venus, and the Moon. Here’s what the population of that universe looks like…
Gable, another character with an unconventional head, just because.