I was struck tonight as I was drawing. I've been revisiting past characters and doodles as I try to wrap my mind around creating stories for a series of comics. I have a bunch of characters, doodles really, who I find fun to draw. So I'm sitting a bunch of fun characters who I need to spin into fun stories. And I arrived at an interesting question:
what about Jinx? (if unfamiliar, go to
Jinx the Monkey and watch the animation).
It's silly to think I've overlooked him for so long. How many times a day do I see the words "Jinx the Monkey"? He's one of a handful of characters I've animated...even rarer that he has a voice (my voice, pitched up). More importantly, Jinx was a character who I created with a story in mind. It was a simple idea to put him in the context of a carnival and do my version of the cartoon trickster. He had a friend named Wheeler—I even created a couple adversaries (Louie and Dijon). I cranked out the animated short for my senior thesis, exhausted myself in the process, and decided to table the idea post-graduation. It was his first and last act.
After drawing him again tonight, there's something I find really appealing about his design. I also noticed I didn't draw him the same when I compared this sketch to the benchmark of 6 years ago. He's not as happy, either (maybe resentful?) I couldn't help but ask myself if he's a character worth revisiting, in comic form. I have a bunch of characters to work with at this point, but I'm gonna entertain the idea for a bit.