Duk

October has always been a good month, nice and cool, leaves around, and of course Halloween. For a folklore enthusiast and monster illustrator, October is a month for the creatures of times passed to be mischievous again. 

Luckily after all the studying for midterms, piles of sketches for senior thesis, and continuation of the illustrations for the Hobbit, I found some time for free sketching. During work today, I let my mind wonder, knowing only that I wanted to combine a jester/clown like character with a goblin.                                   

What I wanted with this character was not to play into cliches of goblins being green, savage, and dumb. I wanted my goblin to have more substance and have more of a folkloric background then one based in pop culture knowledge and basic fantasy knowledge. 

This is Duk. He is a goblin who lives under beds in rural country sides, often hiding in piles of toys to disguise himself with his clown like appearance. But don't let that trick you, for he is a ruthless little creature. Only standing at 2 feet tall, he waits for a child to sleep, then with his very large blade he cuts off fingers and toes. He doesn't attack all children, for there is a way to keep Duk in hiding. One way is to keep a copper coin under the bed or pillow. It burns his skin. Or create a barrier of salt on the floor around the bed like a little wall. It will immediately scare Duk, He'll leave the residence, and no fingers or toes will be lost. He will flee with any lost fingers and toes to sell in Goblin markets for magical use. It will most likely end up with a witch, wizard, or relic to some other creature.

I am planning on using Duk in a little project I want to complete this semester. Its a small narrative book, written in a nursery rhyme style, of his adventure of stealing fingers and toes then venturing to the market. It's still in early stages. I want to have a smaller book, that isn't a comic, to sell when I go to conventions, and hopefully some book fairs this year.