Cheesecalibur: Musing on Creative Derivation, and a Taste of Some Fantastic Art

Having conceived of Cheesecalibur at the tender age of 8 (for more on its epic origin story, click here), and now being the tough (because my meat is no longer tender) age of 36, some time has passed betwixt conception and what will hopefully soon be birth (that’s one heck of a gestation period…it’s weird when your baby pops out and can immediately rent a car). During that time, some very fine mice-as-knights comics have hit the shelves, including books like Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard, Vol. 1 and The Mice Templar, Vol. 1: The Prophecy.

Each time I stumbled across one of those titles, I’d silently curse, feeling as though their very presence on the racks at the comic store mocked my lack of productivity and stole the thunder from my own creation. I’ve come to realize, however, that while the former feeling was certainly valid, the latter was a needless concern.

With rare exceptions—paradigm-shifting ideas that spring from the minds of truly unique and revolutionary disruptors—creativity is an iterative process, a millennium-spanning collaboration across time, space, and culture. Derivations on a similar core idea, parodic versions of previous works, homages, alternate takes on history—these are the ideas that drive so many of the stories we consume. Emma begets Clueless; Jane Eyre begets Wide Sargasso Sea; Hamlet begets…well, a million things, but let’s say The Story of Edgar Sawtelle for illustrative purposes. And speaking of that Shakespeare hack—he pilfered pretty much everything he ever wrote from his own literary predecessors.

‘Tis true that all of us engaged in creative endeavors stand on the shoulders of giants, but my hope is that Cheesecalibur does not tread on the toes of storytellers who have also been inspired by Arthurian lore and medieval history, but instead augments and complements their wonderful work.

Because, even though the mice-as-knights thing has been done, I think Cheesecalibur will find its own niche. The way the plot unfolds, the character-driven nature of the stories, the tone, the art…it’s a unique mix of those elements—even if those elements are derived from, or at least influenced by, other sources. Seeds of plot have been extracted (and sometimes twisted) from the pages of Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table and the work of Chrétien de Troyes; masterful lessons on building stories around characters have been gleaned from Bill Willingham’s Fables; tonal notes have been drawn from the brilliant creators at Pixar, who always strike the right balance between family-friendly slapstick and sly humor for an older audience—a feat, I might add, also accomplished by many Pixar predecessors, such as The Muppet Show and Animaniacs; and the art…well, I’ll let the art and the artist speak for themselves below (it’s going to be fantastic).

If you read my previous Cheesecalibur post, you know that I draw about as well as an elephant performs brain surgery (or as well as a monkey resists flinging its poo). So, I desperately needed an actual, you know, artist to bring the story to life. It just so happens that one of my best friends in the world—and someone I met, coincidentally, in the 2nd-grade class in which Cheesecalibur was originally conceived—happens to be one heck of a talented artist with a style that’s perfectly suited to this story.

And that man, my friends, is Mr. Bret J. Bowman. Bret is hard at work developing the look and feel of the Cheesecalibur characters and world, and he has graciously consented (read: been bludgeoned into submission by my repeated entreaties) to share some of the work in progress. I’ll note that these are not necessarily final character designs, but should give you a flavor of what to expect.

Bret will poo-poo the quality of these drawings (not unlike a monkey doing its own version of wall art), but I couldn’t be more psyched about his work—after years of picturing these characters in my head, it’s amazing to see them taking shape on the page (and with properly proportioned limbs, no less, a feat I was unable to manage in my original incarnation). And, with such stellar art, I can pretty much just mail it in as the writer, which is my primary goal in all endeavors.

Without further ado, then, here’s some shots of what’s to come, along with a little intro from Bret on how he’s going about bringing these characters to life (and perhaps a few additional comments by me, because, as you all know by now, words are my monkey poo, and I am incapable of not flinging them about with callous disregard for those around me).



A Note from Master Bret Bowman, Gentleman About Town:

That's right, Mr. Gibson; always leave 'em wanting more monkey poo. This is exactly why I hitched my cart to your horse.

(I've made a huge mistake.)

Esoteric Arrested Development jokes aside, Sean might occasionally turn a ridiculous [Note from Sean: Bret often confuses “ridiculous” with “awesome”…we’re working on it] phrase or two but I couldn't be more excited to be partnering with him to bring his charmingly comic fantasy-adventure to life. It's ridiculously amazing to me that he's kept the original 'Calibur in his back pocket for more than two freaking decades, but I think it helps illustrate just how incredibly passionate he is about this project and I just hope my work is up to the task. This has seriously been the most fun I've had doing, well, anything [Note from Sean: Bret doesn’t get out much] and I'm doing my damnedest to make sure at least some of that comes through on the page.



Included here a few scans of character designs that, though they are the product of numerous emails, texts and calls between Sean and myself that helped me hone in on the artistic style he was looking for, are what I can only describe as ROUGH. As in please-don't-judge-too-harshly-I'm-just-getting-started or I-told-Sean-it-was-too-early-to-show-work-but-he-kept-hounding-me rough. It can only get better and, who knows, I might actually throw in a background or two before I'm done. [Note from Sean: backgrounds are overrated]



(Some are pencils, some roughly inked-over pencils and some are the results of dabbling with Copic markers, so tones will vary greatly. Do not adjust your television sets.)