"Myzl" Character Design for New Project

Karsten has unloaded some character designs on me so I am going to be sending these out every week or so as I get them, talk about the character etc.  Their personalities.  etc. etc.  So!  This is Myzl, pronounced - May-Zool.  He is a tiny impish demon that works in hell.  His profession?  Well he doesn't torture souls like some of the bigger meaner demons down there no, he keeps the place nice and clean.  After all, cleanliness is close to...ya know. 

So, Myzl is a lowly Janitor of hell and as he was working one day he is conscripted by Death to assist him in escorting Gerry (the main character) around town.  Myzl acts as the comic relief to most situations, or at least he thinks he's funny, and also helps to be the sort of encyclopedia of hell.  Expository character I guess you could call him.  He might look grumpy here but he has a good attitude toward life...I mean afterlife and enjoys what he does.  But he is always looking for any and all opportunities to be useful.  And helping the Angel of Death personally is a great honor in his mind.  Look for him in sticker, and t-shirt form soon but most importantly look out for him in the future when this project is finished and out on the shelves.

Below are some of the original designs we were working with.

This was the original design he did.  He was pretty cute and I liked the little necronomicon he doodled for the book.  Was thinking about keeping the book as a nod to a great movie franchise but decided it was not the best thing to do since Myzl is one of the main three characters.

 Karsten worked on body and an idea about wings.  We inevitably decided against wings and figured he just was able to fly or float through magics from his fork or even his book.  We can add some Kirby Krackle or something when he's flying to better illustrate that.  But we also tried to make him look older.  Not there yet.

 

Next he tried some body molds, but he was too fat for our liking.  I wanted a belly originally but I didn't want him to be ogre like.  Eventually he tried a face that I really liked and played with some emotions.  Grumpy, scared, mischief maker, happy-go-lucky and lazy.  I was sold.  And the top image is the end result and most likely what you will see in the book.