Origin of the Ston'emms and More Original Drawings

As I think I mentioned before, growing up I always loved to draw & create new things. I had a few different "toy lines" (for some reason I always drew like I was making toys- go figure), the "Reptile Fighters", the "Bug Warriors" and then a 3rd series that I have no drawings from so I barely remember it. None of those seemed to last though, as I grew bored with them. Then, everything changed.

One day I rented a new game from my local Block Buster video named "Demon's Crest" for the Super Nintendo and was blown away by it. The designs, the music and the world; a whole world full of monsters instead of people. After that I started drawing all these interesting characters based off of my own world full of monsters & that line was dubbed "Monster Wars". Eventually that line's name changed into what it is now known as: "Creature World".

In Monster Wars there was all sorts of different beings, people made out of mud, plant/creature hybrids, living trees (inspired more by the Inhumanoids Redwoods as I'd never even heard of Lord of the Rings or Ents until 2001), etc. Eventually, rock people made their way into my world by the name of an evil Ston'emm named 'Crackapart'. I believe the Ston'emm were created after my love of the Granites from Hasbro's Inhumanoids as to this day that is one of my favorite childhood cartoons & toy lines.

It's funny that 1st Ston'emm we see in my stories was evil, as now their race are generally very much the opposite (although there's always a bad egg or two floating around). It wasn't until further down the road, probably towards the end of the 90's & the early 2000's that I started to flesh out the Ston'emm race & explain their existence more (I'll get into their story-based history in another blog post).

I already showed you all the 1st drawing of Crackapart, but here's a variant I made of him called "Shatter Crackapart". Basically he got a furry loincloth instead of being just naked stone & now had the ability to telekineticlly control stones and form giant hands to grasp opponents.

This version of Crackapart came out in Series 15 and it would be another 5 series before we saw some Ston'emms again. He was a heavy-hitting member of the 'Bringers of Bloodshed' aka 'the Bloodlords' and was a thorn in the side of the heroes of my stories off and on. For whatever reason he didn't stick around as the Creature World story progressed and this would be the last time he was ever mentioned. It's possible I killed him off, but I really don't remember. The drawing is a little better then the1st one I made, but even then it's hard to make out the face on him due to the dark colored pencils I used, I really need to re-draw him with less black & dark gray. I'd really like to introduce him into the story that's going on now with the Ston'emms, as I think an evil Ston'emm that wants to align itself with the Armovors would be a cool twist and really hit the morale of the Ston'emms to see one of the own turning on the rest of their kind.

These next two debuted in Series 20. First we have another evil but very odd looking ston'emm with an almost snake/reptilian look to it. His name, is Sword. I know, very original:

I believe this design was based off an earlier drawing that wasn't a ston'emm but I liked the idea of merging the two together and drew this. I'd like to re-visit this character also, especially to give him an updated design & even sculpt it. I'd probably change his name to 'Swordstone' as at least that sounds better then just 'Sword'; that's like naming a barbarian 'Axe' or 'Warhammer'. Keep in mind I drew this character before I even knew Poke'mon existed so the idea of a rock-snake creature wasn't inspired by Poke'mon's Onyx. Odd similarities though, especially with the little crest on the back of the head that I think Oynx also shares (very eerie....O_o..). Sword was an expert Crystalline Swordsman and wielded 2 of these blades with deadly accuracy. The tail he has even ends in a razor-sharp crystal blade that he used to attack a 2nd opponent in combat.

Next we have the 1st Heroic Ston'emm character I created, the rocky member of the 'Warriors of the Woodlands' (aka the Woodlords): Rokk! (Yes I know his name is horribly generic, I was 15 & had NO concept of what Copyrightable names were)

Rokk may have had a different name, as I can make out in my drawing book that I'd erased a name & wrote 'Rokk' in it's place. I can make out an 'R' so maybe he was named 'Boulder' until I remembered the Rock Lord of the same name? Who knows, it's a mystery for the ages. Rokk has the ability to morph his hands into stone hammers, shoot his fists like missiles at his opponents and re-grow a new hand. With him was his pet Rocklecta named 'Clamp Jaw' but also known as 'Lil' Grind' which I feel is a much better name & less the love-child of Clamp Champ & Trap Jaw from Masters of the Universe. I had a very small amount of this gray colored pencil so that was the major reason why Rock got clothing; this is also the 1st Ston'emm I drew where you can actually see his mouth & eyes clearly again thanks to the lighter gray. In additional to his attack pet Lil' Grind he had a Ra'lok which are large stone creatures that the Ston'emm used as steeds and battle mounts on Slauria. This is Rokk's steed Grinder:

A Ra'lok is a rock-bear type of creature, they run on all fours but can rise up on their hind legs to attack with their front legs. They have some pretty large, wicked claws on the front paws so they're very dangerous when angered. They lived primarily on Slauria so you don't find them with the space-faring Ston'emms that are fighting the Armovors. Ston'emms are able to forge weapons from stone & rocks with their hands and you can see Rokk's axe on the saddle strap for Grinder.

I was actually 16 years old when I drew these last 3 drawings as on the page above Grinder a date was written down: August 28th 1996. So just a hair over 16 years ago I drew these Ston'emms. I wonder what my 16 year old self would say if I showed him the sculpted Ston'emms I created?

I have a few more Ston'emm drawings from back in the 90's to show you, but I will save that for another day. ;-)

-Bah'glenn

Iyce'lasher, the taskmaster & 1st mate aboard the Dragon's Maw!

This was another character I created back in the 90's as a teenager for my 'Creature World' series of stories & artwork. Back then, he was just a green monster who found a pair of rare magical ice-themed artifacts. With a crack of his whip he could freeze enemies in their paths. He was a bad guy back then, and in all honesty his character had almost ZERO development put into it. I can't even remember WHY I created him or for what reason ice & whips seemed like a good pairing for a magical weapon. Plus, if the whip itself emits ice..why does he have a stone of the same color on his chest?? These are the questions I ask myself as I go through my old drawing books & try to figure out just what the hell my teenage brain was thinking.

Below is the original Creature World drawing of the character. He's from a time before my drawing style got a bit more polished so there's not alot of depth in here aside from a large green monster with an ice whip.


Next I sat down & did a quickie concept study sketch of what this character would look like as a canne'boid. I gave him a cross-bite where his top & bottom jaws over lap one another and a little goatee because, well his face didn't have much else going on. The more difficult part of this figure was going to be the frost whip; I had no clue how to sculpt a whip with those teeny-tiny little ends on them. I put him on the back-burner for a few weeks to mull over how to do this and finish some of the earlier canne'pirates instead.


Eventually, this Tuesday to be precise, I sat down & began sculpting the figure. Having already assembled the build a few days prior, that would have made the entire process fast & easy....how wrong I was. Due to the softer nature of the mixed color green I made, I spent the better part of 2 hours trying to get his head sculpt just right. It took a few dozen tries but I eventually got it to a level I'd be happy with. Check him out:

Iyce'lasher "Taskmaster & 1st Mate to Captain Jahroh"


"There be quite a bit o' work in runnin' a ship smoothly, and even though I be a tough and fearlful captain...sometimes I need assistance gettin' the crew in line. This is where Iyce'lasher comes in. This 'boid has a vicious bite and is quick with his whip for anyone not followin' orders. Most o' the crew doesn't give him trouble, as they know as dangerous he is- I'm worse. I rely on him to keep Shark-Hook in check when he enters a feedin' frenzy as he can eat the whole crew if not taken down quickly. For some reason, he and me ship's cook don't see eye-ta-eye and constantly get into disputes over some such nonsense, I can't be bothered to figure out why.
"A number o' years ago, we stumbled upon a tribe of Frrr'ohst and did battle with them ta steal their riches. Iyce'lasher found nothin' of too much value but took the heart of one of the ice people as a trophy. When wearing it around his neck he be shocked ta see it enables him to emit freezing cold temperatures and aiming werever he be choosin'. Later he embedded it in his forehead, and doin' this allowed him to channel freezing temperatures through his whip and freeze anything it touched. In battle he be one o' me best fighters and the Glyans run for the hills when his frost whip rains frozen death down upon them."- Excerpt from Captain Spakk Jahroh's Log Book

As a nod to the original drawing, he was originally going to have a pair of green gloves for hands...but I really wasn't happy with how they looked so I gave him one regular hand and his whipping hand is wearing a torn, finger-less glove. Instead of giving him twin boots, I had his toes "burst" through one of his boots- this was something I saw with old TMNT figures alot & I always liked that look on characters. The more I sculpted him, the more he came across as that crusty/tough type of character who can put anybody in their place easily. I think my subconscious mind might have been channeling the orc captain from the Rankin/Bass "Return of the King" animated movie ("where there's a whip there's a way!"), just the face reminds me of them a bit. Below are more pictures to look over.





















I have another canne'pirate ready to make his debut, but I just need to alter his build colors a little bit before his un-veiling. Stay tuned for more!

Beware of Lokk'up, the living treasure chest!!

This character was another of my original Creature World pirate characters that I gave the canne'boid treatment to. He was the last of the 5 that I re-designed back in November so he was a long time coming but I think he came out awesome.

Here's a drawing I did in the 90's of the original character back when he was named "Treasure Keep". Basically, the concept was making one of the pirates into a living treasure chest as who would be better to keep the captain's treasure safe then a tough-as-nails monster who stores the loot inside his body? I gave him eyes on stalks so he could always tell if someone was trying to sneak up on him.

Original Character drawing


Re-designed Canne'boid Sketch:


Basically, the re-designed character has the same job but now it's more direct. I gave him wood textured skin and gold teeth & claws (again a throw back to him being a living treasure chest) and decided on a dark brown sculpey to further give that wooden look. The character IS actually part wood as he ate a tree person and mutated the characteristics of wood, so trying to sneak up behind him & bash him on the head wouldn't be a good idea.

His job aboard the Dragon's Maw is to guard the treasure that he keeps inside him via a sub-dimensional pocket. Typically, it happens like this: when the canne'pirates board a ship, Lokk'up heads off on his own to find the treasure & literally smashes through anyone and anything in his path to get to it. Once there, he gobbles it up & then makes his way back to the ship. Whatever he ate & chose to not digest, gets shunted into that sub-dimensional pocket and he can regurgitate it later.





















Since making those sketches back in November, I've draw sketches for another Creature World character-to-Canne'pirate in addition to 4 more canne'pirates, so Capt. Jahroh's crew is getting big REAL fast. One of the new ones has a head & fur, I just need to give him hands and feet, maybe tomorrow he'll be done- you'll just have to wait & see. ~_^

Next Canne'pirate: Rig'n!

This crew member is the mechanic & weapon maker for the Dragon's Maw. His original Creature World counter-part, 'Rigen', would swing from the rigging in the ship's sails (hence the name) and use his powerful pincer legs to catch & crush anyone who boarded the ship.

Here's an original drawing of that character:



I was going to give the canne'pirate the same pincer legs, but since the Dragon's Maw is a space pirate ship without any sails or rigging, I decided to alter his job on the ship. So instead of pincers he gets a second smaller pair of arms with hands so he can work on things while using his larger more powerful arms to swing around the inside of the ship. I had to give him some sort of pirate-themed accessory so I gave him a long striped cap to wear. I might turn it into a bandanna or doo-rag, but for now this works & brings some contrast to all the browns & tans on him.

Here's the sketch I did of him (bottom half of the page). The head sculpt I ended up doing came out differently then the sketch, almost simian or gorilla looking. Actually I think it works with the whole swinging around thing so it's not a bad change at all.

Sketch


Final Sculpted version









(Showing the hands on his leg-arms)

There are still more canne'pirates to be made, I still have to make Lock'up the ship's living treasure chest & Ice'lasher the ship's interrogator & task-master. Should be fun to sculpt them.

Oh & in the meantime, head over to the October toys forum & check out pics of the canne'pirates riding around in a Playmobil Pirates dingy. It's not their actual space-age pirate ship but it will do in a pinch.

Cereblor: the Brain in the Jar

Visiting Matt Doughty & his awesome family last weekend was a blast for me & my girlfriend Beth. While there, Matt did a lot of amazing drawings of some of my creations including a veeery old one from back in the mid-to-late 1990's.

The character started out as just a brain in a jar who traveled with Sun'slyr (the prince of the Phosperonns) to Slauria to explore the world after it had been quarantined for two centuries. While there it was their job to retrieve the Gauntlet of Destruction and the Gauntlet of Protection that had been taken there by a criminal overlord known as Yarr'kon. Once there, Sun'slyr & Cereblor followed the path of destruction left by Gauntletz and the Bringers of Bloodshed (aka the 'Blood Lords'). Cereblor then used his cybernetics knowledge to re-animate the bodies of warriors killed by Gauntletz and add their ranks to their new team, the Sun Strikers.

Here's a drawing I did years ago based on artwork my friend made back then. It's the Sun Strikers main means of transportation while on Slauria & is currently being manned by 4 Sun Strikers & Cereblor.


(Top of Ship: Sleet
Inside Ship: Cyberslug, Stickle-Back & Cereblor
Underneath Ship: Tread)

Since then the Cereblor character has transformed into something more deep. With the help of my friend Doctor Kent, who provided a good chunk of the new Cereblor's backstory, we created a character who spanned decades of story and is almost responsible for the majority of crap happening in my universe.

For those of you who followed Alien Mercenaries, Cereblor is mentioned in it several times and is known there as Ce'Brorr, his name before become making his exo-suit and becoming a Bionic Living Organism (aka his name CereB.L.Or.). Actually, if you look at the computer monitor in episode #22 of the 1st season of Alien Mercenaries (the 1st panel of that episode) you'll see the computer system recognizing Greh'eck as the user "Ce'Brorr". In the 1st episode of season 2, Gr'owwlge mentions to Greh'eck how he was taken away from his family by a Prutarran Scouting Party & then awoke in a laboratory. Ce'Brorr was the one who ordered the scouting party to retrieve Gr'owwgle AND was in the lab when he came out of stasis briefly. He was abducted due to his abilities to sense and read auras in beings, but for what purpose ultimately will eventually be explained...

Original Drawing from 1996

Cereblor as drawn by Matt Doughty on December 11th 2011

The stories of Slauria are vast, and as a young teenager I drew at least 200 different characters. Some have found their ways into my current creations while others have yet to be revealed. Keep your eyes on this blog for more stuff about my Creature World stories as we enter the new year.

-Bah'glenn

The next two canne'pirates of the Dragon's Maw: One-Eye & Shark Hook

After creating Capt. Spakk Jahroh the other day, I've had canne'boid pirates on the brain (the canne'borg is on the back-burner right now, but one of my other canne'boids might need to be rebuilt- I have the technology) and set to work giving the good captain a crew.

Now, before I delve into the 2 new guys I have some back story: I've only been sculpting since late 2007/early 2008 BUT I've been drawing and creating characters since 1994-1995 with my old "Creature World" stories that took place on the planet Slauria (the planet where the canne'boids come from). Well back then I'd decided to make a team of pirates and created Captain Ang-grrrr to lead them. He was a mutated slaurian with a chip in his head that increased his strength when he became angry, but his crew was predominately made up of characters from non-Creature World stories of mine. But, amidst the re-used characters, there were 5-6 original pirates. So while thinking of ideas for new canne'pirates, I touched onto these older characters and "canne'boidized" them.

Original Drawings (circa the late 1990's):
"One-Eye"

One-Eye's one large eye was actually a doorway into another dimension where vicious creatures lived. He wore an eye-patch at all times to keep the doorway closed, but while in battle he'd often take the eye-patch off and call forth a monster to attack his foe. I'm not sure why I gave him 2 peg legs (feet?), maybe his original legs had gotten beaten off by the inter-dimensional creatures? o_O??

"Fishook/Shark Hook"

I remember drawing his while on vacation in New Hampshire in August of 1997. I liked the colorway & the name so much I later used them on a completely different character. With his original name & color now on another character, I re-designed him for canne'piracy.

New 2011 Canne'boidized Re-Designs




There are 3 more characters waiting to get sculpted up, but I might need more parts before I attempt that. They should be pretty awesome once I'm all said & done with them. I did draw out the build for one of them and it should prove to be a solid build when assembled.

Sculpted Canne'boidized Versions



One-Eye came out great in my opinion, it took me at least 4 tries until I finally got his head just right. The eye-patch sits snuggly on his eye & two teeth, but some fun-tack helps keep it from falling off. I gave him red fur as a homage to the black/red striped shirt the original character had





Shark Hook didn't get too much of an overhaul, he's a canne'shark and thus has the canne'boid underbite, scaley skin & fur. As a nod to the original Fishook's colorway, I chose green for his teeth & claws & I think it's a good contrast. Not sure if you can tell from the photos, but he actually has a few fish-hooks pierced through his tail, fin, nose & mouth. He came alright, but once I get some firmer sculpey I'll try making him a 2nd time.

I'll have full bios for both of these new canne'pirates probably by the afternoon tomorrow, baring any incident of course. Until then, I hope you enjoyed these new canne'pirates...hmmm...now all they need is a ship...