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I’m not sure how many Darcy fans are also fans of romantic comedies, but Tian owes the existence of her furry assistant to Bridget Jones’ Diary. Darcy was born out of an online brainstorming session back when Frank and I were still living in different countries. I was half working and half watching Bridget Jones while chatting, trying to round out Tian’s story. “She could probably use an assistant,” Frank said, and then my eyes fell on a pile of footwear on the floor. “A slipper,” I typed back. “Maybe green and fuzzy.”
I went back to my movie while Frank did a few test sketches. Bridget Jones was toying with the idea of marrying Mark Darcy. “Mr. and Mrs. Darcy… Lord and Lady Darcy…” And so it was that a fatsuit-clad Renée Zellwegger unwittingly baptized our magical talking slipper.
Many of our characters have had equally mundane origins. Cathleen was a drawing request that never could leave our heads and thus had to be made into a walking, talking character. Morriva was named before she was created—I had the letters MORRIVA on a Scrabble rack and immediately pictured the evil godmother in Disney's Sleeping Beauty (although as you can see, she underwent a few changes).
Dunas was inspired by the character Touchstone/Torrigan from Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy. He’s a statue that the lead character Sabriel brings to life. Frank designed him after Arnold Schwarzenegger. We don’t quite remember where Anstice and the Leporids came from. Bernie, however, came from a line I made up and started singing, which went “Bernie the backpack bunny, having sex with alligators, it’s Bernie the backpack bunny!” We invented the goblins on the fly while writing the Berry Story.
Juno and Maya came from a picture I took of myself lying on a glass table. My reflection sort of made it look like I was Siamese twins. I asked my cousin Don, who happened to be there, what I could make of it. He suggested Gemini, the twins. I pitched the idea to Frank, who easily took to the idea of conjoined girls.
We don’t remember the rest, but I’m sure they’re just as random. Frank and I try to bring a notebook and pen with us wherever we go, because our ideas really just pop out of nowhere. :-)
I went back to my movie while Frank did a few test sketches. Bridget Jones was toying with the idea of marrying Mark Darcy. “Mr. and Mrs. Darcy… Lord and Lady Darcy…” And so it was that a fatsuit-clad Renée Zellwegger unwittingly baptized our magical talking slipper.
Many of our characters have had equally mundane origins. Cathleen was a drawing request that never could leave our heads and thus had to be made into a walking, talking character. Morriva was named before she was created—I had the letters MORRIVA on a Scrabble rack and immediately pictured the evil godmother in Disney's Sleeping Beauty (although as you can see, she underwent a few changes).
Dunas was inspired by the character Touchstone/Torrigan from Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy. He’s a statue that the lead character Sabriel brings to life. Frank designed him after Arnold Schwarzenegger. We don’t quite remember where Anstice and the Leporids came from. Bernie, however, came from a line I made up and started singing, which went “Bernie the backpack bunny, having sex with alligators, it’s Bernie the backpack bunny!” We invented the goblins on the fly while writing the Berry Story.
Juno and Maya came from a picture I took of myself lying on a glass table. My reflection sort of made it look like I was Siamese twins. I asked my cousin Don, who happened to be there, what I could make of it. He suggested Gemini, the twins. I pitched the idea to Frank, who easily took to the idea of conjoined girls.
We don’t remember the rest, but I’m sure they’re just as random. Frank and I try to bring a notebook and pen with us wherever we go, because our ideas really just pop out of nowhere. :-)
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