Alphabeasts: V is for Vulture (of Amzot)

This week I have an extra entry for "Alphabeasts." When I originally planned my alphabet, months ago, I wanted to make sure I included a creature from The Herculoids if possible, because the show has recently become available on DVD, and I wanted an excuse to re-watch it, after all these years, and see whether it got me as stoked as it did when I was a little kid.

Okay, here you go: V is for vulture. You know, like the giant vulture of Amzot. Not those scavenger birds.



(Some poor soul has even written up AD&D stats for this creature and for everything else on the show, should you wish to inflict The Herculoids on your party.)

I remember when I was a kid really wishing I had little toy versions of Igoo and Tundro and Zok, and trying to make Play-Doh versions of Gloop and Gleep to play with. Something about the weirdness of the show's creature designs must really have appealed to the little monster-maker in me, circa age six or seven, or whenever I was seeing the reruns of the show. (I'm too young to have seen it on first release.)

Anyway, it turns out that most of the weird background creatures either don't get names, or else are too sentient to go in a zoo. Or else they're beings like Tundro (an awesomely ridiculous creature design if there ever was one) who have names but no species. I toyed with the idea of drawing Igoo under "R is for Rock Ape," but then the idea of a Rust Monster insisted on being drawn. So I planned on drawing this "vulture"—that's what they call the creature in Episode 18 ("The Lost Dorgyte")—which appears very briefly about 26 seconds into the show's opening credits, which are behind this link.



(Does he look familiar?)

I have to say that inking this guy was one of the happiest artistic experiences I've had recently. I think I really did a nice job with the face.



Part of the reason for that good feeling probably comes from having locates Alex Toth's original model sheet for the "vulture" online (right here, in the "Collecting Fool" Toth gallery).



...And part of it is probably that I have been doing enough drawing this week that I am not entirely rusty for a change.

Anyway, next week, we take a trip even deeper into childhood nostalgia. Whee!