Author: mattdowns

Zerik Sungrazer

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Zerik is a fiendish, greedy bounty hunter and poacher. He’s selfish, bossy, and most of all down right mean. He loves making his dishonest money though poaching, theft and gambling. He’ll do whatever it takes to come out financially successful.
Coming up with a formidable foe is a lot of fun for me. I wanted Zerik to be up there in the ranks of the really well thought out Disney villains: Competent, threatening, but still a character you love to hate.
Finding his last name was fun to figure out. I wanted a name that sounded edgy, so I did some research to find out what kind of stuff in space that sounded dangerous, and thus I found “Sungrazer”. Sungrazers are types of comets that pass extremely close to the Sun.
And that children, is your fun fact for the day!

Igmar Io

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Igmar is the tech-savy, sarcastic, smart alac sidekick. He’s very materialistic about all of his electronic toys and gadgets. Where Xax is more of an outdoor guy, Iggy is more comfortable in his media center or tech lab. It’s hard for Iggy to stay positive when he’s in the harsh elements of the great outdoors.
Iggy was fun to design. He went through a lot of changes over the first days of creation. (will post those sketches in the future)
I followed suit when creating Xax a sidekick. The first thing that came into my mind was someone who was shorter with a little more of a flawed personality.
Iggy’s last name is Io. For you non-space aficionados out there, Io is one of Jupiter’s many moons.

Xax Starclipper

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Xax Starclipper is the brave, charming, adventure seeking straight-man who is one of those lucky folks who loves his job. He’s very professional and resourceful when he’s on safari missions and always keeps a level head when in trouble. He’s not too educated when it comes to using his partner’s high tech “doohickeys”. He’d rather rely on his own practical skills.
I wanted kind of a catchy name like Luke Skywalker for my main character for Space Zoo. I figured Starclipper was kind of a fun last name that a hip alien would have. As all main characters go, I designed him to be pretty much mainstream. Fit, athletic, normal wardrobe, and a color scheme that reminds you of America.

Space Zoo (2005)

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This is Space Zoo. It’s a series I came up with back in 2005.
Basically, it’s a story I worked out involving two Alien Zookeepers (the good-guys) who cross paths with a clan Alien Poachers (the bad-guys).
The taller alien is named Xax, who plays the role as my brave, level headed hero. Igmar or “Iggy”, is Xax’s sarcastic, geeky sidekick. I will share more info about them later as the Blog expands. Stay toon’d!