Tuf-n-Stuff

"Little Tuffy and the Tuf Gurlz"
character design concept sketches.
Red pencil on paper.
21.59 cm x 27.94 cm (8.50 inches x 11.00 inches)

I can't say that I have so many ideas that I don't know what I should do with them. I have, however, had minor ideas that I wanted some to just steal, out of curiosity of how they might turn out.

This isn't one of those ideas. Part of the Tuff-Girl mythology is that the seed of Debby's idea of her becoming the adventure hero comes from a cartoon character she created and printed on tee-shirts. My initial plan was for that character to be a little like "The Powerpuff Girls" crossed with "Emily the Strange" - simple and graphic and really just one drawing with slight alterations to the hair, clothes and random raspberries or bandages.


"Little Tuffy and the Tuf Gurlz"
character design concept sketches.
Red pencil and black India Ink on paper.
21.59 cm x 27.94 cm (8.50 inches x 11.00 inches)

As I've progress on my comic book, the notion of placing that cartoon character in a minor feature percolated in the back of my mind. Here is the most developed realization of that idea: Little Tuffy, Monica, Barb, Malibu, Catalina and the Shar Pei dog, Wilson.

Yes, the design is a lot more complex than it began, but that's what happened when I started mixing in the influences of Walt Kelly's "Pogo" and Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes."