:: KantCon Characters, the Past 3 Years::

The original KantCon 2011 logo.

KantCon 2011

If you've read any of my other posts, you know that I've been doing design for KantCon since 2011. I created the main KantCon logo and started the cast of characters with a troll I created back in 2004 called the Jabbergluck. But this was just the beginning of the ride. As time has passed, and the pantheon has grown, we've adopted a little more crazy into the KantCon family.

Keep reading to learn more about how these zany characters came to be!

The Jabbergluck

See the earlier entry on the Jabbergluck for his story.

The KantCon 2013 logo,
featuring Help! the Gnome.

KantCon 2012

Ethan Parker, the creator and organizer of KantCon, approached me about the logo for KantCon 2012 with the theme "Run Faster Than the Gnome." As those of you who play role-playing games can attest, you don't have to run faster than the wolf, you just have to run faster than the gnome in your party. In that spirit, Help! the Gnome was created as the embodiment of that ill-fated party member, but instead of a wolf, he was being chased down by our favorite troll, the Jabbergluck.

Help! the Gnome

Help! the Gnome

He wasn't known as Help! at first; originally, we wanted the attendees of KantCon to name our new character. And so he went by the name Gnameless until we could launch the Name Gnameless Twitter Game at KantCon 2012. The winner was a younger participant who honestly didn't know what to do with herself when we asked her what she wanted to name the gnome. So, looking for assistance from her family and friends, she looked out over the audience and simply said "Help?" We thought it was genius. What better way to get a gnome when you need one than to simply call for "Help!" Yes, the exclamation point is part of his name.

Help! starring on the front of the
Very Important Gamer (VIG) shirt
given to supporters of KantCon
2012's Kickstarter fundraiser.

As his name suggests, Help! is always there when you need him. Those of you who have performed in stage plays know, it's always handy to have someone on hand with that one prop you keep forgetting to take with you onstage. Help! is our resident Prop Gnome, providing ill-remembered necessities from his trunk of gadgets, from wooden mallets to 50' of rope to small explosives. He never complains.

KantCon 2013

At the usual postmortem breakfast for KantCon 2012, Ethan and the rest of our faithful department heads and friends batted ideas around for the next character to appear in a KantCon logo. "It's gotta be an elf," someone said, "but one where you can't tell whether it's a guy or a girl." The stereotype, of course, is that elves are so androgynous that even the guy elves look like girls. We all laughed our faces off at this, so it seemed that was the consensus. Then, if I remember correctly, Beth (Ethan's then fiance) said we ought to name the elf "Fancy," and the rest, as they say, is history.

The KantCon 2013 logo,
featuring Fancy the Elf.

Fancy the Elf

Fancy is an alchemist, concocting magical brews for the adventurer-in-need. Specializing in Fancy's Speed Potion, this traveling merchant heralds the first year that KantCon will be held in an actual convention space, in a real hotel! This has brought rise to the theme for this year's con: "Bigger, Better, Fancier!" We're actually still not sure whether Fancy is a guy or a girl, so we just do the best we can not to use pronouns around...the elf.

The Kickstarter
Funding Gauge

Fancy was a challenge because I had to walk the line between male and female stereotypes without offending anyone. I'm not certain I succeeded on the second part of that goal, but I think I did pretty well on the first. Fancy has longish hair, short enough to be a pretty-boy, but long enough to be feminine. An earring (is there one in the other ear?), and a cleft in the chin introduced some necessary ambiguity. Rings are common among wizardy-types, so it might not necessarily be a sign of gender. No obvious make-up, but some pretty luscious lashes lead one to believe it could be a female. Along with a wry smile and debonair raise of the eyebrow, the clothing doesn't rule out either sex. A healthy taste in fashion doesn't know gender boundaries. Does it? Well, maybe... But then again... Needless to say I had to get it just right, and thanks to my wife's advice every three minutes, I'm happy with where Fancy ended up.

You might recognize the shape of the label on the potion in Fancy's hand, and that's because it was based on the iconic Heinz ketchup bottle, which sells "fancy" ketchup. Get it? Why a Speed Potion, you ask? Well, how else do you think Fancy can run faster than the gnome?

In Retrospect

As my skills have developed over the years, I feel that these guys have grown with me. When I first came up with ol' Jabber, he was a pen sketch in a small spiral sketchbook. As time has passed, he's gone from red-with-orange-spots to green-with-blue-spots as I developed my proficiency with scanning my art into Adobe Illustrator and pen-tooling the colors where I wanted them to be. By the time Help! came along, I was live-tracing and coloring the areas inside the drawing, saving me a lot of time (in typical Help! fashion). Then, as I took advantage of self-training opportunities, I became comfortable with actually creating the graphics in Illustrator directly (traced over an imported PNG of my artwork). And so, Fancy came into being.

It has been lots of fun creating these characters for KantCon, and I sincerely hope we'll be able to create even more odd and interesting characters down the line. With that said, sign up for KantCon today and take a look at the place these guys live! Pre-registration is still going, and you can get a 3-day pass for only $30! Get yours today!

The KantCon 2013 poster starring the full KantCon cast.