I invented Melvin Bloo shortly before I started at MICA. I'm not exactly sure how I stumbled upon him--my next-door neighbor, an interior designer, was talking about paint colors, and I think we might have been talking about what goes into naming colors, and I called out Melvin Blue offhand as a joke. She loved that and asked me to draw what Melvin Blue would look like, so I did. He was a bit skinnier then (which my mom and sister prefer), but I like the big blue boulder he became (I subsequently changed his name to Melvin 'Bloo'). :)
(I'm pretty sure the last panel of the third comic is the most depressing thing I've ever drawn.)
His friends in the three comics below (which I drew sophomore year for a book/sequential assignment) are Sherwin (Melvin's periwinkle dog), Taylor (the red one--although I never thought up a satisfactory 'red' last name for him.), Sandy Brown (the love interest with a Cat named Queso, as you might have read), and the bully Buster Black (POKE).
My mom has always encouraged me to market Melvin and my other original character (more on him in the next paragraph), which sounds like it would be really fun, should I get enough money together to print tee shirts and hats and promote them. Who knows?!
I must say that Melvin is my most sympathetic character. He was the second original character I came up with (the first was Ug, a caveman with the Barbie-like talent of being able to wear and be anything) and therefore the more sophisticated. His friends didn't exist until I made the book, but I find I like the newer characters just as much! :) I hope you like him!
-A.
