Saul first appeared in my sketchbook looking like this:
At that time he was called Paul, a name that I am fond of for no particular
reason. That name will, god willing, someday be used in a series called
'the Betterman'. I cannot design a character without wanting to put
them in a series, and at the time the series was going to be called the
Xanthocroid, which is a word meaning 'pale and blonde'. The meaning
of that word still influences Saul's character design. As I did this
drawing in early high school, the margin of this sketch had a bunch of angsty
crap written in it like: "The only vampire who can cry. Only blonde
Vampire. Cries for all he feeds on. Uses the 'it's my nature
excuse for vampirism." Thank god none of that dreck made it into the
final story.
I drew a few test pages of a comic with him:
This was a pretty terrible comic. It featured a fight scene between
him and some zombies. It also established a setting in Seattle. All
of my early comics took place in Seattle, mostly because I didn't know what
any other cities looked like. This story would have been about the
Xanthocroid falling in love with a slayer that was ordered to team up with
him by the Vatican to stop some vampire plot of evil, the specifics of which
escape me.
Looking at this picture now, it occurs to me that his knee poking out of his trenchcoat could be misinterpreted as a woody. And that makes me realize that the vampires in Buffy shouldn't be physically capable of having sex because their hearts don't beat, which means their blood doesn't flow, which means it's impossible for them to have any kind of erection.
After that I didn't draw any of the characters again for a while until a couple years later, but when I did, a few things changed:
His name was finally Saul instead of Paul. The name is a bit of a
joke. Saul sounds the same is Sol, which is the name of our sun. Also,
it's a Jewish name, which seems like a good idea to me, because I can't
think of anyone doing a Jewish vampire before. I really like this
particular drawing of Saul. All the elements in the current design
are here: the black knit shirt, the biege cargo pants with knee pads, and
the triangular eyes. The only thing that's changed is the hair. I
actually like this hair a little more, but it's much harder to reproduce,
and two out of three other drawings done in this style ended up looking
like shit, so I decided it was better to have simple hair that I could draw
often than complex hair that I screwed up most of the time. This drawing
also marked a real change in his character. He was less angsty, as
evidenced by his smile.
Looking at these three drawings is actually a great way to track how my style has changed. The one on the top was done in a really gothic style that I only used for a short time. The one in the middle was my style for several years, and I feared that I had hit a stopping point in my drawing skills, since, let's be honest, it kind of blows. Then I slowly started drawing more things like this, which I am pretty fond of.
There's also a few rough pages of what would becom the current story, Hard Underbelly, done with Saul like this. Unfortunately, I can't find that particular sketchbook, so those pages may be lost to the world forever.
Finally we have this drawing, which marks the current version of Saul, the one you'll be seeing in Hard Underbelly:
His hair's a little easier to manage, and I lost the elastic waisteband
on his pants.
Well, I guess that's all that has to be said about the creation and origins of Saul the vampire.
Back to Characters
Back to Hard Underbelly
At that time he was called Paul, a name that I am fond of for no particular
reason. That name will, god willing, someday be used in a series called
'the Betterman'. I cannot design a character without wanting to put
them in a series, and at the time the series was going to be called the
Xanthocroid, which is a word meaning 'pale and blonde'. The meaning
of that word still influences Saul's character design. As I did this
drawing in early high school, the margin of this sketch had a bunch of angsty
crap written in it like: "The only vampire who can cry. Only blonde
Vampire. Cries for all he feeds on. Uses the 'it's my nature
excuse for vampirism." Thank god none of that dreck made it into the
final story. I drew a few test pages of a comic with him:
This was a pretty terrible comic. It featured a fight scene between
him and some zombies. It also established a setting in Seattle. All
of my early comics took place in Seattle, mostly because I didn't know what
any other cities looked like. This story would have been about the
Xanthocroid falling in love with a slayer that was ordered to team up with
him by the Vatican to stop some vampire plot of evil, the specifics of which
escape me. Looking at this picture now, it occurs to me that his knee poking out of his trenchcoat could be misinterpreted as a woody. And that makes me realize that the vampires in Buffy shouldn't be physically capable of having sex because their hearts don't beat, which means their blood doesn't flow, which means it's impossible for them to have any kind of erection.
After that I didn't draw any of the characters again for a while until a couple years later, but when I did, a few things changed:
His name was finally Saul instead of Paul. The name is a bit of a
joke. Saul sounds the same is Sol, which is the name of our sun. Also,
it's a Jewish name, which seems like a good idea to me, because I can't
think of anyone doing a Jewish vampire before. I really like this
particular drawing of Saul. All the elements in the current design
are here: the black knit shirt, the biege cargo pants with knee pads, and
the triangular eyes. The only thing that's changed is the hair. I
actually like this hair a little more, but it's much harder to reproduce,
and two out of three other drawings done in this style ended up looking
like shit, so I decided it was better to have simple hair that I could draw
often than complex hair that I screwed up most of the time. This drawing
also marked a real change in his character. He was less angsty, as
evidenced by his smile. Looking at these three drawings is actually a great way to track how my style has changed. The one on the top was done in a really gothic style that I only used for a short time. The one in the middle was my style for several years, and I feared that I had hit a stopping point in my drawing skills, since, let's be honest, it kind of blows. Then I slowly started drawing more things like this, which I am pretty fond of.
There's also a few rough pages of what would becom the current story, Hard Underbelly, done with Saul like this. Unfortunately, I can't find that particular sketchbook, so those pages may be lost to the world forever.
Finally we have this drawing, which marks the current version of Saul, the one you'll be seeing in Hard Underbelly:
His hair's a little easier to manage, and I lost the elastic waisteband
on his pants. Well, I guess that's all that has to be said about the creation and origins of Saul the vampire.
Back to Characters
Back to Hard Underbelly