Here’s Randy and Howard in some of their original early sketch form. I actually dig these versions a lot for all the differences from what people usually associate with ZIM’s designs. Most of what I submitted on this show was a lot more rounded out and bendy, where ZIM’s earlier design was all about the angles and hard edges. I just figured a different show should look like a different show!
I had Randy as a ginger and more of a regular looking kinda dude, and his colors in my sketches are way different than what he ended up as. In the final product he’s got blue or purple hair, but I liked having him looking a bit more cohesive palette-wise, and a bit more normal to contrast with the crazy superthing he turns into.
Howard’s a little different as well. In the concept stuff he’s modeled more after certain friends I had growing up, horror movie/metal fans mixed in with a whole mess of Nick Frost and a whole lot of cargo shorts. His final form seems to have taken on the ginger quality I originally gave my Randy designs!
For the most part, I only designed the main cast of the show, and one incidental human and the monster he turns into. The rest of the incidentals weren’t my responsibility but the hope was that they’d follow the overall ideas given in all of my concept work with an emphasis on not going to some of the ZIM/ME design tropes like overly hard angles where a flowing line might be more attractive, or the square pupils. Just looking at Randy’s early stuff you see there are lots of more curvy bits, the nose, the rounder eyes and the bends in the arms and legs.
Metal/horror Howard, we salute thee.
