Ideas Over Time

How one of Pelkern's creatures changed over 17 years.

Hello, and welcome to my Pelkern Comics newsletter! If you are new here, I create fantasy comics about adventures in a subterranean planet called Pelkern. I send these newsletters—which cover my creative process and comic updates—every other month.

My fantasy world, Pelkern, began with an idea I started kicking around in 2008. I found a diagram of the planets from our solar system, and I saw that Jupiter’s innermost core was somewhat similar in size to Earth. “What if,” I thought, “an alien world was inside a planet, instead of on the outside?” The idea that a planet with a barren surface could hide an abundance of life within it made my imagination churn with story possibilities. Underground seas, forests winding through caverns, twilight corridors blinking with a starfield of fireflies, and dark passages where the light cannot reach. And so, Pelkern was born.

Pelkern has grown and changed quite a bit over the intervening 17 years. However, one idea that has stayed since the beginning—with a slowly evolving design—is Pelkern’s winged steeds. These ride-able mammals are fast runners and excellent climbers. They can also fly for a decent stretch if they leap from a height—a useful skill in a world honeycombed with vast cavern systems.

I thought it would be interesting to track their design progression (and my style progression) over time:

My earliest sketch, November 2008 (still in high school):

(Pencil on paper, edited in Photoshop). Feathered and four-legged. At this time I was calling the species the incomprehensible made-up name “myrlaex.”

August 2009:

(Colored pencils on paper). The winged steed now has mammal wings and a zebra-like mane. I was still calling it a “myrlaex.”

July 2012 (I was in art school):

(Brush pen on marker paper). Heraldic design. I changed the species name to “welkin.”

January 2015 (graduated from art school):

(Drawn with a mouse in Photoshop). Running + wing-stroke sequence. Now two-legged. Species still called “welkin".”

August 2024 (I had two and a half completed comics at this point):

(Painted on an iPad in Adobe Fresco). 9 years later, a similar design but with color! Now calling the species “gliders.”

April 2025 (my most recent glider art):

(Drawn on an iPad in Adobe Fresco). Final anatomy design. I split the base of the wing from the body so that there is room for the saddle and rider’s legs.

I am fond of these gliders as characters, and I enjoy drawing them. I’m pleased pink that there will be two in the next Pelkern comic!

What are some ideas or themes that have carried through from the beginning in any of your long term projects? How much have they evolved since the start?

Thank you for reading. See you in August!

–Bethany Sanders