Greasy Zebra

June 2005

Capcom's Mega Man X series is wierd. The boss characters are all themed anthropomorphic animals. Storm Owl. Chill Penguin. Blast Hornet. And the themes often don't even match up with the type of animal that the characters are modeled after in any meaningful way.. It's baffling. This gave rise to my conversation with a friend one day of some of the desperate reaching they would arrive at in time. Entrepeneurial Emu. Archeological Seagull. Greasy Zebra.

That last one stuck with me. Don't ask me why.

I ended up drawing this character almost against my own will. "What if", I asked myself, "That character weren't a robot? What if it were just a greasy anthropomorphic zebra?"

"That's stupid", I told myself "What are, you, retarded?"

Apparently I am. How disappointing. I'd really thought myself rather clever, previously.