Evolution of an Alien All Star

Zagmar, or Sweet Lou?

If you drive from Seattle on northbound 405, and keep going just past Everett, You’ll see Dagmar’s Marina on the left side of the highway. As a lifetime local to the Seattle area I’d passed the place a ton of times before. But one day the name just jumped out at me. I was working on a story, and had been looking for an alien name. One of the easiest ways to name an alien is to replace the first letter of a word with a Z. For his last name, I pluralized a name from my childhood favorite album “Free To Be You And Me.” In the song “Helping,” there’s a character named Zachary Zugg.” That’s how Zagmar got his name, and became the first alien baseball player for Alien All Stars.

Zagmar gettin crazy

Zagmar became the co-star in a kids story I wrote (and never published) in 2002 called Henry and Zagmar. Henry was a boy from Earth. Zagmar was a goofy alien who took him into outer space to play baseball. The story pretty much sucked. But the idea was super fun and I couldn’t leave it alone.

Jason Medeski's Zagmar

The idea for Alien All-Stars has evolved over the years, and Zagmar has always been one of the main characters in the adventures. When I met children’s artist Steve D’Amico in 2005, I absolutely loved his artwork and wanted to see what he could do with Alien All-Stars. I paid him to create 3 character designs for me, and he did an amazing job. The first of these characters was Zagmar. Steve did up a quick baseball card frame and background to make it pop a little more. I really liked the fact that Zagmar reminded me of current Cubs manager Lou Pinella. But at the same time, since he was going to be Henry’s best friend, we wanted him to have a bit more of a playful look. Steve sketched out another drawing, where he would be giving Henry “bunny ears” while posing for a team photo.

getting close

Building out a whole cast of characters was a huge project, and Steve brought in his friend Jason Medeski to help out. Along with his great ideas, Jason reworked Zagmar to give him a more playful look. It took me a while to let go of who I thought Zagmar was, but I eventually saw that Jason’s character really captured Zagmar’s personality.

Perfect!

Steve loved the new Zagmar as well, and he took the character and “Stevised” it to match the rendering style of our other art.
And finally, the Zagmar that we have today emerged- a perfect blend of the two artists!

Tagged as: alien baseball character, alien character, alien characters, character design, free to be you and me