The Evolution of Our Mascot

It took over a year to complete the visual evolution of our mascot, Redcap. The original image was a black and white sketch of a Brownie from page 212 of "English Fairy Tales" (Jacobs, J., 1895 New York: Grosset & Dunlap), found in the public domain. We chose it because it looked comical and fitting for our "nasty little blighter."

We wanted our own mascot that people could identify with our work, similar to Flying Buffalo's iconic Grimtooth the Troll from the infamous "Grimtooth's Traps" series. We named our mascot Redcap after a group of evil little tricksters who supposedly kept their caps red by dipping them in the blood of their victims. We imagined Redcap as a comical Fey "Dungeon Master" who takes great pleasure in the misfortunes of their players. (Addendum: No harm has come to the actual players in my D&D campaign.)

While I'm not very artistically inclined, I did make the original black and white image's cape red. Although it was okay, it was still pretty generic and needed personalizing. We had to find an artist who could bring out the imp's personality to represent our blog.

After following artist James V. West on-line, we quickly realized that he was perfect for the job. While many talented artists exist, West possessed the exact style and artistic vision we needed for such an important project. Redcap isn't just a cartoon character; it's our brand, and it had to represent the spirit of our work.

Once we chose James, we left it up to him to capture the character visually, except for necessary background details. We believe that you don't tap a creative artist and then restrict them. An artist must be free to create, and you want them to feel like the subject is as much their child as yours. That's how you inspire the best work, and James delivered within hours. He took the reins and ran with it!

We are proud to present to you our gleeful little reprobate mascot, Redcap. James V. West created the images on the left, while the image on the right is the colorized version of the original public domain image we used in 2017.

Image Copyright Gerald Williams, created by artist James V. West