Razzle is probably one of my favorite cartoon character designs, and it actually kind of saddens me I never did much with her.

Aside from being a little Animaniacs-y, Razzle does tickle me because it’s a cat, wearing cat eye glasses. She was the straight person (in a sense) of a trio; the intelligent and gregarious girl along side her friends Hot Candy, a pretty, popular rabbit girl and Bad Medicine, a dour, gothic dog. The character design, again, like Animaniacs, harkened back to old black and white era and the golden age of animation – particularly Harman and Ising and Clampett — rubber hose characters that stretch, squish, and more akin to Clampett, can still be expressive.

Aside from her two diametrically opposing friends, Razzle was an only child to two vague parental figures ( I had not fleshed these two out too terribly much ). In the first story concept I developed for this, her parents adopt a younger brother, who is an adorable mouse. Hijinks ensue as she continuously tries to devour her adopted brother. The story probably would resolve predictably with Razzle accepting her brother as a mouse and protecting him. But occasionally trying to eat him after that. Instinct! Or something.

Bad Medicine, Razzle, and Hot Candy (in order, left to right.)
Original character designs redrawn for your convenience.

The only thing that really kept me from getting this going was story, and how to handle it. The idea, is a little, well… tame, for me. It would almost make a better children’s show than anything else. It’s kind of safe, a bit simplisticly goofy. I never really felt inspired writing Razzle, and never even finished the first script (it’s around, though.) I always liked drawing her, and even for a long time – years – used her as a default mascot for the now defunct apathyzeal.com and the occasionaly avatar around the web.

Unlike Jason In A Strange Land, I don’t have many plans to revisit this comic entirely beyond this post. Still, Razzle remains a favorite design that I’ve done, and I’m sure art of her, at least, will pop up occasionally. Until then, I put the character designs into the illustrations gallery.