Candlestick Road is a new series created by me about two unlikely friends from two completely different walks of life. But hold up, how did we get here?

So last month, I made a post to my art page about three concept characters I came up with over the span of a few days while bored. The design of these characters was in part inspired by the simplicity and charm of a lot of children's (especially preschool) animations I have come across during my time.

It just so happened that at the same time I was creating those characters, I was also thinking about a series that I might like to make in the future. This prospective series was always going to be about two friends doing things together, but at that point I was unsure as to how exactly I was going to carry that out. Since I was creating these characters at the same time, I naturally combined them with this idea, and got to work building it up.

The result? Candlestick Road, a series about a triangle and a blob. This post aims to explain the series, what experiences brought it to life, and my bigger plans/dreams for it in the future.

Premise

Zoe is your average office worker, waking up, going to work every day, occasionally going on walks or watching TV, and going to sleep. She's also socially awkward, always keeping to herself and never really making any attempts to interact with people.

Blip is an adventurer with a wholesome, happy personality, actively seeking out new places to explore and new things to try. While he does try to interact with others, no one really wants to talk with him, and he so far hasn't made a friend.

One day, Blip is taking a walk (or bounce, rather) through his hometown of Appleton when, due to his small size, he accidentally trips up a certain office worker on her way back from work. Their apologies inadvertently lead into conversation, and, despite every single difference that stood in their way, they became friends.

Together, they will explore both themselves and their surroundings in their own weird, unique ways. They will have fun together, look out for one another and experience things that they just wouldn't be able to do alone. But, most importantly, they have a lot to learn from each other.

Development

The original premise of 'two friends do things together' was inspired by Little Big Awesome, a children's show about a big jelly character and his little purple friend, which just happens to be my favourite TV show ever (it's where my other username comes from). While that show goes completely crazy and random with its humour, I wanted to make something that was a bit more grounded in reality, but still fairly whimsical. I originally wanted to make some kind of spiritual successor to that show, but that never came to fruition, and the idea stayed in the back of my mind for ages.

Eventually, I started going through a phase where I was really into robot characters, and I randomly thought 'what if there was a series about an ordinary character becoming friends with a small robot'? This is what led me to create the original foundation for Candlestick Road, with the intention being that this hypothetical robot character would teach a boring, dull character all about the various joys of life.

Yep, the so-called 'small' character wasn't even meant to be a blob. That only came about when actually designing these characters. When I was having trouble designing a robot, I started doodling a blob-shaped character instead, just because I thought of the idea. While I did eventually manage to get a robot design done (as can be seen in the post), I ended up picking the blob character after I found myself liking him more than the robot.

One last thing: The name 'Candlestick Road' came about because a candlestick was the first thing I saw in my living room while I was trying to come up with names. 'Candlestick' was originally going to be the name of the town... now it's the road instead.

And that is how Candlestick Road came to be, or at least what I can remember of it.

Meet the characters

(Apologies for re-using the concept images; it's 9:46 in the evening and drawing new ones takes time.)

Zoe

Zoe is just your average person, really: she works an office job for an insurance company, lives in a high-rise block of flats, and generally watches television for her entertainment. Her life could be better, though. For one, she makes enough to buy groceries and pay the bills, but not much more than that. She also has to regularly deal with her annoying neighbours, and worst of all, her landlord.

But the thing she lacks most of all is a friend. For her entire life, Zoe has been incredibly quiet and shy, only ever really communicating with her parents. She might seem content with her life on the surface, but deep down, she really wants a friend. She just doesn't know it.

Blip

Blip doesn't really have a home, but that's fine; he doesn't need one. Adopted into a family of robots and named as such, Blip's optimistic personality and sense of adventure started when he would regularly sneak out of the house in the hopes of making friends. While he wasn't exactly successful in this, that didn't stop him from finding enjoyment in the art of exploration, often going out of his way to visit an area or place he had never been before. Not too far away though; he always had to be back before his parents returned.

When it came time for him to move out, he essentially lived as a nomad, regularly visiting new places (this time even further away) and feeding off of the natural elements in the soil, as all blobs do. But that 'friend' thing always stuck with him. Growing up away from the majority of the blob population, he never got the chance to partake in the social life that his kind naturally crave, and has resorted to attempting to interact with the citizens of every place he visits. No luck so far, though. It's a shame. I wonder if he'll ever make one.

My plans

As of this blog article being posted, the first Candlestick Road comic is already up on my NG and Twitter. It took me about 2-3 weeks to make, but hopefully I can start getting them out more quickly. I have a whole bunch of ideas.

As of now, the comics are the only medium I have that I can realistically pull off by myself and effectively tell a story with. In the future, if enough people are interested in the series, I want to see if I can get a voice cast (and maybe a few extra helpers) together and turn this into an animated series, but no guarantees thus far.

In the very long-term, I want to eventually see if I can pitch some kind of concept to a proper television network. Maybe this could be it? Who knows?

Best not to think too far ahead into the future, though. As past GlitchBuddy once said:

"Some things are going to change, and they may not turn out to be the way you expected them to. It's better to focus on ideas you have now, and see where things go from there."

Conclusion

Well, this is it. The start of something (hopefully) beautiful. In a timeline of me saying I will do things and ultimately not following through, I reckon this could be the thing to break the cycle. There's just too much potential here to go to waste. I already love these characters, and I hope you will, too.