This is the first in a series of illustrations I’m calling ‘Childhood Villains’. I’m aiming to draw 6 fictional characters that used to freak me out when I was a kid, hopefully on a weekly basis (ha!). Maybe they freaked you out too and they’ll be able to stir up some long forgotten horrific memories, as is the purpose of all art, clearly.

This is Chamberlain from Jim Henson and Frank Oz’s ‘The Dark Crystal’ (1982), conceptual design by Brian Froud, which is the film I used to watch every Saturday morning on good old video tape, normally after my little sister had gotten up even earlier than me and finished watching ‘Labyrinth’. Chamberlain is both the most pathetic and the most scrupulous of all the evil Skeksis. When he is banished from the castle by the new Emperor I remember feeling sorry for him, despite the fact he is a hideous, smirking, lizard-bird monster, but when he tries to befriend the heroic Gelflings in his high pitched, whiny voice (“Me friend, make peeeeace!”) he is the creepiest bogeyman a six year old could imagine.

And if you’ve never heard of ‘The Dark Crystal’ then shame on you and here’s the trailer, which is over 2 minutes long because it is from the 1980′s.

Next week: Venger!