When I started drawing Mr Theophilus for the recently featured short story Jethro’s Ace of Hearts by Sam Enthoven, I soon found myself in trouble. How should I depict him? I wanted to do justice to this wonderful character, but found that as soon as I drew his face – well, it just wasn’t right. After much huffing and puffing it seemed a good idea to let Sam’s story do the talking, whilst I concentrate on the atmosphere. (Well, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it).

Actually, I must tell you, Sam and I did correspond about this very point. I expressed my concerns and he came back to me with this brilliant description:

“His eyes should have some kind of gleeful gleam. He’s fuelled by a high-octane mixture of human hearts and self belief!”

Couldn’t have put it better myself. No, really, I couldn’t!

Anyway, I settled upon a semi-silhouette treatment, completed the drawings and had a good time along the way. And then, a few days later, during a phone call, I picked up a pen and doodled this. It’s about as close as I reckon I could get – and I wasn’t really thinking at the time. Funny how Mr Theophilus can get under your skin. (Sam’s stories have a habit of doing that – have you noticed? Don’t get me started on his new book Crawlers. Good grief! How does he sleep at night? More on that soon).

Anyway, I quite like this drawing, but I’m glad I completed the drawings the way they now appear. So, for your interest only, I thought I’d share this with you.

Thanks again to Sam for letting me dribble ink all over his story. It was a great pleasure getting to know Mr Theophilus, although I’m not sure I’d like to bump into him outside a kebab shop any time soon. (Actually, um…ever).