Friday, March 27, 2026

Willis Henry Series Influences: The Legend of Zelda (Part 3 of 3)









 Willis Henry Series Influences set number 03... the Legend of Zelda Series.

The Zelda series, specifically the Wind Waker has a great influence on Willis Henry not only in concept but also design and story.

Willis Henry design, world, and color palette were inspired from Wind Waker.  The Character of Quiss has a lot of elements of Tetra in characterization of being the wildcard free spirit.  Princess Phen has elements of Princess Zelda in the concept and dynamics of the Princess and her Knight. While Medli and the humanoid bird people went into the design concepts of Phen.

For these and many other examples, the Legend of Zelda are great influences on the Willis Henry Series.

See ya next week.

Friday, March 20, 2026

Willis Henry Series Influences: DragonBall and Tetsuwan Atomu (Astroboy) (Part 2 of 3)



 Willis Henry Series has a lot of influences both indirectly and directly.

Tetsuwan Atomu has many many influences the biggest being the introduction of robots and the concept of robots with emotions.  These ideas had a great place in the world of Willis Henry.

Dragon Ball is one of my favorite manga to read, and young Goku and his adventures with his friends and rivals influenced Willis Henry greatly.  From Goku fighting poses, to animal people, robot, and even architecture.  I love young Goku and the pure adventure of early DragonBall, and all of this contributed to Willis Henry.  

For these reasons and many others, Dragonball and Tetsuwan Atomu are great influences on the Willis Henry Series.

See ya next week

Friday, March 13, 2026

Willis Henry Series Influences: Aesop's Fables/John Henry (Part 1 of 3)



 Willis Henry has a lot of influences both indirectly and directly.  So. let's talk about some of the major influences of Willis Henry Series.

Aesop's Fable was one of the largest and earliest influences.  Willis Henry started as short stories of a boy meeting animal people that had a moral or something both he and the animal character learned in each story. 

So, what changed is when Willis Henry in idea moved closer to another influence of John Henry, the Rail/steel worker and his competition with a machine; this reshaped the story.  Adding more robots and man/machines conflict changed much about the story.

Today, the Willis Henry still has a majority of Animal People so Aesop's Fable is a major Influence.


See ya next week

Friday, March 06, 2026

Willis Henry Main Cast Head Shapes



 What I like the most about the Willis Henry Cast is the Head Shapes.  The idea was to make each character identifiable in silhouette, and while some have similar body shapes (like Willis Henry jr. and Quiss), but the head shape is easily identified.  Also the Simplicity of style has an impact on the look of the world and overall style.  I'm still really proud of what I accomplished with the characters.

Bottom is the most basic shape base

Top: Head Shapes and inner details


Keep Shining

Trey