Creating Maverick

Birth of the Wolfman!

(This is one of those occasional blogs where I write as myself, not Maverick Lobo. I figured this tale is best told from my perspective, not the character's.)

Hey gang, since my last website crashed and the data for the past four blogs were lost, I've taken this as a chance to redo and combine some of them. This will give you more insight into how Maverick Lobo came to be.

Picture this: It's the Fall of 2023, and I've hit rock bottom in confidence and self-worth. All my prior business and creative endeavors didn't pan out. I resigned from my previous job before they could fire me for poor performance due to my Social Anxiety Disorder. There I was, entering a janitorial position for the local school district, about to scrub dirty toilets for a living.

With that understanding, I began brainstorming what avatar would best serve this purpose. I knew I wanted the platform I'd use to be family-friendly (SFW). Creating adult work might fill a niche in the fandom and make it easier to find an audience, but success in it is its own prison. I wanted to dance, sing, animate, make games, create work, and share it with the world. I wouldn't be able to do that with a name little Timmy could Google and unexpectedly see nothing but content not meant for children.

For weeks (while going through orientation as a custodian), I brainstormed possible ideas for fursonas, weighing the pros and cons of each theme and design. I no longer remember what led me to the final three choices, other than I really liked Pokémon and Digimon and knew other people did as well. Believe it or not, Maverick wasn't the first choice for my sona for this goal (he wasn't even the second choice); my first choice was an Incineroar-based character that would have been Pokémon-themed.

Here's the reality I learned the hard way when trying to commission ByCats4Cats for a fursuit: there's a big difference between having a fursona for personal expression and hobby versus trying to be commercial with them. Copyright law states commercial costume creators can't actually create costumes of fictional characters in published media (that extends to Pokémon) and sell them; that would be a violation. Making it for themselves for fun and expression is fine (as long as they're not commercially selling performances or pictures of the costume in question), but a violation would make them liable for a lawsuit. Seeing as Nintendo is notorious for its litigation, Snap (the owner of ByCats4Cats) wasn't touching that with a 10-foot pole. 

So, my backup option was to throw my original intention out the window and go with a Leomon-based fursona to pursue a career on the 18+ side of the fandom. I consulted with a copyright lawyer (thank you, Carrizo) and tried to negotiate a design with Snap, but communication soured, and he rejected my bid. Thank goodness he did, because immediately that same night, Maverick was born. 

A Star is Born

As discussed in previous blogs, Maverick embodied everything I wanted to be. He was a love letter to my youth, when I was too afraid to explore interests out of fear of social rejection and cultural myths. Pop punk played on the radio, and I was a video game and anime-loving child playing Tony Hawk's Underground. Originally, when I created Maverick, I was going for a biker-oriented gimmick and a vest design akin to a member of The Warriors universe. However, three weeks after creating Maverick, I happened to be a first responder to a motorcycle accident that occurred when I left late-night practice at the dance studio. While everyone survived, the injuries were enough to make me second-guess wanting to ride a motorcycle.

So, Maverick gradually became more pop-punk themed, as if you ripped a guy from an early 2000s Green Day music video and turned him into a werewolf. My goal became to perform as the character both in animated music videos and in real life. Using my background as a comic artist and MCAD graduate, I extensively thought out his design, going from head to toe:

• Maverick's base body is WereGarurumon, which, in itself, is essentially a Tamagotchi anime-styled werewolf. Werewolves in cartoons and video games typically have a top-heavy, athletic build, and Maverick is no exception. Due to the character's highly active and energetic nature, making him athletic made sense. (The key here was separating his design enough from the IP so he'd be immune to any kind of copyright lawsuit. While his design could remain similar, I can't commercially go around announcing him as a WereGarurumon from Digimon—so officially and legally speaking, he's a cosmic werewolf. To further separate him from the IP, I gave him a tail, four toes, no scars, and no back feathers.)

• His color scheme differs from WereGarurumon mostly by making the primary blue color much more saturated and changing the stripe pattern across his body. It keeps the similarity in terms of 'associative feeling' when it comes to the aesthetic without it being a direct 1:1 copy. The golden eyes of a werewolf will never go out of style.

• I kept two of the underbite fangs that WereGarurumon has because they make the character look cuter and more beastly. He can appeal to children as a "monster friend." To remove any possibility of infringement, I got rid of any other protruding teeth.

• WereGarurumon already has an aesthetic design. Stripes on an animal are a natural aesthetic; it's hard to go wrong with them. As such, I knew I wanted to show off the aesthetic of the body (without being inappropriate), so I didn't want to cover the natural beauty with too much clothing. Following the theme that he's a werewolf, I thought the best choice was something sleeveless and open—something that would be passable as clothing in society yet bare enough to show Maverick's beastly form.

A vest fit the biker theme I was going for at the time—though later it became denim. A trick I learned from WWE is how they style their wrestler's attire to brand themselves as their characters. Take a look at some of the designs below: 

The overall aesthetic I was going for was something appealing in terms of being cute and cool, something even a skeptic couldn't deny if they tried. I wanted the theme of a beastly punk that's similar to WereGarurumon (without actually being WereGarurumon), and I felt as though I had accomplished that.

From there, it was about finding another fursuit maker who would be available to bring Maverick to life (and not reject him for being similar to WereGarurumon). After scouring the internet, I found the great and talented Newt from WolfBuckStudios, and the rest is history.

In terms of personality, Maverick was always meant to be a go-getter and motivator (especially for kids and teens). He's an authentic character who just loves life and wants the best for others while being daring and adventurous. He's meant to be your friend (quite fitting, as he's inspired by the literal friendship werewolf). I struggled with getting his 'voice' down initially; I didn't know the character very well, nor did I know how to approach things performance-wise in a fursuit. With practice, I was able to ease into a personality that naturally fit my own—calm, cool, collected, and friendly.

The character is a risk-taker and a showman; he does things because he wants to and doesn't let fear of social rejection or norms hold him back from trying (ethically, of course). I couldn't imagine anything more lame than putting my personal burdens upon the character, so I made sure to filter out anything not related to the love of performing. He's meant to be encouraging and inspiring, not a cynical doomsayer.

In the next blog, I'll dive into how the logo came to be because it's quite the tale. Thank you all for reading this! Check back on the website for updates as the days go by. I'm glad you're all a part of this journey with me!