So this is a little snippet of character history, and how Galileo came into being, and was eventually developed into the greaser-dork he is today.

Galileo’s history goes way back. He was originally created in the 5th grade, drawn on a plastic clipboard I used to carry around. You’d never believe his original influences! Believe it or not, but it all started with Rugrats, Season 1, episode 4, “Little Dude,” a minor one-shot character. Yup. Somehow, Galileo went from this ugly chick… to Galileo. The fact that he was based on a female character I guess was a foreshadowing of what was to come! From the very beginning, Galileo was a homosexual. Which, I apparently knew about back in ’95. Anyway, he was my first homosexual character, who had the hots for his physically handicapped, one-armed cousin, Joe… messed up. I know. Apparently these are the thoughts of an elementary school kid XDDD Too many cartoons, I swear. Anyway, at an early age, I was inspired by the leather-jackets of a bunch of cartoon characters, which I never defined as “greasers,” because I didn’t know there was a name for them. I always just thought they were “tough guys,” and that all “tough guys” wore leather jackets. And so, all my tough characters wore leather jackets! Haha, so you can see some of my influences, again, in this very episode of Rugrats, where I drew the rest of Galileo’s fashion design from.

Leather and chains, man. I didn’t know it at the time, but Ramone (pictured here) was your classic James Dean. So Galileo’s first design was literally some unholy love-child of these two characters! (No, I didn’t literally ship them lol) I don’t currently have the VERY original picture of Galileo, who was merely a Sharpie scribble on a plastic clipboard, but I do have some early sketches of him and his ORIGINAL “gang” from ’95, which consisted of Misty (Pokemon much??), Kushu (obvious beginnings of anime influence),  and Galileo.

1998

So yyyeah. What was THAT all about? By this point in his design, I was already being influenced by Pokemon, as if you couldn’t tell by the style of his eyes. At this point, I was influenced by a lot of stuff: Mario, Sonic, Rocko’s Modern Life, Darkwing Duck, Samurai Pizza Cats, and the list goes on, but there you have it… One of the earliest pics of Galileo that I have scanned (I don’t think I have any ’95 pics scanned). I have no idea what was influenced his name, other than the fact that I thought his name was pretty cool when I learned about Galileo in history class.

Speedy Cerviche

His last name wasn’t made up until a couple years ago, when I wanted to pay an homage to Samurai Pizza cats, and name him after Speedy Cerviche (or “ceviche”, being a Latin/Americna citrus seafood dish), changing up the name’s spelling to Servicci.

Rocko's Modern Life

And so I continued to pull from many references, as well as characters like this awesome gator dude from Rocko’s Modern Life, season 2, episode 13, 1995 “Short Story.” I actually used this gator as a base for yet another “greaser” character I made back in ’95, who maaaaay show up sometime in Pompfiction, *cough cough*…. Looking back on him now, (as it took me a while to find these episodes, man you have no idea! LoL) he actually reminds me a lot of Ronnie!! Haha, subconscious maybe? Orange sweater? Gnarly snout? It’s Ronnie’s brothuh from anothuh muthuh. XD Whaddya know. MOVING ON.

2004

It was many years till I drew Galileo again, as I got into the whole anime swing. I stopped drawing animals as much, as I tried drawing stupid anime people for too long. I guess it wasn’t until 2004, that I finally decided Galileo needed a revamp, and I turned him to this piece of crap. I HAD to keep the leather jacket. It had become so much a part of Galileo’s character, that if I didn’t keep that, he wasn’t Galileo any more. OH and did I mention, he used to have lavender hair? Yyyyeah, he was a fruit from the beginning, and at one point, I even drew him as a hippie with hair to the floor, and referred to that as his “high school days.” Apparently he was older when I first conceived him. In this, I totally did away with that idea, and revamped Misty, Kushu and Galileo into…  well just better DRAWN them… They’re all American Opossums, by the way, in case I failed to mention at any point. By this point, I still didn’t really know what a “greaser” was, but still was under the notion that “tough guys” (though Galileo was far from tough) always wore leather jackets. And wouldn’tcha know, I actually HATED the 50s? It was mostly due to the fact that every teenie bopper high school chick was into Grease, and I hated the hype and Poodle Skirt day, because preps made it unenjoyable for me. I didn’t know there was an ENJOYABLE part about the 50′s until…. Shaman King.

Ryu, Shaman King

Look familiar? No, I wasn’t the first person to draw a crazy-ridiculous long pompdaour and so I’m sorry to say, Johnny buddy? You weren’t the first. Ryu from Shaman king’s ridiculous character and even more retardedly long pompadour gave me a reason to love what I had once thought I couldn’t enjoy.

Kuwabara, Yu-Yu Hakusho

I used to hate Elvis-based characters but he made me change my mind as well, and so as an homage to one of my favorite animes, Johnny carries on the legacy of the long pomp. Ryu opened the door for my love of other yakuza-based characters like Kuwabara, who’s sheer ugliness made me fall for him as well. Still wasn’t enough to get me into the entirety of the 1950′s, but DID inspire the next generation of Galileo and the gang.

2007

I decided to give the yakuza look a chance, and it seemed to best fit Galileo, since he originally started with that abstract growth coming from his forehead. I took away the lavender hair, but as a remembrance, I kept the highlights in Galileo’s hair a blue, so that his hair will always be some shade of blue-violet. Interesting, no? I had to keep the leather jacket of course, and began to wussy up his face a bit, since he’s a gay guy, tryin’ to be tough. At this point, I took Kushu and instead of keeping him as that weird anime-head, I turned him into an otaku (an anime FANboy) and he went from the tough guy of the group, to an awkward nerdy anime kid, who is into martial arts and cosplay. But no one cares about Kushu right? He might show up again if I can find a place for him, but if you look reeaaall closely you might find him in a panel of the earliest pages of Pompfiction in the background, though not dressed in this attire. As for Galileo, he again receded into the recesses of my mind until I had a storyline in which to use him in.

2008

Click Here for Animation

And wouldn’cha know! He showed up in a story my sister and I were doing, as a new student in the highschool, who left his old gang after a “big accident.” That story later became developed and the rest of the gang slowly was introduced, but it all started around little Leo here, with the other Jaybirds intended only as supporting cast. Though now, Ronnie and his gang have backstories of their own, soon to be revealed. As for Galileo, at this point I began to delve more into the greaser subculture and really start to get  my references down pat.

When I first remade him to fit Pompfiction, he was too cool, so I had to dumb him down a bit and emphasize the dorkiness, but I think I finally got a handle on his design in 2009, when I first began drawing up the pages of Pompfiction.

So there you have it, really. The whole history of Galileo from his humble beginnings, to his quirky final rendering.

2009