Front CoverThe Bog Goblin

Rosalyn Fenton

The idea of a goblin living in a toiletcame around a lot easier thananticipated but putting the life into itwas more difficult than expected. Iknew already I wanted to producesomething for a younger audience as Ifelt it was something I did in myartwork naturally.

I originally thought of it as a fable thatteaches something to children butdecided to stay clear from that as whowould take advice from a goblin, letalone one that lives in a toilet.

I started to pay more attention andstudy my younger siblings behaviourand what world their mind was in. Ipulled out the family photo album andlooked for humorous moments caughton film that related to naughty habits ofchildren and parental experiences.

It was then I realised I needed mycreation to make sense to adults too, asif they could see (or have seen) theirchildren do similar actions. This is whenI looked into 70’s and 80’s cartoons,particularly ‘The Trap Door’ and ‘ScoobyDoo’. This gave birth to a theme of‘cosy horror’ where the goblin issomething that you’re not sure if

you should fear or not. I wanted to use a

lot of shadow play and close ups of teeth

gnashing down on toys but as the story

developed I became increasingly worried

that it could become too scary or that

audiences would still question their

thoughts on the Bog Goblin… so I

ramped up the fun.

After taking influences from ‘Drop Dead

Fred’, ‘Larvae’ and ‘Minions’ it became

apparent that some children come to an

age where everything gross is hilarious. I

needed the goblin to represent all of this

including smelly bums, frantic farts and

squishy bogies to help soften his original

elusive nature.

As the original idea was to produce a

storybook, I decided to keep the element

of rhyme and alliteration to create a

rhythm for the story and to engage

audiences both visually and auditorily.

It was now time to decide what antics he

would get up to…

I had written ideas of what mischievous antics the Goblin could engage in, and even

though I needed another character as a response to his actions the rhyme alone

needed to only mention the Goblin and not another character, specifically so that the

rhyme could apply to any child hearing or reading it.

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