I almost regret letting Will design Cal-Tir as a little teddy bear. Here’s what I wrote in the panel description when he was first introduced:
“Close in on Jasoom. Behind him, Cal-Tir is perched on the sill of the porthole in the wall behind him. Cal-Tir is his…familiar? Mystic animal companion? I don’t know what we should call him yet. I also have no idea what he should look like. He’s an all terrain little guy, meaning that he can fly and breathe underwater. In my mind’s eye, he’s a scaly and winged version of Apu, the monkey from Disney’s Aladdin. Clearly, you can go your own way with this, though. Jasoom looks extremely happy to see him, too.”
So I nudged him in the direction of cute, but…I didn’t know at the time how much of a wringer we were gonna put him through!