Professor Hazard (1)
c. January 2003
BiC #2 0.7mm mechanical pencil, Vis-a-Vis Wet Erase pen, Paint Shop Pro

In case you’ve ever wondered, here’s the Professor Hazard character as he was first created. A Pokémon fan character, adorned with the hazard stripes I had become so fond of drawing in Sonic the Hedgehog fan art, the professor sports the type of trench coat that was so trendy for teens in the 1990s to wear, and the blonde hair I always wished I had on my head.

He carries a “prototype Pokédex” – a red Game Boy with a yellow Game Boy Camera – and an Articuno egg that he fears will never hatch, having been created through cloning and showing no signs of maturation. In the Pokémon mythos, I had intended for Professor Hazard to be the creator of the Ultra Ball, which in Japan has an “H” printed above its latch button.