Image of a gyik, with sharp teeth, lizard-like body, running on hind legs.
Gyiks, gyiks, gyiks. It’s hard to say three times in a row, but also fun because of the hard “y” sound. Gyiks appear in the very first chapter of Tentacles and Teeth. They are a little like lizards. Lizards the size of dogs, that is. They have sharp teeth, grumpy faces, and are ravenous. Absolutely ravenous. And they run in packs. It’s rare you’ll see lonely gyik—usually it’s surrounded by its brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, second, third, and forth cousins—you get the drift.
When I invented gyiks, I needed a monster where you thought you were safe for a second, but then they just kept coming. I also needed a type of monster that was really aggressive, but simultaneously quite cowardly when anything bigger showed up. Hence, meet the gyiks. I have a feeling gyiks are going to be playing a repeated role throughout the series, mostly because they’re easy to kill and give the characters a little bit of a break.
To kill a gyik, all you need is something sharp. They are soft and fleshy, so you can spear them or chop off their heads. One thing to remember, however, is that they don’t really feel pain, so if you only injure them, they’ll just keep right on coming.
The stippled illustration for this monster is the only one I’ve done in color so far. I really wanted to do it in color, but found that the time investment was incredibly high compared to simple black and white, because I wasn’t just doing shading, but also blending colors. So I did this one, and then went right back to black and white.
Picture of a blue and green gyik, done in pointillism style.
This was also one of the very first stippled illustrations I’ve done, alongside the nagy and the pok.
Good news, everyone (channeling my inner Professor): the book is available to read now! Click here to grab your copy.