Serapio Calm is a character designer on shows that are both adorable and slightly unhinged: The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Chowder and Fish Hooks. In addition to his own design work, he frequently applies that sweet and silly style to other folks' characters as well, creating cartoonified versions of everyone from Street Fighter combatants and killer kaiju. But he also likes to play with cute and sexy, especially when it comes to a certain Jedi Padawan.


What I especially love about Calm's character designs is the wide range of influences apparent in his work; there are touches of Richard Scarry anthropomorphism, Mary Blair coloring, Miyazaki-flavored expressions and '80s cartoons that have been warped and twisted into new shapes. It makes for a diverse, but highly accessible body of design work. His balance between the familiar and the bizarre is, after all, what helps us believe in worlds where a little blonde girl dominates the Grim Reaper and fish who attend school in a pet store.

Calm has posted more of his artwork on Tumblr, as well as his blog, Flickr and deviantART.