When I first began sketching concepts for this comic, I obviously didn't have any sort of plot in mind yet, as these sketches are all of a gryphon with wings. All I really knew was that I wanted to do a comic that featured gryphons. Orginally I was thinking it was going to be a slice of life three-four panel comic, like comics you see in the newspaper. The style took heavy influence from Tracy Butler's Lackadaisy.
Eventually, the one gryphon character become two, and one of those characters was Mag. From the beginning, Mag was a very timid and uncertain sort of creature. She's unaware of her true capabilities, and at times is almost irrationally afraid.
It was also at this point of development that the characters lost their wings. At the time, it was simply because it was difficult drawing six limbs instead of four, but the loss of their wings also became a plot point as I developed the story further.
Additionally, I decided with these sketches that I would attempt the comic in simple graphite shading - a style uncommonly seen in graphic novels, but one I was comfortable with.
Along with Mag came Id. From the start she was meant to be a foil for Mag's straight man act. Where Mag was sane, Id was not. Where Mag was timid, Id was adventurous. In the beginning, she was not intended to be Mag's literal Id, but something of a little sister.
It was at this point that I dropped the slice of life comic idea for something a little more developed. I thought the story idea I had would be about 100 pages. I was wrong.
In 2007, I held a contest for the design of the nightmare that Mag and Id faced in their travels. The winner of the contest was the talented Iben Krutt, and you can find more of their art at twolegsatnoon. Above is my interpretation of the original sketch.
After this point, most of the appearances Mag and Id have made are in the comic itself, but I have occasionally drawn them in other places.