Welcome to Cast of Horribles. I'm David Figatner. The Cast of Horribles are a reflection of me and my daily doings and thoughts distilled into harsh lines and scribbled words. I began drawing the Cast of Horribles in January 2007, and they escaped my blog and into their new home in July 2007.

Speaking of blogs, besides doodling, I also pretend to write. You can find some of my attempts at sewcrates.com.

And without further ado, thanks to the mountains of email questions and comments, I bring you....

Frequently Asked Questions That No One Asked

How often do you post your doodles?

Very good first question! I used to be very prolific, posting new doodles Sunday through Thursday, usually at night. After much thought, I decided to release fewer doodles, to leave me with more time for other quasi-creative activities. Moving forward, I will post new Horribles on Tuesday and Thursday.

Where did you come up with the terrible name for this site?

As my strongest critic likes to tell me, my poor little wisps aren't horrible, they're cute and somewhat sad looking. The name derives from a quasi-story of the same name. The story has nothing to do with big-eyed monsters, but I liked it and registered the domain name a few years ago. When I decided the Horribles needed a home of their own, I reached deep into my domain name reservoir and pulled out the Cast of Horribles. Even my critic admits that the name reflects well on my "general cheeriness and optimism." That quotation may be laced with sarcasm. It's hard to tell from deep within my pit of despair.

Why do your Horribles look like sperm?

I've heard this a few times, and I still don't have a good answer. It could be that I have issues (actually, I do have issues, I just didn't think that this was one of them), or I am incapable of drawing arms and legs and especially hands, and decided to do away with such nonessential body parts for my Horribles. What's probably closer to the truth is that in my first doodle, I drew the Horribles as squigglies, and it stuck. I guess it's not surprising as before I drew the Cast of Horribles, I doodled monsters of indeterminate form.

What do you use to draw?

I do all my drawing directly on the computer. I use Adobe Illustrator CS3 with, thanks to my wonderful, wise, and beautiful wife, a Cintiq 20WSX. The readership has yet to increase to justify its mammoth expense, but I do love my Cintiq. Occassionally, I use my laptop Tablet PC and draw directly on the screen. I prefer the desktop, as some of the drawing tools (especially the deform tool, which I need to fix my many mistakes) are a bit slow on the laptop.

When I have ideas and I'm not near my computer, I'll sometimes draw a sketch of the idea or pithy saying in my Moleskin or a small sticky note (Julie has a ready supply of free drug-company-supplied pads). After dinner, when I usually doodle, I'll use the sketch to create the doodle.

If you want to know more, send me mail. Pretty please?