2026 Sketchbook #005 – Terry Lingal

For this sketchbook post I wanted to move from the crassly commercial to something a little more personal in the form of Terry Lingal, the Errant Apprentice. This is the lead character in my friend’s webnovel about a knight in a contemporary Mississippi full of magical creatures and a link to another reality called the Everywhen.

For now, though, take a look at the illustration for this week’s sketchbook.

The Errant Apprentice is a concept my buddy Kevin Hayman, who I do a podcast with, has been working on for a long, long time now. It’s just like any of us creators posting these things online, they have been cooking for a long time. The general concept is a post-1970s emergence of real magic and creatures into the world in the form of “Fantastics” and the reemergence of Rome as a central power in the world. Inevitably this leads to the return of knights and the introduction of mages. The webnovel is set in Mississippi and introduces a contemporary America with all of the old tensions of the U.S. South, but now with goblins and dragons, and a religious conspiracy.

The first book is The Errant Apprentice – Book One: Mo Ghile Mear. It follows a knight errant named Terry Lingal, who is a fantastic protagonist. Kevin has created a modern day Arthurian knight out of a shy, honest, and broken kid from of Mississippi. Terry is charming and noble – kind of like a human Labrador Retriever. Sometimes you just want to stare into his eyes and tell him to “wake up, dumbass.”

And, like all fantasy epics, he has a destiny before him. Please make sure you give it a read. The book has done a lot to develop Terry in comparison to the original comic. I had followed the original comic, of course.

Watching The Errant Apprentice Grow

You can still find over 700 pages of the original comic online, but the current version of The Errant Apprentice is greatly expanded. I have known Kevin for a long time. More than twenty years, in fact. I knew him before he already started making the comic, and long before he started writing this novel. This isn’t even the first time I’ve drawn Terry Lingal, either.

Here is an older drawing, one of many. it is still pretty moody, too. Must be like, a decade old at this point.

It’s been fascinating to see the concept evolve over time. I am extremely excited that this current prose-based version feels like Kevin really finding his voice for the concept. He’s used the unfinished comic as a framework and greatly expanded the world with plenty of depth and nuance. It has been a pleasure to read it anew and occasionally provide advice.

Hell, I’ve even declined reading early chapters of his spinoff novel, Goblin Bistro, simply because I find everything so compelling.

Anyway, please be sure to check out his work and support him on Patreon. Here is the Terry Lingal key art without the sketchbook format:

As always, if you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.