‘Boyhands Smoork’. Pencil drawing by Koldo Barroso, 2009
He was the grandson of Terrible Spoork, (the troll who defeated the invincible giant in the black mountains) and Fierce Wooka (the troll who invented the rotten garlic burp strategy to fight the hordes of crooked-head goblins). And he was the son of the magnanimous Spooky Spooff (the one who ate one hundred and fifty six slimy pies in one minute) and Rusty Weeka (owner of the most fetid breath smell in the troll world ever). And he was also the youngest brother of 11th noisy and untidy troll children. But he, young Smoork… he had the delicate hands of a human boy!
Poor Boyhands Smoork, he was the shame of the family. How is it possible that a sprout of one of the most notorious families of trolls would have such insulting hands? Five small fingers on each hand! And they moved with grace and precision! And they even smell like soap! It makes no sense at all!
When Boyhands Smoork was born, his tiny hands were pale and clean and his parents said self-assuredly: “It’s OK, it’s OK, they will grow dark and stinky when the kid grows up!” But they didn’t.
And when he was a one year old and he could already say ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’, his hands were even more pretty and gracious and then his parents looked away and said: “It’s OK, it’s OK, they will grow rough and nasty when the kid grows up!”. Oh, but they didn’t.
And when he was already five years old and he had already grew a hairy tale and sharp canine teeth like a good old troll, his hands were all hairless and five fingered just like the hands of a beautiful human boy. And then his parents looked at each other, put their hands on their heads and said: “What a disgrace!”
Eventually, they decided to make a real troll of Boyhands Smoork. They put him into burping lessons and trained him to chase baby gnomes in the dark, they gave him a troll earring in the ear, and curled the tip of his ears, but nothing really worked. Boyhands Smoork was not really interested in all that troll stuff since day one.
On day, while he was setting tramps for kittens, he was haunted by the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. It was a merry melody was coming from a house, so he stood on his tiptoes and looked through the window… and he saw a beautiful human girl playing this amazing instrument called “the piano”. He was in love with it’s heavenly sound and ever since, he came back every evening to listen to the girl play. Until one day, he realized that he had made up his mind: he wanted to learn how to play piano and play the most beautiful music!
But Boyhands Smoork’s parents had very different plans for him. They were tired of hearing every troll laughing at him because of his boyish little hands. The other kids in the troll school called him awful things like “nerd” and “the freak troll”. Until one day, his parents were so ashamed of him that they decided to stop it and said: “If you want our kid to be a freak now we’re going to give you a real freak!”
That blue day, they sent Boyhands Smoork to a troll sideshow where other troll kids just like him here showcased for the entertainment of other trolls. They were all different troll boys… there was Ignatius (the troll who could speak Latin and Greek), Maximus (the troll who ate with a fork and a knife), and Cassandra (a troll girl who liked to write poetry).
It was time for Boyhands Smoork’s opening show. He was set up on top of a table and was introduced to the troll audience as “The Human Killer Handed”. What a horrible thing to say! You know, he didn’t even have the guts to kill a flea!
And when the curtain opened, unveiling Boyhands Smoork to the audience, there was an awful silence of troll open mouths followed by a long ‘Ooooooh’. Smoork showed his humanly hands and they all started shouting at him the meanest things he had ever heard: “killer”, “human monster”, “living mistake” and other awful things that we wouldn’t like to repeat. They hurt his feelings so bad, oh yes, they did! So he wished he could chop his hands off and run away to a far place where there was no trolls and only beautiful piano music could be heard. He hated himself and his stupid hands.
To be continued…
Aww, poor Boyhands. I wouldn’t want boy hands either!!
When you’re young and don’t fit in sometimes it makes you angry and self destructive…but if you’re good hearted inside eventually you fight your way through adversity through all sorts of strange adventures.
I want to see what becomes of boyhand.
What a very entertaining way to ask the question ‘what is beauty?’
I love his hairy bits, the tips of his ears and his tail
I love it! this is great!
Thank you all. My wife Naomi says that ‘cute’ characters are the ones people like the most from me. The hairy bits like Dollseye said?
I think some people like the most dark personages, this is something I want to check out with this experiment. With your collaboration, I can know better what you like the most. This is going to be really important to decide what will be featured in my future publications.
So, what do you think of this little guy? should he stay or should he go?
Well, I didn’t leave a long comment because I told you what I thought of him in person. But, I’ll add it here too, so we can discuss.
Honestly, I think this guy is adorable. The fishy face and little tooth is so cute. Makes me want to give him a hug and save him from those cruel trolls.
I hope he gets rescued from the freak show by a kind person that appreciates him. Maybe they could get him piano lessons too.
I’d definitely keep him. He’s one of my favorites!
The drawing of Boyhands is really well-done… as others have said, I love all the details from his curled ear-tips to the one little tooth (and his high pants and the little bow tie!).
His eyes being so far apart makes me think he’s not really part of a carnivorous, violent species but rather one that is hunted by other species (his eyes are set where he can see to the sides and back more easily than straight ahead). That detail helps define his personality for me as a peaceful, picked-upon sort. Maybe his eyes being set that way will help him play piano pieces that require his hands being at opposite ends of the keyboard?
I am interested to discover whether he ever meets the piano-playing little girl, learns to play the piano, and how (or even if) he escapes the Sideshow and whether he takes the other “troll freaks” with him. However, I need to discover more about your world before I can really contribute to whether his story should stay or go.
Deborah
Hi Deborah!
It’s a pleasure to have another author here! The personality analysis that you have done about Smoork is great. Everyone seems very interested in seeing him playing piano one day, let’s see what happens but, if we decide to go on with this story, I can predict some surprises…
I’m very glad that you stopped by
The ‘delicate hands of a boy’ are such a wonderful detail, they establish his vulnerability and give him a sense of tenderness. These are wonderful paradoxical qualities for a troll, and they really set you up for some great possibilities for this character. I’d also be interested to see Boyhands Smoork’s attempts at playing the piano. I thought the concept of a troll freak show was interesting, and a great starting point for other characters.
I loved the drawing–the hands stand out nicely against the rest of the character’s trollish features. The story seems great for children, but also interesting and engaging for adults–which is a difficult thing to accomplish. Nice job.
I would love to see how his story continues – whether he got to know the piano playing girl, learned how to play himself, escaped from the freak show or from the whole troll “community”. He’s such a cute character with even trollish characteristics looking strangely off – non-aggressive tiny eyes, delicate hands, cute strands of hair, fluffy tail, the bow… And yet he definitely looks like a troll. Great drawing!
Welcome to the workshop Dave!
I think you’re hitting the point when you said “the hands stand out against the rest of trollish features”. This story is about accepting what seems to be our handicaps and embarrassing features and turning them into our most powerful and precious tools. In my case, paradoxically, I’m the worst at drawing hands!
We’ll see how the story unfolds…
How nice to have you here, Yelena, the art rider!
Smoork is asking me to tell you: Thanks for the encouragement!
How sad – Hope Smoork proves to all that “different” is a positive.
Your drawings are wonderful.
Thanks Carolyn! I agree with you, different is a plus!
There’s a popularity competition going on this weekend between Lady Zakharova and Boyhands Smoork. The most popular and voted one of them will be printed & given away next week. Get sure to support your fav character!
save boyhands smoork!
too late?
never too late! i’m so excited to see him coming up in the world again
)
please, i hope there will be a book left this weekend for me?
not sure how i missed this one…but OMG he is fnatastic…a troll freak show would be awesome…i once played “Zamora the Gorilla Girl” in a Carnivale, i always wondered what would have happened if I had somehow got stuck in between the transformation process…haha…