ZORKO

You've seen him on my art page already but I'll show him here again because I love him so much.

Zorko Noknite is my creation, my son and I made him all by myself. Actually, he is intended for a project called Animelee, which can be summarized as Super Smash Bros meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but I'll talk about that elsewhere. He is meant to represent the 90s era of TV animation--specifically Nicktoons, his entire being is inspired by Nickelodeon in the 90s up to 2000 as a whole. I took Zim, Ren, and Rocko and put them in a blender until it turned into a green milkshake of toony goodness and formed him--Zorko. I took his name from "Zim" and "Rocko" and it just so happens to be a Croatian name--also my other nationality besides American :)

The hypothetical cartoon Zorko would be from is called Zorko Vs. The Galaxy! and it would have aired sometime in 1992 on a Nickelodeon-like TV channel. Its contents would have been most similar to Rocko's Modern Life, essentially the same sense of humor and a very similar art style.

Zorko can be described as a highly emotional and unstable individual. He is short-tempered, stubborn, has an ego bigger than his ears and is incredibly petty and mischievous. On the other hand, he cries easily, gets very jealous of others, is somewhat of a people-pleaser and feels the need to compensate for his shortcomings (physically and otherwise).

Zorko is incredibly skilled as a mechanic, with the ability to take complex machines apart and reduce them to the smallest units possible, then put everything back together again. He's also a little bit of an artist, but isn't very good at it. His social skills are negligible, his only two friends are fellow outcasts Pollux and Castor--a mad scientist and a fellow low-ranking soldier.

Zorko's intelligence is rather average, dampened by poor impulse control and favoring emotional reactions over logic.

Noknites may be small and mouse-like, but they are a territorial and warring race that does not take kindly to invaders. The planet Nok is filled with a precious and limited supply of Noknitium, a green honey-like substance that is both edible and used as fuel, medicine, and other properties. It is highly valuable and sought-after by space pirates, which is why there is such a demand for a military.

Zorko is a soldier in the army, but only of the lowest rank. He has relatively little military skill even if he thinks otherwise and is generally kept around because he is a surprisingly good mechanic anyway. Because of this he usually ends up in the role of fixing other soldiers' spaceships instead, but wants to sneak out to try to take on space pirates by himself with little success.

The technology on Nok is very highly advanced, much more than Earth, yet has a retrofuturistic feel as if it's stuck in the early 90s.

In the pilot for the cartoon, Zorko would have been dissatisfied with his role in only fixing spaceships or occasionally watching for space pirates but not doing anything or having a ship of his own--so he hatches an idea after watching the skies, sneaking out at night to visit an abandoned warehouse where obsolete spaceships are left to rot.

While it's entirely possible he could steal a newer model of spaceship, he could get in a lot of trouble and executed for just even trying, and he's not risking that. In the warehouse he looks around until he finds what he considers to be the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen--a clunky, rusty lemon of a spaceship with a pitifully outdated AI system and engines that sound like nails on chalkboard. It's a good thing he's a mechanic then, he drags the spaceship out and back to his home and spends several nights fixing it. Finally, it--or she--comes back to life, AI and all, and Zorko is elated. He even falls in love with her. Her name is Silver, and Zorko would do anything for her.

(The initial idea for Zorko's cartoon and character was to be a reversal of Zim--instead of being the invader, he is the one trying to prevent invasion.)

Zorko is a Noknite, a species of tiny alien whose biological anatomy and appearance can be best described as "bug-mouse". All Noknites are residents of planet Nok, A planet much smaller than Earth and in a galaxy far far away; it is a bright orange color owing to the clay soil, with green rivers. The planet itself has a large ring around just like Saturn does, full of green rocks and particles.

Noknites are only 3-4 inches tall on average, but Zorko is something of a runt, so he's just 2.5 inches tall! However, his massive ears make up for some of that height. All Noknites have large, sensitive ears, but Zorko's are exceptionally big.

Noknites use their antennae to sense vibrations, particles and other things in the air that their eyes and ears normally wouldn't catch. Antennae are also generally a sign of health and status--longer antennae with brighter bulbs are more attractive

Noknites come in varying shades of green only, but their antennae can be any color, and they usually wear clothes that match the color of their antennae, with some exceptions (such as a profession, like doctor). Noknite eyes, which are large and glow in the dark, are the same color as their antennae.

A Noknite's diet is usually food with the most flavor you can imagine. This goes for hyper palatable sweets and spicys and sours that most humans would need to be dared in order to try.

I would love to make this site look more funky/interesting in the future but I do not have the skill for that just yet.