Ever since that one Sesame episode where Zeliboba wished he would “give concerts in his homeland and around the whole world,” I’ve wondered what his homeland was like. After all, it was clear that he didn’t just appear on Sesame Street out of the blue. And for some reason, it always seemed clear enough to me that this homeland simply must be a mountain valley with forests and waterfalls – so that the spirit would have a place to play that’d fit his size. And that the long fluffy coat was a gift to him from his homeland – as well as tie and sneakers being gifts from the city.

With the character designer, Ed Christie, we had an almost identical opinion on this – he “just imagined Zeliboba living in the forest” and didn’t even know that he would eventually become a Dvorovoi – a guardian of a courtyard/playground. But Mr. Christie disagreed with the fanon look I gave Zeliboba on the fanarts: to him, the spirit “looked too much like a human, which he’s not – he needs a body different from a human.”

Almost all the old arts for Zeli’s story (even older ones, when I plain didn’t know how to properly draw some of his features, don’t count) plus a few ones where he just doesn’t wear his coat and has a tail, are collected here for history. Since our conversation with Master Ed, I got some advice from him on what to change about the spirit’s appearance (and the backstory itself), so now Zeliboba looks much closer to canon (even when drawn in his homeland) on my fanarts. And his appearance on the earlier ones is simply my wild guesses from over twenty years.

Since Zeli’s backstory is still in development, and I almost constantly want the illustrations for it to be perfect – don’t be too surprised that some of them will eventually have multiple, “through-the-years” versions.
The fanarts in this anthology have no set titles – just approximal ones.

...on a side note, now you see the level of sheer passion I have for drawing, painting and getting each piece one step closer to perfection. 💪 No matter how much tries it takes.