The FIRST Zero-Drag, Murder-Mouth original pencil drawing!

This was the first pencil drawing of the whole book. I remember being so nervous - like I was holding a new baby chick and didn’t want to hurt it. This image captures the day I took that little chick of an idea and started to feed it - until it got big enough to grow rows and rows of horrendous teeth.

Would you like to take my mutant shark baby chick home?
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The flickerjaw snare shark hunts a lot like a snake, in a way. It pulls its body back into a tight curve and then lashes out with great speed.

It has tentacles tipped with bioluminescent bulbs at the end. These webbed tentacles can be moved in front of the creature’s mouth much like an angler fish. The additional webbing helps to prevent prey fish from making a last-minute dash for freedom past the alien shark’s open jaws.

Along the body are bioluminescent rows. These act as countershading, which is put to good use by our real-life lanternfish. The bioluminescent dots on the flickerjaw’s side make its belly appear brighter, and thus, makes it harder to see if it ever was illuminated from above or below.