Pogg-Ur Pogg (and the Pogglets!) by Josh Cassara 〔X-Men〕

9x12 bristol board, mixed media

Josh Cassara does a series of convention commissions called ¡Mini-Amigos! where he draws an itty bitty version of the character of your choice. Naturally, that lends itself to making one go “I must choose the widest load possible” and I mulled over a few Costco-sized options before settling on Pogg-Ur Pogg at SDCC ‘24. I also made an extra request for Pogg's kids, the POGGLETS, to be included as well.

Pogg-Ur Pogg was introduced in the X-Men crossover X of Swords as a gigantic six-armed extra-dimensional crocodile dude that talks in rhymes and he quickly became a fan-favourite because he’s a gigantic six-armed extra-dimensional crocodile dude that talks in rhymes. It’s just an idea that works for people, myself included. Later comics would reveal more details about the character, most notably that he’s actually just a lil’ green guy inside a very large, many-armed crocodile meat suit. He also likes to punch and rob people (who doesn’t) and he’s the loving father of at least three six-armed crocodile suit-wearing rhyming children who really enjoy committing crime. It's a tough dimension out there for young people so it's nice to see Pogg-Ur Pogg passing along some practical life skills to his kids. Hopefully he's also putting together a college fund--through space larceny--because sending three kids off to school ain't gonna be cheap.

This lil' commission apparently sparked a debate between Josh and his wife over whether this could still be classified as a “mini” amigo. On one hand, the Pogg family is taking up a counterintuitively large part of the 9x12 paper. On the other, Josh held up a mini of Wolverine against this one to prove out that the relative scale of the characters matched. They settled somewhere on this maybe being a ¡Maxi-Amigo! but either way you slice it, they were both wonderful people to talk with and gracious with their time. That's especially a feat given the chaotic and exhausting nature of SDCC in general.