Where the idea of Gross Try and the Beast was born.

I have owned a big dog for over 12 years. He was always getting into something and there have been countless times I had to perform undesirable tasks in order to help him out and keep him healthy. I actually looked forward to it though (well not all of it). Olaf happened to be the kind of dog who would passively let me perform any kind of nursemaid service to him. It was nearly always funny, because he was this big, scary dog which most people would not even consider touching, let alone do something that could be uncomfortable. Well, with this relationship carried a lot of awkward and smelly situations, such as having to deal with skunk sprayings.

I would have to say that even though the relationship with my dog was not the full intention of developing the Gross Troy story and illustrations, it was something of an everyday experience for me. There was a lot of material for me to automatically build upon when thinking about and visualizing funny situations to draw and write about. With each illustration drawn, I had written a page of rhymes which were very closely connected to what was happening. After seeing a theme coming along, I decided to keep writing and illustrating on the same thing until there were 28 illustrations and 28 complimenting pages of rhymes.
I am considering the concept for building on Gross Troy and the Beast to be a great marketing tool for other businesses due to the strategy of promoting an action and humor-based extention of personality.