Sketchbook Monsters:
The Amazing Everything Machine

Notes: This is a concept sketch for a Feep comic to be done Sometime When I Have Time™. The book is called The Origin of Feeping, and tells the tale of how the Feeps came to be. Set in the Steampunk Victorian era, the Feeps first appear when an inventor creates what he believes to be a brilliant device that will be able to do everything: dust, wash floors, incinerate garbage, make tea, answer the door, tell you when it's time to get up for work, and oh, he just thought of another feature he should add ....

In the modern-day, real world, the term "feeping creatures" is a spoonerism of "creeping features," which is a programming term denoting software that has too many bells and whistles, and as such becomes slow and cumbersome. The Amazing Everything Machine is the Steampunk version of this concept.

The Victorians were obsessed with the intersection of science and magic: Darwinism began to explain some of the mysteries of the creation of life in concrete, scientific terms even as Spiritualism boomed in popularity. In this environment, where the separation of science and fantasy was exceedingly thin and people were constantly trying to call forth spirits, it was inevitable that a device loaded with creeping features would call forth the physical manifestations of Feeping Creatures.