I’ve danced with the Púca a couple of times on this blog, and it’s a figure I keep returning to – an ephemeral, shapeshifting trickster, sometimes cruel, sometimes kind, often chaotic. To try and exorcise the Púca from my imagination, I thought it would be fun to write and illustrate a series of stories about this capricious creature.

The Púca seems to be both a specific creature – a black, shapeshifter usually in the form of an animal, like a horse or a goat (or in my childhood it was always a black dog, I don’t know whether that was how the stories were told in the particular part of Ireland that my family are from, or whether that’s just what my childhood imagination remembers, I should probably find an old relative and ask them) – but they are also a sort of generic dark fairy creature, and their stories are often told as stories of the Devil.

So here are some experiments trying to give my Pucai some kind of form. Just rough sketches at this stage. The Púca is often associated with Halloween, so it seems like a good subject to explore at the moment. May you all stay safe this Samhain night.