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Description
Shere Khan is the primary antagonist of English author Rudyard Kipling's 1894 anthology novel, The Jungle Book. Said to be the most commanding presence in all of India, Shere Khan actually gets more accomplished through talking and manipulation than he does through violence. I don't recommend counting on that with real tigers, though. Honestly, all the other jungle animals seem to consider him more of a nuisance than a threat, just like a true politician. Shere Khan certainly comes off as quite full of himself, cock-blocking any kills that the other animals get their claws on and generally being so unpleasant to be around that everyone just knows to give him his space. I'm not entirely sure where this inflated ego is supposed to have come from, as Kipling describes Shere Khan as being born crippled with a "withered leg", whatever that means. His own mother made fun of him by nicknaming him "Lungri", meaning "the Lame One", which is some hefty burn coming from his own mom. Clearly there's some unresolved issues there. As far as I'm aware, though, his bad leg never really comes into play anywhere in the actual narrative of The Jungle Book, but I must confess, I haven't actually read the thing, so feel free to prove me wrong.

Shere Khan really earns his antagonist status in Kipling's short story "Mowgli's Brothers", in which he hunts a human couple and separates their infant from them. This "man-cub", Mowgli as he comes to be known, gets adopted by a pack of wolves. Shere Khan then pulls up and asks to eat their adopted child, to which the wolves elegantly respond… no, go away. Shere Khan, despite being a big ass tiger with big ass tiger teeth, is absolutely defeated by this reasoning, and sulks away to plot his next scheme. By the time Mowgli is about eleven years old, Shere Khan has hatched a plan to convince the wolves to overthrow their pack leader, Akela. When the jungle council is next called, Shere Khan advocates to the disenfranchised wolves that Akela be killed and Mowgli be handed over to the tiger as a snack, lest he move into their hunting grounds. Mowgli though had been warned by the panther Bagheera of this plot, and prepared a flaming branch to frighten away Shere Khan. Unfortunately, fire is a big no-no in the jungle, and the wolves are forced to exile the man-cub from their pack.

This narrative picks up again in another of Kipling's short stories, "Tiger! Tiger!". At this point, Mowgli has rejoined the world of Man, being adopted by a woman named Messua who believes him to be her long lost son Nathoo. Evidently, Mowgli thinks human society is lame and confusing (I think the kid may be onto something), and isn't especially fond of all the bullshit the village elders spin. One day, though, they speak of a tiger born lame because he was the reincarnation of one of the few creatures more appalling and destructive to humankind than a man-eating tiger: a money-lender. Reuniting with his wild animal buddies, Mowgli learns of Shere Khan's whereabouts and hatches a plan. With the help of the wolves, Mowgli startles a herd of buffalo into stampeding directly into the tiger from both sides. Damn, what a lame way to go for a man-eating tiger. Mowgli offers to hand Shere Khan's skin over to the wolves as a trophy, but the village elders try to claim it for the bounty that had been placed on the beast. Mowgli ultimately scares them off because oh yeah he can literally talk to wolves and command them at his will, but this comes at the price of the human village rejecting him as a sorcerer. The wolves offer Mowgli a place in their pack again, but Mowgli is apparently a spiteful little bitch who still doesn't forgive them for kicking him out in the first place. Like all edgy pre-teens, Mowgli thus sulks into the woods to hunt by himself as a lone… wolf. Hmm.

Design notes, yeah I know I could've just drawn Shere Khan as a big tiger. That's pretty much all he is. That's boring and I'm extra, though, so I extrapolated a little further by taking some inspiration from ligers and tigons (the hybrids between lions and tigers), both in proportion and fur pattern. Ligers are actually shockingly huge, bigger than either of their parent species. Apparently, lionesses pass onto their offspring a growth-limiting gene to counter the growth-encouraging genes passed on by their male counterparts. Tigers, meanwhile, have no such dynamic, so when you cross a female tiger with a male lion, the growth hormones just never really turn off, resulting in a terrifyingly massive cat. They're also kinda pudgy, which I think actually plays into the fat old politician vibe that Shere Khan gives off. I think the hybrid angle also works to account for his genetic malformities, as I couldn't really think of a way to convey his limp leg on paper. I'm actually quite happy with how it came out. It gives a character who's really just a big tiger some recognizable uniqueness, which is something I always appreciate.

Description
Shere Khan is the primary antagonist of English author Rudyard Kipling's 1894 anthology novel, The Jungle Book. Said to be the most commanding presence in all of India, Shere Khan actually gets more accomplished through talking and manipulation than he does through violence. I don't recommend counting on that with real tigers, though. Honestly, all the other jungle animals seem to consider him more of a nuisance than a threat, just like a true politician. Shere Khan certainly comes off as quite full of himself, cock-blocking any kills that the other animals get their claws on and generally being so unpleasant to be around that everyone just knows to give him his space. I'm not entirely sure where this inflated ego is supposed to have come from, as Kipling describes Shere Khan as being born crippled with a "withered leg", whatever that means. His own mother made fun of him by nicknaming him "Lungri", meaning "the Lame One", which is some hefty burn coming from his own mom. Clearly there's some unresolved issues there. As far as I'm aware, though, his bad leg never really comes into play anywhere in the actual narrative of The Jungle Book, but I must confess, I haven't actually read the thing, so feel free to prove me wrong.

Shere Khan really earns his antagonist status in Kipling's short story "Mowgli's Brothers", in which he hunts a human couple and separates their infant from them. This "man-cub", Mowgli as he comes to be known, gets adopted by a pack of wolves. Shere Khan then pulls up and asks to eat their adopted child, to which the wolves elegantly respond… no, go away. Shere Khan, despite being a big ass tiger with big ass tiger teeth, is absolutely defeated by this reasoning, and sulks away to plot his next scheme. By the time Mowgli is about eleven years old, Shere Khan has hatched a plan to convince the wolves to overthrow their pack leader, Akela. When the jungle council is next called, Shere Khan advocates to the disenfranchised wolves that Akela be killed and Mowgli be handed over to the tiger as a snack, lest he move into their hunting grounds. Mowgli though had been warned by the panther Bagheera of this plot, and prepared a flaming branch to frighten away Shere Khan. Unfortunately, fire is a big no-no in the jungle, and the wolves are forced to exile the man-cub from their pack.

This narrative picks up again in another of Kipling's short stories, "Tiger! Tiger!". At this point, Mowgli has rejoined the world of Man, being adopted by a woman named Messua who believes him to be her long lost son Nathoo. Evidently, Mowgli thinks human society is lame and confusing (I think the kid may be onto something), and isn't especially fond of all the bullshit the village elders spin. One day, though, they speak of a tiger born lame because he was the reincarnation of one of the few creatures more appalling and destructive to humankind than a man-eating tiger: a money-lender. Reuniting with his wild animal buddies, Mowgli learns of Shere Khan's whereabouts and hatches a plan. With the help of the wolves, Mowgli startles a herd of buffalo into stampeding directly into the tiger from both sides. Damn, what a lame way to go for a man-eating tiger. Mowgli offers to hand Shere Khan's skin over to the wolves as a trophy, but the village elders try to claim it for the bounty that had been placed on the beast. Mowgli ultimately scares them off because oh yeah he can literally talk to wolves and command them at his will, but this comes at the price of the human village rejecting him as a sorcerer. The wolves offer Mowgli a place in their pack again, but Mowgli is apparently a spiteful little bitch who still doesn't forgive them for kicking him out in the first place. Like all edgy pre-teens, Mowgli thus sulks into the woods to hunt by himself as a lone… wolf. Hmm.

Design notes, yeah I know I could've just drawn Shere Khan as a big tiger. That's pretty much all he is. That's boring and I'm extra, though, so I extrapolated a little further by taking some inspiration from ligers and tigons (the hybrids between lions and tigers), both in proportion and fur pattern. Ligers are actually shockingly huge, bigger than either of their parent species. Apparently, lionesses pass onto their offspring a growth-limiting gene to counter the growth-encouraging genes passed on by their male counterparts. Tigers, meanwhile, have no such dynamic, so when you cross a female tiger with a male lion, the growth hormones just never really turn off, resulting in a terrifyingly massive cat. They're also kinda pudgy, which I think actually plays into the fat old politician vibe that Shere Khan gives off. I think the hybrid angle also works to account for his genetic malformities, as I couldn't really think of a way to convey his limp leg on paper. I'm actually quite happy with how it came out. It gives a character who's really just a big tiger some recognizable uniqueness, which is something I always appreciate.