Why not create original characters? You say you don't want to use madness sprites but it still looks like madness. You are obviously skilled and I'm sure you can pull this off, so why make something that looks like something someone else did? In the end, it will just be another madness animation. You said you want it to be different. Anyway, good luck with everything.
Just my 2 cents.
daove
I think your art style looks great but, i don't like the way you drew the eyes, they're too big in my opinion. But i don't know, maybe i'm just too fond of the way how krinkels draws them.
Sunshaft
I find them really nice, I did drawings with smaller, larger and different eyes and I find these the most suitable. They will also get smaller and eyebrows and and facial animation gets to work. but every opinion counts