#10 – Insomniac
And now for something completely different… A super hero! Â Insomniac is a character I’ve had in mind for a long time, but could never land on a design I liked. Â I’m pretty sure I like this one, though. Â As a “dark knight” type character, her cloak includes a good so she can look look more dark, mysterious and scary. Her staff is retractable and can be kept in a pocket on the side of her boot. That metal thing on her right arms houses a computer with communication and navigational capabilities. Her mask includes night vision lenses.
In my world of supers, mental powers manifest themselves in different ways. In Insomniac’s case, she’s got a sixth sense that warns her of danger (like Spider-Man’s spidey sense), along with an unusually high intellect. Â Also, as the name implies, a side effect of her powers is that she doesn’t sleep; she doesn’t need to. (This was inspired by an article I read a few years ago about why we sleep; it’s our minds that need it, not our bodies, so it makes sense that a person with a super-human brain might not need sleep.) This has given her a lot more time to perfect her fighting skills. It also allows her to live a double life.
Insomniac is Japanese, and because of her genius finished school early. When she was younger, she traveled the world, learning new skills and earning lots of money. She eventually settled down and set up her own company in  big city (haven’t decided where yet, but it will probably be a fictional Asian city state; Singapore meets Gotham?).  Most of her life she has used her powers only for her own good, but after a crisis occurs (???) she decides change her ways and use her powers to fight the crime and corruption of the city she calls home.
#8 & 9 — Mr. & Mrs. Smiff
More Doodzes. Here we have two more of the Bamboora village elders, Mr. and Mrs. Smiff. Unlike the other elders we’ve met so far, these two are old but not cranky and bitter. Â Maybe that’s because they have each other. Â Imagine the sweetest, cutest old couple you’ve ever met. This is what Mr. and Mrs. Smiff are like.
#5, 6 & 7
Today’s characters are more new ideas for my webcomic Doodze. Let me give you a quick introduction…
#5 – Sukanus is one of the village elders of Bamboora. Â He’s pretty much as sleepy as he looks… ALL the time… and has a bad habit of falling asleep at the most inconvenient or awkward moments, such as in the middle of a meeting of the Elders, even when he’s the one talking.
#6 – Octoplox — Not so much a character as a creature.  These creatures live in the river near Bamboora village.  Though they are tiny, they are potentially deadly if you get in their way.  And though the live in and need fresh water, they are actually mammals, breathing air and capable of surviving on land for short periods, as long as they don’t let themselves get too dry.  Their meat is edible, but rubbery.  And since they’re so hard to catch and dangerous when cornered, only the rare Doodze hunts for or eats them.
#7 –Brammy is another of the village elders, and is a cranky, disagreeable old lady, who pretty much always has that scowl on her face.
Note: As you can see, I’m playing catch-up today.  AND trying to get ahead. I decided I’d rather bang out 3 quick character sketches than one fully finished illustration. To me, the point of this exercise is to create characters I can flesh out and use later; not to create super-polished, finished illustrations.  And if I’m gonna do this thing, I want to do the whole thing; all 30 days. So there you go.
#4 – Doynick
Doynick, along with his brothers Daynick and Rando, is a henchman of not-as-yet-introduced evil villain of Doodze. He is the middle-child of the three brothers, and is the fat and dumb one of the group. Â He aspires to be a great Waizer (wizard-like Doodze) but is not very talented, so he’s pretty low-ranked and not considered very valuable among the enemy’s minions. Â But because he sticks close to his wiser, more ambitious older brother Rando, he hasn’t gotten left behind or cast aside yet.
Note: I’m a day behind, so another fairly-quick sketch will have to do. Actually that’s probably what most of these will be, in order to catch up / keep up / get ahead.
#3 – Daynick
The youngest of 3 bad guy brothers, Daynick was spoiled by his parents while growing up. Â This has led him to become a lazy, unkempt and unambitious adult. Since he has no ambitions of his own, he basically follows his older brothers’ lead. His brothers don’t tend to treat him very kindly, jealous of not only his being spoiled as a child, but of his hight (Rando being very short) and thinness (Doynick being very fat).
Notes: Another Doodze character.  I decided to just go with the sketch this time, rather than a finished/inked illustration, for expedience. If I’m going to crank out 30 of these this month, I need to work more quickly.
#2 – Bulgada
In the Doodze‘s society, Waizers are the equivalent of wizards — wise, magical gurus.  Bulgada the Waizer was not so wise one day, and while trying to invent a spell that would allow her to control an army of bugs accidentally turned herself into a bug/Doodze hybrid… an accident that, even after several years, she has not yet been able to undo. Obsessed with finding a way to heal herself, she has allied herself with the enemy, having been promised the help she needs.  But, despite her calm demeanor, her patience is growing thin…
Note: Yesterday’s character, Rando, and his two brothers I have in mind, are fairly average Doodzes, besides the fact that they’re bad guys. As I’ve been thinking about what kind of characters to come up with for Doodze, I’ve found myself wanting to push the limits. Doodze is funny and quirky, but I really want to come up with some stuff that’s really odd. Â This is a step in that direction, but I still want to push it more.
#1 – Rando
Standing at only 5 cm tall, Rando is really short, even for a Doodze. Â He tries to make up for it by wearing sandal-pants with really thick soles, but he’s not fooling anyone. Â Along with his brothers, Daynick and Doynick (who we’ll meet later this week) Rando is a follower of the as-yet-unnamed evil boss. While Rando puts up a front of extreme loyalty, in truth he is hiding his own agenda. His thirst for power leads him to lord it over his younger, stupider brothers, and he secretly has ambitions of taking their evil leader’s place one day. Â Only time will tell if he’s smart enough to pull it off…
2011 Challenger: Robin White
Hi everyone. My name is Robin White, and I’m Canadian but  currently live in Japan. I do a webcomic called Doodze, which I like to describe as a cross between Smurfs and Lord of the Rings, in a setting that appears be ancient Japan.  I also have a site called SkitZo MaN dot CoM, which is mainly a sketch blog, and where I’ll be posting my character designs in addition to here.  I’ll probably create some new characters for Doodze, but am interesting in exploring some new ideas through this challenge as well.
I’m stoked to be a part of the challenge this year! Â It’s my first time. Please be gentle.
I’ll leave you with a recent page from my comic, as a preview of my work:
#30Characters Chatter…