Category: 2011
#13 & #14 Las Hermanas de La Sombras Vigilantes
They are driven by revenge. People might credit them with cleaning up the streets of the world’s murder capital, one criminal after another. But public safety’s just a side effect. It’s revenge they’re after.
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A deeper exploration to an idea I had a very long time ago. I’m calling them Magda & Isa respectively. Originally, I had this on my list of things, but at first thought I wouldn’t do it when I noticed there were several other Day of the Dead styled characters. But the more & more I thought of it, the cooler & cooler I thought it would be to have murderous sister vigilantes. So here we are. I don’t know why I made one extra girly, while giving the other one a mariachi sort of get up. I’m happy with these, even if I feel like weak sauce having to count the duo individually. I think the thing I regret more is putting them off, & not cleaning & coloring this one for full effect. If I ever do go back & color, this might be the first one.
Marsanne Muscadelle
Several years after her debutante ball, Marsanne Muscadelle reminds us that still still loves three things:Â Black Friday, fine Italian dresses, and a deep glass of rich, flavorful red wine.
“When I grind my shock prod into your ribs, and you hit the ground crying, your tears will be cut short by my bare feet grinding down on your skull.”
Known in more delicate circles as an old-fashioned, small town hospitalier and a fine connoisseur of subtle cedar and chocolate undertones (as long as it has fine long legs) Ms. Muscadelle remains available to only the most cultured of suitors, and does not make herself too open to proposal.
“I will unload this clip into your heart.”
#26 – The CandleKin
The CandleKin are will-o-wisps, somewhere between the aether and the world of the living. In the light of the dying sun, they can wisp from shadow to shadow, the light of their souls beguiling and terrifying lone wandrers and farmers. They taunt the living, frightening, but not able to cross over to wax harmful… unless the victim is of sorcerous blood.
The magi are their victims, and through their victim’s supernatural connection can reach across the void, assuming a corpse-like, ghoulish shape, and strike with hellish fury.
Mandarin Peel
Mandarin Peel uses her nature abilities to blend into a crowd for the purposes of espionage.
“Communication not so hot. For your safe, please don’t bring the stranger girt into your room. The girt is dangerous, it will hurt your life.”
Formerly a Chinese supermodel, now one of the most sought-after espionage practitioners, Mandarin is now also known as the “Avenging Ghost.”
“Please let me look after your luggage and money. Take care the thief, don’t change money with stranger person.”
Destroyer
The woman known as the Destroyer is very much known as the one who will make you cry.
“I don’t like to have to accept people, my only role in life is to upset the flow of others, I will beat you, bruise you, and leave you begging to be able to deal with your shit on your own terms again.”
Universally known as the meanest person around, the Destroyer will completely disable you first with her severity, then make fun of your inability to understand the depths of her rage, and finally she will use the episode to slander you before others.
“Don’t just think that because I am pretty and blond that I would be automatically pleasant. I will disabuse you of your expectations.”
#21- Vahhryn Zenthhfyr
Vahryn is the oldest of the previous generation of Zenthhfyr boys. He was average height but broad-shouldered, and though he had only a slightly better than average handling of Skykraft, he was often one of the more daring pilots, and as he grew the community all noticed that he was also one of the bravest young men in the community in general. He was always a moderate sort of person. He didn’t pick fights, but he often became involved in them by trying to stop others from fighting or stand up for someone being picked on. He never won drinking competitions simply because he never had a fondness for excess drinking.
He flew well enough, but was never overly fond of it, seeing it as a sort of chore amongst a life full of chores. His order-centric nature landed him the constant task of reeling in his younger brother Yoren, who had a tendency to fly off the handle and push himself too hard.
Vahhryn was not a particularly passionate person, and perhaps that was part of the reason he never married. He had one or two women who swooned over him as his twenties passed by, but the infatuation never seemed to last long enough to satisfy either party, and despite the insistence of his family that ‘such a nice young man get married and make more nice proper children,’ he simply never saw it as a necessity.
He was an excellent farmer and Shepard, though, which was enough to keep the community from raising too much of a fuss over him, since he helped keep everyone fed. He was well known for nursing sick animals and returning stray children or lambs others had trouble finding. It was that trait that eventually cussed his death.
When a large storm swept across the sky, he was part of a large group of searches flying through the storm to try and capture stray chickens and help animals that had been trapped on the cliffsides threatened to be knocked off into the void below at any moment. With the storm still raging and pushing rain sideways all night, Vahhryn continued looking for stragglers. he eventually returned home shaking with cold with a last man holding on to his craft, who had been knocked off the edge without a parachute. The man would have surely died without Vahhryn’s help, but Vahhryn collapsed into bed that night, and by the next day, his family was trying desperately to treat his high fever and pneumonia.
The last person to speak with Vahhryn before he died was Yoren, who Vahhryn had asked for. He pleaded with his brother to stop being so reckless. “Surely, you will injure yourself or someone else… please stop scheming as well. The community will only take so much of it. One day they’ll banish you.”
Yoren blew off his brothers words and demanded that he stop speaking nonsense and get better. But the next morning, Vahhryn had died.
#20 – Khris Lendehr
Khris is in his middle-age now. 30 years working in the countryside below Himmerd has tanned his face grown crisp wrinkle and dstrong hands like leather blacksmith’s gloves. He left Himmerd decades ago of his own accord when he fell in love with the daughter of a Shepard with a drastic fear of heights. Never having been much of a Pilot himself, he finally decided to move down to the ground, knowing he’d have little contact with his family. He first heard about events stirring in Himmerd when a passing relative chatted with him about the events surrounding Yoren Zenthhfyr five or six years back. But he had no idea that those events would lead to the eventual attack on Himmerd, and when his relations begin visiting him more often, and he receives word about the terrible events in the sky above him, he is torn by the desire to continue protecting his children and grandchildren, and a desire to aid his old family.
Eventually he decides to walk a middle road, begin a quiet investigation amongst the loose network of feudal lands outside the city-states surrounding the Deep Sea, seeking information about Yoren’s whereabouts. He is the first to find out about Yoren’s change to Jyorn, and his connection with the court of Scania.
#19 – Job Flug
Job is a man that seems too high-strung at first glance. He finds keeping his wife in line a constant trial, but at times he enjoys the time away from her, because she also takes the drama away with her. To an outsider, their marriage seems to be held together by nothing more than a large dose of physical passion and an intense willpower to ‘make it work’, But the two of them grew up together, and he knows she appreciates his grounded outlook on life, as well as the tenderness he’s shown to their children. He is part of the small crew Bromella manages across the Himmerd fleet who handle general repairs and maintenance to the larger skykraft, but his greatest specialty is navigation, which often keeps him flying back between the boats and trying to conduct communications between everyone by semaphore.
The situation with the attack on the Island has caused a constant rift in his relationship with his wife, as their situation is uncertain, and the house-boat that he had built for his family has since had to be shared with several other refuges, keeping the two of them on constant edge at the invasion of their privacy. Though another two boats have been built in the months since the attack, the pinch on their free space and free time has only been marginally relieved.
He is tall, wiry, and as his wife loves to tease him about, he’s already going very gray, and beginning to show streaks of white in his hair, despite only just turning thirty.
#18 – Henry Holbein
Henry Holbein is the current patriarch of the Holbein family and business. He spends most of his days walking to and fro between the various packaging and preparation houses his family owns, quelling a sibling squabble, or simply walking to give his various servants, vassals and family members a harder chance of finding him and forcing him to make some silly decision about a problem that shouldn’t have even been brought to him.
He is even known amongst some of his employees for throwing off his better clothes and pretending to be an average worker in order to avoid the more tedious aspects of his status. A day or two every week spent maneuvering bales of dried fish or lugging 4×4’s around to aid the various carpentry crews has not only helped him keep some of his youthful muscles and stave off the 60-year-old beer gut (which grows despite his efforts), but also helped him keep an ear to the ground around the city and a good image in the eyes of all the townsfolk beholden to him.
He is a shrewd but compassionate man, and though he is most often quiet and reserved, he never allows others to talk over him. The thing he hates most in life is having to visit his father, the man who would still be Patriarch if he weren’t bedridden and in a state so poor but continuous that everyone wishes he would die for everyone’s sake.
He sees a kindred spirit in Salvitore when he first meets him, and after seeing the spark in Salvitore and his daughter’s eyes upon meeting, finds it a perfect excuse to convince Salvitore to stay with their family as a layman and advisor.
Henry’s most distinctive physical trait is a big bushy mustache that is slightly reddish in contrast to his naturally dark brown hair. The mustache also curls just a tiny bit at the corners of his lips, making his dimples show more.
#25 “Magnum Man”
Universe/Storyline: The Beacon
To read a sketchy comic introduction to The Beacon featuring some horribly drawn stick figures, feel free to visit this photobucket album.
Magnum Man is another hired hero, somewhat like Captain Curveball. His powers also place him in the generic hero category. Magnum Man represents the NRA, and always carries a couple of signature magnum pistols, which he doesn’t use much but shows off often. Occassionally, Magnum will fire off a round to show off, or stop a bad guy in some indirect way, but he would never shoot someone (it’s written into his contract that he has to fire his gun every so often, but if he hits a person he won’t get paid). Magnum Man is very fond of puns regarding his anatomy: his arms are his guns and a certain part of him is apparently “magnum-sizedâ€.
He is another in a line of unregistered heroes that The Beacon and Searchlight aim to track and tag. Currently, he is actually on the run from the law, after accidentally shooting a civilian in the leg.
When they eventually find him, The Beacon and Searchlight discover that Magnum Man has a softer side buried underneath all of that manly, gun-toting energy. He doesn’t even like guns, and only used them because the NRA was the only group offering him a contract, and their contract said he had to carry and use guns. He feels terrible about shooting the person, and agrees to go to court and serve time if necessary. The gesture is rare among generic heroes who commit crimes, and noted by the media. After this burst of attention, Magnum Man gets a new contract right away.
#28 Harvey C. Turtle
This guy is up for any adventure, although you may need to wait a while for him to finish it! Harvey prides himself on family, almost to a fault.
#16 & 17 – Dex & Rex
Dexter loves Dinosaurs, especially the T-Rex that lives in the woods at the bottom of the garden. Rex will often poke his head in through the nursery window to make sure his snoozing little buddy is ok.
Shane S
#12 Xaiyoi
Along the arrid mountain paths of the Silk Road, the Fire Nuns of western deserts were renowned for protecting the caravans with their kung fu. For a small donation to their convent, a pair of nuns would escort merchants to their destination, warding off bandits & raiders with their fiery fighting techniques. In many cases, the nuns would use their pyrokinetic skills to simply scare away adversaries before anyone came to blows. But Xaiyoi was different. She loved to fight. And though it broke with the order’s philosophies, she took an almost sadistic glee in setting wicked people ablaze. The other nuns are starting to get wary of her actions. But she just can’t help herself.
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Another Eurasian character. Overall, not super thrilled about this one. I like how the face turned out but that’s about it. The pose is awkward, especially for a martial artists & I think I started rushing this without giving it a lot of love. I mean the get up she’s wearing feels weak. Retroactively, it looks too similar to certain existing characters & there were easy choices I could’ve made to avoid that. And the name is syllables hodgepodged together. It seems to kind of fit the vibe I was looking for, but I always hate doing that kind of thing. Especially when it’s something I’m trying to do with a kind of historical basis.
More to come as I get more time. I’m quite happy with the twofer I’ve got coming up next.
#28-Elbert the Elf That Doesn’t Believe in Santa
Elbert is a toy making elf at Santa’s workshop at the North Pole. But if you ask him there is no such person as Santa. As far as Elbert is concerned the elves are working in the factory of a major toy corporation and the fat guy in the red suit walking around is just some supervisor they sent. After all science would say there is no way for one guy to get around the world to every house in one night and don’t get him started on flying reindeer. So if you are looking for good thoughts of a jolly old soul bringing presents this Christmas, don’t hang around with Elbert, he’ll tell you you’re crazy.
Day 20 Mighty Joe
Super intelligent monkey Einstein Burroughs’ greatest creation. The engine of destruction that is ‘Mighty Joe’
#25 Saint Felix, Patron Saint of Happiness & Pleasure
#25 Saint Felix, Patron Saint of Happiness & Pleasure (Fantasy Humor) The name says it all. Felix is one of my anthropomorphic animal characters that shares a cartoon world with Monaka the Monkey, Harry the Horse, and others.
This idea came from my wife. We were driving around yesterday when we passed Felix Street. I reminded my wife that the name Felix comes from the latin word for “happiness”. As I said that, we passed a Cathlotic church, and my wife adds “Saint Felix, the patron saint of happiness and pleasure.” And so, an idea was born. Also, the idea was aided by the fact that our orange tabby’s name is Felix (so the drawing came easily enough too).
#24 ELECTRONICA
Based on a character sketch by my 9 year old daughter. Her version had lap tops for feet! LOL I went a little more conservative in my interpretation of her idea. 😀
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#11 The Uzbek
The services offered by the man simply known as the Uzbek, do not come cheap. But if you have the means, there isn’t a better surveillance package available on the market. Often used to help monitor deals or snoop on targets, the Uzbek uses up to 8 flying camera drones & brain augmenting implants to operate as a walking panopticon. There’s very few places he can’t see, capable of even hacking most existing surveillance set ups on the fly. The Uzbek is capable of seeing all.
But that’s all anyone knows about the man. It’s unclear whether or not the Uzbek is even Uzbeki. All that’s known is that he started surfacing in Tashkent about fifteen years ago.
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Did this guy rather quickly on a whim. Originally, in my list of jump off ideas I had “The [Nationality] – Espionage Cyborg” & originally thought it be a nondescript man who transformed into a big mean cyborg killing machine close to what I had with the Red Hammer I posted last year at the end. But instead, I opted for a bit of a smaller scope & decided to make him a surveillance guy. I had in mind the Gargoyle characters from Snow Crash that do nothing but collect data. But with the way technology is, I wasn’t about to encumber this guy with stuff when he probably has maybe six, tiny devices on his person capable of all of that. But ultimately, I wanted a sketchy cyberpunk spy kind of vibe going on here.
Why Uzbekistan? Because I don’t think they get much love is all.
This is #11 for me. I have all the way through 20 on my photobucket & ready to slowly post. But I am at work right now & it’s a little hard. So instead of one big flood, I’ll post here & there throughout the day. I might not make all 30, but I think I might make it pretty close.
#24 Captain of the Time Agents
#24 Captain of the Time Agents (Scifi/Steampunk) Back in 1880, in an England we never knew, technology advanced in other directions than our world did. And amoung their “modern marvels” is a secret organization called the Time Agents. Answerable only to the Queen, the agents have scientific devices that awhile them to travel forward and backwards in time. They are well aware to the danger of that travel — accidents do happen — but they do their duty to help purserve the timeline and the British Empire as they know it.
This concept for a comic is interesting. I’m a fan of not only H.G.Wells and Jules Verne, but the X Files and Warehouse 13 TV series. So a Steampunk sci fi angle for this series was/is a natural. In fact, on the Warehouse 13 series, the show has their version of H.G.Wells as an agent in England at Warehouse 12. Hmm, could I somehow squeeze in a crossover story, where the Captain (I haven’t given him an actual just yet) and Warehouse 12 agents join in a single adventure?
Also, sorry about the color this time. The layout of the drawing I made was the way I wanted it, but the color turned out crappy. If I had known how the picture turned out, I would have left it as a black and white illustration.
#28 – Peter Jennings – Scout
I have a definite soft spot for Peter Jennings. When I was a kid, he was my Edward R. Murrow, the epitome of respect, trustworthiness, and class. In many ways, seeing him doing the news every night really kindled my interest in history, politics, and current events. As a reporter, Mr. Jennings was a pretty impressive guy; a high school dropout, he rose through the ranks to become one of the big three newscasters of the 1980s and 90s.
Personally, though, I think the best work Mr. Jennings did was as a foreign correspondent. He cut a dashing figure in a tan vest, and his utter unflinchability was amazing. Its this skill in unfamiliar terrain that led me to cast Mr. Jennings in the role of Scout. Though more common to Real-Time Strategy than RPGs, the Scout tends to be a fast, frail character, sort of a midpoint between the Ranger and the Rogue, and often uses terrain-based skills.
#23 Monaka the Monkey
#23 Monaka the Monkey (Fantasy Humor) Monaka lives in a world of cartoon characters with Harry the Horse, Oliver the Owl, and Saint Felix, patron saint of pleasure.
Once upon a time I had the idea of being a comic book artist. And recently I realized that the old time comic artists were in a situation where one week they would be doing a superhero story, the next a war comic, and a third a funny animal cartoon. In effect, they had to do a variety of different comics to bring their money in (and thus, be able to continue creating comics). So recently I started making my own anthropomorphic cartoon characters to help fill out my ability to draw comics — even if I never become a pro artist like I orginally planned.
#28: Landslide
Real Name: Jason Barton
Age: 19
Height: 5’7″
Weight: 156 lbs.
Powers: Able to control sections of ground and earth
Character info: When I came up with the idea for Landslide, I visually had his appearance in my head for awhile. I knew he would be a character that just wore regular clothes, not being someone who wanted to conform to a hero/villain look. That also explains a lot about his personality; he walks the line between hero and villain. He uses his powers to benefit himself, but rarely hesitates if he sees someone in trouble. I have a few different ideas of where I might use Landslide, but rest assured, you’ll see more of him soon…
#28: Nice Apple
He’s the leader in a new team I made up called The Super Apples. He’s the nice one.
Thanks, Xavier
#30Characters Chatter…