Let's talk character design origins!

[darkwingdork]

So, since today marks out 250th comic, let's talk a little bit about how I came up with the different characters for the strip.

The girls:

Allison Mancer: I know each team needed a leader, and for some reason, a rabbit just seemed perfect to me. I don't know why, it just did. I already had written story with a four-armed white rabbit (a guy in that one) so I kind of had the concept stuck in my head.

Allison's clothing design is of course based on DC Comics superhero Zatanna, a stage magician who's also a real sorceress. Despite being all powerful, she's remarkably well-grounded and decent. How Ally got the costume in the comic has yet to be addressed.

As for her name, Allison just sort of jumped out at me. It seemed like a nice middle-of-the-road name, so I went with it. Her last name "Mancer" is of course a reference to "-mancer," a typical suffix describing magic users (necromancer, pyromancer, etc)

Sheila: I knew the team would need some muscle, so I figured a kangaroo would be a good fighter, you know the ol' stereotype about Australians being up for a donnybrook, plus kangaroos boxing... it all seemed to run together fine. And speaking of Aussie stereotypes, her name is Australian slang for a woman.

I have a punk rocker dragon character, so that aspect was applied to Sheila as well (rock band t-shirts, spiked neck collar, etc) The tail cuff? I always felt that tails were wasted real estate on a furry's body when it came to decorations. Why not put something on it, right?

He last name "Spellman" is another magic pun. It's also the last name of "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch."

Reece: Reece was a bit more of a challenge when it came to visualizing her. I never had a fox character before, so I started from scratch. Jimi Hendrix's song "Foxy Lady" just seemed to be stuck in my head, so I went with that. I saw her as a sort of ditz, but still the center between Ally and Sheila. She dresses the most feminine of the three, and is a bit of a fashion diva.

Reece's absentminded nature can be explained by her psychic powers.. her mind is literally wandering at times. Unfortunately, her powers aren't fully developed yet, so she only catches glimpses of images, and not the full story.

Unlike Ally and Sheila, I was stuck with coming up with a name for her. Luckily, the movie The Terminator was on TV, and I kept hearing the name Reece over and over again (Michael Biehn's character in the movie). So I decided on that one. There was brief hesitation as I thought it might be too much of a guy's name, but two seconds later I remembered actress Reece Witherspoon, and it was settled.

Her last named "Kraft" is another magic pun, as in "witchcraft," but Reece isn't evil so that's cool.


That's it for this installment. I'll have more origin information in future entries. Enjoy!

[darkwingdork]

Dang, it's been a while.

Let's move on to the hubbies:

Peter Mancer: Peter's name is a reference, of course, to Peter Rabbit. His bad clothing choices reflect my own troubles matching up colors (I'm no where near as pathetic as Pete though) and his background as a journalist matches my own. I really enjoyed reading Entertainment Weekly when I was in college, so it seemed natural to have Peter be covering the entertainment industry.

Plus, this allows yours truly to make pop culture reference and launch attacks on celebrity with Peter as my avatar.

I see Peter and Ally being kindred spirits, hence why they hit it off so well.

Will Spellman: Will is like Sheila, just a lot less forceful. He's a bit of poser, like many punk rockers are, and tends to have a big ego about his band.

On a personal level, he's an okay guy to hang with, and he and Sheila have a healthy relationship, for the most part. Still, Will is the first to really notice the girls are not being 100% forthcoming with what they do in their spare time.

I needed someone who could relate to Sheila, and another punk rocker seemed to fit. In fact, I see Sheila as having been a rebel for most of her life, and probably meeting Will was what led her to choose this persona.

Nick Kraft: Nick, like many people in life, didn't have his dreams come true. Stuck as a manager at a local fast food joint, Nick represents a lot of young adults who feel trapped in their job and surrounded by soul-crushing people who exist only to make their lives miserable.

I think Nick subconsciously reflects my cynical side, and his complete contempt for his work is matched only by own secret love of people's foibles. In many ways, he was inspired by Randal Graves from Clerks, though he lacks Randal's horndog views of women and his lackadaisical views toward work. Nick may hate his job, but he still treats it seriously.

Nick's pairing up with Reece is probably the strangest combo of the main characters, because on the surface they're nothing alike. Ally & Peter and Sheila & Will make sense, but acid-tongued Nick and free-spirit Reece seem like cheese and chalk. But it's clear that each one of the two completes the other, perhaps because they secretly wish they could be more like the other.