Prime Painter

Though born as an ordinary human, called Jericho, the man now called the Prime Painter was favored by the Space-God of Creation known as Genitor. So impressed with Jericho’s devotion to creating works or art, Genitor decided to grant him with a mystical paintbrush that allows him to alter reality.

Always having hoped to improve the world with his art, Jericho began to use his new powers for the greater good. Though he originally tried to fight against poverty, disease, and world hunger, the Space God of Hopelessness caught wind of his actions and began to actively oppose him. Since then, Jericho has been publicly seen as a sort of superhero who has had to spend a large amount of his time reacting as the Monsters of Despair work to make the world look terrible. Jericho is saddened that his efforts are hampered by this “supervillain” nonsense, but what can he do but keep fighting?

Weggles

Weggles was born deformed in a harsh world during a great battle between good and evil forces. His parents were both killed in war within a week of his birth. The odds were very good that the infant Weggles would not survive long. The only reason that baby did not starve to death in his bed was the arrival of the Old Sage, who knows that anyone can be useful, deformed or not. The Sage took Weggles to some of his allies, who raised him, and whenever possible the Sage would return to instruct young Weggles in all manner of obscure knowledge. As Weggles now approaches adulthood, he is leaving home for the first time to work at a newly formed school to help other children across the war-ravaged realm accomplish their potential.

It’s worth noting: I’ve got a whole lot of notes dating back to the same era as my superhero notes that are about a vast fantasy world. It occurred to me that I ought to dig into those for Supernatural Sundays, since a fantasy world should surely count as supernatural. I’ve got enough characters in those notes to keep me going until the end of this year’s theme even without thinking up new ideas (not that I intend to do that).

In other news, I did a guest strip for a webcomic called Beeserker and it went up this week. After doing things online since 2002 or so, maybe it is time to get out into the “community” for a while.

David Winter

It has been foretold that there will be a boy who will make the world a better place. He will have the power to stand up against all the forces of evil and drive them away. That boy is David Winter. Could he be the most important person to ever exist? He certainly seems to think so, and is not ashamed to let you know that. With his posse of more colorful and interesting friends, David spends a lot of time talking himself up, and hasn’t yet taken a single step toward making the world better.

As a person who hates almost every aspect of everything I love, I must say that near the top of the list of things I hate in fiction is the Chosen One narrative or anything where a character is prophesied to do great things. I admit it can be done well (generally I can tolerate it a bit more if it causes problems for the character), but too often it is just a way of telling the reader that the character is important. I don’t want to see characters that are important because of outside influence. I prefer to see characters earn whatever importance they wind up with.

Killer Emote

Kids these days are all about the texting. There’s a lot to worry about with kids online, you’ve got cyber-bullying and sexting and, of course, the supernatural serial killer who slaughters any teens stupid enough to get his attention. The Killer Emote! His information can be found on the darker sides of the Internet, and when a teenager tries to contact him (usually on a dare), things end in a bloody mess.

I already did a slasher movie villain from the “makes jokes and has a personality” vein, so to balance things out, I knew I had to do one who comes from the “silent, slow-moving masked killer” mold. This type of slasher villain can get away with not being supernatural in nature, but this is Supernatural Sundays month, so the Emote is. The Killer Emote is the type of character who would have appeared in a low-budget slasher from the early 2000s written by people who know texting is the popular new thing and just need to find a way to turn it into horror flick.