Here’s the inside of my head:

I’m trying to teach myself to be good at making pixel art (I’ve always maintained it was an unconscionable failure that I didn’t make Adventure Dennis in pixel art), so I kinda drew a stream-of-consciouness piece. The results are full of PDR-ness, so I thought I’d make some annotations:

• To begin, the colour scheme is basically that of this website (more orangey than yellow, but close), which I’ll have had for 20 years this year. It’s a pretty important part of my life, even if after all that time I don’t think I’ve managed to make of it what I want it to be. But I’m still going here in this Internet age of social media, how many websites from 2006 can say that?
• It’s a cityscape. None of the buildings here are specific references, really, but PDR is definitely cityfolk and likes tall buildings. I tried to work in a garden of flowers on the rooftop near the beekeeper, but I sucked at drawing it, so instead we have a cityscape that doesn’t show as much nature as I’d like, but I can pretend that’s there and just enjoy the cityness of it.
• I mentioned the beekeeper, and that’s another very PDR thing. Remember when the Internet was a little more innocent and people got into debates about Pirates versus Ninjas? Well, PDR decided he had to be kooky and special and different and chose Beekeepers. But you can’t say I didn’t commit. I have become the world’s foremost reviewer of Fictional Beekeepers, after all. The Beekeeper in the image could be Adam Obianu, my own badass fictional beekeeper, but it doesn’t really matter, it’s just the concept of Beekeepers.
• The person with the beekeeper is nobody in particular, but I’ve come to think that if this is, as I joked, the inside of my head, that’s probably my own self image. Certainly it doesn’t look like me physically, since I’m a big masc oaf, but I do think that if I could choose my physical form at will something smaller and more feminine would be likely, since I already feel like I take up more space than I’d like and I am not especially manly by the standards of society. And she’s friends with the beekeeper. I like friends and I like beekeepers.
• The building the beekeeper and figure are standing on has a little occult symbol on there. I mostly just enjoy designing symbols that look occult (I did it in The Demon of South Gloria as a recent example), but the one in the image I have designed with a story in mind that I’ve not yet managed to tell.
• To the lower left of that occult symbol you can see Mackestry Manor, home to Many Monsters and setting of activity books I’ve made for sale on the Internet. I’ve not had the energy to make more recently, but I intend to get back there at some point.
• On a building overlooking the Manor is a little creature called a skeffix. This little guy comes from a one-page RPG I made as part of a Game Jam, and is standing in for my desire to create games. I mean, I technically HAVE created games, Skeffix for example, but I’d like to have the time to really refine and produce one that I could sell to the world. Maybe this’ll be the year.
• Above the skeffix is my attempt at a duck flying by. I purposely made to attempt to make this accurate to any species of duck because, once again, this is a self-reference. Back before emails and stuff, when I used to send letters to friends, I would occasionally just end them with “and here’s a picture of a duck” and do a little doodle of a duck. It was never meant to be high art, it was meant to be PDR’s way of ending a letter. I just like ducks. Here’s one time I made a Snow Duck.
• To the right of the duck you’ll see some sort of UFO-looking thing, but that’s actually the Hover Headquarters, home to Hover Head and the Team of Superheroes, the stars of a comic I made years and years ago. As far as this image is concerned, that floating base stands in for all my webcomics, including the likes of the insufferable Comical Comedy Rabbit Comics, or the Phone Guys, which has somehow had over 800 strips at this point. The fact that the two comics I have that are still ongoing are the ones I’ve intentionally made difficult is not lost on me. I really ought to revisit Hover Head and try to make a comic that actually works.
• Behind the Hover Headquarters one will note a massive sphere in the sky. That certainly isn’t the sun, PDR doesn’t enjoy the sun enough to include that particular massive sphere. While making the drawing, I got it into my head that this city is on a moon around a gas giant world. No real reason for that beyond my general love of science fiction, but that still counts.
• And finally, streaking across the sky, is a little spaceship designed by none other than PDR at some point under age ten. I don’t remember exactly when, but in elementary school I made a little spaceship design out of some construction toys and I still have it. I use an image of me as a child as my profile image on pretty much all social media because I want that kid’s dreams to come true. And that includes that spaceship. Like the occult symbol, I have a story in mind for that spaceship, and I hope to tell it someday.

Because it is the holidays, and I feel like doing something different, I am giving myself the present of world-building.Today I do not give sketches of new characters, but characters who have appeared in minor capacities elsewhere on this site that I am now going to flesh out more.

Dr. Greenclothes

Dr. Greenclothes is his world’s foremost scientific mind. He is also an exceptionally badass adventurer. Always expanding the horizons of his knowledge, Greenclothes has delved into trap-filled ancient tombs, fought aliens on other worlds, mentally communicated with minds in other realities, and much more. He doesn’t plan on stopping his search for truths until someone sufficiently badass can stop him.

Doctor Greenclothes appeared in this comic here. I still vividly remember that strip’s creation. It was like “I want to draw something. I’ll make a head, draw some clothes, okay those are green clothes. Who would wear green clothes? Dr. Greenclothes, of course. What would be be doing? Public service announcement? Okay…” and so on. As you can see, he came into shape as if his existence was just a given. I took that as a sign that he was important, so he got a cameo mention thing in one page of a Hover Head story and he will return if I ever get around to doing more HH stuff.

Timelion

Metaphorically, it all starts in the Beginning. If we consider Time as a river, the Beginning is the waterfall from which it flows. Next to this symbolic waterfall is a castle. That castle was where the Timelion lived. Symbolically. Timelion was king of the Time Jungles, and was a just king, but one day, the Timelion’s evil brother, the Timevulture, overthrew him. They fought on the roof of the castle, the Timelion losing when he was kicked off the roof, and into the river below.

The Timelion then had to deal with existing. Once he was in the timestream, he was no longer an idea, but an actual solid thing. Shaped into the form of a man-lion by the stories told about him, he now has no way to return to his metaphorical Beginnings. Luckily, some of his loyal followers have followed him into reality in a Timeship called the Moment’s Notice. The Timelion now travels through the ages seeking some way to wrest time from his wicked brother’s control, having all sorts of adventures along the way.

Timelion first appeared here. Unlike Greenclothes, where I the character appeared and I built him up in my head, Timelion was a more thought-out idea that I decided to introduce in a stupidly minor form because that is the sort of thing that amuses me to do. Admittedly, Timelion stories are pretty low on my priorities list.

Speedfeet

In Hell, life kinda sucks.

One particular demon hated it there, and made no secret of it. He lodged formal complaints, and tried to start petitions to get things changed. His whining got on everyone’s nerves, though some agreed with him deep down. Eventually the demon in question decided to take matters into his own hands and liven up the place with some plants. Pretty soon after that, he was kicked out. Using all of his mystical energies, the demon became Speedfeet, approximating the human form as best he could. He came to Earth to find a more fulfilling life. Turns out, that’s a lot easier on Earth than it is in Hell. After making a friend in Joe Gamolli, Speedfeet now runs a mildly successful flower shop.

Speedfeet was introduced in a strange Christmas story I whipped up in the Contains2 days. I don’t expect I’ll need to tell more stories with the character, but for world-building reasons, I am noting that he, and Joe Gamolli, are present on the same world as Mythologikelly.

C.W.

C.W. is a Fundroon. Fundroons are an alien race of shapeshifters. C.W. tends to forget he can change his shape, because he is a lot more happy just shooting.

Leaving his homeworld at a pretty early age, C.W. was attracted to the Space Army by his love of weapons. The Space Army, a pangalactic agency that welcomed beings from all worlds and species, stationed C.W. on their proud flagship, the name of which would embarrassingly be translated into English as “The Stinky Saucer”. Many adventures were had, but when the Space Army had successfully mapped out the entire universe and created a mostly-lasting peace, the Stinky Saucer and its crew were given a much-needed chance to rest. C.W. drifted back into civilian life, but never really knew what to do with himself. Still considering guns his favorite thing, he became a thug for hire, working bodyguard jobs and doing private eye gigs. Eventually, though, he got a call from his former captain, Farniconigon, who had a new mission for him. A mission that could bring him… to Earth.

C.W. was, for some reason unknown to me, the character in my Space Army comics who had most stuck with me. We haven’t seen the last of this guy if I can help it.

In the interests of being easy on myself during this, the busy school season, I am going to rattle off some easy superheroes for a couple weeks. Instead of thinking up new characters and ideas, I’m going to use draw sketches of characters that already exist in my notes for my Hover Head stories.

As I mentioned last week, the New Superhero Team is a sort of rival group for the Team of Superheroes. Here we have two more members of that team:

The Sound Effector

Once a prominent sound technician, Amber Yoiks’s life changed after she helped record an album by a prog rock band made up of wizards. Accidentally inhaling some of their “Mystical Smoke”, Amber gained the ability to see, touch, and control sound. For example, if she heard a “POW” it would appear before as a floating word in a starburst, which she could then throw like a shuriken, or ride like a hoverboard, or just expand to make it deafening. With powers like that, she figured “might as well be a superhero.” You heard it here first.

Algo

When you are on a superhero team that routinely fights alien invaders, it can start to seem like you just don’t like aliens. That’s not the sort of image a group wants to foster, so that’s why the New Superhero Team brought in Algo, the Token Alien. With a ton of weird and wonderful powers, Algo is not only useful, he’s also a constant source of entertainment. He’s one of the good ones!

In the interests of being easy on myself during this, the busy school season, I am going to rattle off some easy superheroes for a couple weeks. Instead of thinking up new characters and ideas, I’m going to use draw sketches of characters that already exist in my notes for my Hover Head stories.

The New Superhero Team was founded by Ms. Super Robot Rocket Girl, a former member of the Team of Superheroes. Ms. Super Robot Rocket Girl decided that the most logical reason to be a superhero is to become famous and live like celebrities. The rest of the team didn’t want to go along with that, so Ms. Super Robot Rocket Girl went off to found her own team. Here are some of the members:

Queen Stronga

Queen Stronga, the queen of Strongania, is one strong queen. Stronga is used to the finest things in live, but she is not some pampered royal. Having been ritually bathed in space steroids since she was an infant, Stronga is fully capable of punching a hole in a diamond guillotine and could easily shrug off the blast from a dozen exploding powder kegs. Long Live The Queen.

The Foggy Knight

Fogbert G. Knight starred in so many martial arts movies that he suddenly became a real martial art master. Now he has the mystical ability to melt into shadows and has a sword that can sense the blood of enemies. Foggy Knight does his own stunts.

I wish I was making Hover Head stories more than once a year, but I’m not. But it doesn’t matter, because here’s one right now. Click on the first page to see the rest:

Also, there’s the Phone Guys: