OC Inspiration Meme

Now it's time to embarrass myself by explaining where I get these ideas! 8'D

JASPER ZINC
1: Chemistry class. I originally got the name for the Zincs from this class (worked one day in zinc-chloride, and just randomly named my previously one-shout character it and it stuck and evolved to Zinc today). After developing Riley Zinc more, I decided to explain not only his history, but also Chimera's backstory, so I needed something science-related. Hey, chemicals are cool, right? MAKE HIM A CHEMIST! So I did.

By the way, I'm really bad at science.

2: My grandpa. This is probably the biggest inspiration for Jasper. As I thought to myself, "Hmmm, I need to write a grandpa for Zinc. Who do I know who is a grandpa..." This explains Jasper's weight (my grandpa was pretty big [sorry grandpa don't haunt me]) and stubbornness, and also his "cranky old man" kind of attitude. Man, I loved my grandpa. He was so awesome. I love cranky old men. (PS in retrospect I should've added Carl from Up onto this list for Jasper and Isabelle's story).

3: Dr. Finklestein. Mad doctors in general, yes, but I always imagined Jasper with a Finklestein voice (that and Finklestein's a crabby old man too).

4: I got Jasper's name from 101 Dalmatians. IT'S A GOOD NAME SHUT UP.

5: Victorian era get-up from this TV series of Sherlock Holmes featuring Jeremy Brett. If you haven't watched it, you really really should.

6: Jasper's temper. Don't get me wrong, I love my dad and he's a really nice guy. He (and, well, all male Burgs apparently) just has a really bad temper. He'll fly off the handle at certain things and I always find it hilarious (especially when my brother gets mad, oh man). Because I grew up in this kind of environment of anger = hilarious, I of course had to make Jasper reeeeeeally really angry.

7: Mad doctors. Any, really. That's sorta the thing with me, I have like, a character for every type of mad doctor. Jasper sticks more traditionally to the stereotype, what with actually doing science, the giant ego, the laughing, the hair, and so on. He varies from the stereotype in ways of his compassion and siding with emotions over logic.

8: Dr. Frankenstein (again, mad doctor thing), mostly with his eagerness of creating Chimera. Unlike Frankenstein, though, Jasper mothers Chimera like a hen.

9: Since I made Jasper after Zinc, it made most sense to base him off Zinc. This is more where the Zinc family traits came in, since I made them look EXACTLY alike (since Jasper originally wasn't fat or had wrinkles) and all the other fun quirks that go along with them (persistence, family-oriented, ect.).

10: I also made Chimera before Jasper, so it made sense to me to base him off Chimera (since Chimera would be influenced by Jasper directly). This is how Jasper got his speech pattern of no contractions and so on from. Also explained Chimera's silly name (with Jasper being a dork).



VAGABOND
1: MAAAAAD DOCTORS! Yes, Vagabond (Blake) was originally a mad doctor when I created him. Originally made him for an interactive story where friends of mine would take turns writing a chapter, but it never went anywhere. That's also where the goggle-eyes come from.

2: Yeah, the whole "no limbs" thing except no body. Yep.

3: Westerns since uh... Vagabond's a western story, so it follows some of the tropes while flipping other tropes around.

4: Martial arts. I was in martial arts for awhile until I went to college (got to brown belt) and loved it. Since Blake has uh... no where to put any weapons, it made sense to me he'd fight more along these lines.

5: Vincent's shoes. SHUT UP THEY'RE COOL.

6: "Vagabond" all started because of Rick and I joking around after reading the Cardboard Tube Samurai. Seriously, Blake never used to be over-the-top dramatic until we read this, then said, "HEY you know what would be a funny story?! Blake in a western being overly dramatic!" Then we made the comic as more of a joke, and people took it seriously.

7: Computers. More of the whole "true or false" kind of aspects with computers of having no grey area. Blake does have the ability to see grey area in subjects, but a lot of times concepts are black and white to him.

8: LED clocks inspired Blake's eyes. That's how he gets the eye expressions and having his eyes look like they're half-closed and the pupils and so on.

9: Cape. SHUT UP GAAAAAAAWD IT'S COOOOOOOL.

10: Samurai Jack (more on Rick's inspiration when writing Vagabond, again with the over-the-top dramatics in mind).



FLINT DARTSON
1. The only reason I ever made Flint was because of Zinc. Waaaaay back in the day, Zinc used to be an angry villain constantly doing reckless stunts for the most ridiculous reasons. I decided to make Flint for someone to watch after Zinc so it'd explain why Zinc never manages to get killed somehow. Funny thing, Flint used to be the level-headed/never angry guy while Zinc would fly off the handle constantly.

2: My brother. When coming up with Flint, I thought, "Man, I want to make him a prick. Now, who do I know that's a prick...?" Don't get me wrong, I love my brother. He's hilarious and he's a cool dude. But he's also a prick (and is proud of it).

3: Vampires for me were never about a certain series. It was more just all the different stories of vampires that attracted me, so I guess Dracula would be default in that case in my quest to look up vampires of different cultures.

4: Harry Potter's hair of "untidy and black" and him never being able to make it look decent ever.

5: I got Flint's name from EarthBound 64's/Mother 3's Flint the cowboy. SHUT UP I LIKE THE NAME.

6: His appearance was made so you weren't quite sure what he was after (originally he was a villain, but he sorta flip-flopped on different sides making things odd that way). So, he was modeled after the stereotypical "stranger danger" look, where you know you shouldn't trust him (but you do anyway).

7: This specific image made me thing Flint should have wings as a vampire (since originally I didn't intend them to be implant wings).

8: Rick. He comes up with quite a few ideas for Flint like the robotic wings versus his other wing designs (not to mention he does his voice for animations too). Yes, I picked the best picture of Rick looking retarded.

9: Rick's addition to Flint after listening to a radio drama on Dragnet. The episode was about the cops taking care of a con man, to which Rick said, "Hey, Flint's a shifty actor. Why doesn't he con people?"

10: Fourth wall jokes probably came from these guys. In all honesty, Flint never did fourth wall jokes in earlier scripts until the comic came along full and proper.




Blank: [link]