D.B. is my scapegoat. Whenever I need a vent for my frustrations, D.B. is there. Originally, D.B. started out as a way for me to cope with one of my teachers: The subject was abstract algebra (a subject I enjoy), and the teacher was a doughy little lard-ball whose middle and last initials were D.B. He was a prick. I hated him. He would place unreasonable expectations on his class, incorrectly prepared us for his tests... hell, he came drunk out of his gourd for our final exam review and filled us all manner of nonesense that had little bearing on our final. So, one week when he was giving us an exam, I attacked him the best way I knew how... I tortured the pudgy bastard in my comic strip. I ultimately got a 'C' from the course (my first) and have loathed the little man ever since. Granted, in my years of torturing his doppleganger, I have grown to pity the guy. He was this short, fat, bald old man, with no love, no life, and few friends. His bitterness made him a poor teacher, and lent him few aquantances there. He was lonely and ticked off and the only way he knew to cope was to lash out at the very people who he could inspire.... Oh well.... he's still a simple-minded feebish crank-hole. (By the way, I did actually draw a comic about him in particular, which can be seen by clicking here!) Dave, Frank, and HAL are on an extended mission to Saturn... wait, NO... Jupitor... wait, NO.... they work deep within the bowels of some University's computer network. Dave and Frank are among the "pnambic" workers that few see, or even know exist, who work to keep the network up and running well. HAL is a self-aware computer that originally had Microsoft's Windows NT installed... but was then liberated via the installation of Linux (specifically a Caldera distribution), who also may or may not be talking via a penguin atop his monitor.... Ewol is a backwoodsy, inbred, hick. He's also paranoid, violent, and ignorant (hey, he could be one of my relatives!) He's also a lot of fun to draw. Many people don't get his cartoons.... and I guess they are pretty far out there, even for Strenua Inertia strips. Even still, I like them. I don't really try to make statements with Ewol (except for perhaps statements against stupidity). His cartoons are typically just a mental dumping of any weirdnesses that have amassed during the creation of my previous strips. They are what's left over that didn't necessarily fit anywhere else. I don't really know what Dot is..... kind of a voice of reason, kind of a leacherous retch, kind of a modern prophet of logic, kind of a cynosure for the masses, kind of an abstraction for the faceless individual..... But mostly just me being lazy...... Paranoid Ned is afraid of the world and everything in it. He trusts no one and fears everything. He has been called my "ego", in the psychoanalytic theory sense. The ego is one of the three divisions of the psyche, and serves as the organized conscious mediator between the person and reality, especially by functioning both in the perception of and adaptation to reality. Of course, I don't believe all that, as I fear all psychoanalysts are out to get me..... Sinister Sam hates people and society. He is the ultimate cynic. Critical of culture and politics, it is often observed he has communistic tendancies (especially in his grey attire!) He has been called my "id", the one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that is completely unconscious and is the source of psychic energy derived from instinctual needs and drives. Of course, this is a load of hooey, as I think he's more like a skin rash that is an allergic reaction to an agent causing an infection.... Bizarro Sam is the "alternate universe" version of Sinister Sam. While you might expect Bizarro Sam to be the opposite of Sinister Sam, i.e. nice and kind, loving to all creatures, sweet, gentile, and a social butterfly.... other than the fact that Bizarro Sam is hunched forward, and always has an insane smile he is identical to Sinster Sam in demeanor. Muscle Man is exactly what he seems.... a guy with no skin. He has no super-human abilities, though one might suspect otherwise given his name. He is susceptible to all the human frailties that ordinary man is... even more so as he has to watch out for things which would aggravate his exposed innards (such as salt, rubbing alcohol, sand, wolves.....) Some have called Muscle Man my "superego", the one of the three divisions of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory that is only partly conscious, representing internalization of parental conscience and the rules of society- functioning to reward and punish through a system of moral attitudes, conscience, and a sense of guilt...... Of course, whomever came up with such a concept should be ashamed of themselves as it is, with out a doubt, the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard..... Screwtape & Wormwood are just your two average work-a-day stiffs stranded in a dead-end, go-nowhere corporate job. They slave away all day long making meager wages and doing menial labor. They could be simple low end pencil pushers in some brokerage house, tellers in a corner bank, paper scratching simian secretaries in a big business, research assistants in a law firm, or any other low skill employee working in a place where they have no hope of advancement or recognition (other than low-end grunt of the week). They could be working in any one of these locales.... they just so happen to be working in Hell. Professor B. is not really one of my comic strip characters.... he's kind of a little running gag. There is a professor in the University of Arizona Mathematics Department who's initials are BJB, and who is also a great teacher.... one of my favorites. He's a really nice guy, who's always enthusiastic about his subject, and gives some very challenging assignments (challenging in a good way!) Anyway, he was the first person to discover my "secret identity" and so I started making references to him and his class in my strip. Eventually I just stuck him in one of my cartoons, and the character Professor B. was born. Chain-Mail is the Strenua Inertia universe's super-hero! He's a big, strongthy, chain-clad ape concerned with all that the average super-hero is concerned with: Fashion, reputation, appearances, and... oh yeah... that justice stuff as well... With his trusted side-kick, "Chain-Link Boy" they thwart crime and prejudice, and attend some real faboo super-hero conventions and trade shows!