A Snapshot of the Cast of ‘Tommy One and the Apocalypse Gun’

While I was writing “Tommy One and the Apocalypse Gun,” I worked from a series of character descriptions. These simple efforts to layout the characteristics of each cast member helped me keep things straight as I was writing this adventure set in the Tidewater Region of Virginia.

With “Tommy One and the Apocalypse Gun” over a year old now, I thought it may be interesting for you to see what I had to say about each of the main characters!

 Tommy One and the Apocalypse Gun Character Profiles

• Tommy One — A spry teenager with perfect musculature, Tommy One often comes across as aloof and somewhat detached from what’s going on around him. He loves being on an adventure and whenever he’s engaged in a case, he’s got  a smirk on his face. Tommy One always wears a shining black domino mask that matches his calf-high black army boots. The so-called Eternal Teenager is most recognizable for his a red, form-fitting shirt with yellow piping around its wide, open neck. It surely is an outfit that means he stands out in a crowd. He holsters his preferred sidearm, the Tokarev T-33, in a belt over his light brown jodhpurs.
• Professor Johann Weitmursch — A former German national, Professor Johann Weitmursch has among the oddest pedigrees around — with doctorates in biology and chemistry along with great knowledge and experience in a variety of arcane disciplines. Despite the depth of his schooling, Weitmursch directs his activities (and students) in a military fashion — he gives orders and expects results. Most days, Weitmursch wears a wool blazer and dark dress pants and is usually enshrouded in a ring of sweet-smelling pipe smoke. But beyond that, Weitmursch’s students at Forester University remember him for his head of thick dark hair that could put a circus lion to shame.
• Imogene Throne — Despite the outward appearance of your typical bobby socks-wearing teenager, Imogene Throne has a lot more going on inside her head than any ten of her peers. She’s got a brilliant mind — in the sciences and humanities — along with being a gifted athlete. Still, it’s important to remember that she is a teenager — emotional, combative, naive and eager to test the limits. She typically wears her raven-black hair in a ponytail that swings around her head. A natural beauty, she’s found that a flash of her deep blue eyes can change almost anyone’s mind.
• Captain Blackeye — (SPOILER WARNING) When a typical person thinks of an evil scientist, they imagine a pudgy, bald misfit cackling behind a chemistry set. Captain Blackeye is nothing like that. Instead, he’s best described as the pirate Blackbeard crossbred with Leonardo DaVinci. He’s a big fellow with long black hair, a trimmed beard and a genius of mind trained on amassing wealth and power. Beyond his impressive, pharmaceutical-fueled physique, Blackeye is most well known for his missing left eye that has been replaced by a massive black pearl with some amazing abilities of its own. With the mystical pearl oozing energy into Blackeye’s skull, it’s left a starburst pattern charred on to skin around the eye socket. (END SPOILER WARNING)
• The Blood Pirates — A criminal gang based in the Norfolk area, mostly recruited from U.S. Navy, Merchant Marine and Coast Guard castoffs. The Blood Pirates specialize in smuggling and robbery, using docks throughout the Tidewater Region as a base of operations. The Blood Pirates are assigned ranks based on occupations aboard a sailing ship. The only required bit of uniform for a Blood Pirate is a small purple velvet vest, but almost every one of them is plastered with tattoos.
• Gunner Brint — A tall, wiry Blood Pirate and close confidante of Blackeye, the gang’s leader, Brint is a real schemer who’s always working the angles. He rarely shows his emotions, which he hides behind deep-set eyes that have crow’s feet emanating out of the corners. His entire face is nicked with scars and healed lesions that show he’s lived a tough life. He wears his black hair in a thick mane and a bush goatee that hides a set of jagged teeth.
• Gruwell — Most people don’t get much of a chance to look Gruwell in the eye. Rather, they’re desperately trying to avoid any sort of eye contact with this scar-faced man-monster. Standing nearly seven-feet tall, this pile of muscle isn’t much for personal grooming. He has close-cut nest of brown hair means he doesn’t have too. Still, he’s always in need of a shave and has gap-toothed grin, the product of too many bar room brawls. And since few people dare to look him in the eye, they hardly ever notice them. More eye-slits than actual eyes, his eyes still bug out to create an effect that looks like a grinning bulldog — and not a happy one, but one that knows it’s cornered its latest snack.
• Dr. David Pembrook — Dr. Pembrook looks every bit the dashing hero, with broad shoulders and sculpted head of dark hair. He’s also a skilled physician who specializes in emergency cases. His focus is patching up Tommy One when needed and monitoring his physical status at all times. Pembrook rarely dresses for his station, preferring a bomber jacket, dungarees and a button-up shirt over scrubs and a lab coat.
• Dr. Andre Towsen — A gifted forensic detective, Dr. Andre Towsen worked for a few years with the FBI where he solved numerous crimes just by following the clues rather than chasing down criminals. A cerebral to the core, Towsen loves to analyze data rather than deal with a real person. Towsen has dirty blond hair parted to one side over his thin sullen face with large fish-like eyes.
• Commissioner Nicholas Welde — If you put Commissioner Welde in any position in the police force — from desk sergeant to beat cop to embittered homicide detective — he’d look like he belonged there. Nearing retirement, he’s worked practically every role on the Norfolk police force and is utterly dedicated to his men. Thin but athletic, short but containing a commanding presence, Welde sports close-cut grey hair and a face lined with stress.
• Mayor Jack Gertz — A World War II veteran with a thick frame who’s now the mayor of Norfolk, Va. Unlike a lot of politicians, Gertz isn’t afraid of getting physical, or at least he tries the best he can since he shows some physical limitations from his war wounds. Almost any time he’s out in public,Gertz is in a linen suit.
• Tommy Two — Tommy Two looks just like Tommy One, except that he wears a form-fitting blue shirt and pants that fit like a wetsuit. The specialized uniform helps to regulate his body temperature and has special glyphs on it to help him channel psychic energy.

The post A Snapshot of the Cast of ‘Tommy One and the Apocalypse Gun’ appeared first on John Simcoe's Comics on the Brain.