With my new Light Novel series on it’s way, I thought it would be a good time to reflect back on all the characters I’ve written to date and compile a Best Of list. This list will only feature PUBLISHED characters of mine. Meaning, only characters from my print books, ebooks, webcomic or web serial. So nothing from anything I have sitting on a flash drive somewhere that hasn’t been put out into the world. Likewise, I’ll also not include anything from my upcoming series, I Dreamt I was a Red Knight’s Squire, which you can pre-order Volume 1 here.
This list will focus on my legacy characters. Essentially, the first 12 years of my publishing life from the time of this writing. So if you’re new here, take a scan through but beware of some minor spoilers. If you’re not new, let’s see if any of your favorites made the list!
Honorable Mention: Bulma (Dragon Ball)
So first of all, I can’t very well have this on a list of my characters. For one, because I didn’t create her. But it also violates the rules I set, considering I have never published this anywhere.
However, if you’re interested in reading my Dragon Ball Fanfic Persuasive Argument that Bulma could be the ultimate villain in the Dragonball Universe, here it is…
Starting out the actual list is Wraith (real name Eugene) from Isekai Mansion. Though not the main character, Wraith has some pretty key highlighted moments in Arcs 2,3 & 4.
One of my goals with Isekai Mansion was to directly address the problems with some common tropes found in Isekai stories (and harem to a degree). A fairly recent trope within the genre was having the main character hugely advantaged by the worlds they visit due to them being some kind of nerd/gamer who was familiar with things about the world from all the time they spent invested in fandom. Though the main character, Eric, liked a lot of that stuff. The only advantage he really got from it was grasping some of the other worlds concepts. He still had to work at being able to survive in said worlds.
Wraith, on the other hand, was so invested in some of the fantasy material that it aided him significantly in one particular world. He also had been training for a Ninja Warrior obstacle course competition well before he started world hopping with Eric. So my inclusion of him in the story was an ironic jab at the fact that my main character didn’t fit the trope, but this side character did!
Wraith also had a pretty good story arc. He blended in so well with one of the worlds that it was more home to him that the one he came from. In the world of Callist, Wraith ran a merchant business, got the girls and became a folk hero in his own right. The only reason he’s not higher on the list is because he’s not a totally original idea. In addition to being derived from the Isekai trope, I was partially influenced by Vigilante from Peacemaker and a little bit of thee guys from the Fear of Girls web series. But not to worry, Wraith is merely the first of several characters from Isekai Mansion to make this list, as you will see.
9. The Drifter (Glimmer in the Ashes)
Now here’s an interesting one from way back.
When I wrote Glimmer in the Ashes, I was far worse at writing secondary and tertiary characters than I am today. However, one character stands out to this day in the upper echelon.
When the heroes of the story were unable to be stopped by the Cabal’s Cybernetic Shinbobi, Human Replicant Troopers (HRTs) or their myriad of mythological creatures, they call in the Drifter.
Partially inspired by Clint Eastwood’s The Stranger from High Plains Drifter and Anton Chigrurh from No Country For Old Men and the lyrics to Metallica’s ‘Wherever I May Roam’, the Drifter was an assassin with a modern day cowboy persona. He was so damn good and so efficient at what he did that he spent most of his days just wandering until his employers called upon him to fix something their other assets couldn’t.
Like an unstoppable force of nature, the Drifter pursues you until you are no more. Then he drifts away until called again. At one point, a faction within the Cabal became so afraid of his efficiency they attempted to eliminate him by sending him on a wild goose chase to an empty office in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on Septermber 11th, 2001, knowing that the attack on the buildings would likely have few survivors. Spoiler Alert: He survived!
Though the Drifter does finally meet his demise from a very unlikely opponent in Glimmer in the Ashes, he stands out as one of the best characters I’ve ever written. Unfortunately, it was before I started having concept art made of my prominent characters.
I did however write a first draft of a prequel novella about the Drifter’s backstory. But due to various life happenings, I shelved that project before finishing. Therefore, I couldn’t possibly justify placing him higher on this list than number 9.
8. Delilah (Isekai Mansion)
The second Isekai Mansion character to make this list is Delilah, aka The Goddess of Second Chances.
Though concept art was made of most characters featured in Isekai Mansion, Delilah was a later addition to the story and alas has not made an illustrated appearance. For that reason alone she can’t go much higher than where I’ve decided to place her, but she is still very much a noteworthy creation of mine.
In the story, Eric and his allies stumble upon a Cleric by the name of Apollo. Due to some nasty things that happened to some of their other friends, they recruit Apollo to beseech the Goddess of Second Chances in order to bring them back to life. Later, Delilah decides for herself to save Eric before an untimely end. When he learns that her magic truly has no bounds, he makes a wish to undo an event from happening that causes a total unraveling of time back to before the event occurred. No one but Eric has any memory of such thing happening.
But as a consequence to helping Eric for a third time (a god can only help a mortal twice without repercussion) Delilah is banished to a lower realm by the other gods. Knowing that the realm she would be banished to was earth, Delilah factored into Eric’s wish her own revision of history. With her magic being truly boundless, she restructured the very fabric of reality to birth herself 18 years earlier as Eric’s flesh and blood cousin, to relatives of his that were otherwise childless.
Her curiosity in watching Eric and his friends inspired her desire to experience the world not as an all powerful goddess, but as a living, breathing human girl. But as an unexpected biproduct, she retained most of her knowledge of the universe, albeit with the mindset of a naive adolescent.
I truly treasure this character because outside of some influences from the Gnostic Mythos and a tiny bit of inspiration from Riri in Romantic Killer, Delilah’s character development and her story arc on into Arc 5 felt like a flow of totally original creativity. I’ve never quite seen a character like Delilah done before in this way.
7. Demon Queen Josephine (Isekai Mansion)
The scariest character I have ever written.
Yet another Isekai Mansion character and the first villain to appear on the list (The Drifter is a pariah).
I’m certainly not the first person to fetishize creepy clown girls But I assure you, no one has done it in the way I did with Demon Queen Josephine, aka Josie.
At first glance at the amazing depiction here from artist Magaly Abarca, it would appear this character was a product of her environment. But in actuality, her environment is a product of her! And that’s exactly what makes this character so scary.
In Isekai Mansion, Eric Noble travels to World X, a place mentioned in his fathers journal as only a partial success. Demon Queen Josephine had all but destroyed the realm before Eric’s father used a weapon he retrieved from Callist called, the Scepter of Jubilation. He’d hoped to purify Josephine with it. And even though her hostilities stopped, she was still in full control of the realm and reformed it according to her will. Anyone who spent anytime with Josie at all will tell you that something just isn’t quite right. This is exemplified with another character later on this list who is at great odds with Josie.
During the creation process, several people gave reactions to Josie I had never gotten before from beta readers.
Louis ShadowRabbit Clayguy said it was by far the most disturbing thing he’d ever read from me.
My wife, Liz, said that anyone who is so visibly happy in an unprovoked way as Josie is, just exudes that something is WRONG.
Even the Editor, Jen Hinderliter, wrote in her notes that it made her physically ill to read the story arc featuring this character.
Visually, Josie was inspired by a combination of some female Ronald McDonald’s cosplayers I’d seen and Bobbins the Clown from Knott’s Berry Farm in Las Vegas (though with the creep factor more on the inside).
For World X, I wanted a place similar to the portrayal of Deedee’s Room from Dexter’s Lab. Where nothing is more scary than a stereotypical little girl’s bedroom. But I wanted to expand that concept to be an entire universe with the aesthetic of a stereotypical little girl’s bedroom.
6. Cinema (Just Some Guy)
The first, but not the last, goth aesthetic female character on the list. Cinema is not only the love interest in Just Some Guy, she is also a freaking genius.
Like other characters in JSG, Cinema was concocted from a random assortment of unused notes I had compiled over years of brainstorming. She was born more than 250 years after Guy begins time traveling, in a time where parents can choose their children’s hair and eye color cosmetically in the womb. They also have a trend of naming kids after things that no longer exist, such as Privacy and Dubstep. Thus, Cinema was born.
A quarter Chinese but with a heavy Appalachian accent, Cinema is an extremely high IQ individual who became the youngest Professor in history at Appalachia State University. She first encountered Guy when his time travel bracer malfunctioned while visiting her timeline. He was referred to her for help fixing it due to her theoretical physics knowledge. Unbeknownst at the time, by showing Cinema the device, he allowed her to be able to develop one of her own, whereas, in the original timeline, her work was stolen by a grad student named Tet.
After fixing the device, Cinema makes a move on Guy, which sends him running since she was only 15 at the time. Super genius or not, that was a no go for Guy, despite his usual outlaw behavior. Instead, he immediately uses the device to travel 6 years into the future to close the gap on their ages so he could allow nature to take its course ethically.
From then on, Cinema frequently accompanied Guy on his escapades through time. Eventually, she began traveling on her own with the device she built from scratch.
(Shout-out to both Magaly Abarca, as usual for her awesome concept pieces, and to ShadowRabbit Clayguy for the Cinema figure he sculpted. They both really capture the Cyber Goth vibe of Cinema’s style.)
5. Alabaster Creole (Isekai Mansion)
2nd best villain I’ve ever written.
Alabaster Creole is infamous in the world he comes from. Murk, the Noir Horror world within Isekai Mansion. His dark complexion is complimented by his white hair and suit. The combination almost makes him seem approachable or even reasonable.
Like Josephine, Creole is one of the Seven Devils. Incarnations of aspects of the original devil that Eric Nobel’s ancestors have been battling for centuries. But unlike most of the devils, Alabaster is more brains than brawn. He’s not physically imposing. He doesn’t use magic. Sure, he might shoot you if his henchman give him the upper hand. But he’s far more likely to run and recalibrate if things stop going his way.
Alabaster wasn’t my first attempt at a recurring villain within a story, but he’s certainly the most relentless. At times within Isekai Mansion, you almost forget he’s still out there. Then once he rears his head again, he has the main characters kicking themselves for not dealing with him sooner.
Fun Fact: Editor Jen Hinderliter gets credit for inadvertently naming Alabaster. If you’re familiar with the story, then you know the first incident within the world of Murk is a Clue parody. When trying to come up with names, I couldn’t think of a good one for Mrs. White. Jen suggested Alabaster. I didn’t like that for her, so ended up going with Mrs. La Crème. But Alabaster stuck with me, so I decided to name my Cajun talking, silver tongued villain that.
4. Guy (Just Some Guy)
The anonymous protagonist of Just Some Guy.
There’s not much to say here that can’t be said by just jumping in and reading the book. Guy is an enigmatic figure who faked his own death in the early 90s before setting out an adventure filled with Sci-Fi, Fantasy, debauchery and Heavy Metal.
He simply goes by the name Guy. Not even Cinema, his girlfriend and most trusted ally, knows his real name. The only people to ever learn it are a couple of villains who use it to their advantage.
I developed Guy as a way to link a string of seemingly unconnected stories together when they otherwise wouldn’t have. JSG was a story originally meant only for me and ShadowRabbit Clayguy, who made this awesome sculpt you see based on Shawn Decker’s cover art. It started as a writing prompt where I took all my unused notes from years past, threw them into a Google Doc together and attempted to link them as one story. My way of achieving this was to play off of something that always appealed to me about Back to the Future. When a bystander causes Marty of taking Biff’s wallet, he later points him out and says, “That’s the guy!” To us, the viewer, he’s time traveling Marty. But to the bystander, he was just some guy. So I’ve always liked the idea of some mysterious person moving between incident to incident, unbeknownst to everyone else involved.
What makes my ‘just some guy’ so good however is that he is written as such that just about anyone (male reader at least) could pick up the story and identify with him. Not only is he nameless, but he is featureless as well. We never learn his hair color, eye color or even his skin color. We simply know he’s an American male pushing into his 30s and is fed up. He ends up doing a lot of things many of us would do in his situation. He also does a lot of things we wouldn’t! But with that said, he does experience character growth. Between battling time traveling Pharaohs and neo-nazis, playing bass in a Groove Metal Band, escaping a femme fatale and then falling in love with a chick in the future (and one in the past, depending on timeline), Guy goes from immature wannabe to accomplished anti-hero.
3. Lucy (Giving the Devil her Due)
After all this time, Lucifer, aka Lucy, is still near the top of the list of best characters I’ve ever written. Brought to life by my partner in crime on the webcomic, Magaly Abarca, this female version of the devil was originally conceived from a conversation I had with my friend Corey(R.I.P) more than 20 years ago.
Shortly after his death in 2016, I began penning my idea for a short story that was like a mixture of Calvin and Hobbes with Faust. Throw in some gnostic concepts and inspired by the book, “Lucifer Revisited: She’s not who you think He is,“ the sacrilegious satire, Giving the Devil her Due, was born.
For 5 years, Magaly helped me produce the original webcomic. We even released a limited run print of Volume 1! But sadly, due to time and budget constraints, we indefinitely halted the story until a later date.
But if you haven’t read GTDHD and you’d like to, I’ve now released a PDF right here on this store for $1.99! It includes the original webcomic released on Webtoons and Tapastic along with standalone art, concept art, Retouched versions of more than 50 pages and 15 never before released pages of what was to be Volume 2.
Lucy is carefree, shortsighted, funny and ambiguous in her actions. Make sure to checkout the reasons we love Lucy so much and I’m sure you’re love her too!
2. Mr. Tet (Just Some Guy)
A character that gets better with time…literally.
Alabaster Creole is a pretty good villain. But aging like fine wine is Mr. Tet from Just Some Guy.
Tet was a college student studying at Appalachian State University in 22nd Century A.D. After stealing research from Professor Cinema Zang, he developed a time travel device and used it to set himself up as a Pharaoh in the pre-ice age ancient world.
With the combination of his alchemists magic and futuristic performance enhancers, Tet became invincible. But even with all that power, he couldn’t prevent death from aging. So he had himself mummified to be awoken in the future where either he, or his daughter, Nefratara, could make a breakthrough.
In the year 1995, a mysterious drifter known only as Guy was hired as a body guard for an excavation site in an underwater cave in the Red Sea. During the dig, Tet’s mummy was awoken as an inconsolable monster, killing most of the archaeology team. Though it wasn’t easy, Guy defeated Tet. Little did he know that it would set off a chain of events that would lead to Nefratara falling in love with him in another timeline and for Mr. Tet himself to recruit Guy to help aid him in his quest for immortality.
If you’re ever in the market of having your characters brought to life in the form of clay sculptures, like the one of Tet you see here, go check out ShadowRabbit ClayGuy and he’ll hook you up!
1. Detective Emily Grimwood (Isekai Mansion)
Okay, there could be no other than Emily at number one. She is by far my favorite character I have ever written. She's sarcastic, witty, insanely intelligent, somewhat nymphomaniacal, creepy, sexy, cute, flawed and the most effective non-combat oriented character in the story.
Before Isekai Mansion was conceived, back when I wrote Just Some Guy, I filled out the world with pieces of notes leftover from unused outlines, discarded first drafts and the odd idea I had never put to work. Emily was one of the characters from those notes that was NOT used in JSG. In fact, she's only about 50% the character that she was in the notes I had. The supernatural element and her background was added later.
Some people who've read the story may mistake her as a ripoff of Wednesday Addams with the whole Goth Girl Detective thing. But that's not true. Emily was written years before that show and past incarnations of Wednesday had no bearing on my inspiration. The character she's actually a ripoff of is Violet Baudelaire from A Series of Unfortunate Events (sort of)...the Gothic style and genius detective work certainly played a part in Emily's conception, but not much else. I did however homage the actress who played Violet in the movie version by naming her Emily, after Emily Browning. But my Emily is a composite of many different inspirations. Violet, Bride of Frankenstein, Jen; the Editor of Just Some Guy, Type O Negative lyrics and even my wife, Liz, is partially written into this character.
Emily has multiple Type O Negative lyrics referenced to her character and scenes. But her eyes are an even deeper reference. They are not just green. They're Pantone 369 C Green, which is the color Type O Negative used on a lot of their albums and promotional material.
Emily is the primary love interest in Isekai Mansion, a story based on a magic well in the basement of a mansion that transports you to various other worlds. Each world is based on a different literary genre. Emily's world is Noir Horror. Like the Addams Family (there's your reference) everything is sort of backwards in the pop culture of that world. Society functions like a Neo-Noir Thriller, Boys Bands are considered underground musicians, werewolves are as common as deer and you SHOULD wear white after Labor Day. Because of this, her contrast to the lead character, Eric Noble, is part of what makes their dynamic interesting. Even up against the other larger than life girls in the story. Just don’t let Josie near her.
