Author Archive: ZakNewman

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Zak Newman’s 30 Characters

| December 3, 2010 | 0 Comments

This has been an awesome project and I’m glad I was able to see it through to the end.  I’m glad to have been here the whole way with everyone else making their awesome characters.  Hopefully some of these guys will see a life in future projects.

#30 The Zibit at the End of All Things

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

There is, in fact, an end to the universe.  It is there, if you can travel that far, that you will find the Zibit.  There is nothing deep or mystic about the Zibit.  He just likes it at the end of all things because it’s quiet there.

#29 The Darkling

| November 29, 2010 | 0 Comments

The Darkling exists outside of time.  He lives, surrounded by the creatures of the void, watching those who live in a straight line.  With the ability to interject into the time stream whenever he wishes, he can take control of any actions he has ever made and change them.  This gives him the power of being the most perfect being in existence because he can make sure that he always chooses the right path.  Unfortunately for him, he is prone to jealousy and morbid curiosity for those who live in one direction.  Sometimes he interferes with people out of pure malevolence, while others he helps.  Often he re experiences events just to see how they might have been different.  He ages both backward and forward at the same time, making him both infinitely young, and infinitely old.  Wrap your mind around him if you can.  Even the Darkling can’t fully comprehend himself.

#28 Vorador

| November 28, 2010 | 1 Comment

Vorador the living blade doesn’t just cut through his wielder’s foes.  He makes it as though they never were.

#27 Doormiga

| November 27, 2010 | 0 Comments

Doormiga is a living portal with the power to send you anywhere you might want to go.  Stationary herself, she is jealous of those with the freedom to travel.  Bring her a pretty bobble and you might just end up where you wanted to go.

#26 The Little Nightmare

| November 26, 2010 | 0 Comments

I woke up a couple of nights ago from a nightmare that scared me enough to make me talk in my sleep.  My wife asked me what was wrong and when I came around enough to realize I had been dreaming, I said, “I know what my next character is going to be.”

#25 Evalco

| November 25, 2010 | 0 Comments

He is the immovable force.

#24 The Orb Master

| November 24, 2010 | 0 Comments

Under the guise of an aging performer, the Orb Master does three shows an evening in a run down part of town in an aging theater.  However, his true purpose is to keep the darkness at bay.  A mystic of unknown power, he battles the things that live in the shadows of the city.

#23 Slurgus the all Consuming

| November 23, 2010 | 0 Comments

Slurgus is a giant tongue.  He lurks in the dark, dank places deep beneath cities, feeding on the old and forgotten knowing that eventually everything will be forgotten and he will feed.

#22 Figwidgeon the Idea Stealer

| November 22, 2010 | 0 Comments

I think his name says it all.

#21 Emerson Stone

| November 21, 2010 | 0 Comments

Emerson Stone is a normal American a few years out of college who hates his job.  To cope, he smokes way too much.  Aside from that, he’s a busker, trying to make a few extra dollars contact juggling downtown in the evenings.  Because of that new, stupid infomercial selling gravity balls, he’s not having much luck with that.  Still, he keeps trying, all the while being watched from the shadows. The city holds its secrets, and he’s about to be pulled into them.

#20 Talia Frost

| November 20, 2010 | 0 Comments

Talia is a lounge singer in one of the seediest, under-city clubs.  Despite her hardened and feisty exterior, she has a good heart.

#19 Harvey Dowd

| November 19, 2010 | 0 Comments

Harvey is a column writer for a small town paper.  He left his big city reporting job behind him because he felt like the city was closing in on him.  He never thought he’d go back, until he heard that his friend was murdered.  What choice did he have?

#18 Mack

| November 18, 2010 | 1 Comment

He likes to kill people.  Period.

#17 Berkie the Bookworm

| November 17, 2010 | 0 Comments

Berkie has the misfortune of knowing too much.  If you need information you go to Berkie.  Sometimes the “people” who come to ask aren’t always the nicest about it and Berkie isn’t built for interrogation.

#16 Wigwart

| November 16, 2010 | 0 Comments

There is a city beneath the city, a city made up of things.  Wigwart is one of those things.  Nothing comes or goes in the city without him knowing about it, and if he doesn’t get his cut then there’s bound to be trouble.

#15 Flatherty

| November 15, 2010 | 1 Comment

Every city has its seedy underbelly.  Some are seedier than others.  When John Denver sang, “Saturday night in Toledo, Ohio is like being nowhere at all,” clearly he’d never met Flatherty.  Despite his looks, this bat-like gun for hire isn’t good or evil.  He lives to serve the highest bidder, and he’ll work for almost anything.  Just keep in mind that if the competition is willing to shell out a little more for your head on a plate… well, don’t be stingy.

#14 Seripidy

| November 14, 2010 | 1 Comment

Seripidy is the pet, and suspected familiar of Delilah Dimplethorn, the new secretary at the office of Herbert Salazar, Private Eye.  It seems that Seripidy’s single eye is capable of seeing much more than her owner, and she often comes in handy in many investigations.

#13 The What in the Box

| November 13, 2010 | 0 Comments

All around the mulberry bush

the monkey chased the weasel

the monkey thought it was all in fun

then…

Chomp!

#12 Emmet

| November 12, 2010 | 2 Comments

Emmet collects marbles.  He would also like to play the game, but the size of his toes makes it difficult.  He is, however just happy to look at the way they shine.

#11 Buttlebug

| November 11, 2010 | 1 Comment

Salvadore Price, the horror writer turned depraved creator of oddities pulled the buttlebug from the lighter side of his brain.  He made him perfectly loyal, but he didn’t bother to imagine him with a good disposition.  Imagine having a job that’s only freedom lies in being able to complain about it.  You’d be angry too.

#10 Slorky

| November 10, 2010 | 2 Comments

Many suburban residents of Northwest Ohio have reported strange noises in their attics within a small radius.  Some have even reported glowing, orb-like eyes peering back at them when going to investigate in the darkness.  Many believe the attic dweller to be nothing more than an urban legend, but believers have dubbed the strange creature Slorky.

#9 The Cyeclori

| November 9, 2010 | 0 Comments

The Cyeclori are yet another depraved imagining of the one time horror writer Salvadore Price.  As he delves deeper into the black pit of his mind, the horrors he finds become even more terrible.  The Cyeclori are an unending army of ghoulish freaks whose only want is that of their imaginer.  They will stop at nothing to deliver it to him.

#8 Sylvia Blane

| November 8, 2010 | 0 Comments

It’s like my don’t forget what to write in the blog note says, she’s the bad girl in the story.  Sylvia Blane is never the head of the operation, but she’s most certainly always working her own angle.  She may play the innocent young lady who’s happy with her role, but it’s impossible to hide her edge, and she always wants more.

#7 Kimmel

| November 7, 2010 | 1 Comment

Kimmel is a man for hire, with delusions of grandeur.  He thinks of himself as high society, trying to use big words to impress people though often mispronouncing them.  He wears turtlenecks because he thinks they make him look more sophisticated.

#6 Salazar

| November 6, 2010 | 0 Comments

Once a private detective, Herbert “Herb” Salazar, was murdered while investigating a mysterious cult.  The victim of a hellish ceremony, Salazar was left to wander the world without a physical form, though somehow connected to his old ring.   Through his ring, he can take on a solid, though invisible form for a short amount of time.

#5 Papa

| November 5, 2010 | 2 Comments

This creature lives in the basement of Salvatore Price.  After his return to fame, the writer took to collecting exotic things, most of which came from the depraved recesses of his own twisted imagination.  Papa is no exception, and he is very protective of his little baby, Muk Muk (see yesterday’s post).  Also, keep your whole self away from his mouth.

#4 Baby Muk Muk

| November 4, 2010 | 1 Comment

There’s not much more to be said than, here is Baby Muk Muk.  Please keep your fingers away from his mouth.

#3 Delilah Dimplethorn

| November 3, 2010 | 0 Comments

Because of her involvement with the paranormal, some have come to believe that Delilah Dimplethorn is a witch.  While that’s debatable, it is widely agreed upon that she is certainly bewitching.  And yes, her hair is naturally blue.

#2 Edwin Whipple

| November 2, 2010 | 0 Comments

Edwin Whipple never understood why the land lady made him evict the tenants who skipped out on their rent.  This Richard Greene creeped him out especially.  The man that answered the door looked awful, especially his infected left eye.  When Whipple gave him the bad news the man became violent and whatever was afflicting him took hold in the repair man’s flesh.  The disease worked fast.  The last thing he remembered was Greene telling him he didn’t have to die, then holding a toad that seemed to be affected by the same sickness up to his mouth.

#1 Salvadore Price

| November 1, 2010 | 0 Comments

Under the pen name Salvadore Price, Richard Greene wrote several horror novels, a few of them were published.  Very few of them made it big.  When the royalty checks stopped coming in, Greene lost his home, what little contact he still kept with his family and finally his health.  He was a man that had hit rock bottom.  The doctors said they didn’t know what was afflicting him and that he probably didn’t have long to live.  But he knew better.  In the darkness of his dingy apartment, his disease was speaking to him.  All diseases need a carrier, a way to spread, and it had chosen him.

Suddenly, Greene’s life was turning around.  His wealth started coming back, then blossomed.  He was a new item in the tabloid eye.  There was certainly something different about him, but no one could place it.  The only thing new, other than his swagger, was the deep red irritation in his left eye.