I need to give The Ladies a rest for a while. I'll come back to it later. In the meantime, here's a new one: Dunbar and Opie!
Dunbar and Opie, created by Kyle A Carrozza and Shannon Tagliareni (some of you know her best as Develynia).
Über-geek Dunbar and his evil brother Opie are teenagers growing up in a suburban town that looks normal on the outside, but is really filled with oddities. Adolesence ain't easy when your parents are a superhero and a vampire.
Dunbar Joifle - Dunbar is geek supreme. He's a fine student with a yen for accordion playing, Dragons and More Dragons, and all matter of technical goodies. Dunbar is also a social moron. Due to his years of study and awkward appearance, he doesn't know the first thing about how to act around people. He has no concept of personal space and he's also pretty loud. When startled or frightened, Dunbar cries out "WOAHGUL!" He doesn't do ANYTHING with an iota of subtlety. Dunbar has difficulty with his awkward teenage body as well. He's always tripping over his huge feet and getting tangled up in his own long legs. He's so cheerful, he laughs at inappropriate times. He loves his family very much, but he has some concerns about his little brother Opie. Opie's evil doesn't faze him. Dunbar's worried because he rarely appears happy. He tries to include Opie in activities he enjoys, but that usually just makes his dark brother more miserable.
Opie Joifle- Opie is milking this “Mom is a vampire” thing for all it’s worth. He’s declared himself evil. He wants the world to view him as such, but he’s so scrawny and non-threatening that nobody seems to care. Despite his goal to be a villainous overlord or whatever, Opie finds himself at odds with his own humanity. No matter how unpleasant he tries to be, he has a deep internal desire to make conversation and be a normal teenage boy. He tries to keep it suppressed, but he slips from time to time. Sometimes when his school chums ask him if he wants to play baseball, he can’t help but say yes. Also of note, he has a limited power to summon lightning. He wants to get better at it, so he practices it at every opportunity, though he doesn’t improve much. It’s like watching a novice skateboarder try that one dumb trick over and over again.
Leon Joifle- Having a vampire and a superhero for parents has made escapism tough for young Leon. In fact, it’s made him completely bonkers. He thinks he’s a space ranger and talks to everyone around them as if they’re characters in a sci-fi show. Most notably, Leon thinks the school brat is an evil emperor and that a cute girl he likes is a space princess in distress.
Superdad- Once about twenty years ago, Superbachelor battled Pamula, the evil vampire girl. In mid-battle they caught a glimpse of each other and started dating, and later married and had kids, thus making him Superdad. Superdad is a stone-faced superhero like Batman. Unlike Batman, he's not very good at hiding his identity. He doesn't change his outfit at all between fighting crime and reading the paper at home. Heck, he flies around the house spouting (unsolicited), "I'm not a superhero". He loves his wife, Momula, very dearly. Their relationship is as strong now as when they got married. All three of his sons know his "secret". Dunbar thinks his father is great and wishes to be more like him. Leon thinks he's a friendly ambassador from planet Neezbak. Opie thinks he's a goody-goody and a fool. They exchange intense stares and awkward moments upon crossing each other's paths.
Momula- Momula would be a standard 1950s throwback happy homemaker if not for the undeniable fact that she’s a vampire. Most of the time the family sees her, she’s flying around the house, gleefully cooking and cleaning, but when nobody’s around, she goes out to suck the blood of hapless victims.
Diane Roberts- Diane has been a close friend to Dunbar since they were very young. She is the newest cheerleader on the squad right now, so she has a reputation to build. A big part of being a model cheerleader is maintaining a certain amount of snottiness. That includes not being seen among people below a certain popularity level. Dunbar, as you can imagine is faaaaaaaaar below that popularity level. Diane remains friends with Dunbar, but only in private. If they want to go out and do anything, they have to go to another town where they won't be caught by anyone. Diane's feelings for Dunbar are entirely platonic. Dunbar, however, has it for Diane real bad. He tries to keep it under control since he knows how she feels, but he puts her on a pedestal sometimes. She can't have sugar at all. One taste of sugar will set off an incredible allergic reaction: she blows up like a gas balloon. Lady Dunsinane is Diane's little sister. They try not to acknowledge each other's existence.
Lady Dunsinane- Lady Dunsinane is bored and disenchanted with most things and makes no secret of it. She hangs around Opie because he’s the opposite of her overly-nice surroundings. She almost finds him alluring, but he has a tendency to be insensitive and somewhat chauvinistic, so she can get annoyed by him at the drop of a hat. She’s tired of the banality of her existence (I guess she hasn’t noticed all the weird stuff going on around her), and fantasizes that something spooky and interesting to happen to her someday. Everytime something comes close, it’s a disappointment.
Raven Littlegirl- Raven is very cheerful for a goth. She's a very frightening kind of cheerful... almost as if there is something evil making her happy. But, alas, it's just not true. She may dress it and act it, but she's not into dark, nasty things. In fact, she's attracted to Mr. Nice Guy himself, Dunbar Joifle. She's so drawn to him, that she literally throws herself at him. The combination of her creepiness and her forward nature scares the daylights out of Dunbar. He hides from her and refers to her as "that spooky girl".
Brittany Jolli- Brittany is ridiculously cheery and and has a fascination of all things cute. Especially hamsters. Thing is, she doesn't like to spend time with cheery people. No, she is a firm believer of "opposites attract". She likes talking to people like Lady Dunsinane and she has a big crush on Opie. They can't stand her. She's irritated that Opie is attracted to Raven and not to her. After all, Raven IS cheerful too. No fair!
Defeat Man- Defeat Man was once a cocky fighting robot in another dimension. He became obsolete after a while and went into hiding as another android warrior replaced him. He got very depressed. One day, Leon brought him to Earth as we know it using an interdimensional portal he built out of common household items. Defeat Man is now Leon’s playmate, though he doesn’t say much and always looks miserable. When Leon’s at school, he often acts as Momula’s helper to earn his keep. Lady Dunsinane sometimes acts very affectionate to Defeat Man in an attempt to make Opie jealous.
Tom- Tom is a British ghost who started following Lady Dunsinane around one day. He has something very important to tell her, but nobody knows what it is because she won’t listen to him. Because he’s so soft-spoken and not-at-all scary, Lady Dunsinane has no respect for him. She considers him just another one of those things in her life that just wasn’t spooky enough to be romantic and exciting. Besides Lady Dunsinane, nobody seems to be able to see him except Dunbar. Sometimes Tom possesses people so he can have a physical body to be in and use, but if the body sneezes, he goes flying out.
