Daily character sketch: Justin Bailey

In an effort to keep fresh my pen, the characters, and my comics fresh, I'm going to, starting today, borrow a page from all the other artists, 'toonists, and doodlers. So, here goes a new feature, here at The Conductor's Office; the daily character sketch - including some bit of whatever that crosses my mind about what I've drawn.

And who better to start with than the star of Neverland Transit Authority's Galactic Gun, our old pal Justin Bailey.

In the process of first building the worlds that would become the universe of The Galactic Gun, some twenty five years ago, I've explored a lot of cliches, archetypes, myths, and genres. Rough versions of the tales that would come forth originally starred a completely different character; who would spend time with a gruff, dusty old bounty hunter whose edge had been dulled by a spent life.

But as I wrote up the first stories, the back story character began to take a life of his own. And, eventually, he would take center stage; swapping places with the original main character who, later, would return in another role.

Having established himself, this new character would need a revamp; starting with a name. Taking from the source material that bore him, I went with the obvious; Justin Bailey. Other things would follow, as I played with fleshing him out.

Justin's been older, brooding, a gun slinging bad ass, a bounty hunter, and almost every imaginably re-hacked cliche possible until I found the real character under all that fanboy dressing, and really listened to what he had to say.

He's an interesting fellow with a very busy history and frenetic future. Judge him by what you see and he's guaranteed to surprise you...