The Idea That Sticks
Looking at the evolution of my original character Tombwraith!
A few keen eyed readers spied a illustration piece in my studio tour from last month and asked a few follow ups about who the original character was. So this month I thought I could do a look back on how long this character, Tombwraith, has been bouncing around in my head.
Humble Beginnings (2012)
Before he had a name or a backstory or even a strong picture of personality, Tombwraith started as a random character generated with the help of the Marvel Super Heroes RPG. One Saturday my friend Gavin pulled out this book from 1984 and said we should create characters using the random powers tables. After rolling up Rock Body, Super Strength, Energy Manipulation, and Spirit Projection powers we spent the next 4 hours plotting each of our characters and spitballing ideas of how all of these powers would mesh together and make some sort of sense, and thus the seed of this character took hold.
The Spirit Projection and Energy Manipulation had me thinking it would be interesting to have a man’s soul trapped in the rock body of a graveyard and he used the very vague powers of Death(TM) to shoot beams and other wacky uses while only being able to project his spirt for short bursts from the rock tomb body before he would become untethered and pass on. From there the ideas of being imprisoned as a tragic penance for misdeeds in life started to form and this reluctant anti hero gained his name, Tombwraith, the spirit who haunts his own mobile cairn.
With all the amazing energy of creating this unique character hot on my heels we promptly never played the game and this painfully old sketch became just another page lost in a sketchbook for years. But like most great thoughts my brain wouldn’t let me forget about Tombwraith and kept me thinking and creating more lore and designs subconsciously until I was more ready to realize them.
Refinement & Exploration (2014)
After a few more years down the path of progress for my art I had a prompt from a local sketch group I was in to draw an original character, and wouldn’t you know it Tombwraith popped into my head just waiting for a new iteration. By this point I like to think I had learned more in the ways of better design and my skills with better inking tools made for a much better silhouette for Tombwraith. I started to really enjoy what was taking shape visually and after posting it to the sketch group and sharing it around I was getting some mild but unexpected interest from others when I would speak about the story behind the character. Enough so that a good friend and supporter commissioned an original from me (specifically not in a sketchbook) so he could frame it.
As you can tell I was wildly inconsistent with his armor and proportions as I was just playing around with new ideas as they came to me. Making this piece was what really lit a fire under me to continue to iterate and create stories and background while my skills were catching up to be able to make the ideas real.
Getting the Idea Out (2018)
At this point in my careers I was starting to attend more and more Comic and Pop Culture Cons as well as working as a colorist on the early issues of Champions with my friend Dylan at Brimstone Studios. My confidence was rising and my skills were allowing me to dig deeper into story writing and comic illustration. This was when I decided that I should force myself to put Tombwraith out there and see how people reacted to my pitch and visuals. I created an art print for sale and added it to my con print selection and I used that as a talking point with anyone who showed interest in Tombwraith.
It was also at this point that some major choices were made with Tombwraith, he wasn’t just a spirit, he was a man with sorcerous abilities that had been condemned by his hubris to an immortal life that can only be sustained by the energy of places of death i.e. graveyards, tombs, mausoleums. He also becomes aware of the power of Resonant beings, people like himself who can manipulate the power of possible futures and mold it into myriad effects both subtle and overt to affect the present. With all of this world building I also struck upon the main theme I wanted to explore,
-What is a Soul worth to the world?-
This idea of worth and weight of a person’s deeds felt like a great emotional heart to explore different people and how the choices in life can impact yourself and the world around you.
Without revealing too much more I want express how excited I was to get the word out to people and continue to develop this character and his story to eventually create my own limited story. Then like most plans leading up to early 2020, they got derailed with a massive global pandemic and the brakes got pumped once again on Tombwraith.
Stabilizing and Renewal (2025)
The amount of people that stopped at shows and wanted to hear more about my character were really the huge boost that I needed to force myself to keep refining and better understanding the character that I have created to be able to explain and interest others in his ongoing tales. With that I am glad to show off my newest iteration and evolution of Tombwraith!
Keep an eye out for my upcoming convention appearances where I will be debuting this awesome print and it will be featured in a Guest Artist comic collection of works this spring. I am very happy to be able to share Tombwraith with people and I can’t wait to share some of the great strides I have been making behind the scenes with him. I hope you have enjoyed this deep dive on the 13 year history of a character and the reason you have to keep fighting to bring something awesome into the world even if it takes over a decade.
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What I’m Reading
The Art of Fuelstains by Nikolay Georgiew - Caurette
This fantastic artbook from Fuelstains was a Kickstarter he published that I received about a month ago and have been slowly digging into the absolutely fabulous illustrations and words of wisdom within it’s pages. The book is broken down into chapters of Inhuman, Biomech, and Tech as well as a chapter on creating technical illustrations and some person project work from the artist. If you have an interest in masterful renderings of the human body from all angles mingled with cyberpunk and biopunk tech elements this hauntingly beautiful artbook is for you. I am amazed at literally every page.
That’s all for this month, if you enjoyed the small snippet into my life please consider subscribing or sharing with a friend. I hope to see you all again next month!
The Marvel RPG rules. Super cool how this came to be!