Third of four pages on the “origin” of Chant, the Doppelganger Gang's resident necromancer.
I rather liked the top part, Chant's unease at meeting Suki and Night Carver. I think any of us who have ever thought about it would wonder what it would be like if we ever went insane. Chant doesn't have to wonder any more. Suki and Night Carver are variations of himself, and they're sociopathic and homicidal.
Many of the Gang are ruthless–Chant himself is pretty ruthless, obviously–but he doesn't enjoy killing, he just doesn't hesitate when it needs to be done. Suki and Night Carver enjoy it, and fill him with some…unease. A sort of “I could have gone that way” feeling….
I also like how Firearm, the Gang's resident sharpshooter, helped Chant gain more prominence in his own reality–by eliminating the competition through non-sorcerous means. Doubtless Chant has also helped others of the Gang do the same in THEIR worlds…
I introduced three Gangers only to have them transformed into the amulets Chant wears. Now you can understand how he as so much more powerful than Hoodoo. He now has the power of three other necromancers, in addition to himself, to draw on.
Seusfried is from the reality of the fantasy webcomic, ROGUES OF CLWYD-RHAN and mention is done with the permission of Reindeer, the strip's creator. Like several others in the series, he is half-fairy, half-human.
Sishfrak is half-elf, and from the fantasy world of ELF LIFE by Carson Fire.
Sparks Shearfrost is from Terra, the setting for the webcomic MAGICAL MISFITS.
There are a LOT of good fantasy webcomics out there. I wanted to have Chant be representative of several of them, in a sense.
well for one thing they can all be communicated with via president. and two they all seemed to think that going after death avatars was acceptable.
though as others have said, alternate versions of each other have little basis on known science. i imagine that if you look at all of the possible variations that one would slowly become more and more like one another as one moves from one parallel dimension to another, slowly moving through more and more changed variables.
If you think that Gangers and Superman have strange variety of counterparts, wait until you see Supreme from Image Comics, who has among counterparts tiny- veiled Marv from Sin City, black girl with Afro, giant stone monster and Mickey Mouse/The Mighty Mouse Hybrid. Darius Dax (Lex Luthor to his Superman) has among counterparts a thug with tommy gun, black pimp, android with human brain, Nazi sciencist, Doomsday, evil versions of Iron Man and Reed Richars, cowboy, alien with psionic powers, another giant stone monster, Donald Duck/Duffy Duck hybrid and twittering transwestite serial killer.
And with Ganger's case I think their common theme may be just "Death". Suki and Carver enjoy killing, Firearm and Firebomb makes their livings via killing, Firo wanted to kill his own creator, Chant, Selisfried, Sishfrak and Sparks are necromancers, Kid Apocalypse probably calls himself that for a reason and Vector and Mister President may have caused massive hecatombs if the former is responsible for nuclear apocalypse he mentioned and latter is probably planetary running around with his own Death Star. And Frostbitten is a bear, that speaks for itself.
Whim, for the most part. Just like the analogs for Superman include the Superman of Earth-Two (a much older one), the Just Imagine/ Stan Lee Superman (a policeman of a Krypton that never blew up, with different colored hair, and a different name), the anthropomorphic Super-Squirrel, to the wildly different Earth-Tangent Superman---a black man named Harvey Dent with telepathic powers----etc. However, you'll not that many of the real names of the gangers are similar, (many have a first name with an "S" sound or a "double s" sound, and a last name of Frost or a "fr" sound (or a translation of Frost, as is the case with Suki) most have dark brown hair with one white lock. (Suki obviously dies hers green.) Even the badly-burned President has at least one lock of white hair remaining, and in some drawings, a lock or two of dark-brown hair also. But of course, there are variations.
At what point does something cease to be a doppleganger/counterpart/variation?
Suessfried, Sishfrak & Sparks Shearfrost, at best, can have only half of Chant's DNA in common.
So what criteria are you actually using to determine who is or isn't a doppleganger/counterpart/variant?
Is it just authorial whim or is there a logic to it?
Really nice work by Al here - this is a great little, tightly focused tale that gives a lot more insight into Chant. Having seen 3/4 of the second Ganger backstory Al is working on I can say it is equally fascinating. Al mentioned I've got one in the works myself, and while it is written (kind of) I'm still trying to get it to the drawing board... but you should hopefully see it before the end of Crossoverkill!
AzuJOD at 10:00PM, June 15, 2011
Bringing guns to fantasy world! That's almost a violation of the natural order of things!
Dragonfire10503 at 3:02PM, June 15, 2011
I think I've visited those comics the characters came from.
jamoecw at 2:31PM, June 15, 2011
well for one thing they can all be communicated with via president. and two they all seemed to think that going after death avatars was acceptable. though as others have said, alternate versions of each other have little basis on known science. i imagine that if you look at all of the possible variations that one would slowly become more and more like one another as one moves from one parallel dimension to another, slowly moving through more and more changed variables.
EssayBee at 10:42AM, June 15, 2011
Nice work again, Al. I especially like how this page shows that some Gangers had ambitions of their own and how they were dealt with.
Celtic_Minstrel at 10:02AM, June 15, 2011
You misspelled the name of RoCR's author. I'm not 100% sure of the correct spelling though... possibly Reinder?
Ozmandious at 8:27AM, June 15, 2011
And the amulets make him purtyful too...
God of War at 5:47AM, June 15, 2011
If you think that Gangers and Superman have strange variety of counterparts, wait until you see Supreme from Image Comics, who has among counterparts tiny- veiled Marv from Sin City, black girl with Afro, giant stone monster and Mickey Mouse/The Mighty Mouse Hybrid. Darius Dax (Lex Luthor to his Superman) has among counterparts a thug with tommy gun, black pimp, android with human brain, Nazi sciencist, Doomsday, evil versions of Iron Man and Reed Richars, cowboy, alien with psionic powers, another giant stone monster, Donald Duck/Duffy Duck hybrid and twittering transwestite serial killer. And with Ganger's case I think their common theme may be just "Death". Suki and Carver enjoy killing, Firearm and Firebomb makes their livings via killing, Firo wanted to kill his own creator, Chant, Selisfried, Sishfrak and Sparks are necromancers, Kid Apocalypse probably calls himself that for a reason and Vector and Mister President may have caused massive hecatombs if the former is responsible for nuclear apocalypse he mentioned and latter is probably planetary running around with his own Death Star. And Frostbitten is a bear, that speaks for itself.
Sebastian_Sandberg at 5:05AM, June 15, 2011
Is there any significance about all three of the new magics made amulets being half-somethings?
alschroeder at 2:55AM, June 15, 2011
Whim, for the most part. Just like the analogs for Superman include the Superman of Earth-Two (a much older one), the Just Imagine/ Stan Lee Superman (a policeman of a Krypton that never blew up, with different colored hair, and a different name), the anthropomorphic Super-Squirrel, to the wildly different Earth-Tangent Superman---a black man named Harvey Dent with telepathic powers----etc. However, you'll not that many of the real names of the gangers are similar, (many have a first name with an "S" sound or a "double s" sound, and a last name of Frost or a "fr" sound (or a translation of Frost, as is the case with Suki) most have dark brown hair with one white lock. (Suki obviously dies hers green.) Even the badly-burned President has at least one lock of white hair remaining, and in some drawings, a lock or two of dark-brown hair also. But of course, there are variations.
FaerieKnight at 2:03AM, June 15, 2011
Probably a case of aspects of a person. Just as Mindmistress accepted that her counterparts could be someone other then Lorrie Lions.
KAM at 12:58AM, June 15, 2011
At what point does something cease to be a doppleganger/counterpart/variation? Suessfried, Sishfrak & Sparks Shearfrost, at best, can have only half of Chant's DNA in common. So what criteria are you actually using to determine who is or isn't a doppleganger/counterpart/variant? Is it just authorial whim or is there a logic to it?
xmung at 10:19PM, June 14, 2011
Really nice work by Al here - this is a great little, tightly focused tale that gives a lot more insight into Chant. Having seen 3/4 of the second Ganger backstory Al is working on I can say it is equally fascinating. Al mentioned I've got one in the works myself, and while it is written (kind of) I'm still trying to get it to the drawing board... but you should hopefully see it before the end of Crossoverkill!