The Goat That Defied a Prom Queen

The second-to-last assignment of the AACC class involved character design. Pulling a random object out of my instructor's righteous metal lunchbox, I had to extrapolate ten character traits that could be applied to a human being. Using those traits, I had to design a character with a full turn sheet, and then do a one-page story about that character doing something inappropriate.

I pulled a plastic goat out of the lunchbox.

I racked my brains for all of Wednesday and Thursday night, desperate to apply traits like "non-discriminating in diet choices," "extremely agile" and "solitary" to a human being. Then Friday night Amy came home and saw what I was attempting to do. Without batting an eye, she said: "That's a teenage boy." Pause. "Who's really into parkour."

A wise woman is more valuable than rubies.

The turn sheet was done by Saturday night, and I started on the page Sunday. I did not get a chance to add dialog (for which Sam castigated me) or fully render the electric effects (more castigation), but all in all I was happy with all panels except the first one. The background was also  non-existent, but the idea of a teenage boy blacking out a major metropolitan area by rail-grinding across power lines seemed appropriately inappropriate (and quite awesome)...

Billy Parker comes across to me as sort of the resident mercenary at his high school, performing dirty deeds if you've got the cash. I also pitched "Billy Parker vs. the Prom Queen" for my final project, but Sam much preferred the simplicity of "Killer Commute."

Billy Parker. The goat that became a boy. The boy that became a parkourist. The parkourist who defied a prom queen.