Of Nerds and Dragons Cover 2014

Count this as the two year anniversary pic I meant to submit last month as well as a cover.

For those who haven't read my comic yet, Of Nerds and Dragons is about Conall, a college student who wakes up to two dragons in his apartment.  It turns out that those two dragons, Riley and Phillip, are from another world.  Riley and Phillip are presumed to be dead in their world as Riley's cousin, Florence, pushed them into the Canyon.  Somehow, they traveled between dimensions to Conall's Universe.  Conall live across the hall of his older Brother Jerry, a neat freak who always wears a suit.  He is also friends with Gordon, an optimistic, yet clumsy crocodile whose father owns the diner Conall frequently goes to.  Gordon's sister, Valorie, is also one of Jerry's good friends from high school.  A year after Conall met Riley and Phillip, Dunbar has met the same fate as Riley and Phillip and ended up down in Conall's universe.  The gang is often pestered by Conall and Gordon's high school bullies, Drake and Enrique.

I’ve also came up with the setting for Of Nerds and Dragons.  It takes place at the town of Sun Valley, a town in southern California not too far from the Arizona border.  Sun Valley is based off most of the places I grew up in.  Most of my inspiration for Sun Valley comes from Colorado Springs, CO, Layton, UT, and of course my current residence, Tucson AZ.

Characters:

The Gordons:

Conall Gordon

Conall has a laid back personality.  He is not very socialable outside of his group of friends and often keeps to himself.  He is a college student who hopes to get a degree in graphic design and is works at the Pizza Shack.

Jerome "Jerry" Gordon

Jerry is Conall’s neurotic older brother.  He’s not so fond of messes, germs, and stains.  Jerry never leaves the house without a bottle of hand sanitizer and a lint brush.  Jerry also likes to look nice which is why he is rarely seen without wearing some sort of formal wear.  Jerry also has a fear of talking to women.  The only girl he is confortable speaking with is Valorie.  He wasn’t always like that though.  After he graduated high school both he and his high school sweetheart, Cecelia, moved to New York to get closer to the Broadway scene.  After five years when both of them hit a major stride in their careers, with Cecelia’s acting and Jerry’s costume design, Jerry decided to propose to her.  Things went sound when he found her cheating on with another actor.  Broken and betrayed, Jerry packed up and moved back to his hometown.

The Dragons:

Riley

Riley was the heir to the throne back in his world.  His cousin, Florence, was jealous of Riley and his father from the start.  To take back the throne and get back at Riley’s father, he attempted to kill Riley and his advisor Phillip, by pushing them off Death Peak Canyon, one of the oldest execution sites in Eragok.  Falling off that cliff didn’t lead to their deaths, but a new dimension where they met Conall.  Riley is a childish and a kind character.  There isn’t one person he met that he hated.  He also babysits Valorie’s son, Randall, quite often.

Phillip

Phillip was meant to be Riley advisor, but after the incident with Florence, he instead became a lazy couch potato in Conall’s universe.  Phillip spends most of his time eating in front of the TV or eating at The Hungry Croc Diner.  Did I mentions he loves to eat?  Phillip gets along with most people, but he doen’t really like Dunbar.  Since Dunbar was the one who helped Florence with the plan, Phillip has never trusted him.

Dunbar

Dunbar was once Florence’s advisor, but after the fingers were pointed at Florence for the murder of Riley and Phillip, Florence needed someone to take the fall and Dunbar was his guy.  His execution took place down at Death Peak Canyon, the same place where Florence’s plan went down.  Like with Riley and Phillip, Dunbar ended up in Conall’s universe.  Dunbar is a very friendly dragon.  He enjoys company of other people.  Dunbar is also quite the chef.  He loves to try new dishes from all the different cultures in Conall’s universe.  He also the type of person who won’t say no when it comes to helping someone out.  That however, sometimes backfires because some people may take advantage of him *cough**cough* Drake*cough**cough*

The Crockers:

Gordon Crocker

Gordon is Conall’s best friend.  Gordon is very optimistic and very clumsy.  Gordon and Conall used to be enemies because they annoyed each other, but after working together in science, they learned to put their differences aside and work as a team to get through the year.  After that they became good friends.  Gordon also clashes a lot with his high school bullies Drake and Enrique.

Jeffrey “Jeff” Crocker

Jeff is the father of both Gordon and Valorie.  He’s very impatient with his customers and often finds himself yelling at them for whining about the food.  Jeff isn’t a complete jerk, though.  He’s actually a pretty nice guy, especially to his regulars.  He often finds himself giving advice to Conall and Co. and help them out with their issues.  He also helps Valorie out with his grandson.  During his free time he likes to go camping or do outdoor activities.  He always takes a few weekends off every year to go out into the wilderness and set up camp.  He calls these days the Weekend of Jeff.

Valorie Crocker

Valorie is Jeff’s oldest daughter.  She works as a waitress in her father’s diner, but is trying to get a degree in child psycology.  Valorie loves to work with children and hopes to land a job as a pediatric therapist.  She has a 3 year old son named Randall.  She is also good friends with Conall’s brother, Jerry.  After Jerry left to New York, she got involved with a high school crush.  She got pregnant with Randall a few months later.  However a year after Randall was born, her love abandoned them.  With barely enough money to support herself alone, she moved back in with her parents so she can get through college.

Randall Crocker

Randall is Valorie’s only son.  He hardly remembers his father but at the same time he misses him.  Riley, Jerry, and Jeff often look after him while Valorie is at school.  He gets along especially well with Riley.  Randall also hates being called Randy.  Valorie believes it’s because that is what his father used to call him.

The Wolfs

Axel Wolf

Axel is Jerry’s old high school bully who moved into his apartment building.  Meet Jerry again after the eight year made Axel relize how much of a jerk he was in high school.  To make things up, he befriends Jerry and invites him over quite a bit to watch sports.  Axel is a police officer who is on the brink of a promotion, however his brother Tyson, is getting in the way of that.  Axel also like to work on restoring older vehicle to look brand new.

Tyson Wolf

Tyson is Axel’s younger brother.  He is a Private investigator who is terrible at his job.  He hasn’t taken a case in months so he was kicked out of his apartment and forced to live with Axel.  Like Phillip, Tyson is lazy and likes to eat.

Other Characters

Drake Cunningham

Drake is Gordon and Conall’s bully from high school.  Drake works on a morning show with his friend Enrique.  During the summer he also works at Rapid Rick’s Water Park as a lifeguard.  Drake never seemed to grow out of his bully mentality from high school and always taught the gang.  The only people he does not bully in the group is Dunbar and Valorie.  Dunbar made peace with both Drake and Enrique by sharing some of the food he made with them and as for Valorie no one wants to mess with Valorie.  Drake may not bully Dunbar, but he does take advantage of his kindness quite a bit.

Enrique Ramerez

Enrique is Drake’s good friend.  Enrique moved from his hometown of Nogales, Mexico to Sun Valley when he was a freshman in High School.  He only knew a little bit of English, but lucky for him, there was a student who did know Spanish, Drake.  They became friends and together terrorized the school together.  Enrique has a loud personality, but secretly he likes to watch soap dramas.

Gilligan “Gil” Harrison

Gil is Jerry’s coworker at Gershwin’s, a five star restaurant they both work at.  Before he moved to Sun Valley, he was a struggling actor trying to make it big.  His most noted role was professor stinky from a foot cream commercial.  He moved back to Sun Valley to get a job as a bartender.