Character Birthday: Molly

Molly was added to the comic family in 2008 during season 2. When first drawing her character sketches, I decided to combine the facial features of Bailey and Kenzie to make her, since in real life Molly resembles both her sisters. The face itself is Bailey's, but the shape of her face is Kenzie's. The freckles are Molly's own distinguishing feature. In 2012, it was remarked that Molly has never once said more than one sentence in any comic she has been in, and this later became a somewhat cruel running joke. But we all love Molly, and indeed, she is my favorite character from the movie adaptation. Happy Birthday, Molly!

Character Birthday: Sam

 When I first started drawing comics, I decided that it would just be easier to make myself the main character so that everything that went on would be from my point of view. I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time talking about myself, but it's my birthday today.

Christmas Eve Birthday Child - Sarah

In 2012, I went back to the comics thinking only to add three characters. I knew for sure that Shannon and Frank were two, and the other one had to be Carl, but the character I wanted to add the most was Sarah. She had such a unique personality, and I knew I could have a whole lot of laughs using her. In the end, I added her anyway, and I'm glad I did. She has become one of my favorites in the series now. Happy Birthday, Sarah, and a Merry Christmas tomorrow! (:

Character (belated) Birthday - Ryan

Happy belated birthday to my best friend, Ryan White! While Ryan wasn't introduced until season 2, he has become one of the four core characters of the series (the others being Sam, Bailey, and Kenzie). Going by my own unfortunate slowly-developing character standards, Ryan was the more or less the first added character for season two who really took off as a regular. Even though he was established early on as Sam's best friend, for "The Origins" sub-series, Ryan as a character was portrayed as a rival character for Sam, but by the end became the duo they now are today. Nowadays, Ryan White lives out in Colorado. In the movie adaptation of the series, Ryan was unable to portray himself, so Travis Cooper was cast. While he did what was required of the character in the script very well, there was still that nagging thought in the back of my mind that he wasn't Ryan. Even though I don't see him very often anymore, I couldn't bring myself to write him out of the comics. He has become a pivotal part of the series and is here to stay.

Love and miss ya, dude!

Character Birthday - Kenzie

Another character who has been around since the beginning, Mackenzie has been a pivotal character in the series, being the primary voice of sarcasm. It has been remarked that Kenzie has slowly become less and less like her real life self, as the character has become more critical and spiteful. This was done to give the comics more laughs, and in the original movie script had Kenzie have a character-specific story-arc. This didn't end up in the final film, so Kenzie still remains the sarcastic Lil' Nasty. Happy Birthday, Mackenzie!

Character Birthday - Gabri

Gabri was a last minute addition to the series in 2012. While she was always in the mix to be picked for the new comics of season 4, she was to be left out in favor of adding Carl, Shannon, Sarah, and Frank. It was a hard decision, since I really wanted to have all of these characters. I had guidelines that I shouldn't add more than three characters at a time per season, and I had already bent it to include Sarah. The day that I drew the official promotional photo for the season, I decided "hang the code", stopped drawing the promo and began drawing sketches of Gabri. Once I had a look I liked, I went back to the promo and threw her in on the end. Happy Birthday, Gabri!

Character Birthday - Shannon

Originally cast to the movie version as a classmate cameo, casting director Shannon Asprooth was later given the role of Rachel for the film adaptation of the series. Through working with her on the movie as well as being in a school play that she was directing, I got to know Shannon pretty well. By the end of the school year, I decided that when I started the series back up after the movie, Shannon would be added. She has become a huge fan of the series since her addition, and has given me several great comic ideas. Happy Birthday, Shannon!

Character Birthday - Rachel

Although she has been around since 2008 (season 2) in the comics, Rachel only showed up very infrequently and was never a developed character. Only having two appearances in the 2010 comics (season 3) with no spoken lines, Rachel was almost dropped from the series because she added nothing to it. I did not want to drop her because I wanted to keep her brother Ryan, and so Rachel was written into the movie script, even though she still didn't do much there either. When Shannon Asprooth was cast to fill in for Rachel White (who unfortunately couldn't commit to the schedule) Rachel had to be given a new characteristic to give her some importance to the story, so it was decided that she was super smart and in the same grade as her older brother. This trait was one of the few things that carried over from the movie into the 2012 comics, which gave Rachel her much needed break. Happy Birthday, Rachel!

Character Birthday - Nick

Originally added during the Great 2010 Comeback series, Nick's inclusion in the comics lead to him being written into the movie adaptation in 2011. Due to various circumstances involving actors whose schedules couldn't line up with the filming dates, Nick had to step up and do more scenes than he was originally given, making him a main character rather than a supporting character. He was given a lot more time in the 2012 comics, and is now a comic "regular" character. Happy Birthday, Nick the Great!

Character Birthday - Bailey

Today is the birthday of one of my friends who inspired one of the comic characters. Bailey Freemire has always been a big supporter of the comics and was also a huge supporter of the movie version we did. Her character has been around since comic #1 and has stayed in the series throughout its entire run. Happy Birthday, Bailey!