City of the Sun

Author notes

Omake

Topnugg

on Nov. 28, 2022

I might decide to update this bonus page a bit later, but here are some extra pictures of Manny just for fun.

Back when I "officially" started trying to work on this comic in 2015, I chose to introduce a new character, Emmanuel "Manny" Grey.



Manny was initially intended to be a one off character who was never set to appear after chapter 2. As you can see he was quite a bit leaner though his personality has stayed pretty much the same since.
I was influenced by two things at the time: A real life person, and Honno from the manga/tv drama, Aoi Honno. Both people were suffering from delusions of grandeur, big ego, and a firey spirit for their ambitions but no discipline.




When I decided it was time to start over, he was due for a minor overhaul. The first draft of the story didn't allow for a smooth reintroduction of this character, which was coming into several chapters (and he was left off at chapter 2)
I started by taking his gains away.

(The gains)



Making him fat got a lot of sad, disturbed reactions from people already familiar with him, and the general consensus was that this was gravely unfair to do, but it wouldn't be my last. My design choice wasn't random or purposefully malicious, it was because I intended to incorporate some very very old strip comic ideas that were lying around, neglected.

"Will"


"Will" was based off man of internet fame, Will Keith. If you're not familiar with Will Keith, he has a fascination with anime, swords, and has fell many a water bottle. So this character was a person in a three person friend circle sharing similar interests- monsters, conspiracies, the esoteric, etc. Each one had a special interest. Will was also the group's "jerk" friend.
I found it too fitting, so I decided to make Will and Manny the same person. I was accepting defeat that I would never make these side strips a real thing, since the ideas predated the comic by a couple years already. But I could still manage to make them real by canonizing it!

I've come along way from making a character more or less meant to be completely thrown away, to a foundational aspect of the story.