After a brief moving-related hiatus, I've been getting caught up on issue 7. I am, however, mildly mystified as to who Isaac's dad's Charles Dearing identity might be.  I'm fairly certain he wouldn't be the fencer from New Zealand, nor probably the botanist from North Carolina.  My google-fu is not strong enough to turn up anyone more probable than either of those gents, so I fear I am stumped, and thus must ask: Who the devil is Charles Dearing?

Charles Dearing is just the latest name this character has assumed.  A lot of these characters have been around for hundreds of years, and tend to take on new aliases from time to time.  Hampstead is a perfect example.

Charles Dearing and Wilfred Hampstead are actually [b][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dee]John Dee[/url][/b] and [b][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Kelley]Edward Kelley[/url][/b], who worked together in the late 1500s.  Click on their names for some well-written wiki entries.

I first ran across the Dee/Kelley story around 1999-ish, and was fascinated by the whole thing.  When I sat down to remake the old comic that Locus is based upon, I injected a lot of Dee/Kelley stuff, because it was a good way to introduce magical/supernatural elements without treading the tired old ground that so many other authors have chosen to tread.  The world is full to overflowing with vampire stories and magical stories based upon Tolkien-esque mythology, and I wanted to do something a little different.

Back to the names, though...

I realize that most of these characters have two or more names, and I'm really sorry for that.  :D  It's just the way the story ended up writing itself.  For the record:

Spook is also Shen'to Bana'i.  Shen'to Bana'i is the first name he was given, and I'll be telling that story at some point.

Locus is also Anna Goodman.  Being Lili'tu, she lives in two different cultures:  the human and the Ca'Cubic.  Locus is her Succubus name; Anna is her human name.

Templeton Isaac Goodman is referred to as "Templeton" by some people and "Isaac" by others.  Those who call him Templeton know him only by his medical charts from when he was in a coma (e.g. Eden) or because that was the name he was introduced by (e.g. Sammael, because Rainbow used his full name in the ritual in Issue Four).  He prefers to be called Isaac, of course.  Most people I know who don't like the first names they were given prefer to be called by their middle names, and Isaac is the same.

In the original comic, he was just "Templeton Goodman" and was a very nerdy guy.  Had a bow-tie and everything.  When I remade the comic, I wanted him to be a little less nerdy, so I changed his look and gave him a middle name that was a little easier on the ears.

Charles Dearing was John Dee previously, although that wasn't his first name.  Most of his aliases have a last name starting with the letter D, though.

Edward Kelley introduced himself to Dee as Edward Talbot--he was always in trouble with the law.  In fact, he covered his ears back in the 1500s because he had gotten his ears clipped and didn't want anyone to see.  He's taken on quite a few aliases since the 1500s, including Grigori Rasputin and Wilfred Hampstead.  I'll be telling more of his story after Issue Ten.

Sammael has a number of different names, as does Meittron, but that's always been the case.  ;)

Xel'Duum was originally Xel, but that's a story for another time.  A big, long story that will take me at least a year to tell.

Eden, Silk and Moondoggie will pretty much always be referred to as Eden, Silk and Moondoggie.  That's just the way they are.  ;D

I hope none of this is too confusing.  The slow, three-pages-a-week schedule makes it a little hard to understand at times, so feel free to go back and re-read from the beginning.  Panelflow's [b][url=http://www.needcomics.com/Locus/episodes/]Episode List[/url][/b] feature is extremely handy for this, as it lets me organize the pages into proper 24-page issues.  Locus isn't the kind of webcomic that's just an endless stream of updates with no beginning or end.  You probably know that already, but I thought I'd point it out just in case.

This is a series which was meant to be read and re-read, simply because I like those kinds of comics (or books, or movies, or whatever).  I like it when I watch a movie or read a book for the second or third time, and something at the end makes me see something in the beginning in a whole new light, and that's what I'm shooting for here.  So be sure to go back and re-read the whole thing at least once or twice.  ;)

Well, that explains why Sammael calls Isaac by a name he hates and refers to Anna as Locus. I do wonder, though, if Sammy uses "Templeton" just to…

wait for it…

A little more…

A teensy bit more…

…bedevil Isaac. (Or it may be  Sammy's simply stubborn. Isaac started out "Templeton" to him, and by Dad, he's going to stay "Templeton.")

Speaking of bedeviling, I've been teaching too much grammar lately. Endulge an addict in the quote meddle.

Oh geez, that's bad.  :)

As for Sammael calling Isaac "Templeton"...he does so because that's Isaac's first name.  Angels don't understand the concept of hating your first name and using your middle one instead.  Angels only have one name, although the Devil has been given many, many more.  Some of his fallen angels have multiple names, too.  I may or may not go into that in the future--it all depends on whether it advances the story or not.

The "multiple names" weirdness in this comic is a result of the fact that a lot of these characters are very old and were known to other characters by varying names during the course of their lives.

John Dee, for example, is known as "John Dee" by Sammael, Spook, and Hampstead.  Hampstead is known as Edward Kelley by Dee and Spook, although Spook knew him when he called himself Hampstead for the first time in the 1800s--right before he changed his name to Rasputin, went to Russia, and did a lot of things wrong.

Dee and Kelley are much older than some of the old characters in the story (like Silk and Spook), and were living under aliases when they met these younger characters.  And then there's Moondoggie.  He's been around since the time the Vikings raised hell all over Europe, but no one knows him by any other name.

Then there are the characters who are multi-cultural, such as Locus, and have a name they use when they're in a specific culture.  Locus is Locus to Spook and Silk and anyone who knows the Ca'Cubi, but she's Anna to humans.

It's probably more complicated than it needs to be, but it seems realistic to me.  I hope it doesn't drive everyone nuts.