Downtown (comic book)
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DownTown is a digital comic book series created, written, and illustrated by Chris Addams. The very first issue was drawn in early 2000 and is in production to this day. Narrated by Chris, the comic details his horribly abnormal life and that of his metalhead and goth friends who live in Sandy Beach, a fictional super-metropolis in southern California. So far, the group has won the city paintball championship, conquered Sandy Beach, saving it from the evil Preps; and saved the city from a horde of homicidal vampires.
DownTown is probably best known for its seemingly unending assortment of personalities and characters (Chris tends to add people he deems “interesting“ into his comic at a whim). As an example, there’s the Son of Satan who picks fights with inanimate objects; The Son of Death, who never speaks and always keeps his face hidden; Hoodie’s stoner brother; an immortal black metal vampire; a hot redhead goth girl; a crazy, exhibitionist raver with a bunny toilet-paper fetish; the ladies man, and so on. Nearly every character in the series has some interesting personality quirk about them.
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[edit] Main Characters
[edit] Chris Addams
The series revolves around Chris Addams, a well-meaning, although shy and slightly offbeat, metalhead/photographer/artist/musician. He is in reality (and in the series) the author of the comic book and shows himself drawing it in his spare time, mostly during class (he gets in trouble for it a lot). He’s a diehard metalhead (with a VERY picky taste in music), paintball elite, and amazing musician. He’s also a photography fanatic and always has a digital camera on him, typically going to extreme lengths for only a single shot. He has a very sarcastic and dark sense of humor and under most circumstances, has nerves of steel (although in some situations he has been known to scream like a girl and run away). Chris is incredibly intelligent and has a knack for being able to fix almost anything with little or no knowledge of what the broken object it is or how it functions. He is an only child and lives with his mother, a medical technician for Sandy Beach General Hospital. He is the sole creator and only member of the black metal band Moonlit Funeral (his actual project in real life), recently joined by several of his friends so they could play live shows around Sandy Beach. His group of friends sees him as a leadership figure, although Chris states everyone has something to offer. He always tries to do the right thing, even if it ends up going horribly wrong most of the time. As in real life, Chris has a very noticeable attraction to redheads and an terrible fear of lawn gnomes (he believes they are invading his dreams in a plot to kill him in his sleep). Later on in the series, Chris is kidnapped by The Empress and bitten, which effectively injects the Vampire Serum into his blood, turning him into the most powerful vampire in existence. The issues that follow detail his often humourous problems he encounters as he fully evolves into a vampire (although he does manage to have some fun with his new abilities). His favorite band is the Polish death-metal band, Squish Bowels.
[edit] Katelynn Berry
She’s a hot redhead and an "all-around badass metalhead chick". She's a cyber-goth/death metalhead with a Ford Mustang Cobra and a lead foot. Musical interests include unrelenting grindcore and the blackest of black metal. She’s never afraid to step up to a fight (often picking fights with Damion just for fun). She's been playing bass since age 8 and can out-shred almost anyone. Katelynn is also the head of The Underground, an underground group of elite shoplifters who aim to bring down the major retailers in the area as a punishment to society. She is most commonly seen in cargo pants and a tank top, although she does wear a skirt and corset from time to time. Katelynn is a natural redhead, but has also died her hair bright blue and also black. She's very fond of unusual hair styles and typically wears her hair in dreadlocks or pigtails with dreadfalls attacked. She has three tattoos: a barcode on her upper right arm, a mutant goat skull on her upper left arm, and a pair of biohazard signs on the inside of her hips. To her frustration, she also gets a lot of attention for her abnormally large chest (she was a 36 EE by the tenth grade) and tends to get in fights with passersby over it. Although she claims that she isn’t bi-sexual, Kyla admits she “has her way with [Katelynn]” from time to time and the two are often seen “sneaking kisses”. Katelynn begins dating Chris shortly after meeting him as a rival on the paintball playing fields at Centennial Park. After nearly beating him in a final showdown, she realizes that he and his group of friends are just the type she has been looking for. She eventually starts spending more time with Chris, who takes her on dates (and nearly botches them all thanks to Tom’s horrible advice). The group, with all their quirks, grow on her and they all take her in as one of their own. Chris’ goofiness and weird disposition are what turned most girls away, but Katelynn explains that she finds it cute and attractive. The two tend to offset each other at times. Sometimes Chris will take charge of the situation, and then sometimes he’ll be caught off guard and Katelynn will bail him out. The two compliment each other very nicely, whereas Chris tends to take things a little slower and feel them out while Katelynn prefers to jump in to a situation, guns blazing. They’re the perfect match, “a match made in Hell”, as Damion puts it.
[edit] Kyla Morgan
Kyla was a member of the group from very early on in elementary school. Back then she was more like the girl next door and Chris, Tom, and Damion just treated her as another one of the guys. Later on, she became Damion's girlfriend early the 6th grade. She decided she loved Damion, to which he replied “Fuck…I’m never going to escape this.“ Although he initially claimed he just did it because he had no good excuse, he clearly has strong feelings for her, even with the amount of bickering they do. As for her personality, she's the typical bouncy, perky, perpertually excited cyber goth/raver chick. She wears goggles and has weird colored hair, usually sporting a couple of pigtails or dreadfalls (highly influenced by Katelynn‘s multiple hairstyles). She's always smiling and bouncy, always wanting to make everyone as eerily happy as her. She comes off as ditzy some times, but is actually incredibly intelligent (she studies biochemistry and advanced calculus). She very rarely wears clothes, stating that they are “unnatural”. When she does wear clothes, she often forgoes underwear, which causes humorous/disastrous situations from time to time (she once caused a 57 car pile-up when she sat on a freeway overhang for twenty minutes before realizing she forgot to wear underwear). She's convinced that her closet is infested with the spirits of dead bunnies and frequently strips naked, wraps herself in bunny toilet paper and dances around her apartment to ward them off (this later causes horrible problems when Tyrienny joins them in their dorm as she hasa fear of rabbits).
[edit] Damion, Son of Satan
Damion is the son of the undisputed Lord of All Things Unholy. However, as luck would have it, he happens to stand at only 5' 5" and weighs about 130 lbs. Damion is most commonly seen wearing shorts, skateboard shoes, and offensive word T-shirts. As he is not physically intimidating, he makes up for his “lack of evil” by being a belligerent asshole. He'll pick fights with anyone over anything (he kicked a guys ass once, claiming he didn't like his mitochondria). He's also known to frequently have verbal arguments and even pick fights with inanimate objects. He seems to be obsessed with all things Hellish and loves setting things on fire, including his girlfriend. He met Chris at age 4 after being buried alive in a sandbox, about ready to die from asphyxia. After Chris saved him, he, along with Tom, decided to be friends. Chris and Damion constantly bicker about almost anything, usually something incredibly trivial, and blow it up into massive arguments (although they do it simply for their own amusement). When Damion does lose his temper and go into a rambling, screaming rage, Chris is usually the one stuck calming him down. Damion’s musical interests run along the same line as Chris’, including death, black metal, and grindcore. He will also tolerate to an extent the electronic music that Chris and Tom share an interest in, but refers to it as "stupid thumpy noise crap". Throughout high school and some college, Damion holds a position as cashier at the boardwalk smoothie shop, Nattefrosty’s, where Chris and Tom usually hang out to shoot the breeze. Damion enjoys passing time by mercilessly harassing customers. Damion is infamous for his infuriated outbursts. He'll shout completely ridiculous complaints about arbitrary things to people and then attack them as if they had anything to do with it. For instance, he once attacked a guy at a bus stop because he didn't like the color of a passing vehicle. Another time, entered a Burger Hut and demanded they change the color of the walls. When the cashier became confused and fearful of Damion's ranting, Damion threw the register at him. Damion also constantly harasses Poser Kid/Timmy G., commonly complaining that "he's oozing POSER on everything!” Although he claims to detest him, Damion seems to be denying himself the fact that he actually enjoys having the kid around. On more than one occasion, he has brutally attacked passersby that made derogatory comments at Poser Kid. He usually insults the kid before he even has a second to be thanked. On a more trivial note: In every issue, whenever the group sits down to eat, Damion's lunch meat comes alive and attacks his face. No one ever notices, regardless of how much Damion screams for help and flails around. It is never explained how the lunch meat comes alive or why it seems to hold a grudge against him (although in the 5th grade Chris catches Damion p/uring arsenic in the lunch meat in an attempt to avoid another horrible lunch special. Chris states "Dude, you shouldn't do that. Things like that could come back to haunt you," to which Damion replies "Why the hell not? It's not like it's going to get up`and kill me.") He has two cousins, Pockets and Hoodie.
[edit] Tom Behringer
He's tall, green-haired, and wears sunglasses and a boonie almost indefinitely. Just before Issue #7, he ditched the hat and spiked his hair, inspired by Chris' spiked style. He listens to industrial and electronic music on his MP3 player pretty much all day and almost never takes his headphones off. From time to time he'll blurt out "Constant music!" Originally from Las Vegas, since age 3 he’s lived with his dad on the second floor of an apartment building, just two blocks north of Chris. He's a wild party animal and is very well known with the girls of Sandy Beach. Somehow he can get any girl without saying much more than "Hello" (it drives the group crazy). Typically, he can’t go out in public without flocks of girls chasing after him, begging to be deflowered (several times on the subway, a random pair of panties can be seen flying in his direction). Chris marvels at his sexual conquests, often screaming “How do you not have like 50 STDs?!“ He once bought Tom a ticket machine from a deli and hung it outside his door to show the next in line. Tom also frustrates Chris with the number of girls he has been with. Chris refers to him as the "green-haired man-whore", but admits he wishes girls would like him as much as Tom (this is before Chris meets Katelynn). Tom has also been a very well-skilled hacker since early childhood. He later takes up a position at The Underground. Tom makes most of his money by writing, hacking, and selling computer programs to unspecified buyers. He has been known to hack into banks, government buildings, and whatever else poses a challenge to him. Several computer magazines have attempted to meet him for interviews, but somehow, none of them know his identity outside of his hacker alias. His biggest feat so far is hacking into the security center at the local mega mall and shutting down all power, including backup, to allow The Underground access to every store in the building. That one heist brought in nearly $15,000 worth of electronics. He spends most of his spare time at night riding around on the subways and talking to whatever girls he meets.
[edit] Secondary Characters
[edit] Pockets and Hoodie
Pockets and Hoodie are the most notorious professional shoplifters in Sandy Beach. The two brothers (also Damion's cousins) work for Katelynn's Underground and have known her since early childhood. Pockets is a hardcore stoner, but the intelligent, conspiracy theorist kind of stoner, which makes him very interesting to talk to sometimes. He's convinced the government is behind everything bad that happens. Pockets always wears his drab green German Army coat and dark blue bondage pants, both outfitted with dozens of extra pockets. Occasionally he'll try to get Chris to try weed, but does so in vain. He works odd jobs, his latest being a chicken mascot for a chicken emporium.
Towering above everyone at 6' 6.6", Hoodie is probably the most mysterious person in the series. He's the son of Death, has never spoken a word since birth and due to an extreme allergy to sunlight, wears a mask, gloves, and hood to keep himself protected. No one has ever seen even a glimpse of what lies beneath the hood. It has been learned that Hoodie is both immortal and invincible. He also has the strength of 66.6 men. He's extremely loyal to the group and is a good friend to have around as he always jumps to everyone's defense, usually coming out of nowhere with his brother just in the nick of time. He also carries an automatic handgun on him with silver nitrate bullets. The group has discovered over the years that his purpose is to rid the world of "bad people". Hoodie sees each person surrounded by an aura that ranges from black to white. Depending on the lightness of the aura, he can tell how good or bad a person is. He knows their wrong doings, their faults, and their guilt. Because of his super natural nature, he can steal, speed, kill, and do whatever he wants completely unnoticed. Chris later demonstrates this to Poser Kid when he has Hoodie shoot several people on a crowded Mainstreet sidewalk at noon, right in front of two police officers (the victims were a child molester, an abusive husband, and a racist). The crowd screams and runs, including the police, but no action is taken against the group (the people react as if the shots came from nowhere). Hoodie listens to extreme grindcore and death metal. He drives a black mid-90s van jacked up on massive tired and modified with massive chrome exhaust pipes. The van is the common vehicular mode of transportation for the group and has earned the nickname "The Beast" due to the roaring of its engine. Hoodie has killed over 6000 in his life, all of which were people he deemed "unredeemable". This includes child molesters, rapists, murderers, thieves of certain natures, liars, and a handful of extremist Christians.
[edit] Eric Yarr
Chris has known him since early childhood, although the series never explains how. He's the cool old guy with the pirate accent. He runs a pawn shop just outside the financial district and also works at the Hot Subject at the Street Mall where he moves stolen merchandise for The Underground. He's always trying to sell people stuff they don't need at crazy prices, but other than that, he's a good guy and always hooks The Underground up with deals, information, and the occasional piece of terrible advice.
[edit] Slash and Gash
The stereotypical dark, depressed, morbid goth lesbians. They're always lurking somewhere in the shadows or in the forests of Centennial Park doing something sexual/morbid near the witch cemetery. They're each others' only friends outside of the Underground and seem to enjoy the dark solitude. They're lesbians, but for whatever reason, they have no problem hooking up with Tom, which drives everyone, especially Damion and Chris crazy.
[edit] Joey Lawndale
Chris’ worst enemy since age 4 and leader of the Preps. He's almost as rich as Katelynn Berry and flaunts it whenever possible. He lives to torment anyone that doesn't fit in with his perfect circle. He is most commonly seen wearing a blue New York Yankees hat and orange Aero Prep hoodie. A few times in the series, it is hinted at that Joey may actually have an attraction to Katelynn and is slightly jealous at Chris for dating her. Joey typically harasses the group during lunch, but Hoodie usually pounces on him and shuts him up before any fight can ensue. Joey is usually accompanied by his friend Dan and another unnamed guy, both from the football team.
[edit] Poser Kid/Timmy G.
He wears a Sliprope shirt, a Dirtvayne hat, eyeliner, has long Emo hair, and wears whatever else Eric Yarr can force into his hands when he strolls into Hot Subject. With that said, he's a nice kid who just wants to find some friends he can fit in with. He's a little naïve and scared of the world around him as he's been cast out from every group there is. Before meeting Chris, he had lost any and all friends he had. No one would talk to him. He began wandering the streets late at night almost hoping someone would kill him and end a meaningless life. However, one night, while moping around in an alley, he came upon Chris feeding on a victim. He cowered at Chris' feet, who took pity on him and let him tag along. Chris eventually brought him to the Underground and the group slowly took him, although Damion would constantly harrass him. He looks up to Chris and views him as an older brother. In recent issues, he's been tagging along with Chris and has started to grow on the group, even Damion, who tries to hide it by giving the kid “as much shit as humanly possible“. Chris always comes to his defense when Damion starts trouble with him. Poser Kid actually listens to much of the same music as Damion and truly despises nu-metal and popular rock music. He explains to Chris that he only began wearing nu-metal clothes to try and fit in with people he wanted to be friends with. Through the beginning of Issue #7, the group refers to him as Poser Kid, but it is later revealed that his name is Timmy. His last name is too complicated to pronounce (Chris states that the name sounds like "Give Cancer Fuse Hole"), so they simply call him Timmy G., although Damion and the others still refer to him as Poser Kid from time to time, but more as a term of endearment (except for Damion).
[edit] Tyrienny SjÃnkzktÃnrkjÃ
She's the only person other than her parents that can pronounce her last name. She's Katelynn and Kyla's new roommate at college. Tyrienny is very introverted and usually has her nose stuck in her beloved spellbook. She speaks in a very soft voice, often staring at the ground as she speaks. She's been known to perk up when certain people get her going. She is also a practicing Wiccan and is very knowledgable in the subject. Chris Addams later admitted to a major error in the comic as he mistakenly named her Tristania in the first few pages of Issue #7, where she made her first appearance.
[edit] The Empress
She’s a sharp-witted, manipulative, sassy redhead vampire empress (her title of Empress is assumed to be self-appointed). Chris is never sure about the girl‘s true intentions as she always shows up whenever trouble is starting. She's the leader of an underground vampire coven, half of which has recently split off into a serial-killing radical faction (The Rogue Faction) bent on destroying the city. She turns Chris into a vampire in Issue #6 after stealing the Vampire Serum from Eric Yarr's Pawn Shop. She did show a more vulnerable side, however, when she came to Chris to help stop the radical vampire faction, fearing the destruction of the human race. Overall, Chris thinks she's a good person who's just caught up in a bit of a delusional vision of power she hasn't been able to control on her own.
[edit] Setting
The majority of the series finds the main characters wandering through the bowels of the Sandy Beach, a sprawling metropolis on the edge of California’s southern coastline near West Minster. It is said to be nearly three times the size of New York City. The most visited places in the series are, of course, various downtown streets, The Underground (the underground labyrinth of abandoned factories run by Katelynn Berry), the beach (including Comet Town, the massive beachfront theme park), and Snowblind Mountain, a ski resort on the massive twin-peak mountain in north Sandy Beach. Sandy Beach itself is in a valley, completely surrounded by mountains, except for the coast to the west. It contains a desert area in the south east, massive forests, beaches, a few lakes, the industrial sectors, and commercial sectors. The northern and eastern sections of the city are predominantly suburbs. Centennial Park also rest higher up toward the mountains and offers a breath-taking view of the city at night. In the first several issues of the comic book, the characters attend Sandy Beach High School, just a block west of Chris’ house, right against the coastline. The majority of the sections of the city the characters explore are decaying industrial sections and the commercial downtown district.
Chris lives in a nicer apartment building on a main street, not far from the beach. Later on in the series, Chris, Tom, and Damion move in to a poorly maintained apartment for college.
[edit] Synopsis
[edit] The First Issue
The very first issue (more like a pilot issue) was drawn sometime in early 2000 and quickly took off after a fan following built around that single issue. It was only 9 pages long and detailed Chris’ adventure with Tom and Damion as they wandered the city searching for some good food. It took place in the same time period as Issue #7 would later take place in. There were also characters in the original which mysteriously disappeared, never to be seen again. This included Big Pimp and the character Greg, who slightly resembled Pockets. After the comic went into serious production, this issue was removed from cannon in the series.
[edit] Issue #1: Katelynn Berry
The first official issue of the DownTown series. It was a shorter issue compared to the 30-40 page-long issues to follow. It is Chris’ first day of school at Sandy Beach High (what grade he is entering is never explained). As he is covering his boss for a quick breakfast break before school, he finds Pockets and Hoodie shoplifting, but decides not to turn them in, stating “There’s more serious crimes to worry about.” Just before leaving for school, Emo Kid enters, pulls a gun on Chris and tries to rob the store. Hoodie promptly jumps in front of the gun and takes a bullet straight through the skull, splattering his brains across the floor. To everyone’s amazement (except his brother, Pockets’), Hoodie reanimates and attacks Emo kid, saving everyone. Later on, Chris enters the class and immediately falls face first on the floor as his desk breaks. As he is getting up, his gaze meets the very girl he has been obscessing over since age 4. Known only as “the hot redhead”, Chris anxiously works out a plan to talk to her. As he is too nervous to approach the girl, Kyla meets Katelynn (Chris’ crush) in the shower and reveals Chris’ crush on her. Later on at the Sushi Shack, Tom shoves Chris in front of Katelynn (knocking him over in the process). Chris tries to build up the courage to say something, but all he can think to say is “I like your face.” After the disastrous first encounter, Chris takes on the paintball finals against his rival, Joey Lawndale. Chris eventually comes in contact with and attacks Joey’s secret weapon, the human tank, a heavily armored paintball player. After tackling the human tank and knocking it down a massive slope, Chris realizes that his enemy is actually the girl he has fallen in love with, Katelynn Berry. Surprisingly, she is amused at Chris’ crush on her and even jokes about him "kicking [her] ass". In one last attempt, Joey attacks Chris and Katelynn (as he believes Katelynn has betrayed his team by not cheating), but Pockets and Hoodie show up in the nick of time (yet again) and save Chris. Later in the day, Katelynn tells Chris and the group that she finds them "pretty interesting" and plans on seeing them all again. The issue ends with Damion freaking out as a pigeon poops on his head.
[edit] Issue #2: Hamsters, Preps, and Urban Exploration
The second official issue (though many more are planned to take place in between #1 and #2). In this issue, Chris is depressed after another monotone, sarcastic insult from his dull and somewhat lifeless teacher, Ms. Haggis. Yet again, he doubts himself as an artist and sinks into his darker mood. To cheer him up, Kyla gives him a mutant hamster stolen from biology class. After school the group takes the hamster to Snowblind Mountain to go snowboarding. While sitting in the lodge, the group butts heads with Joey Lawndale and his group of Preps. Joey tries claiming the mountain as Prep territory, but is met with a verbal onslaught from Damion (he and Chris threaten to set them on fire). The group leaves and Chris heads back to work. The hamster is left in Tom’s possession while Chris is at work, but it escapes and slips into the sewer system across the street. The group mounts a search and rescue mission to save the hamster, led by Chris who climbs head first into the storm drain. Not long after they enter the sewers, they are jumped and captured by a group of Freaks. A short while later, the group’s leader reveals they have wandered into the territory of The Underground, a notorious organization of shoplifters. The leader lifts her hood, and to the surprise of the group, it turns out to be Chris’ crush, Katelynn Berry! After realizing who she’s captured, Katelynn releases the group and apologizes. Chris then explains the plight against the Preps, which Katelynn and The Underground sympathize with. Katelynn decides to lend The Underground to Chris to help fight the Preps. Later on, Tom has several drinks at the bar by the beach (somehow he is served even though he is well under 21) and runs into Joey Lawndale. In a drunken rage, he challenges Joey to an end all be all match on the beach. As per the terms of the agreement: if The Underground wins, the Preps can’t claim territory in Sandy Beach. Chris heads back to the Underground and begins preparing them for battle against the Preps. Chris heads to Eric Yarr's pawn shop for paintball supplies and finds out that Joey and his friends recently stopped there to stock up as well. The hour of the battle arrives and all hell breaks loose. Many of the Underground are immediately taken down in a hail of paintballs. In a matter of minutes, the entire Underground has been eliminated or captured by Joey and his team. As they are elite paintball champions, Chris and Katelynn have managed to escape capture and run into an abandoned restroom building. Joey and the team eventually find them and attempt to break in. Chris contemplates giving up, but Katelynn snaps some sense into him, citing the fact that she can make decisions because she has boobs. Katelynn forces Chris into a vent and is then taken hostage in order to allow Chris to escape unnoticed. Chris allows Katelynn to be taken away, and then tracks down Joey’s team. With only moments to go before the end of the match, Joey orders his team member to shoot the unarmored Katelynn at point-blank range. The teammate refuses (surprisingly) and Joey grabs his gun. As he fires, Chris dives from the shadows and fires another shot directly in front of Katelynn. Miraculously, Chris’ paintball hits Joey's and both shatter inches in front of Katelynn’s face. Chris then fires two shots into Joey’s crotch. Joey cries in pain, at which point even the Preps laugh at him. Chris releases The Underground and Joey’s friend apologizes for him “being an ass“. Later on, the Preps have a party which, oddly enough, they invite The Underground to. All ends on a good note, with Kyla showing everyone her boobs.
[edit] Issues #3, 4, 6.5: The Lost Issues
Several issues have risen in the creation and release of these three issues. Issue #3: The Concert follows Chris on an attempt to ask Katelynn on a date to a local death metal open-air concert on the beach. His attempts are continuously botched thanks to Tom, who nails Katelynn in the head with a Frisbee and blames it on Chris, followed by Chris' lack of self-confidence. Strangely, the group bumps into another group eerily that eerily resembles them. After Chris manages to ask Katelynn to hang out, the group all head to Comet Town, the theme park on the beach. After a day of rides and fun at the park, Chris is shocked when Katelynn leans in and kisses his cheek. He is incredibly nervous to the point where he nearly passes out and tries kiss Katelynn on the lips, to which she replies "Not yet, cowboy...". The next day, Chris realizes he has lost the tickets to the concert and the group attempt to sneak in, then try to buy tickets from Pockets, but are tailed by security. Just before giving up, Katelynn appears at a back door and invites the group in, explaining that her friends are roadies for the bands. The group joins the thousands of fans at the concert and everyone has a great time. During a break from the concert, the group grabs some ice cream and hangs out on a pier, at which point Katelynn tells Chris that she is really beginning to like him. She gives him another kiss on the cheek and the issue ends with Damion spouting off on another insane rant about love. The issue is in fact cannon in the series, but due to "a total lack of artistic ability" as described by Addams, the issue has been scheduled to be redrawn.
Issue #4: The Underground Strikes back was decided to be non-cannon due to a "horrible lack of scripting". The entire issue was written without a script and contained a plot that constantly changed (the entire plot changed, half-way through, making the first 20 pages meaningless). The end also showed Hoodie speaking and ripping off his hood, which Chris Addams decided would never really happen. The majority of the issue followed a plot by the Preps to infiltrate The Underground, disguised as Hoodie. The plot is realized by Chris, at which point The Underground mounts an attack against the Preps at Snowblind Mountain. The Underground ambushes the Preps and Chris declares the war over and The Underground as the ultimate victor. The issue was scrapped and will never be released. Addams has since decided that certain aspects of the issue are indeed a canon part of DownTown history and will be included in the rewritten issue.
Issues #6.5 (originally planned to be Issue #7): OzzFest was planned to take place just days after Issue #6. After a long day at school, and a hard day of dealing with new vampiric traits, Chris and the group decide to take a trip to the coastal theme park just a block away from the school. While taking a bathroom break, the group encounters Nergal of the black metal band, Behemoth (band) who informs them of a chance to play a show as a headlining band at Ozzfest. The comic was never continued after that scene, abandoned in favor of a more complex plot which incorporated the plot of the group forming a band and playing a massive show.
[edit] Issue #6: The Vampire Serum
This was actually the fourth official issue released. The issue takes place near the end of the group's senior year at Sandy Beach High. It begins with Chris dreaming about drinking a Slush Guppy, which promptly turns into a lawn gnome, of which Chris has an inexplicably horrible fear. The comic then follows the group through gym class and then lunch, at which point Damion's lunch meat comes to life and attacks his face (yet again, although no one notices). Later in the day, while the group is at Chris’ house, Katelynn tells them she has “Something to do” and has them all follow behind her. They enter the sewer system and make their way into the garage of the Street Mall. The group proceeds up to Hot Subject, where they meet with Chris’ long-time friend and advice-giver, Eric Yarr. Eric, in his classic pirate voice, explains that a secret vampire serum, the essence of a most powerful vampire, has been stolen from his pawn shop (it is never explained why there would ever be a vampire serum of epic importance in a pawn shop). The group is side-tracked by a trip to the Gothland night club where they meet someone offering to help them with their mission. Two shady characters lead the group across the rooftops of the city and down into the city’s bowels. There, the group is amazed to find another underground. This one is headed by a girl known as Kitty, who turns out to be Chris’ ex-girlfriend (she always wears a kitty kabuki mask and cat ears). Kitty tells the tale of the vampire underground in search of the serum and the evil they could use it for. She warns them that if the vampires get a hold of it, an ungodly evil will be unleashed in the city. Chris and the group begin tracking the vampires down, at which point, they are ambushed in the entertainment district in the back corridor of an arcade. Katelynn and Kyla manage to distract most of the crowd by taking off their bras and playing Jump Jump Revolution. Chris and the others chase the vampires into the alleys, but lose them. The next night, Chris and the group stake out the last known are of operation of the vampires and follow a straggler into the sewers. Katelynn and Chris knock out most of the group of vampires, but one struggles and opens fire. The sewers erupt into chaos and a chase ensues. During the firefight, one vampire manages to knock Chris down a ventilation shaft, where he plunged nearly one hundred feet through the air, landing in a heap of sand in a massive underground warehouse. Unconscious and vulnerable, he is finally captured by the vampires’ leader The Empress. After subduing the vampires, Katelynn and the rest of the group mount a rescue mission for Chris and begin lowering themselves down the ventilation straps using their bondage straps. Meanwhile, Chris is chained to what appears to be a medieval rack tortured device as The Empress explains how she hand selected Chris to be her vampire prince. She goes on to explain the massive amount of vampires she has been creating and that she needs someone to help rule over them. Chris only gets angry at her and wants nothing to do with her plan. He refuses to drink the serum. At this point, The Empress becomes enraged and bites into Chris with her serum-soaked fangs. Just as this happens, the group kicks down the door to the chamber and attacks the Empress. Katelynn frees Chris and takes the vampire serum from the Empress. Hoodie stays behind as he is the only person powerful enough to fight off the Empress and her ranks of bodyguards. The group make it out safely and spend the night at Chris’ house. Katelynn returns the serum to Eric the next day and makes her way back to class. During class however, a student (bearing an uncanny resemblance to DanI Filth) spills a scalding solution on Chris. As he shouts in anger, he realizes the entire class is staring at him. Tom then informs him that Chris has sprouted very sharp fangs. Chris stares off in astonishment as he realizes that the vampire serum was real…and he is becoming a vampire.
[edit] Trivia
- Almost everything with a brand name, (including bands, tv shows, movies, songs, and famous indiviuals) is spun off in the comic (i.e. Hot Subject, which is actually Hot Topic; Squish Bowels, which is the Polish death metal band, Squash Bowels).
- Sandy Beach was first created for Chris' 7th grade English project in which the class had to create a city and draw a map of it. The map later evolved into the mid-western coastal section of the city.
- The name of Chris' work, Frickin' Mart, was created out of frustration. While in study hall, Chris couldn't think of a decent name for the store. He snapped his pencil and shouted "What the hell? It's just another frickin' mart!" Hence the name.
- Sandy Beach is heavily inspired by Manhattan and, interestingly, certain levels of Splinter Cell.
- Chris' initial intention in drawing the comic was to create a story board for a live action show he intended to film. His lack of funds to do so drove him to improve the art and progress with an actual comic book series. He does, however, plan to have the series animated in CGI, funds willing.
- All of the main characters are actual people in Chris' (the illustrator) life, however Chris would not meet his newly created characters until several years after creating them. Eerily each character would perfectly match their look and personality in the comic. This gave rise to the Comicbook Prophecies, of which Chris believes his comic has begun to predict future events.
- Cameo appearances in the series include: Marilyn Manson, Don Vito, Bam Margera, Mudvayne, Slipknot, Nergal of Behemoth, Deth Klok, Angela Gossow, Judas Priest, Cradle of Filth, and Cutting the Fecal Matter.
- It can be noted that, inexplicably, several popular death and black metal band members actually attend classes with Chris both in high school and college, but are never acknowledged as anything other than classmates. Most notably are Dark Funeral, who sit just behind Chris in his senior English class and Children of Bodom and Cradle of Filth, who sit across from Chris in chemistry.
- Although The Empress was modeled after Chris' friend Caley Parrott both physically and personality-wise, she provides the voice of Kyla in the animated series.
- Chuck Norris makes a cameo as Chris' gym teacher in high school. Damion picks a fight with him over the ambient dust levels in the gym and states there aren't enough molecules in the gym for everyone. Damion begins grabbing at the air, claiming he is "collecting molecules" when Norris questions Damion's sanity. Damion screams so loud he bursts his ear drums.
- Many of the secondary characters Chris has added to the comic are simply fans that requested to be drawn in. Chris has done so for over a dozen fans and is often kept busy rendering characters for new friends and fans.
- The character Damion is based 100% on Chris' real-life best friend. His violent outbursts have become the thing of legend.
