Sketches From Memory is a gag-a-day, slice-of-life comic with surreal elements.  It follows my daily life with my wife, sisters-in-law, cats, and various friends and anthropomorphic personifications.  The characters are based quite strongly on my real-life friends and family, though certain characteristics and tendencies are exaggerated for comedic effect.

The main characters are:

Chuck: Me!  High school history teacher, artist, writer, musician, clutterbug, and geek.  I have a love for puns and old pop culture references, making me a truly unique snowflake in the world of webcomics, I’m sure.

 

 

 

 

Michelle: Frequently referred to as Shelby or “The Wife.”  She is, as the previous sentence suggests, my wife.  Also a teacher, though of English.  We share lots of geeky interests, and her sense of humor is…well, surreal is probably a good way to describe it.  She is more than a little obsessed with the cats.

 

 

Meredith: My sister-in-law and our housemate.  She is portrayed as grumpy, but it doesn’t do the grumpiness of IRL Meredith justice.  Believe me.  We have an ongoing battle of assassination attempts that have been playing out since I first played an Assassin’s Creed game.

And the supporting characters:

The Cats: Ninja Steve (the black one) and Cecilia (the gray one).  They’re sisters and don’t usually get along.  Both tend to spend their time whining and napping, in about equal proportions.

V-Dawg: Former-student-turned-friend, baker extraordinaire, and frequent target for my puns.

Emily: Songwriting partner, Latin teacher, and lady with a Rogue-like streak of white hair in her otherwise dark hair.  We all think it looks awesome, and she is pretty awesome.

Earl the Archangel: Shoulder angel and fictional character from my old webcomic, Crooked Halo.  Earl is pretty terrible at his job, but on the bright side he…um, doesn’t care.

Tim Tation: The anthropomorphic personification of temptation, and Earl’s chief rival from the old Crooked Halo days.  He’s a jerk.

Anxiety and Depression: Physical manifestations of my anxiety and depression.  Huge jerks.  Often try to derail me.  Have learned I can suckerpunch them with the right combination of therapy and medication.

Clyde: My younger brother.  Lives in Pennsylvania nowadays.  Plays the guitar.  Runs.  Has a law degree he has no intention of using.  Also has an adorable if demanding daughter.

Allison, Derrick, and the WBD: Michelle’s youngest sister, our brother-in-law, and their son Donovan.  Donovan is a blond Napoleon who is almost as big as his mother already (he’s only about 4 right now, mind you).  All geeks and good folks.