by Ryan Callahan

Throughout the course of drawing this comic, I've had to use a lot of different names. Like, a whole lot. I mean it. Like fifteen.
This is where I take the time out of my busy schedule of playing internet games like "Stack the Blocks" and "Stack the Bricks" to give you some insight into the inner workings of the comic, by giving you the story and references behind some of the multitude of names used throughout the site. If a name isn't given, it's either self-explanatory or probably has no story.

Character

Name Origin

Abe was named after Abraham Lincoln, for his Stovepipe hat. White has a forest ranger hat. He was originally "Adam", who was the White Ranger in Power Rangers, but this was later changed to "White", for the same thing. Tin is a reference to tin-foil hats, since he's paranoid. Spacely wears a George Jetson bubble helmet and is named after his place of employment, Spacely Sprockets. Bub is the sound someone in that kind of suit might make when giving off air. Graham was named after Sir Graham of the King's Quest games, who wears that hat. Java was modelled after Too Much Coffee Man, thus his name. Jazz jazzercises. Miau is weird, just like the sound German cats make, which is also "Miau". 'Stan's full name is "Afghanistan". Seriously. Just because he's middle-eastern suddenly he has to be named after a country. What the hell. R is named for Roman, of the game Armed and Dangerous, who wears a similar bandanna. Borck is a reference to Brock Lesnar, as it was once misspelled, reflecting his thickheadedness. Trompe means fool in French. I think. But I think it's a verb. Hot is a reference to the similarly-poser-ish Icy Hot Stuntaz, internet celebrities. Alec, Ryan, Miami, Blaine, Tommy, Dan, Danielle, Roomie Dan, Matt, OverTilt, and Tayler are all real people. However, Tommy is actually Tammi, and she's a girl, not a guy. Danielle is actually Daniel, and he's a guy, not a girl. Tayler's a girl too. But the original premise was that everyone was a guy in that comic. Rule was excepted for Daniel, who kept demanding to be in it and was thus admitted as a girl.

	Tube wears a tube sock. Her screen name is RedSockRocker, because she wears a red sock and er... rocks. Plus she probably likes the Red Sox. Acid was just a cool name. His screen name is CausticTrench, Caustic a reference to acid and Trench being his signature article of clothing, clearly. Gizmo was named after the similarly-obese but far more sinister Gizmo of the game Fallout, who was a kind of mob boss in a town called JunkTown. It's from this he also gets his screen name, JunkTownKing. Pom-Pom was named after a Japanese character from whom he was inspired. His screen name, PomEarGranite, is simply a play on the word "Pomegranite". No real significance there. The title "Goddamn Rabbits" is simply a phrase directed at the main characters. Also, in the storyline of The Snake, originally, those were going to be his final words before departing. Didn't work out that way, though.
	Karbone's creator, Nicholas Conté, was a real person who revolutionized the way the world saw carbon and its uses. He's famous for the graphite pencil and the Conté crayon. Whether he brought carbon to life or was murdered by a zombie scientist is unknown.
	Amadeo Avogadro (also known as Avagadro) was also a real person. He invented "Avogadro's Number", the mole, a unit for molecular measurement. He also did various other science things, which may have included signing a deal with the devil. I don't know. I'm not a doctor.
	As it says on his About Page, the Ignominious Hate was always "The [Something] Hate". Ignominious was chosen just because it's partially fitting and completes the phrase nicely.
	Bob is pretty much the most common name there is.
	The contestants of Neon Lives are named after the Noble gases. It's the neon light theme. Also, Xenon is engaged to Fluoride, because Xenon is the only of the noble gases here that can make a compound, and then almost only with Fluoride. It's the kind of scientific reference you wouldn't usually find or care about in an online comic. The comic itself is a play on the phrase "Neon Lights", obviously.
	The comic title MERB is a reference to the street the characters live on -- MERB Street. But MERB is an acronym for the four main characters: Mike, Eve, Roth, and Becky. Michael Newman was named Mike because it was cool and Newman after Newman Rogers of the book Circuit of Heaven, which was about the theological and physical implications of a technology-sustained afterlife. Suprisingly, there's also a character in the movie Jacob's Ladder named Michael Newman, and seeing the movie for the first time, I dropped myself hearing him say it. It was almost surreal. I didn't think that name would exactly be common. But then a year or so later working at a mortgage company I happened upon the file of a man NAMED MICHAEL NEWMAN. SHOCK! Apparently it's a common combination. Imagine that. Roth was named after Tim Roth. His first name just seemed to work. Eve -- as in, the first woman ever? Yorick (and his full name, Janissimo de Shaquesparéne,) is a nod to Shakespeare, for various reasons, among them Shakespeare's way with words as compared to Yorick's lack thereof.
	Maso is a masochist. Get it.
	As many guessed, Iago is a reference to the Othello character of the same name and manner. Vicious, violent, scheming.
	"Tracker" was a suggestion from my brother Dan. I thought he meant in reference to his actions, but he was referring to the character from Degrassi. Either way, the name was cool and worked. His nickname, "The Philosopher", is reflective of his actions, ruled entirely by logic rather than emotion. The comic itself is named for the first circle of hell, as described in Dante's Inferno, also known as Limbo. This is where unbaptized babies and philosophers would end up after death.
	The mob boss Fignola, to whom Tracker reports, is named for Alessandro Ghignola, a personal acquaintance who lives near the Leaning Tower of Pisa and wrote the simulation Noctis, among other things.
	Following the Inferno theme, Virgil was named for the angel that guided Dante through hell on his tour.
	Hero Man's true name is not yet known. He's simply a hero and a man.
	"Dwerm" is based on "Dwemer", the ancient underground-dwelling race in the game Morrowind. "Yaga" comes from "Baba Yaga", but I have no idea why.
	Khosrove was named after some Russian guy named Uncle Khosrove in some dumb short story I read a long time ago. But it was a cool name. Very hardcore.
	Kopf, the Hitler Balloon of GDR, is actually the German word for "head".
	Merse and Monjy, like many of the proper names for people you'll see in Hero Man, were the result of a random word generator. Does it show?
	The security guard O'Brien in Issue 2 of Karbone (who had a remarkably brief appearance) is named for a very close friend of mine, Blaine O'Brien, of the band Trashcan Derby. Blaine is also a character in RagTag & Co.

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