Inspirations
“Don’t be so modest,” she chided him as she turned back. “It is certainly based on you: a shadowy criminal mastermind with unnatural powers and a secret evil organization.”
“You make me sound like a cheap villain from a penny dreadful or a pulp magazine.”
She smiled. “Aren’t you?”
- Jack Magic: Believe Your Eyes
Please note: Illustrations are for informative and entertainment value only. No personal or celebrity endorsement is intended or implied. When you read the Jack Magic novels, whatever image you have in your own head about what the characters look and sound like is the correct version, always.
Above: Three of the major inspirations for the Jack Magic story: Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle, Bill Bixby's TV series The Magician, the Oz books by L. Frank Baum
JACK AND ALEX
Above: 1976 Thomas Dale High School yearbook photo of John Barton and Jill Purdy Perlstein performing at a talent show, the inspiration for Jack and Alex. Note the mispelling of his last name as "Barten."
The main characters have always been based on my friends John Barton and Jill Purdy Perlstein. In the original comics that I drew about Mister Suicide his civilian name was John Barton (duh!) but in the first script for the unfinished Super 8 movie it was changed to Jonathan Blake. Then in the Magic Man novels he became Jonathan Dexter. In the Jack Magic comic books and novels that followed he transitioned permanently to Jack Magic, a trademark that I now own.
Mister Suicide did not have an assistant, at least not one that was introduced in his adventures. He did have a pet dove with magical powers named Pocketsilk. In Magic Man his assistant was played on-camera by Jill and her character was named Jenny Childress, the name also used in the 1980's novels I wrote for friends. When Jack Magic launched I asked Jill permission to use Alex for the assistant's name (Alexandra is Jill's real life middle name).
Above: Jack Magic and young Alex as based on John and Jill.
TWO AND A HALF MEN
Richard McNeer is a friend and classmate who agreed to play the leader of the villains in the Super 8 movie version of Magic Man. His character was Taejon Fike, the Powerlord of W.H.I.P., The World Hierarchy of Incorporated Powers. YIKES! I cringe just typing that out now. What was I thinking? Let's just pretend it never happened.
Richard was a drama student and a very fine actor. He also had a beard and mustache at the time so he looked suitably sinister. What's bizarre is that he played a double role, that of Hodges, Jonathan Blake's male magic assistant. Yeah, there were originally TWO assistants! Hodges was going to wear a hooded mask the whole time so the audience would hopefully not be aware that he was a different actor. I don't know where the idea came from, perhaps lack of volunteers or that Steven Spielberg had actors play double roles in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The name Hodges came from Richard's middle name.
The main takeaway is that Richard McNeer inspired two separate characters in the Magic Man novels that followed: Fike and Hodges, which was the name I gave to a government agent.
Steve Dale Perez is another friend and classmate as well as a professional actor and singer. He did not appear in the Super 8 fiasco but years later when I turned the story into fan novels I created a manager for Jonathan Dexter named Al Mendoza, based very loosely on Steve.
When I started the comic book series I decided to rethink all the existing characters and names, and I remembered a cable installer I had worked with at Continental Cablevision in Richmond (now Comcast . His name was Bob Lopez and he wore a nametag that read B LOPEZ. I thought that Blopez was a unique and cool sounding name (nobody called him that, not even me, but I filed in away in my memory) so Al Mendoza became Bob Lopez/Blopez. Now the real life Bob did not look Hispanic at all, so originally in the comic book I based his appearance on TechTV's Martin Sargent, but later I realized that was a bad decision. I ended up shifting Martin to be the visual inspiration for the new Megajolt villain and making Bob more like Steve (at least in my mind's eye). What I do like about Bob Lopez in the current novels is that he went from just being just a minor supporting character and comic relief into having a major story arc that will pay off in the finale.
John reminded me that several other real life friends and acquaintences inspired multiple characters, some who appeared or were going to appear in the Super 8 movie. Chief among them were Rosyln Brandt who was going to be Leeja Ru (Leeja Ru evolved into Mia the Whitetorch). Julie Fulcher-Davis (who became quite an actress and director of note in New York and Richmond) was to be Kristensindoria (who became Krysta Sindora in the new books). The late James Friend played Night Demon, that character was revised into Milo Severance. A friend of Jack Magic in the books is Jacob Friend, the owner of a Richmond comedy club called The Punch Lion. Jacob is a tribute to James Friend. Anne Witmer (né Anne Mabe) was Telekinemesis who evolved into Scandra. And Anton Van Peppen wore a painted bucket pail with eye holes cut out to be Proteus on film, later in the 1980's books and the current series he inspired the character Algis Von Holland. The Von Holland family is also based on his real life children and ex-wives.
HI-TECH MAGIC
Above: illustrations I did for the TechTV show Unscrewed with Martin Sargent and TechTv/G4's X-Play.
As detailed in the History section, when I relaunched Magic Man as Jack Magic I decided to base the visuals of certain characters on hosts and talent from the ZDTV, TechTV and G4 networks (all of which now are defunct). I was a fan of those channels and programs and I secretly plotted to get some free publicity by getting them to notice me. Why was I not afraid of potential lawsuits? I kind of hoped that celebrities from the lowest rated cable networks would be more flattered than litigious. Even some of the names were adapted to pay tribute to their real-life inspirations, especially Adam Shokwurk, Eliza Webb and Allura Swisher.
And if someone did complain I could easily apologize, claim it was just parody and switch them out for generic looking characters.
THE CELEBRATED ARMSTRONGS
Above: Ellen Armstrong, John Hartford Armstrong and Lille Belle Armstrong.
The Celebrated Armstrongs were a real family of African American magicians who traveled and performed in the American South during Jim Crow. In my Jack Magic novels there is a fictional Broadway musical called The Celebrated Armstrongs and two of the characters sing songs I wrote the lyrics for: "If Only I Believe" and "Just Pretend I'm Wonderful." The adult Ellen Armstrongalso makes an appearance as the owner of a magic shop in Other Knights Part Two.
There are so many more inspirations and tributes and inside jokes throughout the entire Jack Magic series that I may have to create an addendum to address them all when it is over.