So, over the past few days I've come up with some new stuff that I'll be using in future stories.

On Monday I was at the Movies & as I watched the screen a scene came on screen & my mind went "Hmm.... I could totally see *character* so having some of those". Now they will but I just have to figure out how to fit them in. On a somewhat related note: I finally saw Iron Man 2 & it was awesome.

On Tuesday I'm at Costco & looking over the products. My mind is making random associations with product titles. I find one random product association that makes for a funny mental image. I think about the image for a bit longer & now that image is going to be a character which if done correctly I think will be pretty cool. Not sure how to introduce this character but I'm sure I'll find away.

Your Costco trip inspiration seems to shed light on the creation of "Hamboy", or at least how your mind might be capable of working in those directions.

I honestly can't pin down many "Eureka!" moments when it comes to my characters. Of course, they are mostly just archtypes for these kinds of stories, so they didn't really need a breakthrough moment of originality to come into being.

The story behind the Ham-Boy name has nothing to do with shopping. I wasn't the one who even came up with the name.

During my time in College, I was taking an Art class & a woman who had missed her class session with my teacher wanted to sit in with my class, my teacher said it was ok. She sat next to me, I being a person with a seat next to them that was near the door. She had this knit hat on, a hat which I though looked like a Ham. It wasn't the color but more of the pattern. During the course of the class we talked about random stuff, one such random thing was wearing Hams as Hats. Another thing I remember talking about was french speaking Buffalo but I'm sure why.

The class ended I didn't think much of the conversation but I did think more about the ham as hats idea. I did a doodle of two what a "Ham Hat" might look like. I probably still have the sketches somewhere. Now this class wasn't the last time I saw her. Apparently I had made an impression on her since when ever she saw me, she greeted me with a nickname. Yes, she had christened me: Ham Boy! Now I didn't consider the name all that odd or embarrassing, I've had other nicknames given to me by people I hardly knew in the past. (The name for the Chad character came about in a similar fashion during High School).

The only time that it was a bit embarrassing was when she saw me a store & yelled out the name after seeing me. I was with my parents. I had to explain who she was & why she called me that after we parted ways. Thinking back I don't think she even knew my real name & I don't I even knew her real name either.

Around this time I had started writing stories for the PV & thought the name "Ham Boy" sounded super heroic even so I made a character around it. The reason why Ham-Boy wears a Ham cowl/mask is nod to those "Ham Hat" drawings I did.