
Characters
Whilst studying for BTech in Art and Design at Preston's College, I would do a lot of cartooning of Dasher characters in pencil and coloured them in colouring pencils. This activity and drawings greatly influenced me into the direction of being an animator and comic writer. From these basic designs and the skills developed during my time at UCLan, they have been improved into what we can see now primarily using the Adobe Photoshop suite of tools.
Character building
In this gallery is everything you need to design your own character for your story.
Dasher

Age: 14
Gender: Male
Real Name: Lucas Wilson
Powers/abilities: Super speed
Category: Hero
He is the “new” hero of Blackpool after gaining his powers from the shock wave from a crashed meteor. He not only protects the residents from criminals but inspires them to be better people. This is done in a happy, energetic but childish manner. He is also known by many different names by the residents:
· The blue angel
· Blackpool's guardian
· The blur of Blackpool
Lucas Wilson

Age: 14
Gender: Male
Alter-ego: Dasher
First appearance: issue 1
Lucas Wilson (A.K.A. Dasher) used to live in Manchester before moving with his parents to Blackpool to escape the viciously bullying at school. His bullying experience scared him to death and since then does not want to face bully’s again. But, on the night on arriving in Blackpool, an event known as "the shock" empowered Lucas with the ability to run faster than the speed of light. But he doesn't learn this until the next day when he gets chased another bully.
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Now, knowing the extent of his powers he has discovered his strength in fighting back again. Lucas now enjoys high school but acts like a dork and a coward around bullies. This gives him the perfect cover to keep his superhero alter-ego protected.
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His new found friends, Ben and Matthew, have also become part of his strength in fighting back. Their motivation gives Lucas the strength to continue being the hero he was destined to be. In return, he helps and motivates them to believe in themselves too.
Ben Foster

Age: 14
Gender: Male
Category: Allie
First appearance: issue 1
Ben Foster is the son of Johnny Foster, the mayor of Blackpool. His friendship with Lucas began after he was saved from getting beaten up by his school bully. When Ben learns about Lucas's powers, he formulates an idea of Lucas becoming a superhero for Blackpool.
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Ben has a desire to become an artist as his future dream job. In his school life, the art pieces he produced was never good enough to be the best. But after Dasher was born, Ben had went ahead to do his art reflecting on the Blackpool's guardian angel. Because of this, his art on Dasher was finally enough to get noticed by students of culturepoint high school.
Matthew Fiddler

Age: 10
Gender: Male
Category: Allie
First appearance: issue 1
Matthew is a younger sensitive child who is self-conscious about his body, but a genius who becomes part of Dasher's team. The creative genius helped develop a suit, originally designed as a motorcycle suit, which he planned to show in his science project for school.
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Matthew is a resourceful person because of his father, who is a science lecturer and a scientist at R.E.C. Industries. Whatever Lucas or Ben need, Matthew will aim to supply no matter how hard; especially making up excuses to his parents, just to protect Lucas's alter-ego.
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Matthew hopes to become a scientist just like his father. He learned to read at a very young age, and from this his father encouraged him to read university science text books and research papers to grow this love of science and intelligence. Now, as a hidden genius, his abilities help Dasher to grow his abilities and understand the weaknesses of all the villains he battles. This help and friendship has brought him into what Lucas and Ben call "The trust circle".
Julie Carter
