Bagman

While not the oldest known character of B. Roberts, Bagman is most likely the most well known and maybe even possibly the most well loved. Bagman was originally created April 5th, 2004 when B. Roberts was only fourteen-years-old. Inspirations for Bagman at this time were Marvel's Forbush-Man and the 1949 Disney cartoon Goofy Gymnastics.

Origins and Inspirations
Believe it or not, the first thought of Bagman occurred in a tanning bed. During the time, B. Roberts felt the need to be tan and visited a local tanning parlor (owned by a church acquaintance) frequently. Of course, finding this tanning boring and tedious, she decided to let her mind wander while waiting. The first thing to come to mind was the old Goofy cartoons made by Disney. Namely, the instructional ones where an off-screen narrator instructed Goofy how to become a (insert title here), usually with disastrous results. She began to imagine a similar scenario where an off-screen narrator instructed a superhero fanboy on how to maintain his goal of being an actual superhero. As you can imagine, that superhero would become Bagman.



Later that day, she would find herself at a gathering for tee-ball practice lead by her stepfather. This practice was commonplace, and she often came prepared with pencil and paper in hand for the boring ritual ahead. It was then that she took the chance to draw Bagman out for the first time. It resulted in a short three panel comic where Bagman attempts to fly, only to find out that he is not capable of such a feat.



Bagman's appearance was heavily influenced by Marvel's lesser known parody superhero, Forbush-Man. Prior to making Bagman, B. Roberts's previously mentioned stepfather had purchased a box of random comics off of eBay. Among these comics was the 87th issue of the magazine Marvel Age. While little could be said about the magazine itself, it did contain a calendar for February 1990 (B. Roberts's date of birth) which she found amusing. Said calendar also featured the character Forbush-Man, who was at the time unknown by. B. Roberts. Of course, that didn't stop her from being inspired. As they say, the rest was history.

Backstory
Bagman's backstory gets a little change ever so often throughout the years, but it has essentially stayed the same in basics. It starts with Bagman's humble alter ego, Antthony, living with his grandmother. As an attempt to move out on his own, Antthony has agreed to live with his grandmother and take care of her as opposed to putting her in a rest home. This way he has his own space away from his parents and his grandmother has her freedom all while leaving the house to Antthony if she should ever pass away. Of course, while Antthony's grandmother tends to go about her business and leave Antthony to his own, she sometimes can't help but interfere with his life. She is, after all, a "loving" grandmother. By this I mean she expects him to do most of the work around the house and cater to her senile whims.

One such whim occurred one day while Antthony was at his work at Halley's Comics. As his grandmother was an avid cat lover, she and Antthony shared their home with quite an abundance of cats. That being said, those cats tend to multiply, and on this particular day his grandmother's favorite cat was giving birth. This resulted in her calling Antthony up and demanding that he come home and support her. At this point, Antthony knew his grandmother wasn't going to let this go, but didn't take her silly tendencies very seriously. Decidedly, he left his friend, Horton, to tend to the comic shop while he went to tend to his grandmother. However, not taking her seriously (as stated before) he grabbed up a comic he had been reading and continued to glance through it on his way out. Meanwhile, outside a delivery fan was coming down the road to bring more comics to the shop. The driver was new on the job, and was consulting a map to make sure he was at the right comic shop. As neither he nor Antthony were paying any attention to where each other were going, he ended up hitting Antthony pretty dead on.

While the blow from the van hadn't been enough to kill Antthony, it had injured him greatly leaving him in the hospital for a bit and damaging his vocal cords. With nothing to do in the hospital and no practical way to communicate with fellow patients, Antthony spent time reading many comic books that Horton dropped off as a present to pass the time while recovering. Eventually Antthony returned home to his grandmother, became well enough to go to work again, and generally began living life as once before. Things in another part of town for a whole new set of characters was quite different, however.

Unknown to Antthony (or anyone in the city for that matter), underneath the city, deep in the sewers, lived two lizard-like beings. These two being were simply known as A Drain Lizard and his younger brother, Another Drain Lizard. Often mistaken for alligators in the sewers, the two of them were tired of being thought of as dumb beasts. The smarter of the two, A Drain Lizard, decided to hatch a brilliant plot to show the "upper world" what they were capable of. This plan involved taking a human and leaving a ransom note demanding respect. Unfortunately for Antthony, the first person the pair came across was his grandmother while she was out shopping.