SPECTRE: A DARK MATTER – PAGE 3
This page represents our introduction to Spark and Prox and what will become a love/hate relationship between the two. Spark has always been the main character of my stories. I created him back in 5th grade, possibly earlier. He wasn’t a space explorer, he was just a character I drew. It wasn’t until my first year of college in 1991 at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign that I decided to call him Spaceman Spectre.
The name Spark came about when I realized I wanted Spectre to be his occupation. So I needed another name. I wanted something that started with SP, like Spectre, but was sharp and one syllable. That turned into Spark.
Prox on the other hand, came about much differently. I created him out of the need to have Spark interact with someone. Originally, Spark flew a single person silver saucer ship (similar to Calvin’s red Spaceman Spiff vessel in Calvin and Hobbes, Thanks Watterson!) I wanted Prox to be just a voice in the cockpit, like K.I.T.T on Knight Rider. (Yes, I grew up in the 80’s.) Later, I wrote a story where Spark battles a bunch of drones on a planet I named Viradia. Spark salvages one of the drones and it becomes a casing that Prox transfers his being into. I left that story behind, but that is the origin and evolution of these two main characters.
-Mike