About The Fan

The FAN is an urban fantasy comic that takes place in the fictional world of Shadow Earth, a darker, more sinister version of our world. The main focus of the plot is the everyday life of the students of Bollyngton High, most notably class 10.X (where 10 is the year of study - high school starts at year 9 - and X is a designation noting the profile). This everyday life usually involves robots, lab accidents, kidnappings, and other paranormal occurrences, along with a shady organization with obscure goals.

Many of the characters appearing have been modeled after real people in appearance and some habits and personality traits. Beyond this, any similarities between them and the originals is completely coincidental.

The main cast

Thomas Benjamin Abrams: Originally designed to be a passive observer and author avatar, he quickly became separate from the creator, although still retains some of his traits. While not explicitly established as one, Tom is an obsessive geek, and a big fan of anything Far East related, and this includes popular culture. He first appears as overweight, and generally unattractive, with a rather bad personality. Not the kind of person that could be considered a main character. His most notable trait so far is being able to flawlessly speak Yamato (shadow version of Japanese). It's been hinted that he can change his appearance to suit his personal taste, as he mysteriously turned into a pretty boy overnight.

Simon Starr: Tom's best friend, a tall young man with a retro look. Simon has long and curly dirty-blond hair, wears jeans, a black shirt and a long green jacket. Other trademark features include a black guitar case strapped on his back, and square glasses, which he rarely removes. His overall appearance suggests he may be a musician of some sort. Simon is generally friendly, and occasionally teasing, but his mood turns serious whenever the situation calls for it.

Adelheid Kaiser: A short, but considerably large and hardened country girl, with a strong personality, and equally strong arms. Adelheid is viewed by many as a second mother. Due to an unlikely accident involving a large pool of health elixir, she gained the ability to quickly regenerate her wounds, as well as to heal others. What she will make of this ability, is yet to be seen.

Hikari Yuki: A mysterious foreign exchange student, from the land of the rising sun, Yuki was transferred to Fairville, Transylvania for mysterious reasons, and currently attends Bollyngton High. She quickly made friends with Tom, him being the only one fluent in her native language. She has a mysterious pet magic talking Navi-wannabee fairy, called Cho, who spends most of her time disguised as a butterfly shaped hairpin. Mysterious.

Marsha Lawrence: Daughter of a clergyman, and regular attendant of the local Church of Galion. She appears as a religious fanatic, to the point of resenting herself for being born with traits that are incompatible with the teachings of the Light. It's implied that she may have been Tom's girlfriend at one point. Marsha appears to be a skilled telepath.

Keysha Taylor: She seems to be a shy and timid girl whenever her best friend, Marsha is absent. She also appears to be a decent telepath. It's implied that she's also a magic user, and is frequently scolded by Marsha for embracing her magical abilities.

Bobby's Group

Bobby: Full name: Robert Stumpton. The son of the science teacher and chief editor of the Bollyngton Daily.

Buck: Full name: Bernard Wellington. Avid card collector, and fan of the popular trading card game called Dawn of Time.

Dot: Full name: Dorothy Daniels. A beautiful, smart and energetic girl, with a very inquisitive nature.

Steve Hunter: A womanizing nerd, who's having trouble finding Mrs right.

Flash: Full name: Norman Germahn. Steve's best friend. A geek, who is very competitive when it comes to computer games.

Pete: Full name: Peter Potter. Tall, not very bright, and always hungry for news and gossip; not exactly number one cool guy. He's implied to be in some sort of relationship with Keysha, so he may some good qualities as well.

Other Students from 10.X

Larry and Tawny: Boyfriend/girlfriend couple of hacker and physiologist.

Steve Wilkins A talented young man. All he wants is a perfectly normal life in the world he's used to. Well. It's his right to dream, isn't it?

Sibyl and Katherine Those two girls. Also appear in World Setting Study Sessions as assistants.

Students from other groups

Marie-Anne: A girl of a noble bloodline. Somewhat of a rebel. She refers to Tom as her brother.

Sam and Robert: Those two guys. Except, they're both idiots.

Morgana: A girl, one year below Tom and co. She's dressed in a mix of Punk and Goth fashion, and works part time at the local cafe.

Meta Net Corporation

A mysterious organization with obscure goals, that was thought to have been dismembered with the end of the communist era.

The Mastermind: The current shady leader of MNC. He sent his agents to infiltrate Bollyngton High and take over the abandoned arcadian military base beneath the school grounds. He also has plans for students with special talents, like Adelheid, who posesses healing powers.

Agent Z: (pronounced 'zed', not 'zee') Mysterious agent working under cover for the Mastermind. He appears to be the most intelligent of the agents.

Agent M: Second agent working for the Mastermind. not very experienced, can make mistakes.

Agent Drake: Former agent of the Secret Service, he's now working for the mastermind under the guise of Mrs Duckins' assistant, Jon.

SK-49: A mercoid, produced by MNC. He was first awakened by Drake after years of disuse, to divert the attention of the Education Union from the agents' operations beneath the school grounds. He was eventually repaired and now serves MNC once again.

The hidden village

Not much is known about the hidden village at this point, beyond the fact that it's an underground village with Yamato inhabitants, who are somehow tied to Yuki.

Hoseki Sonshi: Leader of the Hidden Village.

Hoseki Hajime: A childhood friend of Yuki, And the first to welcome her when she arrived to Fairville.

Kagero Akago: Classified

Kazetora Anko: Classified

Ishihara Shingi: The world's number one Sumo champion, Daratha's number one drinking specialist and Yamato's number one cool guy, Ishihara Shingi, is HIM.

Kasuga Nanash:i Classified

Lee Roy Carter: Information restricted by request of the FBI

School Staff

Julia Duckins: An old witch. She's a chemistry teacher, and also the Homeroom Teacher of 10.X. She's terminally ill, and developed a health elixir to cure herself, but it was wasted in the same accident that granted Adelheid her healing powers.

Alfred Zweistein: Apparently an artificially created human, who resembles the famous Dr Einstein. He's appeared as a substitute science teacher at one point, and as the only webcomic aware character, he's conducting World Setting Study Sessions.

Mrs Moldovan: Teacher of Romanian literature.

Zoltan Chestov: The economics teacher, with a bad sense of humor.

Matt Stevenson: An arrogant mathematics teacher.

Others

Blaze: Tom's biological Father.

Bakamaru Orochi: Buck's idol. He has a cool design, for someone who appeared for a single panel so far.

Maelstrom: A mythical figure, who is said to have lived in the time of Simon's dad. His apparent return is the main focus of the current episode.

The Blind Hermit: An old woman wearing a red cloak over a green kimono, who has been observing the main cast early on and may be important to the plot. She was last heard of when mentioned by Hajime.

Ginger the Cat: Ginger followed Tom to school, where she was picked up by Keysha. She appears to be sentient and is rather interested in Yuki for unknown reasons.

Darren Blake: A delinquent who appears to be gifted, and likes to abuse his powers.