About Me

    Hello. My name is Jakie Wade (pronounced "J-key", NOT Jackie.. I also go by Jake or sometimes J). I am a prospective illustrator, graphic artist, and web designer. I am currently a webmaster for a TV station, but I would like to work in the field of animation or video games as a character designer, storyboard artist, or something similar. Comics would be nice as well. Please visit my portfolio site, Parabola.

    I have been drawing for as long as I remember. I have done many different comics and created many different characters. The only one that I have kept up with is Neon City. Neon City is the story of a group of fighters who were unknowingly chosen by God to protect the Earth from demons and other evil beings. I am in the process of making the new online series, "Neon City M," but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy these little side stories.

More info about me:

Favorite artists: Yoshitaka Amano, Capcom Artists/Seito, Sensei, Original Ninja Gaiden Trilogy Artists, Yasuhiro Nightow, Akihiko Yoshida, Tetsuya Nomura, Tsukasa Kotobuki, Akira Toriyama, Takehiko Inoue, Yuichi Kumakura, Myung-Jin Lee, Takehito Harada, CLAMP, Gustave Dore

All-time favorite games: Mega Man 3 and 4, Mega Man X2, Castlevania IV, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy Tactics, Breath of Fire II, Chrono Trigger, Ninja Gaiden I-III, Super Mario Bros. 3, Skyblazer, Capcom Vs. SNK 2, Onimusha 1-3, Disgaea

Favorite bands: The Smashing Pumpkins, Wu-Tang Clan, Modest Mouse, Squarepusher, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, The National, Interpol, Dead Kennedys, MF DOOM, Aphex Twin, Outkast, Nirvana, The Blood Brothers, Beck, Red Snapper, Joy Division, Xiu Xiu, TV On The Radio, The Mars Volta, Melt-Banana, Bjork, ME

Favorite anime/manga: Trigun/Trigun Maximum, Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z, Ninja Scroll, X, Vagabond, GetBackers, Yu Yu Hakusho, Cowboy Bebop, Rurouni Kenshin, Bleach, Blade of the Immortal, Ragnarok (or Sword of the Dark Ones), Fullmetal Alchemist

About Neon City

    Neon City is the story of Mark Casey, the world's strongest man. At some point in his life, Mark Casey was once an ordinary guy with an ordinary job. Little did he know his seemingly ordinary life was only the beginning of the life of a legend. He is actually a warrior chosen by God to protect the Earth and all of its dimensions from demons and other evil beings. "The Legend of the Gemini" was a story passed down to everyone in Mark's family. The Legend foretold that someone in that family would be born with spectacular powers. The person would one day tap into his/her powers and have to face a twin sibling in battle. At that moment, the world would begin to fall into ruin and the warrior of legend (The Gemini) would have to spend the rest of his/her life battling the forces of evil and one day become immortal. It turns out that Mark was that warrior, and now he has spent 65 years fulfilling his destiny, with no end in sight.

    Mark's story started with what we'll call "The Parent Series" or "H1-7." I started the Parent Series in 1990, and it was a very silly story where Mark had to rescue his family members from a mysterious megalomaniac called Schalazar. I did seven stories that chronicled the adventures of Mark Casey and friends, and I created many different characters that I still use today.. I began to hate the title and premise of the series, so I ended it on its seventh installment in 1992. However, I continued Mark's adventures in 1993 with the first episode of Neon City. Since then, I have done eight installments of Neon City, with Neon City VIII being the most recent (1999-2004). Rather than doing a rundown of what they were all about in text, I'm going to do a little NC comic that condenses all 8 episodes into one. Look for that at some point..

Here are some things that I think I need to explain about NC:

Names and other storyline stuff: I'm very aware that some of my characters have very ordinary names that such super-powered people shouldn't have, at least not in a comic, but my reasoning for this is simple. I created some of these guys when I was in Elementary school, and I wanted them to be ordinary people. Like Mark, for instance.. He was meant to be an ordinary guy, just like you or me, who just happened to have all of these extraordinary things happen to him. I tried to make almost everyone ordinary, too, but I don't really enjoy the ordinary thing so much these days..
Another thing is parts of the story are kind of weird.. I did a lot of strange things back in the day, and I still try to adhere to them since I'm still doing the same stories, but I there are things that I really should change.. When I do the NC Recap comic, perhaps you'll see what I mean, but right now, I guess this doesn't really apply..

Name Origins:

Mark Casey (Main Character): Just a name off the top of my head. Meant to be the name of an ordinary guy.

Benjamin Casey (Mark's Twin Brother): The name "Benjamin" comes from Benjamin Franklin, because Ben is a scientist. I had no idea at the time there was a TV doctor named Ben Casey, MD.

Shinsha Casey (Mark's Wife): In 5th grade, I saw the word "shinsha" somewhere (probably in the credits of a cartoon made by Tokyo Movie Shinsha) and thought that would be a pretty name for a girl (?!). I later found out that it means "society" or "group" in Japanese, but I never changed the name. I think it also means "new car." Haha.

Spike Casey (Son of Mark and Shinsha): I just liked the name "Spike," so that's what their first child was named.

Julietta Casey (Daughter of Mark and Shinsha): I am not sure where I got the name from (I'm thinking that I just replaced the E and added an A to the end of Juliette after seeing the sign on the interstate going to Juliette, GA), but I thought it was the prettiest name ever. I think it fits her very well.

Will Flack (Mark's Best Friend): I stole this name from a book called "It's New! It's Improved! It's Terrible!" I read that book in 4th grade and I loved it. The character in that book was a kid who came out of a TV commercial. My Will is a TV addict and his job is that of a TV/movie critic. I thought it fit perfectly. It's not theft, it's a tribute to a great book!

Dash: I am not quite sure why I chose to name him Dash.

Aria Wells (Spike's Girlfriend): Of course, I got this name from the musical term. It means "air" in Italian.

More later................

Schalazar: On page 11 of Chapter Aton, Aton mentions "the evil demon, Schalazar." Schalazar is Mark's archenemy; the first villain that I created for the Parent series, and the one that I have designated as the main villain for the whole NC series. Schalazar was once a thief-turned-cold-blooded killer with an obsession with money and power. He was part of a group of criminals called the DD Clan who would steal anything from anyone. One night, the DD Clan were after a mysterious statue that was said to grant great power to the person who could summon it. Schalazar was the first to find the statue, and, with him being so power-hungry, decided to keep it for himself. Schalazar tried his hardest to summon the power from the statue before the others found him, but he could not figure it out. Once the other DD Clansmen found out that Schalazar had already found the statue, they went after him with the intent to kill him. In order to keep the statue, Schalazar entered into an all-out battle with each of the DD Clansmen. He was so consumed with greed that nothing could stop him, and Schalazar killed every man who opposed him. Soaked in the blood of his comrades, Schalazar commanded the statue to give him the power that was inside of it, but it turned out that the demon inside of the statue had already chosen Schalazar as its host. From that day forward, Schalazar's power began to grow, and as the demon inside of him fed off of his life force, Schalazar's sanity diminished. Schalazar's evil spirit, however, was too much for the weakened demon to consume, and instead of it breaking free of Schalazar's body, it was forced to live inside of him as his power source. Schalazar continued to age, but he would never die. He reformed the DD Clan as his own syndicate and began to make strides toward world domination. Schalazar fancied abducting people and killing them or forcing the family members to give up ransom money. Mark Casey was a victim of this type of injustice, but he actually fought and killed Schalazar. The demon inside of him revived Schalazar's dead body, and with his mind being changed as much as it had, Schalazar felt that he had no choice but to get his revenge on Mark. Each time Schalazar would be revived, Mark would defeat him. Schalazar would continue to grow in power and create grand schemes and such, but he would always be defeated. After his last defeat in Neon City VII, Schalazar has not been seen, so it is unknown whether or not he has been resurrected at this moment..

Benjamin Casey: Mark has a twin brother, Benjamin. Benjamin was the first of the legendary twins to learn how to use his powers, and he grew to become power hungry. After siding with the evil Schalazar, Ben chose to do battle with Mark. He lost the fight and, in humiliation, went off to atone for the wrongs that he had committed. Ben becomes the second most powerful person on the planet, and continually strives to get stronger. He is actually the one who calls himself "the Gemini," as Mark pretty much never does. I suppose they both have a right to call themselves that, as they are twin brothers..

Elements/Elemental Attacks: People are born with the inherent power to control certain elements. While the most common elements are wind, water, fire, and earth, almost any form of super energy can be an element. There are innumerable amounts of elements in the NC world, and some of them are unknown by man. Here is a list of elements.

Electricity/Lightning
Fire
Wind/Air
Water/Ice
Earth/Terrain
Plasma
Physics
Time
Space
Dark/Demonic
Light/Holy

Levels: Every person in the NC world has a level. Levels are how you gauge a person's strength in this story. If a fighter trains or fights long enough, his power level goes up. If you play RPGs, then you know what I mean. The way levels work in NC is.. well.. A person is born at Level 1 (LV1). That person's power may be 5 points or something. It's a one-digit level. He/she may be a track runner who trains all the time. The more he/she trains, the higher the level goes. His/her level may have gone up to 300pts (LV3) by just naturally getting older, but since they are training to run track, the level has eventually gone up to something like 50000 (LV5). I'm not sure how clear this is, but basically, a person levels up when they train long enough and the power level gains a new digit. 500,000,000,000,000 is a 15-digit number, so that's LV15. It's simple, and I know it seems like that is a ridiculously large number, but it's really not as high as you might think.. It's not godly power or anything.

Flying: In the NC world, only certain types of people can fly. Usually, the only people who can fly are females and people who are something other than human. However, every super fighter can stay airborne long enough to fight in the air. This technique is called Air Control, and it allows the fighter to hover in the air for at least a minute, as long as he/she is attacking in some way. Usually the force of punching, kicking, and locking up with an opponent is enough to keep the fighter airborne. Mark has the most Air Control, and can use it to stand or walk on walls and ceilings for a few minutes.

Bleeding: Super fighters do not bleed unless they are nearly defeated. If the fighter is cut, he/she "bleeds" whatever their element is. For instance, sparks appear if Mark is cut, whereas Dash bleeds fire. The element becomes blood when the fighter's power level is substantially lowered to the point where he/she can be killed. It takes a lot to make a super fighter bleed.

Dimensions: Throughout the Neon City story, there is a lot of talk about Dimensions. In this world, there are two main dimensions, 1 smaller one, and many tiny ones called Pockets. The NC Earth Dimension One is just like our actual "real-life" planet Earth (aside from the states and countries being different), but there is another side to it, which is Dimension Two. It is sort of like a mirror image.. It exists in the same space as Dimension 1, but in a different plane. Entering into that plane reveals a new world, the exact same size as the other. The difference is that the states and countries are different, and things are located in different places. The problem with Dimension 2 is that it should probably be called Dimension 1's dark side, because it is overrun with crime and injustice. A great deal of the villains in NC are from Dimension 2. It has its own set of protectors, but it is almost a losing battle and waste of time to try and stop it. Dimension 2's Heaven and Hell are the same as Dimension 1's. Hell is easily escaped in that plane, but not so easy to get into. Heaven and Hell should probably have their own section.. Anyway, the two planes are connected to each other and easily passed through if you know how to do it. If a natural disaster such as an earthquake were to happen in Dimension 1, then there is a chance that the same earthquake would happen in Dimension 2 at the same time or a little later. If a large scale explosion occurred in D2, then a part of D1 may be destroyed as well. As for the smaller D3, it exists somewhere in between D1 and D2, and isn't so easily entered into. It seems to be its own type of world, just smaller. The miscellaneous Pocket Dimensions are sort of like little cities scattered all about the 3 planes. People passing through to D1 and D2 have been known to mistakenly fall into a Pocket and not know how to get back out. I created this little DIAGRAM to better explain the dimensions. The little grid blocks are the pockets.. Hopefully it makes sense.

Heaven and Hell: In NC, Heaven and Hell exist in all planes at the same time. It is impossible to enter Heaven without death, but Hell can be entered and exited under certain circumstances. Demons come in and out of Hell all the time, but usually only at the request or permission of the "Governing Demon" himself. If someone from Hell gets killed on Earth, then he/she is sent back to Hell. If someone is destroyed in Hell, then they are completely erased from existence.

Hmm.. I'm not really sure what else to talk about at this moment.. If you have any questions that you want me to answer or any comments, feel free to email me at x_mindbreak@yahoo.com or parabolakid@gmail.com, and I'll answer it.. I'll add more to this section as I think of things to put here..