This is a list of major characters from the popular webcomic Sluggy Freelance.
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A hapless freelance web designer and an incorrigible punster, Torg is the protagonist in most storylines, having appeared in more than half of the site's comics at last count. He's impulsive and not so bright, and yet he sometimes comes up with surprising but clever solutions to problems.
Torg is also marked by his amiable personality and his unwavering loyalty to his friends, which sometimes causes him to act in selfless (and sometimes reckless) ways. He has taken on an increasingly heroic and deep personality as several of his adventures have taken him far away from friends for long periods of time in ever more lethal situations. He was emotionally shattered after spending much of 2004 in the middle of a demonic invasion of a parallel universe. Despite being a thin young adult, Torg is a highly skilled marksman, and often display unusual athletism in dangerous situations, and his fighting skills greatly improved after many years of bizarre adventures (to the point of apparently even impress Bun-bun[1]). He also has a strong spirit, evident when he easily beaten up K'Z'K to a pulp in his own mental dimension.
Torg seems to have problems with steady or stable relationships, as most of the women with any romantic designs on Torg have generally found themselves dead, emotionally traumatized, or generally not very well-off. For example, when Torg gave Zoë a necklace found in a lost Egyptian pyramid, it turned out to be cursed and turned her into a camel. This pattern of girlfriend-destruction itself can even be seen as self-perpetuating, since one of the reasons Torg has not actively pursued a relationship with Zoë (or broken it off when it got too intimate) is that he fears that if he lets her become close she too will fall victim to one of the many weird dangers that Torg constantly finds himself surrounded by. This fear was increased after Alt-Zoë was killed in front of him in 2004, but after confronting this fear in the shadow world during the Wayang Kulit adventure, he has moved past it. He is now attempting to track down Oasis and sort things out to remove any danger to Zoë. After Riff's Mark 19 explodes and Zoe and Riff are thought dead. Torg recruits Sam, Sasha, Bun Bun and Zombie Head on a Stick to work for the Minion Master. Torg is currently a hostage of Doctor Nofun and Crushestro.
Torg was a freelance web designer for many years before his business went bankrupt. Since then he has had little success with jobs. This difficulty is partly due to his many adventures drawing him away from home. He also has a severe problem with a regimented work schedule or the very concept of having to be up before 9 a.m.[2] He started working for Adversion Advertisement in May 2005, but was fired in January 2007 for constant absences from work.[3]
Not much is known about Torg's past. He says he has some Viking heritage, which may explain his name. His family has never been shown, but he has been friends with Riff since grade school.
Astute readers will note that Torg's trademark eternally plaid shirt is always filled with a series of neat vertical and horizontal stripes. Pete Abrams, who has demonstrated increasing artistic acumen over the years, appears to deliberately ignore all rules of perspective when drawing the shirt, so that overlapping folds of fabric or bending of the arms have no impact on its stripes. Crossover artists often imitate this design trait when drawing him.
Following the "That Which Redeems" storyline, Torg has taken to wearing a slightly wider repertoire of shirts. During the Wayang Kulit storyline, the plaid shirt appears to be associated with 'old Torg' or 'happy Torg', while the solid red shirt is associated with his increasingly heroic role in adventures (It is sometimes referred to as the "hero shirt" by fans). The white t-shirt, on the other hand, is associated with cowardice - Torg attempting to put on a face to hide from the problems which have begun to take a heavy toll on his psyche. The shirt and tie - Torg's "work clothes" - in this storyline seem to represent an attempt to escape his problems as well, or to deal with his problems by violence rather than coming to terms with them.
Torg first appeared on August 25, 1997.[4] He has recently become somewhat mentally unstable due to Riff and Zoë's supposed death's.[5]
Genius inventor and "freelance bum" whose creations almost always bring mayhem and destruction in their wake. Riff is much more introverted than much of the cast (especially in contrast to his best friend Torg), and seems to often have difficulty expressing his feelings beyond just a shrug or nod. As a result, he has difficulty maintaining a steady relationship. Besides Gwynn and Sasha, he seems to have had a number of girlfriends his friends and the readers haven't even heard about as he avoids discussing such things.
Riff's inventions have been extremely varied (though he has a love for heavy firepower), and often play key roles in plot lines. Among his inventions have been the Dimensional Flux-Agitator (a device used for moving matter between dimensions), a time machine (not Y2K-compatible), and a gigantic mecha-style robot featuring enough firepower for a modern army with an AI cribbed from an old See-'n-Say. Their unpredictable (and usually destructive) effects generally lead to Riff uttering his catchphrase, "Let me check my notes."
His biological mother was revealed early in the strip to be Dr. Lorna, a Dr. Laura-esque radio personality whom he blames for ruining his life. She disowns him after his mechanical duplicate (operated by Bun-bun and Kiki) causes problems at one of his mother's parties. His father's identity is unknown, though is presumably an Indiana Jones-esque archaeologist. Riff primarily lived with his father and stepmother since the age of ten, and even Torg did not know the truth about his real mother until it came up early during the events of the comic. (The story "A Carnivorous Smurf for Kimmy Sue Hasenpfeffer" contradicts the last claim by featuring Dr. Lorna as known by Torg to be Riff's mother in the eighties.)
Riff also was a former freelance talent for the evil corporation HeretiCorp, but eventually aided in reducing the company to shambles when he discovered the reports he had sent in were being used for very sinister purposes. Afterward, he took an office job and was transferred to Alaska where he set up a company making anti-vampire weapons. When his accountant managed to bankrupt him, he returned to freelance bum work.
Riff usually wears a trench coat and his face is never seen without his sunglasses. In one Clay Yount strip, he is sleeping with a blinder, and turns away when he reaches for his sunglasses, but in Pete Abrams strips he even sleeps with sunglasses on. He has a fear of clowns and the Department of Motor Vehicles. He had a self-esteem problem when he was going through high school. His "translator" says random phrases designed to stroke his ego.
According to novelist John Ringo, who has corresponded with Pete Abrams while doing a crossover, Riff was originally based on a deceased friend of Abrams' named Paul Kilzer. This connection is touched upon in "The Sluggite Koan".
Riff first appeared on August 25, 1997.[4] He is Jewish,[6] he wields a Star of David against vampires and celebrates Hanukkah. He is currently in the home dimension of 4U City, which he was transported to after the explosion of his mech prototype [5]
Half-Korean friend, housemate, and occasional camel, Zoë is probably the sanest one of the bunch, often acting as the voice of reason. More often than not, she gets swept up in the group's adventures either entirely by accident or against her will.
Zoë is originally from Nebraska, where she also eventually graduated college. Her family includes her younger sister Min (who is now in college herself), her father (who works as an English teacher and looks vaguely similar to Torg), and an incredibly overprotective mother. She has given up a long time ago on trying to be honest to her mother about her life since meeting Torg and Riff ("No mom, I'm not on drugs!")
There is a great deal of unspoken romantic tension between Zoë and Torg, which has been the cause of many a fan's frustration (as well as a great deal of hilarity). Of the two, Zoë seems not to be explicitly aware of what feelings she might have for him. Torg, on the other hand, thinks he's in love with her, but has been unable and sometimes unwilling to act on these feelings due to various circumstances over the years, ranging from her dating someone else to fear that Oasis would kill her out of jealousy. Anything resembling a resolution on this issue is yet to take place. On July 27, 2009, while being attacked by Oasis, she finally comes to realize that Torg is indeed in love with her.[7]
A magical necklace, a gift from Torg, has somehow become attached to Zoë, and now manifests only as a tattoo based on its original shape. The presence of this necklace causes her to be transformed into a camel on the magic word "Shupid" and restored on the word "Kwi".
Zoë has found constant work in radio, most recently as an intern on KBLAM's Broadman and Midget Show. Put on the air as Leslie Bean, "The Flakey Intern", her appearances brought in high ratings as she began talking about her bizarre home-life situations on air, eventually gaining her an own show with "Midget" (there known as "Jetski"). However, her friends were upset to hear her talking about them on the show. Consequently, she's been forced to move out of the mansion and has started living with Torg. As of December 2006 her radio career had alienated her from everyone bar Torg, including her family,[8] and on 16 February 2007 she appeared to be trying to leave her job. Since then she has made amends with her friends and moved back in with Gwynn and Aylee. She helped Gwynn get her soul back after she nearly cost the two their souls. It was revealed on the 29 January 2009 strip that she had been fired without notice on the previous day.[9]
Zoë first appeared on September 23, 1997.[10] It is revealed that she was born in 1979 on December 8, 2004.[11] She was presumed to be dead after being transported to another dimension with Riff. However, she was seen alive but in a horrifically burned condition in an alternate dimension with Riff. By clever trickery, Riff managed to restore Zoë to her pre-burned condition.[12]
Bun-bun is a mini lop rabbit that was bought by Torg to be the strip's cute, talking, furry animal, a role he fills well enough. Unfortunately, he is also manipulative, violent, amoral, easily angered and extremely vengeful. (When Torg complains to the individual who sold him Bun-bun, the man notes that, technically, Bun-bun is physically cute, and he does talk, even if the things he says and does are not at all cute.) Bun-bun, though physically a small rabbit, is more powerful than much of the cast, possessing great strength disproportionate to his size (he fought Aylee to a draw) and being, for the most part, very cunning and devious. A running gag, particularly early in the strip, is that incidental characters who are themselves dangerous will mistake Bun-bun for a harmless victim, which annoys Bun-bun sufficiently for him to violently disabuse them of that notion — often in a fatal manner. Bun-bun often switches between roles in the comic, and has been the protagonist, the antagonist, the contagonist, and many other roles and jobs, including a narrator. He has a liking for alfalfa-margaritas and Baywatch; he went into mourning when the series was cancelled, and tried to kill everyone when his extensive tape collection of the series was accidentally wiped (even when Torg bought new tapes). Despite wearing no clothes, he typically carries a switchblade that he can produce seemingly out of hammerspace at will; like Riff, he has a fairly extensive collection of weapons, his second favorite after the switchblade being a Glock handgun. Bun-bun has a violent hatred of telemarketers that is significantly stronger even than his typical hostility towards anyone who gets in his way or who simply crosses his path. While he goes out of his way to track down and slay telemarketers who call him, he typically kills any and all telemarketers in general, whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Most of his origin is currently unknown: Bun-bun himself has stated that many of his memories prior to meeting Torg are hazy, at best. The only certainty is that his mother was murdered when he was very young. Certain scenes have pointed towards the rabbit being quite old and possibly immortal; he was present when the second Deus Ex Ovum was used. The exact point in time when this occurred is uncertain, but dialogue points towards it being a very long time ago, far longer than a rabbit (and probably humans) should ordinarily live. However, his presence at the use of the second Deus Ex Ovum may be the result of time travel after leaving Timeless Space.
Bun-bun has had a long-running war with Santa Claus, the exact nature of the origins of this feud being uncertain (even to Bun-bun, due to his clouded memories.) During one of his escapades, Bun-bun accidentally slew the Easter Bunny, and assumed the role for a time. His distaste for being forced to fulfill the requirements the role of the Easter Bunny conferred, as well as his cruel and aggressive nature, and his feud with Santa Claus, led to open warfare between Bun-bun and all the other holidays. After an abortive attempt to take over all the world's holidays, Bun-bun was tossed out of time by Santa. He wound up in Timeless Space, and took residence inside the Obsidian Teknokon's head. In this guise, he tracked down the younger version of himself from the first time he had been thrown into the void by Santa. After losing his ship to himself in a gambling match (deliberately), and being tossed overboard, Bun-bun followed himself to find out how he originally escaped. After a climatic battle above the Oceans Unmoving, the pair encountered Uncle Time who returned Bun-bun to Brie Meighsaton House in the present and sold his past self, who was suffering from amnesia after being hit on the head by his future self, to Torg for his first appearance in the strip.
Bun-bun is aware that he has been tossed out of time before, but is not sure whether or not Santa did it (even though Mrs. Claus suggests that he threw Bun-bun "into the void" before). While his vendetta against Santa continues, his only action against him that year is to fire Kiki at his sleigh, causing presents to fall all over a highway.
He is rude to all the other members of the group, shows no concern for their feelings, and has made it clear on numerous occasions that he has no interest in helping them, even when their lives were at risk, unless helping them coincides with some selfish personal interest (greed, or often, revenge, as the individual or group threatening them often does something to annoy him.) He denigrates the other members of the group and exploits his relationships with them for personal gain. Yet, despite his constantly expressed contempt for the others, after every one of his adventures, he always seems to gravitate back to the group—possibly because they are the only people willing to put up with his constant abuse. He has helped them on several occasions, though, as previously noted, he usually stood to gain in some way. The only times when Bun-bun displays actual sympathy and compassion towards others are when he's drunk massive amounts of rum, which he usually does around New Year's Eve.
Bun-bun's closest relationships in the group are with Torg, who often still seems to regard Bun-bun as his pet, despite clearly having no control over the rabbit, and Kiki, who seems very fond of Bun-bun and often tries to play with him (something Bun-bun finds to be massively annoying.) Despite constantly denigrating them (he calls Torg "nerd-boy" and Kiki "tube rat,") he has tolerated the two of them for years, although he expresses hostility and annoyance with their behaviors on a near-constant basis. Kiki in particular has managed to live despite annoying Bun-bun to a degree he would surely tolerate from no other creature; this might indicate that he has a soft spot for her (though he would surely deny it, and seriously harm anyone who suggested it.) Bun-bun has expressed a grudging respect for Riff's destructive tendencies on more than one occasion; he will occasionally work with Gwynn if he thinks he stands to gain by it (such as using her black magic for some goal of his.) He and Zoe don't particularly like each other, but seem to have grown to tolerate each other over the years. However, out off all the main characters, Aylee seems to have the most healthy relationship with Bun-bun, with the latter being more manipulative than aggressive towards her. The reason of this is because, very early on the webcomic, Aylee earned his respect by battled against him to a draw, making him to realize that Aylee is a worthy opponent (he even apologised for cut out her's arm). Also in the Chapter "Aylee", Bun-bun openly acknowledged to Riff that he's more fond on her than the rest of the cast. However, this genuine amount of respect and company usually isn't enough to spare Aylee from his greediness or demeaning attitude.
Bun-bun first appeared on August 31, 1997.[13]
As of August 13, 2009, Bun-bun regularly wears a mask over the left side of his face to cover burn wounds he received while fighting Oasis, though by december of 2010 he has alread recovered from is injuries.[14]
It is slightly unclear whether the name should be written as "Bun-Bun" or "Bun-bun", since in the comic itself most text is entirely in capitals; however, in the few places where it is not (such as in the sub-chapter title "Bun-bun's Revenge"), the second B is not capitalized. In a message typed by Gwen in one comic, the entire name "bun-bun" is lower case.[15]
A parody version of Bun-bun appears as a minor character in John Ringo's Council Wars series. This version of Bun-bun is an artificial intelligence designed to act and look like Bun-bun, without explicit reference to the source.
Bun-bun's name is used as the name of a massive future tank-like armored vehicle[16] in Ringo's Aldenata series.
Bun-bun also appears, not as an individual, but as a breed, in the adult fanfiction universe of Pokémon called, pokégirls [17]
Bun-bun appears with several other cartoon characters as a monster in the card game Munchkin.
Something Positive has implied in a flashbacks that Bun-bun or someone like him was raised by the adolescent Aubrey Chorde.[18]
In season 2, episode 9 of the Showtime show, Penn and Teller's Bullshit, a rabbit is mimed being killed. Penn indicates that the rabbit's name was Bun-bun.
Aylee is an alien refugee from another dimension capable of changing form to adapt to current circumstances. She first appeared looking like a Xenomorph and attempted to eat the entire crew of a starship in a science fiction parody. Riff and Torg were the only survivors, and she followed them into their world. Stranded in an alien world, she found herself at a loss what to do, and she eventually became Torg's secretary, though Riff never trusted her.
In spite of her ability to adapt physically into virtually any environment, Aylee has great difficulties fitting in in the complicated human life on Earth, with its own peculiarities and its rules against just eating everything that moves. This is the source of much of the humour related to her. She's naive and childlike and largely unable to control the appetites associated with her various forms, such as the inclination to eat humans when she's carnivorous. Though this topic is usually treated lightly, it's also the source of serious conflict. Riff especially fears that Aylee may yield to her species's instincts to destroy and consume, and even as she grows closer to her human friends over the years, he expects he may have to destroy her in the end to save everyone else.
Aylee's shape-shifting ability seems to have almost no limits other than that she sometimes needs to cocoon up for a time to perform a more difficult shift. Her forms over the years have been numerous and quite different from each other, though they often have elements reminiscent of a dragon or a Xenomorph. Usually Aylee's changes signal a plot point in the story, as she reacts to something significant or takes on a form that affects events in itself.
Pete Abrams had first not intended Aylee to change forms. The publisher of his books warned Pete there could be problems in continuing use of Aylee because of her resemblance to H.R. Giger's alien, and so Pete came up with the shapechanging ability.
Aylee first appeared on October 14, 1997.[19]
Riff's ferret; A former lab animal brought to the strip to serve as a more traditional cute animal. She is hyperkinetic, has a microscopic attention span, and has a dark past as Dr. Crabtree's test animal. She belonged to Sam for a time after Bun-bun took over the lab and released the animals, then came into the care of Riff. Kiki is like a small child in many respects. Even though she can be annoying at times, most of the other characters, including Riff, Sam and even Bun-bun (who tends to be more condescending than hostile to her, labeling her a "tube rat" and often manipulating her), seem to have a soft spot for her, and will help her in times of need. She has a deep love of shiny things matched only by the shortness of her attention span. After some Halloween strips, Kiki was occasionally fed candy, which for the first time showed her ability to move at supersonic speeds. Bun-bun on more than one occasion has taken advantage of this to weaponize her (the ferret-bazooka), as when sugar-powered, she moves fast enough to penetrate solid brick walls. She also enjoys karaoke, often to the rest of the cast's dismay. Her deepest fear is mangled toast.
Kiki seems particularly fond of Bun-bun, and often tries to converse with him, play with him, and otherwise engage him (which irritates Bun-bun to no end.) Oddly, though Bun-bun has attacked Kiki on more than one occasion when she irritated him (not a difficult thing to do) he has never followed through on any sustained effort to do her serious physical harm. As the gang has moved over the years, Bun-bun and Kiki have lived in the same house, apartment, etc., on and off for several years; the mere fact that Kiki is still alive after spending years in Bun-bun's company might indicate that Bun-bun has a soft spot for her (though he would surely deny it, and inflict tremendous pain on whomever suggested it.)
Kiki was also the main character in the "No Content on Saturdays" filler which ran on most Saturdays during 2007.
Kiki first appeared on December 15, 1997.[20]
Another friend and housemate; she is as blind as a bat without her glasses. Although she is sardonic, selfish, often violent, and will manipulate people at the drop of a hat, she has proven her loyalty to her friends several times, usually in periods of crisis. She and Riff have dated in the past, and she is also psychologically conditioned to thump guys who act like jerks. Following a long stint as a worker at AyleeOrgNet, she spent a long period bitter and unemployed with her lowest end being pocketing the money from the gang's Halloween party during a financial crisis and claiming that the guests had claimed refunds in the absence of a demon (she was the only housemate present- Zoë and Torg had vanished and Riff had gone after them). She recently worked at Zomblebee's restaurant. In recent times, she came to regard the rest of the cast as not being her friends and has admitted she believes everyone will hurt her at some point, and that's why she may try to hurt them first.[21] Through seeing a psychiatrist, she has come to regard the others as a surrogate family. She's gained an antagonistic attitude towards Torg, caused by her false belief that he hates her.[22]
After a confrontation with one of her Zomblebee's co-workers, who was an actual zombie, she gives Torg a video game and as he declares it, the entire household was friends for a while.[23]
She is a practitioner of black magic with heavy ties to both the Book of E-Ville and the demon K'Z'K. Having been possessed twice by the Voweless, she attempted to drop magic but circumstances keep drawing her back in - manipulation by Bun-bun, her own pettiness, dangerous situations, and the fact that the Book doesn't want to leave her, once mentally contacting her and telling her it loved her. She had attempted to use magic to cure her eye problems, but this failed when the essential ingredients, monkeys, were eaten by a zombie. She tried to cure hair problems with magic, resulting in the near loss of souls of most of her friends.
Gwynn first appeared on December 28, 1997.[24]
aka "Sam da man": a rather dimwitted wannabe ladies' man with an overinflated ego. Sam was turned into a vampire in an early adventure, and he leaves the main group shortly after due to Riff's mistrust. He is, for the most part, only shown in the comic through side stories about him. However, from time to time he and the other main characters will cross paths. He is the last remaining member of the Lysinda Circle of vampires, although when this was pointed out to him he renamed it the "Sam Cirkail Mamajama." Unlike most vampires, a stake through the heart does not turn him to dust, but merely forces him to shrivel up like a raisin until the stake is pulled out.
Unlike most of the main characters, Sam actually has a known last name.
Sam has now received a subscription-only comic based around his exploits between appearances in Sluggy called 'Nobody Beats The Sampire'.
Sam recently returned to the main strip as part of Torg's minion group along with Bun Bun, Sasha, Torg and Zombie Head On A Stick.
Oasis first appeared on September 22, 1999.[25]
She is a pyrokinetic gymnast assassin who is brainwashed to be madly in love with Torg and will kill anyone in her path. She has no memory of her life prior to being brainwashed to love Torg. It was revealed in a September 2006 story that she was dropped off at an orphanage at Virginia at age six by a "crazy-looking man",[26] before being adopted by Dr. Steven Hereti a month later; she was just as capable an assassin back then, and did abstract art. It is known that before this, she spent some time at the Orsintos Research Center, which attempted to capture and weaponise ghosts;[27] in the present day, the center is long abandoned and most of its records have been destroyed, and one of Oasis' paintings is in Cell B-1. Its only resident is a ghost trapped within that communicates via cell phone.
She is specially programmed to kill employees of Hereti-Corp, and will drop whatever she's doing and kill them (known as "override B-1"). She had been trying to kill Zoë out of jealousy, although she was pacified by a marriage proposal from Torg. She regularly switches from relatively calm and stable to manic and insane and back again. The main characters, at one time, wondered if she was a robot, but they have confirmed that she is human by researching her past. She seems to have repeatedly and mysteriously come back from the dead.
An example of her resurections was seen in the small town of Podunkton. After spending several months there, killing criminals and throwing about very lame puns due to her total boredom, Oasis was shot in the head by an assassin under cover as a reporter named Nash Straw.[28] She reappeared after the car her body had been in was blown up. She was no longer wearing the same clothes she wore when she was shot in the head; instead, she was wearing her standard fighting costume. An unidentified corpse was found in the remains of Nash's car. Following the battle, Oasis mentioned a theory that she is a ghost possessing and altering other people's bodies,[29] and that this is why she reacts differently to the same memories and situations following every death.[30]
These demons immediately possess anyone foolish enough to summon them into this world. Often, the host undergoes a transformation, becoming similar in appearance to the demon, though they can appear like normal humans if it suits their purposes. Demons generally communicate with each other telepathically, so their avatars are often shown over a faded background of the real world.
A shadowy corporate organization that funds questionable scientific research and has its hand in a large number of conspiracies. After Riff destroyed their Aylee-Clone project and Gwynn revealed their evil for all to see, the corporation was reduced to shambles. However, its highest-ranking officers survived and took up jobs at Burger Meister, using that as a springboard to resurrect their company, eventually taking the company over. Thanks to Gennaro's secret cheese recipe, they have rebuilt a new business empire out of the House of Cheese pizza franchise, which is a major financial success; House of Cheese uses the Hereti-Corp "hC" logo, with the intention of provoking Oasis into repeated Override B-1 rampages so they can track her. They are now aiming at "reclaiming lost programs" and targeting the K'Z'K cult.
The Dimension of Pain is an evil world where demons thrive and all goodness has been driven out. This is not to be confused with Hell because Satan does exists in the continuity, (as father of the EVIL and as master of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse) but does not live in the Dimension of Pain. An oft-heard comment on all things related to the dimension is "How evil." The Dimension of Pain is introduced when Torg is accidentally sent there by the Dimensional Flux-Agitator early on.
The Dimension of Pain is magically linked to several similar dimensions, some inhabitants are also listed here.
In Sluggy there is a physical being who runs each holiday, including Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Groundhog Shadow. Bun-Bun holds a long-standing grudge particularly against Santa, which has culminated every Christmas.
All holidays have some control over their own relation to time, and determine the traditions observed during their holiday. The cooperation of several holidays is required to fully rewrite the rules. Destroying a holiday transfers the duties to the killer, if the killer claims them, a process known as the right of caste.
Podunkton is a small community in Pennsylvania featured in the bonus story for Dangerous Days Ahead and for Phoenix Rising. Oasis serves as the town's vigilante, having killed Jeremiah Finster and his fellow syndicate members, and killing other criminals.
Vampires in the Sluggy Universe are organized into circles, each led by a master. The members of each Circle have their own free will to a point, but a higher-ranking vampire can override this. The method varies somewhat between circles. Vampires have many weaknesses that vary from circle to circle - Vykrolak vampires are instantly killed by stakes, while Lysinda vampires are merely incapacitated. A potentially common trait is that they recover energy by sleeping on their native soil.
The Lysinda Circle was a powerful and highly-respected group of vampires that had existed for an immeasurably long time. It takes several days to create a new Lysinda Vampire; the potential convert must be bitten for three consecutive nights then made to drink vampire blood. These vampires have many weaknesses, including holy symbols and the inability to enter homes without invitations. However, they can only be killed permanently by either exposing them to direct sunlight or stuffing their severed heads with garlic. Stakes can temporarily put them out of action, but once the stake is removed, the vampire is fully restored.
The circle turned Sam, and intended to turn Torg and Zoë before Riff rescued them and destroyed nearly all the vampires. Sam Sein is the only surviving Lysinda Circle vampire; he renamed it the Sam Cirkhail Mamajama when this was pointed out to him.