I got started on this illustration a while back but only finished it recently- I guess I still don’t consider it “finished”, but it’s finished enough to be posted x’D Mostly because I’m tired of looking at all this art in my folder that I’m being way too picky to just post already.

Anyway this is Maybe-Tom, a character from an original “wild west” themed story concept of mine, wherein a traveler (Tom) finds a piece of errant alien technology. When he stops to inspect it, the device attaches itself to him like an earpiece- of course, he panics and attempts to remove it but finds that it’s impossible to take off.

Scared for the implications of this, he seeks help from the only person who might be capable of it- a fabled inventor. The inventor is mystified by the strange technology that has chosen Tom as its host.. But they soon discover that they aren’t the only ones who know about the existence of such items and find themselves on the run from a mysterious gang of bandits who are trying to claim the device for their own.

The reason why becomes clear in the days that follow, as Tom and his new friend realize just how startlingly powerful his new accessory actually is..

Maybe-Tom isn’t happy to be running for his life, but he resolves to use his new abilities in the name of law and justice in the relatively lawless country- and learning ever more clever and creative ways to use them along the way.

I also had the (totally awesome and not dumb at all) idea that all of the characters’ names should be puns or jokes of some sort. It came to me when I was trying to name Tom. I wasn’t entirely sure that I wanted that to be his name. So in the very first picture I drew of him, I titled it “Maybe Tom”- but then I thought, “what if his parents weren’t sure they wanted to name him Tom either and his actual name just ended up being ‘Maybe-Tom’?”

And it stuck x’D