44 CALIBER TOASTER by Ryan Dunlavey
IN A NUTSHELL: Punk pirates vs Wal-Mart.
Under shady circumstances 20 year old pizza delivery boy Jimmy Mark Mathias is transformed into an indestructible cyborg who can turn household appliances into high-caliber weaponry. He joins a gang of suburban buccaneers that help him discover why this has happened to him and becomes the key player in their fight against the friendly-faced world conglomerate that secretly controls all of civilization.
44 Caliber Toaster is set in a future that looks exactly like present-day North American suburbia except it is EVERYWHERE – no urban centers, no countryside, no culture, just endless miles of parking lots, highways, strip malls, billboards, track condos and McMansions. Entire planets are built out in such a manner (our story takes place on a large terra-formed asteroid). Department stores have all but eliminated the free market and invisibly pre-determine the population’s education, employment, housing, nutrition, spending habits, emotions, hopes and dreams…AND NO ONE CARES. The public has lost all of the basic rights and freedoms they aren’t even aware they are entitled to in exchange for security, happiness and low, low prices.
The largest and most powerful of the stores is Bonus Box. Their privatized army of security guards is the largest military force in the galaxy. This has been going on for so long that no one even stands to benefit over the company’s absolute control over people’s lives – there are no CEOs, no board of directors, no one at the top making decisions - there is only The Company, running on autopilot.
Living on the fringes of the suburban ant farm that humanity has devolved into are the pirates. The live how they want and take what they like from the organizations that would own them, and have the time of their lives doing it. They live to hate the world.
The characters:
JIMMY MARK MATHIAS - Delivery boy turned into a weapon, becomes an outlaw because bad guys are cool.
NICKY SIXSHOT - Ex-security guard trainee and the most feared outlaw in the world.
JAN SOLO JAN ZERO - Nicky’s outlaw sister-in-arms, a lost soul shackled by the guilt of her past just as her weapon of choice is permanently chained to her arm.
BUSTER - A member of Nikki’s gang.
BIG TED - A rival gang leader living a double life.
44 CALIBER TOASTER is a big loud suburban cyberpunk adventure with non-stop fights and no apologies.
© Ryan Dunlavey all rights reserved
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This post was created for Creator Owned Day!
44 Caliber Toaster has existed in my brain in one form or another since the mid-90’s and gone through a LOT of evolution over the years to get to this state, especially the setting and character designs - I’m really happy to finally show it to the world! The whole story is tightly plotted out (there’s LOTS more to the story than just this summary) and I wish I had more presentable art to show (especially of Mark and his weaponized toaster!) but my current work schedule didn’t allow me to draw anything new in time for creator owned day, so the old character lineup sketch and a quick action doodle of Jan Zero will have to do. Now if I could just find some time to draw it for real…
