And we meet the team. Kinda sorta mostly.

Charlie gets a little introductory caption on this page, which, SPOILER, is going to be a thing for everyone, in turn. But I’ll go behind the scenes on him a bit here.

From the script:

Charlie is in his late 20s, and built like a rugby player. He’s clean shaven, keeps his hair buzzed short, and judging by the smooth arms poking out of his t-shirt, shaves all his body hair like a swimmer. He’s wearing a plain t-shirt, a vest covered in pouches, and cargo pants.

He gets his first name, and the rugby aspect, from my friend Charlie from high school. Charlie sat behind me in homeroom, and we had a Spanish class together as seniors (or juniors? I forget) where we basically just sat in the back of class playing Go and reading Shonen Jump.

(Charlie’s also the guy who originally lent me The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, which made me write The Grave Doug Freshley.)

Albarn comes from Damon Albarn, lead singer of Blur, did the soundtrack for Ravenous, and probably most famous as being Gorillaz Co-Mastermind And Singer. I have a lot of respect for Albarn’s career, even in his snotty younger Blur days. He’s a talented dude with a dictatorial approach to putting out the kind of pop content he thinks the world needs. I can relate to half that.

Here’s probably my favorite Blur video, where Albarn acts as a kind of Britpop Roadrunner, mercilessly torturing some Bret Easton Ellisian wanker.