Carnival of Killers - The Camel-Man (Patreon)

And now we get to the final member of the villainous Carnival of Crime, the nicotine-empowered monstrosity named The Camel-Man!!

ORIGIN

The most monstrous and savage of the Carnival of Killers was the thing known as the Camel-Man. One of the many superhuman experiments to be released or escape from Think Tank holdings falling the fall of the Vaudeville base in Toonman’s debut, the Camel-Man had no name, its origins being that of a nicotine baby born by a mother who smoked heavily during pregnancy miraculously still alive thanks due to its neo-human gene being activated during pregnancy. Naturally, this made it a prime candidate for the Think Tank’s operations, using it as a guinea pig by scientists such as Velma Rivera in their research for a cure for cancer, with constant experiments resulting in accelerated aging, further mutation and development of nicotine-based powers.

Following its escape from the Vaudeville facilities, the Camel-Man became something of a modern urban legend across North America. Becoming the final member of Tora’s recruitment to challenge Alvyn Showman’s Sideshow, Tora considered the Camel-Man the kind of shining example of victimization that people like the Think Tank and others took advantage of with those with unfortunate abilities. It was her hope that with this monstrosity by her side, the outcast and the disenfranchised would have a chance to get revenge on the world who victimized them.

Powers/Abilities:

The Camel-Man is a hulking mutant powerhouse with a wide variety of powers such as super strength, invulnerability, healing, a burning touch, the ability to spew tar from his mouth, and breaths a mind-controlling nicotine-laced smoke breath that puts people under his control.

Like Dum-Dum, the Camel-Man is a new addition for the Carnival of Killers I created for the team when I decided to revamp some of the old Sideshow members as villains instead, and I decided to create two new characters to balance out the roster. I really wanted to create something horrifying and monstrous to counter the Sideshow's Swoleflex, and in looking for ideas for circus and sideshow roles I decided to go old school and come up with a villain who filled the more "freakish" sideshow types from old school circuses. We all know the types- those with birth defects or abnormal physical conditions due to medical conditions that had not yet been studied or termed, and as a result these people were put on display with handles like "Duck-Woman" or "lobster boy". It was a different, more darker time, but it would be fitting for the Carnival of Killers.

So in coming up with Camel-Man for this role, I was inspired by the unfortunate babies whose mothers smoked and did drugs while they were pregnant. For the while I had wanted to do a villain whose powers were empowered by nicotine, so I combined the two. His name "Camel Man" is meant to be a nod to the various Camel mascots on certain cigarette brands, thus I had David design him as this huge, hunchback beast in some sort of twist idea of a camel man. As for his origins, I really wanted to highlight how horrible an organization like the Think Tank was in the kind of horrible lengths they would go to "improve the world" through science. He's meant to be an iconic of just how horrible Ryker and his people are, and serve as the kind of poster child Coldfoot wants the Carnival of Killers to be- victims out for revenge.

Anyway, hope you guys like this new Sideshow Villain! Let us know with a comment below!

Sideshow: the Greatest Superheroes on Earth © NRG Comics

Design by David Velasquez

Art by Danilo Cassonato