Toonman Ally: Cody DiCaprio (Patreon)

And now for the final new Toonman supporting character. The Lizard King's Lounge's resident barback and aspiring painter, Cody DiCaprio.

ORIGIN

The Lizard King Lounge’s new barback following its remodeling, Cody Dicaprio had actually been hired during the remodeling of the lounge. Cody’s family owned a painting business, and were hired as part of the bar’s revamp to give it a fresh look. Immediately Cody befriended Toonman while helping to remodel the lounge with his father and brothers, and knowing Cody needed another job to support himself Toonman managed to convince Norm to hire Cody as the bar’s new barback for its grand reopening. Though the two worked closely at the lounge, Cody family actually got a boost of business themselves when Toonman would bring them on to aid him in his sidejob as a handyman, as due to his color-blinded due to being a black and white cartoon Toonman was unsuccessfully perform painterly duties himself.

As the two became closer, Cody shared with Toonman that his family’s business had inspired Cody to pursue a life as an aspiring artist. Talented as he was, however, Cody had trouble finding his own aesthetic to his painting style, usually just painting still lifes and sceneries as he struggled to find his own inspiration. Eventually with Toonman’s help, Cody was able to find his inspiration for his own style and his painting soon appeared in galleries across Vaudeville, usually with helpful endorsement from Toonman. But for all the help Toonman had given to him and his family, Cody soon realized his friendship with toonman went beyond gratefulness. Being openly gay, Cody discovered he had feelings for the Animated Ace, and is concerned that this will affect their friendship as Toonman doesn’t appear to play for his team.

Before anyone asks: 1) Yes. Toonman is canonically color blind, and 2) his old job as a handyman is something I'm still going to use. The two came together originally back when my first idea for employment for Toonman would be working as a handyman for hire, and I had this idea that the job would be hinder by the fact that because Toonman was colorblind due to being a cartoon character who was created in Black and White and never adapted to color. Even though Toonman's main job is now a bartender, I still like the previous two ideas because I think it would be funny for Toonman to get into some Tim Allen Home Improvement-styled accidents while trying to fix things. Plus, I do like the idea that Toonman, who causes a lot of damage due to his cartoonish nature, would try to go the extra mile to clean up his messes and try to rebuild the things he accidentally destroys.

So Toonman's colorblindness is kinda how Cody came to be. I wanted to give Toonman a painter friend who would help him in his handyman job since he couldn't see colors and would need someone to do that job for him. I liked Cody enough that I decided to keep the painter origins, but also have him work as barback at the Lizard King Lounge to make ends meet in a big city like Vaudeville. So he has this artistic side to him that he wants to make a living out of, but struggles to find his own muse and style until Toonman helps him. This ultimately causes Cody to develop feelings for Toonman that could end up hurting their friendship since while Toonman is an LGBTQ+ ally, he himself is not gay. So I guess you could say Cody is something of an unrequited love interest to Toonman? But, we'll see.

Anyway, hope you guys love this new Toonman ally! Let us know what you think with a comment below!

Toonman: The Animated Ace © NRG Comics

Design by SecretScrapV2

Art by Danilo Cassonato