Backstory & Character Design Notes: Dr. Nexis Fried is a character I created just for The RAU Gallery, although he is a combination of two older characters. His personality was taken from Mr. Fried, who was the owner of the fictitious TV studio in which the old RAU comics took place. (Thus, the similarity of Dr. Fried's name to Dr. Freud is just coincidence, but since it worked, I left it the way it was.) His design was based on an unused character I found in my archives. It was a creature with very long claws on his hands, a spiked collar around his neck, and long green hair all the way down to the ground.

The sketch he appeared in, "Annelidical Psychiatry", was a remake of an old RAU sketch, which I believe to be one of the funniest one I ever wrote (at least as far as I can remember). In that sketch, Mr. Fried interviews a studio intern (actually Dion Falkor) in almost the same way Dr. Fried interviewed young Preston Abirok. He also kept calling Dion "Prune". After a panel in which Dion says, "I worked here for several months, doing what, I don't really know, and then one day...", Mr. Fried turns over the studio to Dion in much the same way (and for the same reason) that Dr. Fried turns over the psychiatry department to Preston.

Ironically, I think the routine was funnier and worked even better in the new sketch. For one thing, instead of just having one panel of Preston saying, "I worked here for awhile", I added a whole middle "act" with more jokes that didn't exist in the original sketch. Preston also worked better in the sketch than Dion did, both because his personality is stronger and also because he is very passionate about his area of study. Dion didn't even know what he was doing, and was certainly not passionate about it. That aspect of Preston played well against Dr. Fried's "it's all BS" attitude. It's also easier to imagine getting "Prune" out of "Preston", and I was able to take that name joke a little farther. (Although, originally, I wanted Mr. Fried to mistakenly call Dion Falkor, "Dion Fucker", but if my parents ever found the comic, I would be in deep trouble as they were very prudish about me using that word, so I just had him say "Prune" instead.)

Nexis in the RAU Gallery: Nexis retired years ago and no one has heard from him since, so the only way he'd ever appear in another sketch is if I did a flashback again.

First RAU Gallery Appearance: Annelidical Psychiatry

There's the unused slasher-clawed monster that I based Nexis Fried's design on.

Sprite of the same creature.

Sprite of him again with Aurora. That's actually what gave me the idea for the Annelidical Psychiatry sketch.

Add a top hat and glasses, make him look a little older, and you've got yourself a new character!