Tommy Roddy


 * Some information lifted from the Prism Comics biography.

Tommy Roddy is the writer and facilitator for Pride High. His username on the Pride High message board is Verdant, which is also the name of one of his characters.

Biography
Tommy was born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in Columbia, South Carolina. He attended Harvard as an East Asian Studies concentrator with a particular interest in the ethnic and sexual minority communities of Japan.

Together with artist Brian Ponce, Tommy released his first comic book, Pride High, in San Francisco on September 29, 2006. Pride High follows the adventures of a gay-straight alliance at a school for super-powered youth. Issues 1-7 of the 36-page, full-color comic are available online and on the shelf at Whatever, the comic shop in the heart of San Francisco's Castro District. Pride High #1 is also available in Braille, Dutch, French, Japanese, and Spanish.

For the positive portrayal of a blind lesbian teen, Tommy was awarded in 2007 with a lifetime membership in BFLAG, a national organization serving the needs of LGBT individuals who are blind or visually impaired. This year, he was one of two recipients of the third annual Prism Comics Queer Press Grant along with fellow SF local, Justin Hall. He is also a board member of Sequential Heart, an organization dedicated to donating comics to programs and shelters serving homeless youth.

Characters
Here is a list of characters Tommy has created for the comic:
 * Beowulf
 * Chip Cheetah
 * Discotheque
 * Crash
 * Howlé
 * Kid Olympus
 * Mindsweeper
 * Pele
 * Smash
 * Suravi
 * Thunderfoot
 * Verdant