My New Year's Resolution? To have only twelve pages to do on issue #10 in the New Year. One page shy of that, and a day and a half left to make it happen.
Here, Abby asks Mark how he came up with the name "Crusader." His story is actually based on a chapter of my life: He says that it was the name of his grade school's mascot. I'm a proud graduate of Immaculate Conception Grade School, and we were the I.C. Raiders. I did a strip in grade school called Laser Raiders (based heavily on Dynamite Magazine's Dynamite Duo) and then later a little book called Raider.
As for how I came up with "Crusader" for the hero of my strip? Two factors: The main inspiration is that frequent Batman sobriquet "Caped Crusader." The other was a legal and financial reason: The Crusader is a name is common usage, and as such, not really copyrightable. You can name a car "The Nova" but you can't copyright the name "Nova." And, while I'm sure there have been characters named The Crusader, there's nothing to stop me from using it, too.
Now, there might be issues with naming the book "The Crusader", but you'll notice that none of the character's names appear on the book. It's called Love and Capes, and I did do my trademark and copyright search on that.
It also means that should LnC ever become a sitcom or movie, and there's some other legal reason to change a character's name, it wouldn't affect the title of the show. See, always thinkin'.