Libertine. Genius. Knave. Tom O'Donnell has been called all of these things by his admirers and detractors, alike.

The twenty-four-year-old billionaire has led a remarkable life, by any standard. From inauspicious beginnings as the son of an alcoholic mule-skinner in Mashfork, Kansas (pop. 309), Tom was able to attend La Sorbonne on a judo scholarship, and graduated Magna Cum Laude at the age of 17.

By age 17 and 1/2, he had made his first billion. Tom discovered that by simply adjusting the torque on a conventional soldering iron, it's soldering power could be increased five-fold. His patented design would change the way the world would solder, forever, and provide the young entrepreneur with enough capital to found a vast and diverse business empire.

For better or worse, Tom is known as much for the details of his personal life as his business acumen. The media has eagerly chronicled the week-long fêtes at his castle on Mauritius, a short-lived marriage to Italian super-model, Megalon, and feuds with both Fred Villjin of the Belgian National Hockey Team and rapper, Turtle Man. Truly, the dashing young tycoon's glamorous and often turbulent lifestyle has struck a chord with the public imagination.

But it would take a life-changing speedboat accident in the winter of 2005, for Tom to find his true calling.

Lying in a hospital bed, nearly every bone in his body shattered, Tom began to meditate on the nature of spiritual sustenance. He thought back to his childhood in that two-room shack in Mashfork. He remembered how comics could provide an escape from the cruelest realities of life. Over and over again, he would read his favorites. The Family Circus, B.C., Marmaduke and a few dog-eared issues of Deathlok could allow him to inhabit another world, while in the next room his father would drink and beat the family mule.

In that hospital, with one functioning arm, Tom began to draw. He had made up his mind. After conquering so many other fields and disciplines, he would turn his attention to comics. And thus, No-Town was born.

vCopyright 2005, Thomas P. O'Donnell. All rights reserved.