The Spine

"“Howdy. My name's The Spine. I was built with a titanium alloy spine. [...] That's my... backstory.” - The Spine, introducing himself" The Spine is a futuristic dieselpunk-style automaton, originally built by Peter Walter I in 1896. He is one of the original members of Steam Powered Giraffe. He sings and plays rhythm guitar, bass, keyboard, and occasionally mandolin.

He is portrayed by David Michael Bennett.

Appearance
The Spine is constructed from a shiny, silvery metal, and typically wears full-black formal wear with small red details. He is almost always seen wearing his wide-brimmed black-banded black fedora. He has a set of six dorsal heat-sink protrusions(described as “stegosaurus fins” by Zero ) in pairs going down the center of his back, decreasing in size with the largest pair at the top and smallest at the bottom. They have their own lighting, and he can retract or extend them at will.

His face is a metallic silver in color, with large geometric black seams for cheek vents in the hollow of the cheek area, which are a slightly darker grey color. He has large black eyebrows, each with a connecting seam to the top of his head, and to the outside corners of his eyes. His lips are also black, with twin vertical seams from his lower lip to the bottom of his chin. Along his jawline is a thin band of metal distinct from the rest of his face with another dark seam, interrupted by the vertical line of his cheek vent. His ears are the same metallic color as his face.

His neck is composed of two horizontal metallic bands with large seams between, with a V-shaped dip in the front. Below his ears and behind his head, as well as a spot on the back of his head, are all black (or part of a large seam in his plating). He used to wear a wig which was attached to his fedora, but more recently his design has no hair. Instead, there is a geometric pattern — similar to the one on his neck — visible on the top of his head.

He wears a black long-sleeved shirt with red cuffs under a black striped vest, with satin-sheen vertical stripes over the chest and horizontal stripes over the waist. The vest is segmented between these two fabrics, above the waist. The vest has red buttons, a red pocket square, and red hems around the armscye and hip. He wears black flared pants, belt, and black shoes. He is the only band member who consistently “does not wear gloves”. (His actor wears painted gloves resembling mechanical jointed fingers.)

Personality and Traits
The Spine is the most impassive of the Steam Powered Giraffe automatons, often serving in the classical comedic role of “straightman” to his more off-the-wall bandmates. He describes himself as “the normal one”, and puts the most effort into adapting to and replicating human culture and mannerisms, to mixed results — his pop culture references are often a bit outdated or off the mark, not unlike an adult attempting to seem cool to children by trying to learn about the latest “cool thing”. He has an interest in very dry or non-fiction books that tend to bore the robots around him, referring to books like dictionaries as “a good read”. He enjoys reminiscing about historic periods, such as the “wild west”; possibly due to his own nostalgia.

The Spine has an unusual quirk of construction; is able to detach his head and spinal column from his body chassis and move freely, like a snake or worm.

History
The Spine was originally constructed in 1896 by Peter Walter I, with smokestacks protruding from the spinal column area(in the place of his modern dorsal heat sink solution), earning him his name. He fought against Thadeus Becile in the Weekend War alongside the other Walter Robotics automatons, and later in 1917 (World War 1) and 1942 (World War 2). In 1955, The Spine was upgraded by the US government for use in war. He received his current titanium-alloy spine, as well as a number of other design and programming changes to make him more closely resemble a human, in order to undertake special-ops missions. In 1965, he put the upgrades to little use in Vietnam. The Spine and other Walter Robotics automatons were broken in combat, and were only returned to Peter Walter V for repairs in 1973. They returned to operation in 1974, vowing to never use their weapons again.

In 2008, The Spine and other band members rebranded to Steam Powered Giraffe and become street entertainers, going on to release several albums over the next few years.

In 2015, the band followed W.I.N.K the satellite into space in order to assist in saving the Earth.

Rabbit and Zero
As fellow automatons and band members, Zero, Rabbit, and The Spine have a sibling-like relationship, where they're friendly with one another at times, and argumentative at others. The Spine sees Rabbit as exasperating at times, but overall they get along. Zero and The Spine have a tendency to get into childish arguments, which Rabbit sometimes mediates for them.

Trivia

 * The Spine spends most of his free time in the Hall of Wires in Walter Manor. This may be the equivalent to a shut-in who spends all their time on the internet, since it is implied in the comic that the Hall of Wires has wi-fi access.