Moarte is the host of Longbox of the Damned, forever cursed to watch over the eponymous box which is filled with horror-related comics. He is undead, describing himself as "neither living, nor dead", and has no problem siding with either. However, he is usually more willing to side with the living than the dead since then there would be no one for him to make videos for if everyone was gone. He seems to enjoy jokes of all kinds, and frequently makes bad puns about the book he is reading. He starts and ends each episode with a hearty bout of laughter, and refers to the viewers as "my children". He knows about Linkara and his show, and vice-versa, but to what level of meta-reality is unknown.
In his early years, Moarte always opened his episodes with "HELLO MY CHILDREN!" being roared at the viewer. However, possibly due to repetition, it has since been retired although he says some variation of the greeting to this day (usually preceded by a pun related to the theme or plotline of the comic of the day).
Although Moarte is the host of Longbox of the Damned, his role has been fulfilled by other characters because the Longbox opened whilst Moarte slumbered. The first was Twilight Zone: Chain Reaction hosted by The Host (a Roger Sterling espy) and (Doctor Linksano)
It is eventually revealed that Linkara originally met Moarte during the events of Gun and Sorcery, while he was trying to find a way to restore his magic. He heard rumors about the Longbox and decided to investigate to see if it could help him, and found Moarte waiting for him. Moarte captured Linkara and asked why he shouldn't kill him for invading his space, so Linkara explained his quest to him and who he was. Moarte was intrigued by this since he himself wanted to tell people about horror comics, and offered Linkara a deal (or more like an ultimatum), Linkara let Moarte use his living space to tell people about horror comics or Linkara's soul would "never stop screaming". Linkara agreed, and thus Moarte now uses Linkara's supply room to host his own show, and Linakra can't get rid of him.
Moarte mostly stays out of Linkara's "serialized antics", but does get involved if he is upset, like if his space is invaded during October without his permission, or if his Longbox of the Damned is attacked. He has however warned Linkara not to purposely involve him in his "squabbles", saying he can break their agreement just as easily as he can break Linkara's neck if he wanted to.
Trivia[]
- According to Lewis, he currently has no plans for including Moarte into AT4W so far. He has said he might, but it might be difficult to do.
- Although he has no specified why he doesn't want to incorporate Moarte, a probable reason is the clashing tones of the series. Atop The Fourth Wall (some exceptions not withstanding) is mostly a fun show with a light-hearted tone whereas the Longbox of the Damned is somewhat raunchier and darker in its humor.
- Moarte is based, physically, on Lon Chaney from the lost film London After Midnight. In said film, Chaney's character Sir Roger Balfour is murdered (though it was initially thought to be suicide) but returns as a sinister-looking man with pointed teeth wearing a beaver hat.
- In fact, the large black circles around his eyes that were added in 2016 (with no in-universe explanation being given) was probably to try and emulate the undead Balfour who has very sunken in eyes with heavily bags under his eyes.
- Moarte's voice is a curious mix of stereotypical Eastern European vampire and Marik Ishtar's father from Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series.
- A fan maintaining the Ask Moarte Tumblr askblog created a backstory for the character, wherein he was once a famous circus magician who killed his rival to obtain the Longbox, and was subsequently sentenced to watch it for all eternity. Lewis saw the post and said he was seriously considering making this Moarte's official origin story.
- Linkara indirectly mentions Moarte in his review of Bart Simpsons Treehouse of Horror #2 review.
- Moarte means Death in Romanian despite the fact that his voice heavily resembles the late Bella Lugosi (who was Hungarian).
- This is probably due to wanting to emulate Dracula (who coincidentally or not also was once played by Lugosi).
- For reasons that are yet unknown, Linkara and Moarte seem to have a mutual dislike for each other. Linkara sometimes calls Moarte 'that asshole ghoul' and Moarte has called Linkara 'that loser in the stupid hat' at least once.
- Moarte presumably kills Mirrorkara when he tries to escape in "Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth" when he goes into the Supply closet where Moarte does his show in October. Mirrorkara tries to beam back to his ship.