Melvin is a confused young Triton, a sort of aquatic reptilian humanoid. He's got a very confused family life: his father is Clyde Lindhorscht, a famously crooked used car salesman in Atlantis; his mother is Kiki Fishbelly, a retired exotic dancer, currently living in a trailer on the outskirts of the lost city. He also has four sisters (Salamandra, Serpentina, Melvira mistress of the dark, and Jenny Greenteeth) and an evil twin Marvin (who exited the egg two seconds earlier and now resides at the Shady Coral Institute for the Creatively Insane). Melvin's father sent him to Anachronista Academy in a misguided attempt to cure his son of numerous failings unbecoming to a triton, including hydrophobia. Melvin is very suseptible to suggestion, as evidenced by his brief stint with the Church of Churchology.