Steampunk Detectives Character Contest

...What do they look like?

Jim Clangor is a typical cowboy, tall, lean, big-boned, and wiry. He likes brown pants of canvas, leather, or corduroy and loose cotton shirts in white, buff, or black. But no cowboy hat except when he is back home on his father's ranch

Albert Hiss is short, plump, and always dressed in a suit with a vest, usually grey with pin stripes, but he might have another suit in his leather traveling bag.

...What is their history?

Jim Clangor was born into a wealthy family in the American West, went East to attend Harvard with the intention of becoming an engineer or scientist, but criminology attracted his attention when he helped solved a crime that occurred in Boston. Now he is a freelance detective.

Albert Hiss was at Harvard at the same time as Clangor. Albert came from England to study America at first hand and made friends with Clangor when he recognized how he could help him go out West. After he helped Clangor solve the aforementioned crime, he too became interested in criminology and it wasn't long before he and Clangor teamed up to form Clangor and Hiss, Private Investigators.

...What are their connections to all things steampunk?

Jim Clangor's engineering background gives him a natural interest in mechanical things, whether steam-powered or clockwork driven.

The family of Albert Hiss owns a dirigible line in England and he himself knows quite a lot about flying hot air balloons, and other lighter-than-air craft.

...Is their story set in alternate history Victorian England or Americana Wild West?

Both. Jim takes it West, but sometimes Albert takes it to England.