Words and the Third Comic

Now that we are (almost) certain that OMGJ isn't going to be shut down, it is time for me to make yet another blog entry. I say (almost) up there, by the way, because how can we ever trust Jeremy again? He SAYS that things aren't getting shut down now, BUT WHO REALLY KNOWS?! I doubt even he does.

So it is with that spirit of massive uncertainty that I will tell you all about my third comic. Hey Kid's - Let's Count. Or at least that's what I really intend to do.

Wow. This was made back when I had a very shitastic scanner which I failed to use properly. I was pretty sure that I rescanned it for Jeremy late last year, thereby making it easier to see the details, but I'm fairly certain that the one that is showing is NOT that one.

Oh well.

I still only had one thin substandard pen back in those days. And, yes, all of the dark areas were done with that small pen. Hard times. As I recall, I conceived of and drew this comic while at my boyfriend's shanty back in 2002. There were a lot of kids around who were drinking and watching informercials about hot tubs on the teevee. I sat on the floor (there was only one couch at the time and it was filled with drunks) and drew this comic. All of it in one night! We lived the American Dream back then. Yes, sir.

Even though that was back when I was slumming it up good, it is not at all reflected in this wholesome comic which bursts with sophistication and quality.

This is our first meeting with Frizoo, the puppet of love and star of the critically acclaimed local children's show in Unicorn Valley. It is performed in front of a live crowd. Both children and adults love Frizoo, and learn a lot from his antics. I always imagine that he is a cute little purple puppet with a pink nose. Cute, harmless, girlish colors.

Frizoo actually IS a puppet, unlike trev, and you can occasionally see evidence of the puppeteer inside of him, reaching up from a hole in the stage floor. The puppeteer is a nice guy, however, when he puts on Frizoo, so to speak, he is possessed by a certain kind of demon strength. Frizoo is never scripted, and he always has a morbid thirst and is stronger than any man can be. The puppeteer never knows what he is doing at the time. He may feature in his own little comic someday. Because, really, is there anything funnier than demonic possession?!

The set is partially magical, with real skies and trees and animals. The hole in the floor moves, too, so that Frizoo has some mobility.

The guy announcing there at the start of the show appears in other comics, as well. He has a steady job at the Frizoo show, but he really isn't enthused about it. It's one of those cases where he has this total dream job that everyone covets, but it turns out to really not be that fun. It is hard work! He is slave to Frizoo! And must get his empty cups so that he can pretend to drink coffee backstage, and stage food that won't melt under the lights or smear onto his puppet fur. His name is Dan or something and he is brothers with a character I will discuss later, I think his name may be Pixi or Pixie.. I can't remember what I write on his nametag. Dan doesn't socialize much and is an alcoholic.

In this particular comic, Frizoo's episode is a simple one about Counting. He is meant to teach children how to count, but gets carried away, of course.

Did you notice that Bunny #3 is aware of the word bubble which counted her?

I was still drawing pretty poorly back then. Look at that really fat deer! Lordy. If I drew this comic again, I hope I'd make that deer look better in that panel where its tail is really small BECAUSE IT IS SO FAT.

However, I feel the scenes where it is tearing the deer apart are all well done. And I am still appalled at myself. We see here Frizoo's demon strength mentioned earlier. It isn't so easy to just tear up a big deer, and yet he makes it seem easy.

The crowd is horrified and Frizoo seems to be in some sort of near-orgasmic state which makes even me uncomfortable to think of. I think it is possible that the puppeteer and I have something in common. When I go into writing, designing, and drawing my comics, I usually sort of blur everything together in my mind, and snap out of it when it's finished. Usually I just feel worried when I see what I have done.

Anyway, the crowd is horrified and stunned, but they shouldn't be. Nearly every show Frizoo does ends in horror and bloodbath. Something terrible happens. And the crowd always watches with terror in their veins. Yet they always come back and they always buy Frizoo merchandise. It's probably part of the demon thrall.

Let's Look At My Second Comic, Yes?

Well, my Big News update was made in the Main Blog. Originally, it was going to be in the Octoblog, but I figured more people might accidentally see it if it appeared on the main page. If there are people here who come straight to my blog and don't go to OMGJeremy.com proper too often, I'll repeat myself, but in summary...

Tankhat.com asked me to make a comic for them. And I did.

There. That out of the way, I will speak of A Traumatic Story Relating to Trev's Hair, which I believe was the second comic I ever actually made.

Yes, that puppet is Trev, staff writer for OMGJ. Although he might not have been at the time, I can't remember. It was ages ago though. I had gotten an email from him that was very brief and said something to the effect of:

"Got my hair cut. I look like the count from Sesame Street. Your Pal, Trev."

Strangely, as is so often the case when I make my comics, I had this flash of inspiration. Full panels filled my head, and I needed to draw it. I had this very real, necessary need to draw Trev as a vampire puppet, trying to cope with what had happened to him.

I chose to have him speaking to the viewer, I do not know why. Perhaps it seemed like the best way to go. I think that it makes it funnier, maybe. You know.. he starts with talking to you, then it pulls back and you watch him dealing with real situations. It's fairly obvious and I didn't need to say that, but I really don't know what to say about this comic today. I am not good at writing essays on my works, it would appear.

You see that he runs into the more finalized versions of Karen and Sally. I didn't yet have my simplified comicky style yet, and my handle on perspective is pure shit. You'll note that I was aware of my horrible perspective in that one panel where she asks if he's a puppet, as I had scribbled "beautiful perspective!" one it with a little face which suggests that I was lying.

They are also on a street corner there. Later on, once I started treating the characters as if they were all in the same town, I moved that pet store to the center of the block on the main square. It is near a music store, and the large hotel.. on the same block as the ever-famed Jodie's, which is a small eatery. It is overpriced and sort of greasy, yet people still go there, most likely for the view.

Oh, yes. At first, vampire puppet trev was sort of amusing. He seemed to be confused but optimistic over the fact that he had his hair cut and the hair cut turned him into a puppet. He turns creepier, however, once it is revealed that he actually isn't a puppet, but is indeed a human boy who still has skin and bones. But he lost his lower body. He also has these arm things that puppets often have.. but these EXTEND INTO INFINITY. It hurts my mind, and it hurts the minds of my comic characters who see him.

Then of course his vampiric impulses overtake him and he attacks those girls. Now, this is up to speculation, actually. Do the vampire characteristics take over, or does he just use that as an excuse? Clearly this is set in daytime, in direct sunlight. THAT doesn't seem to bother him, does it? No. I think it's pretty safe to say that Trev is just using his vampire puppetness as an excuse to attack young women and drink their bloods.

He is bad.