I dunno who drew this, or what it is referencing, but keep the cool Clarissa art coming!
After much deliberation, hand wringing and late night boozing, I have decided to restore Deep Fried #4, the Fan Appreciation edition, to my store, intact with “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Weapon Brown”, the story which was meant as a one-time only fan incentive.
My intention had been to put out a second edition of this issue with a new Clarissa story in place of of the the Great Pumpkin story, but the months have stretched on and on and I have not been able to get that story done in a reasonable time frame. Meanwhile, there are people who would like to complete the collection of Deep Fried who are being viciously denied their Unmerican rights.
So, I hope there will be no hurt feelings from the people who bought up 300 copies of this edition, hoping it would accumulate in value. My greed is more powerful than your selfishness.
As for that Clarissa story, my plan now is to release that with the next Deep Fried trade, which I want to put out soon after Weapon Brown wraps. But I will offer a sneak peak at the progress on that one soon.
Meanwhile, what’s all this I have been hearing on the news about Obama being attacked by seals? Lemmee go check that out on CNN.
UPDATE: OH YEAH! OH FUCK YEAH! USA!USA!USAAAAAA!!!
E-mail spam filters really ought to have a setting to bring the really good ones to your attention. Here’s an earnest effort sent to me by some underpaid iSerf in Juarez or Kuala Lumpur:
“Dear Customer
Spam is sent from your FaceBook account.
Your password has been changed for safety.
Information regarding your account and a new password is attached to the letter.
Read this information thoroughly and change the password to complicated one.
Thank you for using our services.
FaceBook Service.”
I love the “what I did on my summer vacation” quality of the phrasing. I really believe that spam like this is designed by sympathy engineers to make one out of every million recipients feel bad enough about the home life of whoever wrote it to give the attached executable file a look-see. Maybe it’s a gif of a macaroni painting that says “I love You, Gramma!”
Behold my latest and perhaps greatest claim to fame: a mention in this week’s VillageVoice cartoon issue!
My bit is on page three, and I think you will agree that I come across as much hungrier and more desperate than the rest of my peers. My place as the poster child for a vegetating dream without a DNR remains intact!
I have been told by some commentors that perhaps some of you never make it past the comic strip to read my blogs. Well, for those of you who have, hello! You are the elite of the elite, my Fedaykin, my fighting Uruk Hai! So let me use the occasion of my modest fame through the VV to give you some extra nitty gritty regarding the ever expanding project that is Weapon Brown.
As many of you have lamented, this particular feature of Whatisdeepfried.com, though it is now the dominant presence, will not go on indefinitely. My honest-to-Josh hope is that Chucks adventures will be wrapped up and printed as a thick, manly graphic novel by the time the New York Comicon rolls around in October. This only puts me a year and a half past my intended wrap up date, so great planning on my part!
In order to make this happen and get Weapon Brown in stores I will have to hustle. And by hustle I mean bust my ass as well as raise some scratch. (a million fans roll their eyes. THIS again.) If you read theVillage Voice article, you will get a pretty accurate portrait of the life of a cartoonist. A lot of love, not a lot of dough. I’m not complaining. All I’m saying is that when I shake my tin cup, it isn’t because I like the sound of clinking pennies.
But I know you understand that. You guys are awesome, and your purchases of Megaton Packs and artwork do keep this operation afloat. My hope is that, if you really do enjoy Weapon Brown, you will go that extra yard to help it reach its final glory.
Very soon I will begin a pre-order sale for the Weapon Brown graphic novel that will last for however many months it takes to raise the printing cost of a couple thousand copies. I will be making this into a sweepstakes, with several different very cool prizes offered to entice you to buy the final exciting product, which will have a lot of extra neatness inside that you haven’t seen yet. I will be chasing this with a Kickstarter campaign to raise some of that money, as well as take out ads to promote the graphic novel. In addition, I need to raise the bread to buy my table at the New York Comicon, where I plan to debut the finished product.
What can you do? Well, first off, keep doing what you are doing! Read and comment and keep the community strong. Have you visited the Comic Strip Megathread at SomethingAwful.com? They talk about me all the time, plus there’s all sorts of kewl folks there. Join the forum! Make new friends! And build golden altars to Weapon Brown while you are at it!
To that point, the number one thing I need is more word of mouth. If you were even to link to my website once from your own website, or while commenting in a forum, Facebook, FourSquare, Tweetspace, etc., it would be a huge help. Every bit of extra attention makes me stronger!
Finally, the Great Weapon Brown Art Sale is close to its goal, and only a handful of extra sales is all I need to finish raising $1000.00 for all the things I have just described. The artwork will never be this cheap again, and you know how awesome it will look lying on your coffee table, collecting cracker crumbs and your cat’s paw prints.
You guys are part of something special, and there are no fans like cult fans! And hey, if you think there is a way to promote this enterprise that I am unaware of, don’t hesitate to recommend it.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled porn surfing.
TVTropes.org has a nifty run down of all the tried and true gimmicks that Weapon Brown is stuffed with. See any they missed?