A Brief History of the Geeks
June 28, 2016
Today in Geek History - 1984 - Compaq releases the Compaq Deskpro, a 16-bit desktop computer featuring a 7.14MHz Intel 8086 microprocessor. It is markedly faster than the market-dominatingIBM PC and is capable of running IBM software.
Meet the Geeks started off at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in July of 2002. It was in the beer tent that I was introduced to Clayton Stewart who, at the time, was trying to get a crew together to make a Star Wars fan film.
Little did I know how that meeting would change my life.
While the film, Star Wars: The Evil Within would ultimately be shelved Clay and I, being of unsound and like minds, came up with an idea for a webcomic where four of the core members of the film would become the story fodder for Meet the Geeks.
The premise was simple, four friends, who have fallen on hard financial times, move into a house together. Sitting in a restaurant Clay and I tossed around ideas quickly coming up with a variety of comedy scenarios; “See?” Clay would exclaim “this thing practically writes itself!”.
The First Four |
Those four were myself, Clayton, Sean McGinity and Matt Vosper. We spent a lot of time together and it seemed like a winning premise.
There were about seventeen comics in all before it fell apart.
The first comic Titled "The Missing Ingredient", published on October 15, 2007, wasn't even supposed to be a comic. It was just me fooling around with comic panels. I had scanned it in to allow Clayton to work on coloring techniques. Somehow he managed to pull it together into a cohesive strip with a punchline.
You'll notice the lengths that I went to to avoid drawing hands. Or as Ed Ryzowski once called them "The Devil's appendages".
The strip eventually ended as the Geeks were driving to their new home. It was my fault. I was battling depression at the time and was withdrawing from everybody. Eventually I realized that medication wasn't as evil as I thought and that it would ultimately help, but that wouldn't be for a number of years.
I tried to keep the Facebook page going with daily features but it ultimately proved to be too much to handle and MTG went quiet for awhile.
Clayton moved on to what is turning out to be a successful comedy career. Matt moved on and is working for a government crown corporation. Sean and myself are fathers. Sean has been podcasting on PodOmatic and is also pursuing a music project as the lead singer of the hard rock band Dome.
I started posting regularly on the Facebook page again a while back, just to generate some movement on the brand. The current lineup for Meet the Geeks includes Sean, myself and longtime friend Thomas "The Hammer" Carpenter.
Blogger will be the home to the New Geeks for awhile while I continue to work on the direction for the Geek brand. As well the Facebook page will continue to be moderated and updated.
Moving forward I'm hoping to write and illustrate some new comic strips and update this page with art, articles and reviews.
Keep tuned and let me know what you think.
~Brother K'Bob
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