Meet the Geeks

As I've said before, Clay and I were the kings of self deprecating humor. If it was inappropriate and aimed at ourselves, we were all over it.  The Juniors restaurant close to Clay's old place would regularly have their "Fat Boy" burgers on for cheap, often a two-for-one deal. Of course everytime Clay and I would drive past we would comment that we should take our picture in front of the sign. Finally, one day, we were out with Sean and we decided to make this a reality.  Two fat boys for a mere six dollars! That's probably close to six hundred pounds of meat there dear readers. Cheap at twice that price! Sadly those days are gone. I think it's closer to ten dollars now if you want two fat boys. That's right. Tell me we're not in a recession.  The Creative Process above was made by Clay.  ~Brother K'Bob

     Full disclosure time. This webcomic, the second in the series, earned us our first bit of hate mail. It originally ran on October 8th, 2007.  While I never did see the e-mail in question Clayton assured me it was quite virulent, quite angry. Coming at this from a more mature age I can see where it might be considered offensive. The emo kid was supposed to appear in several strips suffering abuse at Corey's hand, usually jokes about suicide well past the line of good taste. Truthfully past the line of even questionable taste. I had also planned for the kid to finally stand up to Corey and take him down a few pegs. Overall it's probably just as well that never happened. I've been dealing with depression, including suicidal depression, since a young age. I was that young, emotional, always angry kid who hid behind black clothes and angry music. Depression and anxiety is no joke. If not for medication to help regulate my moods I probably wouldn

"That's a strip" was a common saying among Clay and I whenever we would say or do something stupid.  Trip over a lawn gnome? "That's a strip." Stick our foot in our mouth? "That's a strip." Embarrass ourselves in front of a crowd? "That's a strip." We always joked that we were walking, talking cartoon characters. It was only fitting that we should use our lives as inspiration. Meet the Geeks was always meant to be semi-autobiographical, incorporating fact with fiction in the tradition of the great Gonzo writers. If it's stupid or embarrassing I'm sure it will find it's way into the comic. ~Brother K'Bob

Published on October 15, 2007, The Missing Ingredient is the strip that first introduced the world to our webcomic Meet the Geeks. The comic involved Clayton and Sean watching as Corey dressed as Crazy Britney (Spears) for Keycon's Masquerade. Like many ideas in the comic this one was based off a real life experience. I had dressed as Crazy Britney for the 2007 Masquerade (while Sean followed dressed as WWII Captain America). It was a late night drinking idea that had seemed like a good one at the time. It elicited a lot of laughs but didn't earn any awards. As had been previously mentioned though, this was never meant to be published as a finished strip. I had been practicing trying to figure out the layout for the strip and drew a series of figures before scanning them in for Clay to practice colouring on. As you can see in the raw art there wasn't a coherent gag, just a series of drawings of a rough idea with loosely laid out voice bubbles.  In the e

Like many in fandom I hold a special place in my heart for The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I've danced the Time Warp at midnight at Keycon and at fanish socials. I've seen the movie more times than I can count. So when I heard that Fox was going to be remaking RHPS I was, like many, apprehensive. I mean, why mess with perfection? Why take a beloved property and attempt to redo it? It's a travesty! Right? No. After all, the Rocky Horror Picture Show was the film version of the stage play The Rocky Horror Show. True that many of the actors from the original London cast made the transition from stage to screen including Tim Curry, Nell Campbell (Little Nell), and Patricia Quinn. Meat Loaf was in the Broadway production before appearing in the film. Richard O'Brian, who wrote the play, starred as Riff Raff in the London and Broadway productions before reprising the roll in RHPS. Since then it's been staged hundreds of times around the globe with different int

Yes, pushed back to October.  October 2016. It may be time to let the cat out of the bag, so to say.  I'm planning a soft launch of the Meet the Geeks comic this month on Comic Fury's free webcomic hosting service. Starting later this month we'll (hopefully) be launching the site with the original comics, updating weekly on Tuesdays.  And after that run is done - well, we'll see.  Check out the new page here:  http://mtgcomic.thecomicseries.com/ During this time there will be continuing updates here on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well as occasional blog posts in-between. ~Brother K'Bob

Some time ago I had been going through my old clothes and came across my white dress shirt. I figured I would see how I would look if I smartened myself up a bit and put on the shirt with a pair of dress pants, belt and my ever faithful flat cap.  There was no escaping it. It was right there in front of me, staring back at me.  There he was, celebrity chef extraordinaire; Dom Deluise. Like looking in a mirror ain't it fat boy? Ah well. When it comes to celebrities there are worse people to look like. But I'll never forget that feeling looking into that mirror.  Beer bread anyone? ~Brother K'Bob

I always felt bad for my cat Thunder, all twenty pounds of him, during the times I was working on the comic. He would be circling around my chair meowing, purring, whining and doing whatever he could to get my attention. Of course he never fully understood other than knowing that I was doing something that did not involve him. Of course this applied to most things that I did without him. Showering, going to the washroom, cooking, etc, etc... Of course cats are a big draw. Lar Desouza, comic artist and caricaturist extraordinaire, has three cats. Launchpad, Dante and Pixel, who have become minor celebrities via Lar's "Kittycam". Another of my friends regularly films her morning workouts. Likewise her cats, Misty and Brindy have also become favorites on her page. After all, everyone likes cats. I guess as I work on the new strip I'll have to figure out a way to work our cat Mercy into the creative process. ~Brother K'Bob

On October 3rd, 2016, Winnipegs fandom woke to find themselves fewer by one. At 4:18am Tom Ireland, husband of Anna Murray, passed quietly surrounded by friends and loved ones. I'm forced to admit that I didn't know Tom that well. Although our lives crossed paths for nearly twenty years I never really got to know him. I knew him enough to engage him in conversation and to congratulate him when he and Anna got married in 2015.  I saw him occasionally at my work and he, often accompanied by Anna, would come and chat for a time. We were both engaged in the security industry.  I really wish I had gotten to know him better.  I regret not getting down to see him in the hospital. I wanted to believe that there was still time. We had the good intention of going down to see him but life happened. Maybe next week.  But there is no next week. And I am truly sorry. I wish I knew more about him. Enough to write a short biography. Enough to tell you about him. About