{"id":3822,"date":"2018-02-02T13:11:20","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T18:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/?p=3822"},"modified":"2018-02-02T13:11:20","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T18:11:20","slug":"in-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/in-the-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"In The Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Set the Wayback Machine for 1998. I was at Kinko’s, in the middle of the night, running off copies of\u00a0Mike The Pod Comix\u00a0<\/em>#4 (the blue one).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Those aren’t fonts. I didn’t have a computer. They’re typefaces copied from a book of antique alphabets, then literally cut and pasted. The rest is my own lettering.<\/p><\/div>\n

The fourth issue was a transitional one.\u00a0Drop Dead,\u00a0<\/em>my “90’s comic book<\/a>“, concluded in its pages, in lieu of a seventh issue. I reprinted the\u00a0Liquid Paper Pirates<\/em> and\u00a0Squeeky Wheel Gets The Grease\u00a0<\/em>strips from\u00a0FINK<\/em>, as well as\u00a0For Whom The Beef Jerks.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh, and for the first time ever, I did full frontal, stark raving nudity.\u00a0(NSFW!!!)<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

This two-page feature made #4 sell very, very well.<\/p><\/div>\n

Nudity is not something I do very often because:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I’m classically trained in the rendering of nudes, like, I’ve done the whole naked person\/easel thing more times than I can count<\/li>\n
  2. It’s “easy money”, in that people buy it because of the nudity first and the cartoon second, which can leave you feeling hollow if you let it<\/li>\n
  3. Some readers are instantly spooked by naked tits and cocks on a printed page, regardless of context or intent<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Also, I love drawing boobs, but I was kicked out of class for doing it in sixth grade. So that sense of shame runs deep.<\/p>\n

    I shamelessly re-ran old\u00a0MTPC<\/em> material like\u00a0No More Sips!, Resisting The Urge,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Sordid Hollow.\u00a0<\/em>Listen, if you weren’t one of the (maybe) hundred people who bought copies of the first three issues circa 1991, it was all new to you. There’s practically a treasure trove of crap you’ve never seen. It some cases, that’s for the best.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>

    The final Liquid Paper Pirates<\/i> page, 1998.<\/p><\/div>\n

    All of this was a test, to see what would “stick”, and carry the animus to the next level. I hedged my bets a little with another loose anthology strip, called\u00a0Blank Planet.\u00a0<\/em>Its first arc was “The Tiniest Restaurant In The World”, which I would later adapt as an animated series in 2003, despite its near-total lack of popularity.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>

    I still think it’s funny.<\/p><\/div>\n

    Blank Planet<\/em> never bore fruit beyond the tiny restaurant saga, which ended on a cliffhanger. Thus far, it has never been resolved. Even the animated web series is open-ended. Look folks, the restaurant is five centimeters tall. As ideas go, it’s not the deepest well I’ve dug.<\/p>\n

    All of this would be eclipsed, however. On page 21 was “the one that stuck”.<\/p>\n

    The first five\u00a0Bands I Useta Like\u00a0<\/em>strips were The B-52’s<\/a>, Bad Religion<\/a>, Cannibal Corpse<\/a>, Oingo Boingo<\/a>, and Ween<\/a>. I used a different lettering style than I typically did, to set it apart. The years that follow the name of the band are those in which I “useta” like them. Until a few years ago, I notated how many of the band’s albums I owned. Eventually formats became more or less irrelevant.<\/p>\n

    Here’s how it first bowed, in 1998.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    1998 was the 10th anniversary of\u00a0Mike The Pod,\u00a0<\/em>which was first published in my high school newspaper in 1988. For the 20th, I released a movie<\/a>, in 2008. That was more accidental than anything (I was shooting for 2006), but what the hell, I’m claiming it. So yeah, this is the\u00a030th<\/strong> anniversary of Mike the Pod’s first appearance in print.<\/p>\n

    I forgot about that until I pulled out\u00a0MTPC\u00a0<\/em>#4. It’s weird enough having done this one strip for twenty years. Really, what were\u00a0you\u00a0<\/em>doing in 1998? Were you even the same person you are right now? That was\u00a0pre-9\/11, dude!\u00a0<\/em>What the fuck was I even angry about?! I\u00a0don’t know!!!<\/em><\/p>\n

    Thank god I wrote about it, huh? Otherwise I’d be\u00a0really<\/em> screwed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Set the Wayback Machine for 1998. I was at Kinko’s, in the middle of the night, running off copies of\u00a0Mike The Pod Comix\u00a0#4 (the blue one). The fourth issue was a transitional one.\u00a0Drop Dead,\u00a0my “90’s comic book“, concluded in its … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[500,2,3,6,7,9,342,46],"tags":[104,38,85,1034,699,1109,2886,318,47,21,700,2891,16,31,44,1473,26,1087,14,226,2019,610,945,303,1980,20,1083,32,1122],"class_list":["post-3822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animation-analysis","category-bad-influences","category-classic-comix","category-faint-signals","category-girls-of-biul","category-magazine-rack","category-movies-you-missed","category-thousand-listen-club","tag-104","tag-1990s","tag-85","tag-1034","tag-2000s","tag-1109","tag-2886","tag-bad-religion","tag-bands-i-useta-like","tag-behind-the-scenes","tag-breasts","tag-cannibal-corpse","tag-comic","tag-comix","tag-drop-dead","tag-kinkos","tag-mike-the-pod","tag-mike-the-pod-comix","tag-music","tag-new-jersey","tag-nsfw","tag-oingo-boingo","tag-pre-911","tag-savannah","tag-sordid-hollow","tag-strips","tag-the-b-52s","tag-underground","tag-ween"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p53HmY-ZE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3238,"url":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/just-a-pod\/","url_meta":{"origin":3822,"position":0},"title":"Just A Pod","author":"MattyBoy","date":"03\/23\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the very first\u00a0Mike The Pod comic strip, originally written in late 1987, then published in\u00a0The Glen Echo, my high school newspaper, in February of 1988. The strip continued in the\u00a0Echo until I graduated in 1990. Mike never actually burned to death.","rel":"","context":"In "Bad Influences"","block_context":{"text":"Bad Influences","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/category\/bad-influences\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/MTP_first_strip.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5481,"url":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/the-spice-must-go\/","url_meta":{"origin":3822,"position":1},"title":"The Spice Must Go","author":"MattyBoy","date":"09\/05\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This comic was originally written in 2019, for the unfinished Bad Shape\u00a9.","rel":"","context":"In "Comix Classic & Current"","block_context":{"text":"Comix Classic & Current","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/category\/classic-comix\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/SpiceMustGo3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/SpiceMustGo3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/SpiceMustGo3.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/SpiceMustGo3.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1473,"url":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/bad-shape\/","url_meta":{"origin":3822,"position":2},"title":"Bad Shape","author":"MattyBoy","date":"02\/17\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Only partially autobiographical.","rel":"","context":"In "Bad Influences"","block_context":{"text":"Bad Influences","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/category\/bad-influences\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"From BIUL #1.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/badshape.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/badshape.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/badshape.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1355,"url":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/blawgospheres\/","url_meta":{"origin":3822,"position":3},"title":"Blawgospheres","author":"MattyBoy","date":"01\/26\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Bad Influences"","block_context":{"text":"Bad Influences","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/category\/bad-influences\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"From BIUL II","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/blawgospheres.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/blawgospheres.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/blawgospheres.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":457,"url":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/that-90s-comic-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":3822,"position":4},"title":"That ’90s Comic Book","author":"MattyBoy","date":"08\/03\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"No, not Peter Bagge's HATE. 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