Wadpaw in Maakies!
In my ongoing attempts to dominate all media, I am proud to announce that I have succeeded in landing a gag in world-class cartoonist Tony Millionaire’s Maakies.
How, the reader may ask, does one accomplish this feat?
It probably helps if you know Tony, whom I met through a number of acquaintances, including
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
and Snake n Bacon creator Michael Kupperman (if you don’t know Snake n Bacon, you will — it, along with the Maakies-derived Drinky Crow Show, is set to become yet another [adult swim] show starring the voice of
).
I was nodding acquaintances foryears with Tony before I discovered his “for kids” comic book Sock Monkey. At the time I was riding high off my kids’ movie success Antz and all anyone in Hollywood wanted to know from me was what kind of kids’ movie I wanted to write next. If you’re unfamiliar with it, I advise you to get thee hence to your nearest Sock Monkey collection — the stories are sweet, tender, funny, weird, scary and painfully well-rendered. I immediately saw the commercial potential of a Sock Monkey movie, saw it as a kind of 19th-century Toy Story, contacted Tony and put together a full treatment. Tony and I and an enthusiastic young Canadian director toured all the studios and gave the pitch our best efforts, but Hollywood somehow did not “get” Sock Monkey and we all went our separate ways.
Since then, every now and then I will get an email from Tony saying something like “Quick! My strip is due in six hours and I need an idea!” Not a natural gag writer, I will respond to these emails with some meticulously worked-out concept that sounds great to me but is completely wrong for Maakies. The other day I woke up to find another one of these emails in the inbox and this time took a different tack: I simply thought of the most horrible, saddest, most pathetic examples of bodily harm that could befall a creature, and then tried to think of a gag to work around it. Prolapsed intestines, self-inflicted gunshot wounds, vehicular manslaughter, crablice — and the idea above.
Holy crap, they’re FINALLY making “The Drinky Crow Show?” The pilot was terrific!
So gross and so hilarious!
–Ed.
And with a subtle dash of class-warfare subterfuge!
That just adds to the hilarity.
–Ed.
You’ve made me happier than I’ve been in a while to not own testicles, that’s for sure.
Additionally: Tony Millionaire is awesome. That is all.
“To be broken apart by children for candy” – of course! That’s the first thing that leaps to MY mind, too.
Which reminds me: whatever happened to your voice spot in Venture Bros Season 3? I don’t recall you bringing it up during the season posts. Where were you?
Well, it’s more “to be used by an authority figure as a throwaway prop for a child’s birthday,” but you get the idea.
I’ve told the sordid story of why my voice isn’t in the third season of The Venture Bros back in the VB comments. The tl;dr version: I recorded the voice of Dr. Entmann, but Mr. Publick “went another direction” (as we say in Hollywood) as he was editing the show.
snake ‘n bacon!
I am stunned that Kupperman’s getting his own show. He is, in my estimation, the funniest cartoonist alive.
–Rob Clough
That’s really good, though your link goes to the Maakies index and won’t point to your strip anymore once the next one is posted. You might want to switch it to the permalink.
http://maakies.com/archive/m710.html
-Jimmy in Brooklyn
I first encountered Maakies when I was interning in NYC back in ’94. I’m glad to say that the Austin Chronicle has recently started running it every week and I wondered why your LJ address was so prominently featured. Now I know. That mystery solved, I can now focus on greater questions. Like where the hell all my socks keep disappearing to.
I’m kind of excited about the prospect of a Snake and Bacon show.
Excellent gag. I love the instruction (“DON’T CHEW!”) in the fourth panel.
And I, too, eagerly await the arrival of Snake N Bacon on Adult Swim, especially now that I know Urbaniak is involved. And Kupperman just came out with his fourth book of Tales Designed to Thrizzle, too, so it’s definitely a good time to be a fan — or get in on the ground floor if you aren’t already.
To be fair, the dialogue is all Tony’s.
i’m really in awe of this cartoon, i’m so proud you thought it up
-longtime reader
Congrats Todd!
You’ve now joined the ranks of Frank Frazetta, Jules Feiffer, Jack Cole and Wally Wood…you ghosty you!
the above is me not signed in…ha!
The greatest of all living cartoonists working the world of gag strips and truly classic children’s stories. AMAZING, in all caps, is a weak estimation of Tony Millionaire.