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The Quest for Burgerkingness
The Backstory
The late 90's was an exciting time for me (and probably a lot of people on the planet). There were no major wars going on, people felt safe to fly, and the future outlook was positive (despite the fact that we were all about to die fiery deaths due to Y2K). I had a small group of friends who were all attending the University of Manitoba with me and we hung out at least once a week. One friend in particular, Oliver, was one of the most interesting characters in The Group™. This portion of Claytopia is dedicated to the heydays of The Group™ and one of the most memorable artifacts to arise from its existence: The Comic.
Like many artists, I was always drawing as a child. Unlike artists, however, I have no real artistic ability. That didn't stop me at all, though. I would frequently doodle in my notes at school, and while my poor artistic ability made it next to impossible to draw people, there were two people I could recognizably draw: myself (hence the logo to the site), and Oliver, due to his unique facial features and trademark goatee.
Though highly intelligent, Oliver gave the outward appearance of a somewhat slovenly, food-and-weapon-obsessed individual who liked to do interesting things with the English language. My straight-man persona contrasted well with his crazy ideas and foul-mouth, and we had a very interesting, fun-filled friendship.
In December of 1997 I decided to write a short, one-page comic making fun of Oliver's obsession with Burger King's trademark hamburger, the Whopper™. Starting late one night while a few members of The Group™ were over at my parents' house I drew the first page. Everyone in The Group™ liked it so much I decided to continue the story to a second page. Then a third. Then a fourth.
I never had much of a plot in mind but as I allowed the story to unfold itself (and using current events around me) I managed to work in several crazy plot twists, and humourous references and inside-jokes that very quickly turned The Comic (as it had begun to be called by The Group™) into an epic adventure.
I worked on the comic off-and-on while going through University. By 2002, when I ceased work on The Comic (for personal reasons), it had become a 30-page odyssey. The story was never finished; a few years ago I added a few more panels but have yet to work out a satisfactory conclusion.
Despite the lack of a climax and the painful memories I have associated with The Comic, I am still proud of it from an artist's perspective and have decided to share it with the world, for no other purpose than to capture the images before the paper degrades too much. Physically, the comic has travelled with me to Ontario, Japan, the United States, and the Philippines. Electronically it can now go anywhere. That's kind of neat. Plus, you get to see how my drawing abilities improved the more I drew, as the rough first few pages with the poorly-defined character appearances make way for better, more standard visuals. Then I'd stop working on it for a few months, start up again and the artwork would be horrible. Even the comic makes fun of that fact.
How The Comic is Laid Out
Users have two choices when reading this comic: page-by-page, or panel-by-panel. In order to help readers understand some of the more esoteric humour used in The Comic, I have included annotations in the panel view, so if you need your jokes explained to you, that's the way to go. When viewing it page-by-page, you can see the annotations by clicking on a particular panel. I would definately recommend the panel-by-panel, as the annotations are full of little backstories and humourous anecdotes and offer a better appreciation of The Comic.
In case people ask, yes, the Clayton in this comic is me. And yes, that's exactly how I speak and act, and is a reasonable representation of what my standard facial expressions are (i.e. various forms of scowling) in the real world. Oliver's speech and mannerisms are true to the real world also. That's what makes it so funny.
For anyone who cares, I did in fact create database tables for the pages and the annotations; I am that much of a nerd. I'm quite proud of how I made it work too.
Technical Specs
For all the artists out there who find this information very important, The Comic was drawn on regular laser/inkjet printer paper using a variety of mechanical pencils that I would find around campus. The straightedges used for drawing lines were a couple of expired University of Manitoba parking passes and occasionally, my scientific calculator. Many pages were drawn during classes, some during work, others while I was abroad. The pages were scanned at 300dpi and reduced in size to 1200 pixels wide to fit most screens.
The Name of the Comic
The Comic never was never given a title during the lifetime of The Group™. There are probably numerous reasons for this (not the least of which being my utter lack of imagination), but I was probably waiting until it was done. While creating this part of the site, I decided that "The Quest for Burgerkingness" was an appropriate title as it conveys both the plot of the story and how the main protagonist, Oliver, actually would have titled it. While the story is laid out largely from Clayton's perspective, it really is Oliver's story. Clayton was just dragged along.
I've set up a forum for The Comic. Please feel free to post comments, questions, etc. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed making it available. No matter how many times I read it, it's a fun read.
Click on a page below or click here to start at Page 1, Panel 1.
I have uploaded 29 of 30-ish pages of the comic to date. Most of it should be annotated. If you come across a non-annotated page/panel, it's probably because I'm working on it right now.
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