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March 28, 2024, 09:31:45 AM

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Megg Mogg & Owl in Quarantine

Started by DocDaneeka, March 27, 2020, 04:33:40 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Mister Six

Loved the whole Crisis Zone package (does anyone want me to upload screens of the calendar, or are they already out there), but Hanselmann needs to spend a bit less time on the internet. Some of his ranting about woke Twitter users in the annotations reminded me of when I got addicted to identity politics Facebook groups, and specifically arguing with foetuses about trivial idpol shit for HOURS, to the point that I started talking about it in real life and my friends just stared at me with a look of blank bemusement.

Hope he's staying off social media, is what I'm saying. Or at least not reading the comments and replies.

13 schoolyards

I wonder if it's not so much actually being online - he doesn't follow anyone on Twitter and largely limits his public stuff to Instagram, which is supposed to be a "better" social media site as far as complete nutters go - as it is having a peer group consisting of indie cartoonists, which seems to be a group that really has to pay attention to social media attitudes lest they become cancelled.

I remember reading something about Alex Graham (who did that Dog Biscuits Instagram series Hanselmann has talked up) having trouble with angry online commentators attacking her who didn't seem able to figure out that her characters were made up and not actual people, which is probably the kind of rubbish "feedback" that sticks with you.

Hanselmann is successful enough at what he does to get away with just doing it and not giving a shit what internet users think, but a lot of his peers would (and I think in one or two cases may have) take a serious hit if woke Twitter users decided they had to go.

(or Hanselmann might just be the kind of comedy writer who needs someone to rail against)

Pink Gregory

Granted a lot of people commenting on the serialised comic (and continue to do so) are absolute dumbasses who struggle with the concept of flawed and unlikeable characters or indeed, jokes; I can understand being frustrated with that.

It's a bit silly to be annoyed with the guy who writes the funny papers (and did it for free during a global crisis) because I know that the craft of writing, especially in serialised comics, can involve antagonising the audience; but the commentaries did make me roll my eyes into the back of my skull, so...

It's just a difficult transition from books to serialised comics

Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse

New MM&O book coming out in August 2022 called "Below Ambition"
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWebSvOv8Tg/
Quote from: Simon HanselmannIt's about Megg and Werewolf Jones's band, it's 176 pages, it's horrible.
"A true test of patience for even the most ardent fan of MM&O".

madhair60


13 schoolyards

The band stories from Below Ambition (the zine) were pretty clearly all from real life - Melbourne scensters could probably identify the venues - and they were hilariously grim.

WWJ renaming that other band's CDs was both extremely funny and maybe not the kind of thing I'd tell everyone I found extremely funny

Custard

Merch now available, officially endorsed by Hanselmann, so he'll receive some percentage. Though be warned, it's a bit pricey, even before shipping

https://thesecretheadquarters.bigcartel.com/

I'd love a Booger thong, if anyone is wondering what to get me for Christmas xxx

13 schoolyards

Wow, those t-shirts did not stick around long. I checked in and saw a few sizes were sold out and thought "oh well, guess they'll restock" but nope

samadriel

That's the second time I've missed out on MM&O merch. You'd think he'd be able to employ a print on demand service, there must be a decent one out there somewhere.

Custard

New book out today, Below Ambition, focused on Megg and Jones' band!

Custard

#610
Digitally, I should say. The physical version has been put back til October 25. Oof. Meant to come with a 7" single though, yayyy!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cf93QY9vCuw/

Anyway, I'm a few pages in and it's great, obviously

13 schoolyards

He's also got a few zines coming out later this year: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChEPz3vLDIF/

I'll be interested to see (when the physical edition comes out) how much overlap there is with the earlier zine versions of his band stories. More than most of the MM&O material, it seems to be drawn from Hanselmann's real life.

Custard

Somewhat bizarrely, Megg and Mogg have an animated short on Hulu and Disney+ (!!!) tomorrow

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cjix0wOAJ-z/

Not sure if it's one or more

I dunno what I expected really, but I didn't expect WW Jones or Owl to sound like that! I love that it looks exactly like the comic, though

Imagine this actually made it to series. BIGGER THAN FAMILY GUY ANY FUCKING DAY

EDIT - It's part of this https://www.instagram.com/p/CjazJVlL628/

Someone in the comments there said they should have got Kelsey Grammer for Owl, and I think that'd be more the voice I had in my head. Or David Mitchell

Mister Six

Blimey. Really excited to watch it!

Custard

Hopefully this is Simon Hanselmann at least getting a bit of exposure and a fairly decent bit of money thrown his way

He's been teasing that he has some fairly big names voicing the characters, who are apparently comedy heroes of his

Very exciting. Surreal, but exciting!

Custard


Pink Gregory

From the trailer, it's a good Owl.  He's got a certain smugness to him.

madhair60

watched it its quite good but still wrong

Mister Six

The voices cut surprisingly well, although Megg should probably sound a bit more haggard. Shame it's so short, though. I was expecting it to go on a bit longer. Hopefully it'll be useful as a little proof of concept for a longer series or something.

madhair60

Hope not, it should just keep being comics and not be moving and sounds. No need

Pink Gregory

Yeah, I'm not convinced any comic is improved by being animated unless it's significantly redeveloped for reasons.  Certainly not MM&O.  It's taking quite a flexible medium and putting linear constraints on it.

Shorts are probably the best avenue for them if it's going to happen, wouldn't want to see series.

13 schoolyards

I wasn't all that impressed with the short to start with, but it picked up when
Spoiler alert
WWJ took a shotgun blast to the face
[close]
and by the end it was like, ok, that was a decent three minutes.

There's always going to be an audience for "stoners have wacky adventures that turn unexpectedly dark", but this made me think that there's really two versions of MMO out there now: the "classic" version of the characters (which now seem a little stale and frozen if you've been following his work for a while), and the more developed versions we see in the longer books.

I guess things like this are more important as jumping-on points for new fans - you'd want to sell people on crazy druggies getting in over their heads before you hit them with all the depression and crumbling families and failed relationships.




PlanktonSideburns

Yea I've no problem with a soft sell for this show- if you tried to pitch it in all of its shocking, deeply sad bliss and horror, you would probably struggle to get it shown anywhere

Maybe it would be better as a flash animation released on newgrounds

Pink Gregory

Read Below Ambition; it's fun and gross and upsetting, just Megg and WW Jones being horrible fuckers. 

Hanselmann writes at the end that he was trying to shake off some more of the 'casual fans' (not a direct quote), and relatedly to the slightly bitter commentary in Crisis Zone I do wonder about how genuine Hanselmann's abrasiveness actually is?  Like, it's not hard to be on board with what MM&O is; still think he unwisely read the comments on the Crisis Zone comics when he was posting them and has sort of been wounded ever since.

Or maybe he's just a pissy little dickhead, but his comics are still funny, so.

13 schoolyards

I suspect he has a slightly retro angle on things compared to today's "oh shit, I have to get everyone on board with everything I do or I'm fucked" mainstream approach - he's talked in the past about disliking things like Scott Pilgrim because he thought they were too crowd-pleasing and sanitised.

Plus I guess having some actual mainstream success with Crisis Zone might be... not a concern exactly, but having a wider spotlight on you when you make deliberately abrasive comedy material is possibly a bit of a worry in the current climate.

I mean, I found "Urban Poofters" funny, but in my defense I am an Australian of around Hanselmann's age and I'm not sure how that joke would travel globally, or be taken by readers even a few years from now.

Pink Gregory

#625
"Bit of a poof, but a sick cunt" on Owl's gravestone is one of my favourite things in all of MM&O.

I see your point about mainstream success, but MM&O is so upfront in its abrasiveness and the more digusting stuff that I can't really see anyone approaching it, sticking with it and being shocked by one particular turn or another.  The answer to 'Werewolf Jones is problematic' is 'yes.'


Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse

Saw a comment on Hanselmannn's instagram on a rerun of a comic where Megg and Mogg dredge their bucket for "black death". It read,

"how can you draw these and not vomit"

I think that sums up the tone, aesthetic, whatever of MM&O.

Below Ambition is OK. A lot of reprints, including the lad in my avatar, but the final story is absolutely amazing in how bleak it is.

13 schoolyards

Just got my copy of the latest issue of WWJ&S. The Halloween story is, uh, somewhat more extreme than the animated short from last year, in case anyone somehow thought Hanselmann was losing his touch.

It's interesting how in the early MM&O stories the characters pretty much were the bad element in society dragging things down, whereas now a lot of the stories have this backdrop of a crumbling society that the characters are struggling to survive through. Or at least, there's a one-page WWJ story in this issue that is a bit of a call back to the "good old days" of the street shanty towns in Crisis Zone

Custard

There's a WW Jones summer annual coming out

Werewolf Jones & Sons Deluxe Summer Fun Annual (Megg, Mogg and Owl) https://amzn.eu/d/aJAN2nI

It appears it's not going to be available digitally, which is annoying