Brian Barrow
President and CEO, Yakking Bull Studios
YAKKING BULL COMICS
http://www.angelfire.combiz4/roadkilljoe/
solidsnake205@yahoo.com
solidsnake205@yahoo.com
Well, there he is...The Creator. That's me. As much as I'd hate to admit it, it's been my friends that have helped keep Roadkill Joe going over these past 6+ years. So, in a weird sort of way (and one that I will never admit to them, because then I'd have to be all indebted to them, and God knows I won't be doing THAT anytime soon), it's always been my friends who have kept Joe alive.
Have I had fun during this time? In a way, one could almost assume that I had been pondering the thought of thinking that I might not entirely dislike doing this. I'll be honest, it has been a curse at times. Being the sole person responsible for everything that goes on with Roadkill Joe, it can become mighty stressful at times. However, just when I think I have Joe bauried nice and deep, someone comes along and digs himback up. They then cram it back in my face, and demand another issue done. This all is usually preceeded by the words over a telephone to the extent of "hey, I found my Roadkill Joes yesterday...they were buried in my closet". From there, it all breaks down, and I find myself cursing the world as I yank out my school pencil/pen box, and yell and the kid from another room about spilling Kool-Aid while watching some fucked up cartoon of Pokemon. Not what I pictured myself doing as a potential career choice. But, I ramble.
I started with the notion that a comic book couldn't be that hard to do. I was into the whole comic/roleplaying game/collectible card game bandwagon at the time, and I had seen my share of new comics. Well, we all know how "The Joe Legend" goes (the true die-hard Joe fans know, anyways), and now I find myself staring into the terrorizing and evil eyes that is MegaIssue-20. I never entended for Joe to reach here. This wasn't on the map...teach me to buy anything from Heather Donahue again (if you don't know who she is, then you don't know me).
Will joe ever really make it "mainstream" big? Will we finally see ROADKILL JOE: THE MOVIE, or ever play with Roadkill Joe action figures? I seriously fucking doubt it. When Joe reaches that point, then it means I've been swallowed whole by the corporate demon, and have lost any sort of control as to the future of the series. I want the control, I think I deserve it. The bean-counters in Hollywood never sat up till 5:30am trying to ink in the last two pages of a grueling issue. They never had to be cornered by modern society, and forced to defend their "little comic book" as a creative outlet for artistic insanity. Nope, they just want to slap a name on a Happy Meal, and get their millions. So, I don't think I want to walk that road, and therefore will keep Joe small enough so that never happens.
I can't say I have a fan club, or anything else that other comic books have. There's only one Roadkill Joe website out there that I know of, and this is it. There's no fan sites, no discussion boards on the next issue. Yakking Bull's gone through a lot of changes, and has seen a lot as well. Once, the "I" was replaced as a "we", when I took on Chris and Tammie. In fact, you can tell her I'm riding off the skeletal remains of her website. Chris handled numbers, Tammie the internet side, and me at the captain's chair. Man, we had a lot of fun. But, then Tammie became a bitch, I became an asshole, and Chris just shrugged and said "I don't give a fuck" a lot. We all split, and went different ways. But again, I ramble.
I started in January of 1995, and a lot of ex-girlfriends and two ex-wives have seen Joe come and go as well. From Tracy, to Ruth, all the way to Janie and Kristi A., they've fucked the Creator at one time or another. However, even though they all think I'm the biggest asshole in the world, they'll never forget the name Pisswiggle. And, knowing is half the battle...