4. UnComix One-Shots: Howler (Un-Iverse #18)

Rating: PG-13. Bloody violence, rude humor.



































Author's Note for UnComix One-Shots #4: Howler (Un-Iverse #18) 

The biggest comment I have about the Howler story is that I really dig the cover. I switched to inking color covers in issue 29, but this is really the only cover done in pencils that I really like. For some reason, I think you can actually tell the silhouette in the background of the Werewolf howling at the moon IS a Werewolf, which blows my mind. It's the positioning of the character and his body that suggests that, not the artwork. And Audrey comforting a bloody Howler is also a great bit of dramatic tension and another reason this is my best pencil cover. 

What about the story? I like it, but I'm afraid talking too much about WHY I like it might spoil later stuff. 

Now, the elephant in the room: What possessed me to name a clearly violent sociopath after myself? 

Here is the origin story of Unkie Matty: When I was a teenager, my personality was very close to the Piranha's. It still is, but back when I was a kid I had the manic energy to back the cuteness up better. And me and my friends joked that I should host my own TV show and call it Unkie Matty's Wacky Funhouse. I designed the crazy sidekicks on the spot as well as the gag of hitting them with a plastic mallet. 

In the latest iteration of the saga, I put reality in the characters' motivations in The Un-Iverse. And once I did that I realized that a guy who hits somebody with a mallet for the sake of a sight gag is a sociopath. And I hate that he shared my name, but I kind of had to lean into the sadistic aspect. And as you'll see in future issues I lean into it HEAVILY. And having him share my name is a bit of a embarrassment. 

I think the idea behind Unkie Matty was that he was designed to be as harmless as Tigger from the Winnie the Pooh cartoons. But what I failed to take into consideration is that when I was little, I absolutely HATED Tigger. I thought he was the villain of the Winnie the Pooh cartoons. I took the fact that he was always attacking the other characters and that they hated being hurt at face value. People sigh in resignation whenever Tigger enters a room. I didn't understand his terrible, violent behavior was designed to be "cute". The fact that I never found Tigger funny or cute when I was little is probably the biggest reason Unkie Matty is what he is. 




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