Frequently Asked Questions
The title of this page is misleading - I rarely get asked any questions, let alone repeat questions. For reference purposes, I'm answering some stuff here now.
Haven't I seen the Japanese Beetle somewhere else before?
Quite possibly. This strip has had quite a few incarnations: from 1994 to 1997 it ran as a strip in Carnegie Mellon's Tartan newspaper; from 1998 to 2002 it ran on the World Famous Comics web site; and from 2003-2004 it ran on both this site and the Graphic Smash web site. You can see the older versions of the comic by using the links under "Incarnations" in the Table of Contents box.
How do all these various incarnations fit together?
Good question. It's not too complicated, really.
The 1994 version was actually done for my college paper and has no relation to any of the other versions at all.
The 1998 version for World Famous Comics is the first on-line version, which ran into trouble when 9/11 happened during the set-up of a story that was positioning the American government as the villain. I tried to reenergize things The Dark Knight Strikes Again but no-one got it and everything just sort of limped to an end with the Japanese Beetle declaring that there's nothing else for him to do except work on New York Times crossword puzzles.
The 2003 version that used to be on Graphic Smash was an attempt to do an "Ultimate" style reboot that ultimately didn't work for me - I hated having to reintroduce characters and felt like I was treading water. The whole thing ended with a return to the 1998 continuity (note the crossword puzzle when Ken wakes up). The implication was that the 2003 version was a bizarre dream, albeit one that may have reflected real-world events to some extent.
The current version is a direct continuation of the 1998 continuity, though as of yet the only repeat character has been Katie. That's becdause all of the villains are in jail in the moment and I haven't had a reason to dredge up any of the other supporting characters yet.
Got it?
What does "マメコガネ" mean?
マメコガネ ("mamekogane") is the Japanese name for popilia japonica, the common garden pest better known as the Japanese Beetle. Why do I have it written out in katakana instead of kanji? Because as far as I can tell there's no kanji for the word!