Targeting Deviant Misanthropes

Jason Yungbluth

By Lee Atchison
March 1, 2007

In this post-9/11 world, in between the forced optimism and paranoid delusions, Jason Yungbluth's graphic social commentary finds fertile ground. Challenging readers and aiming for deviant misanthropes, his Deep Fried comics and strips are sharp as tacks and deliberately just as painful.

There are no kid gloves here.

Sequential Tart: All right ... so what is Deep Fried??

Jason Yungbluth: Deep Fried is a Schedule I humor comic targeted at deviant misanthropes. Al Qaeda has a subscription.

Deep Fried's cast, some of whom interact and some of whom have their own arcs, deal primarily with slapping a grin on abnormality. Beepo the clown is sexually maladjusted, while Roadkill, his companion, is a slap-happy spree killer. Clarissa is an abused child living in a world of enforced happiness. Even Weapon Brown, which parodies the comic strip Peanuts, comments on social anxiety through its opposite, renegade brutality.

Aside from those themes, Deep Fried is at turns bizarre, recklessly mean-spirited and unexpectedly sentimental.

ST: Where did the idea for Deep Fried come from?

JY: Deep Fried begins with Roadkill, a character I've had since adolescence who could best be described as a tumor growing off of my juvenile love affair with Garfield. In college, I paired him up with Beepo for a strip in the University of Buffalo's student paper, and they became the stars of Deep Fried with the launch of the comic in 2000.

ST: I hear you're so confident that people will love your work that, like crack, you're willing to give the first hit away for free. Can you tell us more?

JY: The first volume of Deep Fried, issues 1-4, is collected in a 128-page trade called The Great Taste of Deep Fried, and for a limited time I am offering a free copy to daring pilgrims. You can order it by going to http://www.whatisdeepfried.com.

I started the latest volume of Deep Fried last year (I'm on volume 2, #2, with another edition arriving in autumn). Deep Fried is jam-packed with a wholesome appreciation for criminality and the hilarity of all things unpleasant.

ST: What got you started in commentary-style comics?

JY: After 9/11, I spun off a weekly strip from the comic book, starring many of the same characters and debuting lots of new ones. The fact that America's self-delusion was about to hit epic levels was instantly obvious, and I had to be there to be there to take the snapshots.

I love President Bush. We so truly deserve him. To think that there are those who believe he concocted 9/11! In fact, without that glorious day we'd still be utterly oblivious to just what kind of creatures we have sold our government to.

ST: Do you prefer comic book-style or comic strip-style pacing?

JY: I've vacillated. My weekly one-offs have inspired some pretty dynamic writing from me, since a one-page strip requires that a lot of creativity be compressed into a small story-space. It has forced me to come up with lots of new voices to address the multitude of topics I've tackled. Philip McDisney, Chad and Chad, Rags the Flag — all of them have grown from the strip. That said, I think my strength is still in extended stories, where I create life instead of encapsulating a commentary on it.

ST: What other publications have your pieces appeared in?

JY: I've written for DC Comics, a short piece for the Bizarro World hardcover titled "It's not Easy Being Green" about Green Lantern spiraling into madness over the color yellow. I'm nursing along an Ambush Bug project at DC too. I've appeared frequently over the last year in Mad magazine, both strips and features. Deep Fried has been in the Kansas City Star, the Buffalo Beast, the Rochester Insider and the Duluth Reader Weekly. I've done strips for STARLOG and a few tabloids and other magazines. In 2003, I was featured in Attitude 2: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists, edited by Ted Rall. I am the only cartoonist with exposed genitals. That should not be counted as a selling point.

ST: What do you enjoy most about comics and comic strips?

JY: All the marshmallow leprechauns jumping out of my nose and singing, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." Wait ... that's the other thing. Where I choke myself.

ST: What's out there right now that you also think our readers should be reading?

JY: Well, definitely pick up the trades of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol and The Invisibles. Their time has definitely come again. All Star Superman is also superb. Dawn, fo' shizzle. Read Achewood online, now. Stop reading PVP for chrissakes. Clerks II ended the era of geek irony.

ST: What's a typical "day at the office" like for you?

JY: Get up about 8:00. One hour of news gluttony — Crooks and Liars, Media Matters, This Modern World — then decision time: A) work on my current project or B) Wii bowling. If A, sit for 15 minutes before resorting to B. Work on my hook then back to the drawing board. Fifteen minutes more, then snack. Eat snack, pace apartment reliving old arguments, wishing my enemies would die and contemplating God. Return to drawing table. Decide: music or NPR in background? If music: Interpol, Ladytron or Negativland. If NPR, listen for 15 minutes before pacing again, then either a slice of peanut butter bread or a round of one-man Afternoon Delight. Repeat entire process eight times per day. Die lonely.

ST: What other comics are you working on that we have to look forward to?

JY: Weapon Brown: Blockhead's War is my big project this year. It will be a limited series that will continue the story of Weapon Brown, my Charlie Brown spoof, this time mocking all the inhabitants of the comics page in post-apocalyptic fashion. I will be shopping this around to publishers at least by the time of the San Diego Comic-Con and perhaps sooner. Next on my plate is The Boogie Bunneez: adorable dancing rabbits with a slight naughty side meant for the Owly set. Lastly, the next installment of Deep Fried, either as a new issue or as part a trade collecting my most recent run.

I will continue to appear in Mad and other outlets, and whatisdeepfried.com is updated all the time with fresh comics and bloggery. Won't you please join me in my sticky little world?

What Is Deep Fried? — The official web site