March 29, 2024
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WHOOPS (A Juggalo Comic Strip Series)

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Once again it’s Johnny O. back with a nice new edition of the Faygoluvers Underground Spotlight, where we interview some of the underground’s finest, but perhaps not the most well known. As we dive deeper into these artists, we try to showcase some of the amazing talent lurking in the shadows.

This time around I’m happy to say that we will be switching gears slightly and focusing on the creators of the WHOOPS comic strip series. The duo hope their self-deprecating humor on the Juggalo culture can shine a light on how ridiculous our differences and disagreements, amongst other things, can be. It’s a nice refreshing change and as we talk with these two you’ll get an idea of exactly what I’m talking about. This project is truly a labor of love for these two and it’s clear that they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

I started to ramble again… So, let’s just get started.

Johnny O: Welcome to the Faygoluvers’ Underground Spotlight, can you start us off with a little introduction to the team behind WHOOPS?

Kreeper: It’s an honor and a privilege. I’m Kreeper, I’m a creep, and I masquerade as a writer to get away with it.

Yerk: I am Yerk. I pretend to be a writer. I also pretend to be an artist. Yerk likes to pretend.

JO: So, how did the concept for this all start?

Kreeper: It’s all Yerk’s fault. The first I heard of it was in passing, during a black-coffee fueled discussion we had on the last day of the first DCGCon. It was just an idea he had, and he didn’t even remember it was part of that conversation until I reminded him well after the project started.

Yerk: It started with watching Juggalos, hangin out with Juggalos, and giggling about how, just, funny we are.  As a comic strip concept, it started when Yerk was driving back from the OKC Gathering last summer.  I had an idea for a joke, drew it up when I got home, looked at it, and giggled. After that?  Well, it’s a comic strip, so, nothing to do but draw another one, right?

JO: After the initial idea came up, how did you two find each other and decide to work on this project?

Kreeper: Again. Yerk’s fault. Blame him, not me. Like I said, we met at DCGCon. Months later he reached out to me with this idea he had about doing a comic about Juggalos, and asked if I’d be interested in doing a few scripts. So I just started writing, and sent him like 4 scripts, firing blind. Little did I know he had already been working on the project. He had finished strips and a handful of character concepts, so I had to scrap everything and start again from that template. Then I sent him 10 scripts. Then 20, and so on, building and brainstorming new Juggalo e-fingerpuppets along the way.

Yerk: Shortly after I began working on WHOOPS, a friend of mine, Demonic Swagger, suggested that I reach out to Kreeper, as a guest writer. I had met Kreeper at the 2017 Dark Carnival Games Covention in Detroit, and I knew from that meeting how damn funny he is. Plus, he has a growing and well-deserved reputation for being both quick-witted and observational.  Those qualities lend themselves well to a comic strip. Sure enough, collaborating with him has turned out to be the best possible boost to creativity

JO: How would you say the reception has been for you and have things gotten better since you both started creating this series?

Kreeper: The Juggalos have been nothing but supportive, which is just dope. With all the various shakeups in the underground over the last year, there’s been a lot of chicken little doomsaying regarding the culture- more than usual anyway. WHOOPS is there to remind ninjas that it’s okay to laugh at it. It’s not that deep. As for me, I’m chillin’.

Yerk: Honestly, truthfully, Yerk has a tough time gauging that kind of thing.  I don’t really understand or especially enjoy social media, and social media is the medium we are mostly using.  What feedback we have gotten so far has been very positive, and pleasantly humbling to me. One thing that makes me quite happy, is that I have not seen a single negative response, and that tells me that Juggalos are taking it in the spirit it was offered, and that’s all I can ask for.

JO: WHOOPS touches on many subjects within the Juggalo culture, is anything off limits?

Yerk: We are not out to hurt anybody. But at the same time, we are throwing pies, not bricks.

Kreeper: We’re not out to get anybody, but anybody can get it, gnomesayin’? Just like real Juggalos, the characters speak for themselves. Their opinions aren’t necessarily my opinions, or Yerk’s for that matter. I think it’d be lame if we did that. A Juggalo’s relationship to the limits varies from Juggalo to Juggalo, and there’s a lot of different flavors of Juggalo represented in WHOOPS.

JO: Obviously, these jabs at the Juggalo world are not made with ill intentions. So, tell us what you hope fans take away from WHOOPS?

Kreeper: Not at all. This is 100% a labor of love. Think of all the shit Juggalos have had to put up with, especially from the media over the years. Making fun of us, always with this snotty air of false superiority. Worse than being mean spirited, it’s also basic. They think that we don’t get the joke, when the reality is we’ve been in on it the whole time. Nobody laughs at us more than us, and we don’t need to do it to feel better about ourselves. We do it because it’s fucking funny. A lot of WHOOPs strips are true stories, so if we can bring to mind that one time something similar happened to you or your boy, that’s perfect.

Yerk: Laughter.
If not laughter, chuckles.
If not chuckles, a grin.
If not a grin, a smile.
If not a smile, an eyebrow that goes up one millimeter.
If no that, then at least to remember that we are all Juggalos, and whether we are laughing or crying, Juggalo life goes on.

JO: Kreeper you’re also the co-creator of Juggalos Against Sanity, so I have to ask how that came about and how it has faired with the community?

Yerk: Mister K…?

Kreeper: More like Special K. Well, it was Faygoluvers, actually. They posted the submission details for JAS, and at the time I was really in my feelings. I tried to get a gig writing clickbait for a horror website, and I got a rejection slip from the editor. A single sentence: “Wow. That was really bad.” I was salty. When submissions for the game opened up, I said “I’m at least getting my name in that lil’ booklet. So I wrote every single day, at least 7 phrase and answer cards a day. 17 on the last day of submissions, just for extra karma. A few months passed, and I got a call from Jumpsteady saying that they were using so much of my work in the game that they were going to name me as a co-creator. I was floored. That said, I like to remind ninjas that this game was a family collaboration. There’s some delightfully twisted stuff in there that I only wish I’d thought of.

JO: Besides WHOOPS, is there anything that you are working on Yerk?

Yerk: Yes and no.  It depends on your definitions of “anything”, “working”, and “Yerk”.

Kreeper: He’s working on being a total hunk. One of us has to.

JO: What would you say is the biggest dream you’d like to see come true in your careers?

Kreeper: I just want to keep creating, preferably things for Juggalos to enjoy. I gotta give it up to Yerk because WHOOPs was his brainchild. He does all the art. All I want is what any Juggalo wants, and that’s to keep the party going until I shuffle off this mortal coil.

Yerk: The first thing that comes to mind is, attainment of a career.

JO: What felt like the biggest moment in your journey so far?

Yerk: The biggest life-journey moment (that involves WHOOPS) is probably when I recieved, from Kreeper, the first bunch of his jokes for the strips. And when I say “bunch”, I mean he sent me as many funny jokes and ideas as I had already come up with on my own.  I knew then, that we would always have enough material to make WHOOPS a regular series.

JO: You’ve also had the chance to work with some big names in the underground, but was there one that really sticks out in your mind?

Kreeper: Meeting Jumpsteady, Tall Jess and Nathan Ninja. See, I’m an oldskool Morton’s List ninja from back in the day. I only ever rolled on the Twilight Scroll one time, when I was 16. The quest called me to meet the creators of the game. Well obviously I couldn’t do that then, and I’d be lying if I said the quest stuck with me all that time. Flash forward more than ten years later, and I had been asked to do a signing at the inaugural DCGCon. I almost didn’t make it because my flight got grounded. I even knocked down the curtain barrier in a grandly awkward entrance, and since I wear masks nobody knew who the fuck I was. Just a mook in a mask fucking up their stage. Once we got introduced it was instant karma, though. I made it a point to shake the hands of the OG Twilight Lords and BOOM! Quest completed. Things came full circle, genuine Dark Carnival magic in action.

Yerk: Kreeper.

JO: Do you have anything in the works currently that you could share with us?
Yerk: I’m not sure. Do we? More WHOOPS, that’s guaranteed. Much more. Too much more.

Kreeper: Yer dern tootin’. I also run a YouTube channel. It’s a super low-budget affair, loosely inspired by The Shaggy Show where I talk about movies, music, comics, aliens, porn, whatever I want. It’s not hard hitting e-journalism, just something to keep you occupied at the bus stop. But I try to leave flavor for the fam to peek. That’s here: —>  YouTube Link

JO: Where can fans or perspective fans get a hold of your or find out more online?

Yerk: Facebook

WHOOPS Twitter

Faygoluvers Forum WHOOPS

Yerk’s E-mail

Kreeper: Twitter

Instagram

JO: Who do you find yourself listening to lately?

Kreeper: There’s so much good stuff in the underground right now. Alla Xul Elu, Insane Poetry, buttress, Ouija, Gore Elohim, Mission: INFECT, Lex the Hex Master, Smallz One…we could be here all night.

Yerk: Prokofiev – “Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78: Battle on the Ice”
Shit goes so hard.

JO: Who would you say have been your biggest influences over the years?

Yerk: Charles Schultz’s Peanuts, Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes
Jim Henson’s Muppets, Matt Groening’s Simpsons (and Futurama!) & Juggalos

Kreeper: Clive Barker, Kane Hodder, Manly P. Hall, Vincent Price, Esham and Rob Bruce.

JO: If you had the chance to work on something for a big name in this scene, does anyone in particular come to mind?

Kreeper: Tall Jess and Tom Wood.

Yerk: Personally, Yerk considers Kreeper to be a big name. But I see what you are asking. And my answer is, I don’t know. Really, anybody that is fun to work with, I suppose.

JO: We all go through rough times, who or what have been the driving forces to keep you going in those tougher moments of life?

Kreeper: Pain is an excellent motivator, and makes you appreciate the love all the more. I got a little brother who is locked down, and has been for a while. One thing being a Juggalo taught me is the firm belief in the power of music. I told him that no matter what happens, to keep a song in his heart. Find a rhythm, a melody, a sound. Hammer a beat out on your chest. It’s the one thing nobody can take away from you.

Yerk: My homies, Juggalo or otherwise. Friends and family are all we really have in this world.  The rest is mostly either survival or amusement.

JO: Before we officially sign off, is there anything you would like to add or say to the Faygoluvers’ family?

Yerk: Yerk loves you, Faygoluvers family! Truly, I do.  I know I don’t say it often enough, but I’m just not that touchy-feely kind of guy.

Kreeper: Hell yeah, I’m part of the Faygoluvers family. This place has been my go to news site since before the Heaven was added! So first off thank you for the love and support. Secondly, for players of Juggalos Against Sanity: Get your baby mama’s mama (or reasonable facsimile thereof) drunk on box wine and have a family game night. It adds a whole new awkward dimension to the game that is now my preferred method of play.

JO: So, I always like things to end on a positive note, so can you send us off with some shoutouts?

Kreeper: My brother DJ. I love you and I miss you. All of my 30215 Family, there’s too many of y’all to list but if I fuck with you, you’re included. Same goes for the FLH Forum Ninjas, except Lucem Ferre ‘cause he’ll take exception to being called a ninja so I gotta namedrop him so he feels special, you guys are the genuine shit. All of the DCG Family, Louis, Tom, Nate, Jess, Rob, Rachel, pleasure working alongside y’all. All the people on IG showing love, C0ttonCandy and the ninja Keith for being the first people to show me love on twitter, Ninja Ben from my inner circle- I’ll never forget you homie. Big ups to Yerk for being the flavor architect. Rest in Peace to Cannibal aka Scumbag The King of Bad Influence, and most of all my deepest love to The Letters ‘K’. Those who know, know.

Yerk: Shout out to Scottie D and faygoluvers.net (and PunkRockJuggalo, and Johnny O, and Rosco, and wow a chick, and there are more). Shout out to all those ninjas out there who are following the Twitters, liking the Facebooks, gramming the Instagrams, and a special second shout out to ninjas who enjoy WHOOPS here on Faygoluvers, in the forum. I am very grateful. Shout out to Kreeper, whether he wants to be shouted out or not.

Shout out to anybody who thinks that a character from WHOOPS is supposed to be you.
It isn’t.
Although, it kind of is.
But it isn’t.

As much as I always hate to say it, that will wrap up another edition of the Faygoluvers Underground Spotlight. I want to thank Yerk and Kreeper for letting us take a more in depth look at their creative collaboration WHOOPS. Be sure to follow them on Instagram, Facebook and all across social media. Don’t forget to keep an eye on Kreeper’s YouTube channel and find yourself a copy of Juggalos Against Sanity while your at it.

Now before I officially sign off, as always if you would like to be featured right here on the Underground Spotlight or possibly a part of the mixtape, shoot me an e-mail at [email protected]. Make sure to include a short bio, why you would like to/should be featured, a track or two and a couple of pics. Of course, don’t forget to include UGS or something similar in the subject line. So, until next time…

Peace,

Johnny O. 

 

LINKS:

WHOOPS Twitter

WHOOPS forum link

Kreeper Instagram

Kreeper YouTube

Kreeper Twitter

Yerk Facebook

Yerk’s E-mail

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    Faygoluvers Comments

  1. Yerk

    Yerk

    Comment posted on Monday, January 29th, 2018 01:20 pm GMT -5 at 1:20 pm

    This. Is. So. Fucking. Awesome.
    Thank you, Faygoluvers.net.
    Thank you, Kreeper.
    And most of all, thank you, Juggalos!

  2. spookiTHEfunguy

    SPOOKYtheFUNGI

    Comment posted on Monday, January 29th, 2018 10:24 pm GMT -5 at 10:24 pm

    Thank you both for the fresh flava!

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