-If you don’t remember Prince brand Cigarettes it’s probably because you never read the mermaid story in the 3rd Modest Medusa book. Each book contains about 25 pages of extra comics, and the 3rd one has a bit about Jenny giving up her brand of choice. Oh here, I’ll just show you (you can totally buy these books, by the way).
The idea is that the Prince is soooooooo evil that he even has his own brand of cigarettes that are sold in Yeld. And of course, all the cool monsters smoke Princes! in fact, Jenny was a big fan at one point…
Anyway, the story behind all this is kind of weird. A few years ago Truth.com (the organization behind all those aggressive anti-tobacco industry ads) commissioned me to do a series of anti-smoking Modest Medusa comics that would appear on their site. The premise would be that the mermaid character (who back then didn’t have a name or a personality other than “obnoxious smoker” would, with the help of the Medusa (who also didn’t have a name. This was really early on) realize that smoking was unhealthy and that cigarette companies were evil, and would quit the habit. I wrote about a half dozen strips before the project fell through. I never thought I’d use the material, but the best bit of it (yes, this is really the best of it) made it into this strip.
-I’ll be taking a few days off next week to take care of some Medusa related business and work on my next Ghost Kiss comic. I’m not sure if it will be a full week off or not, so you may get a strip from me on Friday. I will be posting some Ask Medusa stuff instead, so please check back!
-Jet City Comic Con wasn’t super profitable, but it was fun! I had a great time meeting new fans and catching up with some readers I haven’t seen in a few years! My sister Katie got to check out her first real con and see what I do, which was pretty cool. We had fun! Here’s some photos.
Me, Kate, and my table mates Jaymz and Kyle.
I borrowed some gear from a passing cosplayer for this photo.
How ’bout a cigar?
Close but NO CIGAR!
Trying to be good and getting into politics usually go against each other. That and it looks like she’s flashing gang signs in panel 2.
You will notice that the only time Modest’s hair looks angry at her is when she partially covers her boobs.
Cigarettes made by non evil people. Those are going to be really hard to find.
She’ll have to roll her own.
I bet it costs a Princely sum.
And the joke is on her, as only evil people make cigarettes, so she has defacto given up smoking. HA!
I can really respect the prince for valueing his personal brand. Diversification is the key. While I don’t smoke I do occasionally enjoy of mug of Prince brand genuine draft. Brewed locally!
Shouldn’t the green mermaid want revenge for having her eye gauged out and for Modest turning her friend into stone?
We’re getting there.
Does this imply that she couldn’t perform magic before when she was evil?
No. “pure heart” is subjective. It’s also probably just something mermaids tell their daughters.
Now I’m curious how mermaids reproduce… well, what do ya know! There’s tons of speculation online… I wonder if it’s like sharks. Cuz they use something called a “mermaid purse” to reproduce…
I mean they could mean “pure” as in unaltered. Maybe getting a pacemaker or a valve implant would mess up their powers.
Um.. you do realize ‘truth’ is funded by the tobacco companies and tries to intentionally make the entire anti-smoking movement look foolish, right?
I’ve heard something to that effect. It didn’t really bother me. The person I was working with seemed to be nice and reasonable and the comics they wanted me to produce matched my own thoughts (smoking isn’t wrong or evil, but it is unhealthy for you and others around you and you should be aware of that if you decide to smoke).
It’s not as though the anti-smoking movement has ever felt burdened by a need to be truthful either.
It’s not as though the rest of the anti-smoking lobbiests (or for that mater, anti-drug, anti-porn, anti-sex-worker campaigns, etc) have felt any burden to remain truthful in their projects to control how people think either.
“Truth.com” is hardly unique.
Pick the liars you like, I guess.