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The Strange Adventures Of Toaster Guy

The Strange Adventures of Toaster Guy: Volume 2 by Aaron Hazouri. Kickstarter closing date: November 15, 2014. Publishing date: March 2015

 A lovable loser with the power to toast breakfast pastries in his head teams up with a shiftless ninja to fight a hapless war on crime!

 Aaron Hazouri writes,

Picture, if you will, a man in his mid 30s. A dejected loser, he's failed to make any kind of a memorable impression on the world. His one true talent is largely useless, and his closest friend is a smartass ninja. This is not only the premise for The Strange Adventures of Toaster Guy, but the autobiography of cartoonist Aaron Hazouri (except maybe the part about the ninja).

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As a kid, I was drawn towards cartoons and comics with off-kilter senses of humor and over-the-top cartoon action. Shows like Inspector Gadget, Dangermouse, and The Real Ghostbusters; and comics such as The Tick, old-school Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Flaming Carrot Comics. One night – it was a school night, and I was around 11 years old – the idea of a superhero with a toaster for a head struck me as hilarious. I filled sketchbook after sketchbook with drawings of Toaster Guy and his fellow superheroes and dreamt of publishing my own comic book.

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Fast forward 20 years or so. In my mid 30s, I found myself married, working a steady job at a cubicle farm… and spending my days praying for the sweet release of death (or at least a fire drill or something). My talent for drawing cartoons had served very little purpose up to that point, and I decided, as a last-ditch effort to wring some satisfaction out of life, that I'd run a small Kickstarter campaign and see if Toaster Guy appealed to anybody besides myself.

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Imagine my shock when the campaign was funded! What started out as surprise and elation quickly turned to "oh, shit… I gotta figure out how to put together a comic book!" So I did the sensible thing: I quit my job.

Gulp!

Over the next couple years, I taught myself how to draw like a professional, and I released the original 4 issue Strange Adventures of Toaster Guy miniseries. As an artist, I attended my first comic book conventions, selling prints of my non-Toaster Guy art as well as Toaster Guy comics. I built a small fan base – in fact, one dedicated cosplayer surprised me at MegaCon as a real-life Toaster Guy!

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Based on the response to the first series, I think there's potential for Toaster Guy to reach a larger audience. I learned so much doing the first miniseries that I'm ready to take that knowledge and apply it to another story, this time working with professionals (a colorist and a letterer). Toaster Guy is old fashioned wacky adventure comics – plenty of wisecracking and sarcasm, but very little irony masquerading as humor. At it's heart, it's a story about a guy who failed at the one thing he always wanted to do, and his struggle to fill the rest of his life with some kind of purpose. Also, there's a ninja.

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My latest Kickstarter campaign is to fund the production of Volume 2 of Toaster Guy's adventures. A disturbing secret lurking in the past of one of our heroes returns! A disfigured, deranged deviant seeks violent vengeance upon our hapless heroes! This story has it all – macabre villains! Edge-of-your-seat cliffhangers! Pulse-pounding action! Thoughtful social commentary? No! Grown men eating breakfast pastries out of their heads? YES!

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So check out the Kickstarter campaign (right here: http://kck.st/1xVjrcR), and if you crack a smile, consider becoming a backer. Just to sweeten the pot – any backers who mention to me that they got there via Bleeding Cool will receive a FREE digital copy of the entire original Toaster Guy miniseries! That's almost 100 pages of toaster-headed goodness, in addition to whatever reward you make your contribution towards!

Thanks for reading!

Aaron Hazouri is a freelance illustrator. He is currently based in Jacksonville, Florida and is desperately searching for someplace else to be based out of.


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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