pranas t. naujokaitis

The official tumblr of cartoonist Pranas T. Naujokaitis and Ghost Car Press.

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Strangers (part 2 or 2)

Read the first half here

This is second half of the minicomic that I included as part of our guest favors at our Wes Anderson wedding last month.

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Strangers (part 1 or 2)

This is first half of the minicomic that I included as part of our guest favors at our Wes Anderson wedding last month.

Read part 2 here

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I’ll be tabling at @dinkdenver this weekend and be on a panel on Sunday talking about politics and comics and whatnot. So come by and buy some stuff! Then come listen to me rant about politics like a crazy person. #dinkdenver #dinkdenver2018 (at Denver, Colorado)

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Lost Monster Cereals #17

ChocNess Monster: Dark chocolate flavored cereal with ChocNess monster and tam o’ shanter shapped marshmallows. Introduced 1983, discontinued 1988. Exclusive to the UK.

In the early 1980s General Mills looked to expand to international markets, and that included using the Monster Cereal brand. They thought it would be a good idea to create some unique monsters for different markets to stir up interest. They created ChocNess Monster exclusively for the UK market.

The cereal was plagued with brand confusion from day one however. When ChocNess debuted on English cereal aisle shelves, he did so alongside Count Chocula and Boo Berry (who for legal reasons was changed to Sir Frightful Berryton). The original coloring of the ChocNess monster was various shades of brown so visually it looked just the same as Count Chocula on shelves. If you remember, this is the same problem that the ill fated BrownEEK! had. So the color was quickly changed to his more well known purple and yellow colors. This change caused even more brand confusion, causing the casual consumer to think this was either a berry flavored cereal (due to the purple) or a chocolate and banana cereal (due to the yellow).

This brand confusion is not what did the cereal in however. It was its popularity in the United States that sealed ChocNess’ fate.

In the mid-1980s a huge underground cereal black market ring sprung up around this cereal, large quantities being smuggled into America where the cereal was not officially for sale. Monster Mouths and cereal aficionados prefered the richer flavor of the dark chocolate much in the same way that today people in America might prefer the taste of Cadbury’s to Hershey’s. And because of this sales of Count Chocula in the U.S. started to tank. 

Not wanting to hurt or kill off their flagship Monster Cereal, General Mills thought it best just to pull the plug on ChocNess for good, even if it meant losing their footing in international markets. In the UK ChocNess wasn’t missed, but it developed, and still maintains to this day, a small cult following in the U.S.

Some speculate that the creation of BrownEEK! the next decade was an attempt by General Mills to try to capitalize on ChocNess’ cult following, but it just wasn’t the same and never caught on.

See all Lost Monster Cereals here Buy the Lost Monster Cereals originals here

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Lost Monster Cereals #16

Dread Velvet: Red velvet flavored cereal with cream cheese flavored marshmallows. Introduced 1996, discontinued 1996. Reintroduced 2010, limited run.

The highly controversial Dread Velvet caused a stir when it was first introduced and again when it was declared the winner of the 2009 Re-Animate a Monster Cereal campaign. To this day most hardcore Monster Mouths get worked up at the mere mention of the cereal’s name.

Looking to try out new flavor profiles, General Mills experimented with testing out cereals in regional markets based off of regional favorites. Dread Velvet was tested in the Deep South where red velvet baked goods were popular. This was well before red velvet became a craze in the next decade.

Almost immediately local church and religious groups were up in arms over the cereal, claiming that a decomposing zombie was no role model for children and would encourage people into Satanism. Yet no fuss was ever made about the dozens of monster mascots that came before. This led to speculation that this “boycott” was actually orchestrated by Post in an act of corporate sabotage who were rumored to be working on a red velvet cereal of their own. While no definitive proof was ever found, and Post never actually got their red velvet cereal to market, this was at the height of the Great Cereal Wars of the mid-90s where actions like this were quite common.

Not wanting to get caught in another patch of bad press, General Mills had no choice but to pull the cereal. Dread Velvet had not even been on the market for a month, so it quickly faded into obscurity.

Dread Velvet did make a comeback however, winning the 2009 Re-Animate a Monster Cereal campaign and was reintroduced to the cereal aisle the following year.

Monster Mouths cried foul however. They just couldn’t believe that a cereal that was so obscure (only sold in the south, only on shelves for a month, no one had any nostalgia for) could win. They accused a group of zombie fan message boards of running a campaign to stuff the ballot. They felt that they were voting for the mascot and not the cereal itself, which Monster Mouths thought went against the spirit of the campaign. This caused a huge online flame war with General Mills stuck in the middle.

General Mills was planning to make the Re-Animate contest a yearly thing, hoping to give a new generation of cereal fans a taste of the past, but after the blowback they received on this they killed the idea. Instead they released a very limited batch of Dread Velvet in 2010 with very little fanfare and washed their hands of the whole thing.

See all the Lost Monster Cereals here Buy the Lost Monster Cereals originals here

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Lost Monster Cereals #15

Big Green Melon From Outer Space: Watermelon flavored cereal with vanilla flavored marshmallows. Introduced 1986, discontinued 1987. Briefly reintroduced in select markets 1991.

Big Green Melon From Outer Space comes from a run of Monster Cereals in the mid to late 1980s that were created to help promote horror/monster movies (this line included such cereals as Attack of the UnPOPable Bubble Yum and Cereal Killer). This move was seen as questionable since the films being promoted were either too mature for children or the movies ended up being huge box office flops. Big Green Melon was created to promote the now-cult-classic Little Shop of Horrors. 

Unfortunately the movie tanked at the box office, so the cereal was quickly phased out. Another reason for the cereal’s demise was the inclusion of the “Grow-Your-Own Audrey II” prize in the final production run of the cereal. While the idea was clever and played into a plot point from the movie, the execution was not well thought out. Some packets were not properly sealed so seeds would get into the creal. While the seeds were non-toxic and not a danger if eaten, many people were put off by this. So General Mills recalled all what remaining stock was still in stores, and just pulled the plug on the cereal altogether.

The cereal was briefly brought back in select test-markets to promote the very short lived Little Shop animated series on Fox Kids. This run replaced the original Big Green monster on the front of the box with the cartoon character from the show. This was the first, and only, time a non-original monster character was used as a Monster Cereal mascot. This move made some Monster Mouths declare this run of the cereal non-canonical. Plans were to roll the cereal out nationally again, but with the quick cancellation of the show, those plans were scrapped.

While Little Shop of Horrors didn’t do well in theaters, it has gained a huge cult since then. Because of this, interest in the cereal has also increased. Rumors on the cereal message boards were that General Mills was going to re-release Big Green Melon in 2016 for its 30th anniversary, but it never came to pass.

During the 2003 Broadway revival of the musical, set dressers put a box of Big Green Melon on the shelf of Seymour’s bedroom as a small easter egg.

See all the Lost Monster Cereals here Buy the Lost Monster Cereal originals here

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Lost Monster Cereals #14

Buzzy Bat: Coffee flavored cereal with coffee flavored marshmallows, all infused with caffeine. Introduced 1997, discontinued 1997.

Hoping to capitalize on the mid-90s java craze and trying to appeal to young drinkers of such heavily caffeinated sodas like Surge, General Mills introduced Buzzy Bat to the Monster Cereals lineup, but it was short lived. All because of their decision to add real caffeine to the cereal, which was the first and only time a major cereal did that.

There was a sudden nationwide backlash on caffeine marketed towards kids right around the time the cereal went to market, with most schools banning sodas like Surge. Not wanting to get caught up in all this and face any negative press, General Mills quickly pulled the plug on Buzzy Bat before most people even knew it existed. There were rumors among Monster Mouths (what Monster Cereal fans call themselves) that General Mills would eventually reintroduce Buzzy Bat without any caffeine, but this never came to pass.

Due to its short lifespan, sealed boxes of Buzzy Bat can fetch up to $300 on the secondary market.

Cereal scholars have recently unearthed evidence that during the initial planning of this cereal it was going to be called Fuzzy Bat and feature a peach flavor profile. Their research shows that the higher ups at the company stepped in to make it coffee flavored to cash in on the current coffee fad, thus dooming the cereal to an early demise.

See all the Lost Monster Cereals here Buy the Lost Monster Cereals originals here

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LOST MONSTER CEREALS #13

Bride of Frankenberry: Raspberry and cream flavored cereal with cream flavored raspberry shaped marshmallows. Introduced 1983, discontinued 1985.

Second in the Frankenberry family of Monster Cereals and the second female cereal mascot ever (Witchy Brew of course being the first).

General Mills made a big push for the cereal in the beginning, running a series of “Who Will Frankenberry Marry?” animated television spots, leading up to the grand reveal of the Bride character and cereal. They even sprung big cash to get Carol Burnett to voice her (she was quickly replaced by a sound-alike for all future appearances). Future ads dealt with Frankenberry and Bride as a bickering married couple, often ending with Bride hitting Frankenberry over the head with a box of cereal for comedic effect.

While the character and commercials were well received at the time (by today’s standards they come off a pretty sexist), the cereal itself never found its footing in the cereal aisle. Some say that it just wasn’t that different from Frankenberry in taste and color. And not wanting to waste the precious shelf space and cause brand confusion, General Mills pulled the cereal after only two years.

Even though she no longer had a cereal of her own, she still did occasionally appear in commercials, including most of the TV spots for Son of Frankenberry almost a decade later.

While few remember the cereal itself, the character has a huge cult following in pop culture, often being used for official Monster Cereal merchandise. Despite this however, she did not even crack the top ten in the infamous, and highly controversial, 2009 “Re-Animate a Monster Cereal” campaign.

Fun fact: The incorrectly spelled “rasberry” on the front of the box was never corrected for the entire lifespan of this cereal. It’s unknown if it just went unnoticed or if it would have been too costly to change.

See all the Lost Monster Cereals here Buy the Lost Monster Cereal originals here

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Back in 2015 I tried my hand at inktober and my theme was Lost Monster Cereals. For various reasons I gave up about halfway through. But this year I’m finishing the series!

So for the rest of the month I’ll be posting them all up here along with little short blurbs about the alt-histories of these cereals lost to time.

Catch up on the first half of the series by clicking here and all original pieces will be for sale on my online store.

Be sure to tell your friends.

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The Company You Keep…

For a long while I had second thoughts about doing this comic. I mean, it’s harsh and was written in a moment when I was really mad at ALL tr*mp supporters (to be fair, I am still really mad). I wrote it a week after the election when there was a huge uptick in hate crimes across the country, including incidents targeting kids in school. I wrote it down just to get my emotions out on paper while they were still fresh. But after letting it stew in my sketchbook for a few months I started to have second thoughts about lumping in ALL tr*mp supporters with racists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK.

But then I went and drew it anyways.

Because honestly, maybe you, the tr*mp supporter, aren’t racist. But you sure as hell voted for one. You voted for a man who on DAY ONE of his campaign called Mexicans “rapists and murderers.” Called for a ban AND registry on Muslims. A man who when endorsed by David Duke and the KKK would not immediately disavow said endorsement. A man who thinks all black people are poor and live in the inner city. A man who could only say a meager and timid “Cut it out” on 60 Minutes when asked about all the hate crimes a few days after the election before quickly moving on to the next topic. And this is just the race stuff. Let’s not even get started on all the sexist stuff (there might be a comic about down the road, we’ll see).

So you may not be racist yourself, tr*mp voter, but you are sure okay with voting for one.

Now if you voted for this man and you are offended by me calling you a racist: prove me wrong. Please. Go out there in the world and actually do some good through actions and not just words. Until you do, just remember: You voted for the same man that the KKK did. And that blood on your hands might never fully wash off.

(Sorry for drawing all the KKK robes and swastikas, everyone. I felt really gross doing it.)

Read all the #unpresidented comics here

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Just felt like reblogging this one for no reason whatsoever...

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My latest minicomic, #unpresidented, is now up for sale online!

It’s a collection of the #unpresidented journal comics I’ve been posting up here plus a whole bunch of other ones that aren’t online yet (and some will only be found in the physical minicomic).

Handmade cover is a three-color screenprint on orange paper with a screenprinted wrap-around sleeve.

Nearly sold out of all my copies I made for DINK earlier this month, so the ones for sale now are a pre-order for the next print run that will be ready to ship out early May 2017.

Order your copy of #unpresidented on my online store today!

Read all the #unpresidented comics that are online here

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Finished screenprinting the covers for #unpresidented and will be debuting this weekend at @dinkdenver

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Under My Thumb

Read all the #unpresidented comics here

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Finalizing the cover for the #unpresidented minicomic. Going to be a three color screenprint on orange paper. The black band will be a slip-off sleeve that wraps around the book. Will hopefully have this ready in time for @dinkdenver this weekend, tiny fingers crossed. Will put up a preorder for this soon.

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'Blarf' has been and shall always be my favorite sound effect. Put it on my tombstone, please. #inking #wip #blarf

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Garbage Neighbors for Garbage Times

So close, and yet...

Read all the #unpresidented comics here

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Fucked Up Podcasts for Fucked Up Times

I’ve only recently gotten back into my usual news consumption groove (sometimes I consume a little too much, but that’s another comic). Even though I’m back to “normal” now, I still had to go back and delete all the backlogs of podcasts and Samantha Bees and everything that built up since then that dealt with the immediate aftermath of the election. You HAVE to stay informed and up to date on all this shit (now more than ever), but it was just too much at that point...

So true crime and murder podcasts filled that void and helped distract me from our current shitty reality for a lil’ bit! YAAAAAY!

If you are into true crime (or not, I wasn’t that into it before but this podcast got me into it) you should check out My Favorite Murder. They’re great. I call them a ‘fucked up podcast’ in the best way possible.

Read all the #unpresidented comics here