Hey,
- This one is in my top three favorite "Dead Duck" stories, and at eighteen pages, it's my second longest one, right after "One Toy Soldier Rides Away" (19 pages).
- The title is a riff on the classic song, "Summertime Blues", co-written and recorded by Eddie Cochran in 1958.
- This was one of the very first "Dead Duck" stories that I came up with. Because it was going to be very involved, and very deeply rooted in Dead Duck's origin, I dragged my feet on writing it before it felt totally ready. As such, many other stories got written and drawn before this one finally came together.
- I have my own traumatic memories of forced camp experiences, and they play heavily into the plot of this story.
- As I reference both the Borgo Pass and Transylvania, it should be obvious which famous character is bound to make an appearance in this story. If it isn't obvious, you really need to get to the movies more often.
- This was the second appearance of Dean in a "Dead Duck" story. If I had more time and space in the first "Dead Duck" graphic novel, I would have given Dean a whole story of his own. I do manage to sneak Dean into one more story in another small cameo role. But there are plans on my drawing board to have a very Dean-centric "Dead Duck" story in the coming year.
- Li'l Gypsy's Pizza is a parody of Little Caesar's Pizza. I always loved the UPA animation-style design of their mascot, and it was a blast trying to recreate that in Gypsy form.
- After publishing this story, I found reader response towards Little Dead Duck to be as glowing as the fandom for Zombie Chick. There have been many requests for future Little Dead Duck stories, and I can tell you that there's one already written and drawn, which will be posted towards the end of 2012. I love writing and drawing little Dead Duck's adventures as much as folks seem to love reading them.
- I made a point to suggest Dead Duck's obsession with Big man on Campus at every opportunity I could manage. He wears that BMOC shirt for the bulk of this story.
- Though he only appears at the start and the end of this story, I really think this one has the funniest dialogue that I've ever written for JP Yorick. Watching him clumsily relate to little Dead Duck is as humorously awkward as watching my own dad trying to relate to me as a kid, and it's moments like that which really flesh out this story.
See you on the next page!
--Jay