Mike Russell interviews Brendan Douglas Jones, creator of Breakfast of the Gods — the Watchmen-esque parody starring breakfast cereal mascots. The interview is available in two formats — as a comic strip or as a full text interview:
Q. How does one go about fleshing out the inner life of a cereal mascot?
A. Well, sadly I suppose, I have a pretty vast backlog of pop-culture arcana stored in my grey matter. Comics (obviously), movies, TV, music, etc. And I watched waaaaayyyy too much Saturday morning TV.
In those little 30-second commercials (back in the ’70s and ’80s — not so much these days), they actually gave these mascot characters real personalities and storylines, even. It was all just extrapolation for me.
For instance, Sugar Bear.
He’s the ultimate Rat Pack-esque cool dude. Very laid-back. But there were commercials in the ’80s where eating his own cereal would cause him to bulk up as the super-powerful “Super Bear.” Anyone versed in comics could see how this is potentially (for Sugar Bear) unpleasant — that there’s this ultra-powerful, violent “beast” inside him ready to burst out. Very Hulk-like or Wolverine-like. And suddenly, you have a character arc for this lovable mascot for Super Sugar Crisp (now “Super Golden Crisp”).
