AMA! I'm Matthew Taranto of Brawl in the Family, Tadpole Treble (Wii U/Switch), and Gamemaster Classified with Howard Phillips.

1) By and large, Waluigi was not a meme at that point. In fact, I remember when he was unveiled online for Mario Tennis on the N64 and the response was largely bemusement from everyone. I thought it was funny having this fairly disliked character run amok on the website for April Fools Day and drive everyone crazy (initially I expected the comic would just aggravate most of the audience, when it ended up having the opposite effect)! He started off just being negative and bitter, and as the comics went on, they got more insane and that's kind of where the character really found his niche.

2) Neat question. A few come to mind: Mario and Link were my go-tos for "video game humor," where the worlds are so well-known that you don't have to spend extra panels establishing "Okay, so this is how a Fire Flower works," and you can just trust the audience to know that offhand. Kirby, Dedede, Meta Knight and Adeleine started off as Kirby-centric humor and eventually became more rounded characters in their own rights so I liked exploring their relationships. In particularly, I really loved writing for Dedede. He's got that semi-villain appeal that makes characters like Strong Bad kind of overshadow the main stars. You can just do more with them because the audience expects them to have a bit of a hardened personality.

1) A tough question. I was really happy with the "big" musical comics for sure. History of Nintendo would be my favorite in that regard. My favorite multi-part storyline was probably A Mushroom Kingdom Carol. As for one-offs...151-WitF, 385-Secret Santa, 354-Animals, 483-Mr. Game & Watch Meets Paper Mario...geez, probably several others. If you ask me tomorrow my answers will be different. ;)

2) I'll never say never! Making comics on a regular basis is tough, and the Waluigi book was able to happen because of how the gags were less game-oriented and more about Waluigi being Waluigi. No current plans for another book of comics, but like with the answer above, we'll see how I feel tomorrow!

WAAAAAAAAAA

You were my early internet webcomic childhood!

Aw, this makes me happy. Crazy that it's been almost 13 years since I started BitF and kids from back then are adults now.

So... Who are your most-wanted picks for the last 2 Smash fighters? And has the current DLC roster satisfied you?

I absolutely loved DLC pack 1 and got two of my favorites in it--Hero and Banjo/Kazooie. Fighter's Pass 2 hasn't quite hit for me yet...although if they added Phoenix Wright and (Pig) Ganon or an Advance Wars character, they'd be talking my language...

Howard originally contacted me way back when I did a Brawl in the Family comic: it was a tribute to Nintendo Power featuring Howard & Nester (the magazine had just announced that it was shutting down). Howard liked the comic and as a result, I worked with him for a project of his own in 2012 and we went our separate ways.

Fast-forward to two years ago, Howard reached out to me out of the blue saying that he wanted to do a book of memoirs but utilizing lots of comics/illustrations and the like. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity! And we started emailing back and forth ideas for how to best present the information, and that was that.

Hi!

A nice, meaty question. I think a good way to look at this book is to not necessarily see it as an objective/historic compendium of Nintendo, but rather as a look at that decade from someone who experienced it firsthand. As such, you get Howard's own personal perspectives on the happenings of the time, elements of Nintendo that he thought were brilliant, disappointing, shifty, peculiar, and hilarious. We'll touch upon the happenings of each year, of course, but as someone who would fall right in the book's target market, what I find particularly compelling is getting the behind-the-scenes perspective of a guy who was right in the thick of it the whole time.

Tying into all this is the Nintendo Power-esque presentation, taking more advantage of eye-catching layouts, illustrations and comics that will help present these perspectives and memories in a fresh way.

Thanks for the question!

Thank you very much for the nice comment! Some people have described me as a "professional Nintendo fan," which I think is fun. I hope to offer unique perspectives on video games for years to come.

HP: difficulty was not the issue for me – many games get Nintendo-hard in a way that is fun and challenging. The design repeatedly violated the trust between players and the designer with insta-deaths making it un-fun to explore novel situations within the game. More in the book.

Hi Waffleson45--Howard may be doing his own AMA soon, so I'll do my best with this one!

As far as I understand, Howard took more umbrage with the game not communicating its difficulty correctly to the player, or punishing/tricking them for things that you were "supposed" to do. Hopefully I'm explaining it clearly, but aspects like the poison mushrooms (which were nigh indistinguishable from the regular ones on the original version) and reverse warps rubbed him the wrong way. I sort of like Lost Levels for what it was (a "second quest" of Mario), but I could see it being a bad move to follow up your megahit with such a tricky game.

Oh, it's Waluigi Time. I'm struggling to remember the last time it wasn't.

The short answer with Waluigi is that when I did the April Fools strips, he was generally pretty unpopular and criticized etc on Nintendo boards for being derivative. I thought it was kind of funny how he was so jealous and bitter about Luigi, who in his own right is kind of in the shadow of Mario.

So that became sort of a conduit for him causing all sorts of shenanigans, and I remember Chris doing a few of them and ending on the Happy Birthday Waluigi comic where it's just this sudden mood shift and I thought it was great. Then the Smash stuff only added fuel to the fire and became this sort of unattainable "goal" for Waluigi to strive for which all culminated in the Wa-Elegy song.

So it wasn't initially a conscious choice but something that sort of evolved based on the subsequent Smash games leaving him out. Ironically, Waluigi NOT being in Smash may have done more for the character than him getting in!

Well, that's hilarious. Mariah Carey and her crew owe me royalties! It's surprising to imagine you'd avoided hearing that song, although it plays even more frequently now than it did in 2010. But thank you very much for the comments and for sharing BitF with others!

We're looking into it but it's pretty tricky; porting the Switch version was a more time and money-consuming process than we expected...

I'd love to help you with the cards, but I have no idea how they work! I just submitted the required art for them and my brother set them up.

Hi, thanks for backing!

As a longtime fan, working with Howard has been very cool. It's always exciting getting a new update in our text document because it's basically these big chunks of info that I never knew about Nintendo in the 80s, from interesting insider stuff to fun hijinks on the job. Hard to say what my favorite part of the book will be before it's complete but I'm really looking forward to exploring and discussing the stories behind particular NES games like The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros 2 (the version we got here), and Mother/EarthBound Beginnings.

Thanks for being a fan and backer!

I do like Cave Story! Played and beat it back on the Wii, but as I understand it, there're some secret endings and stuff involving Curly that I never got to see.

I get asked for Dededolls pretty often still, although it's more common nowadays to get questions about BitF books. Distribution is such a tricky thing...

I've considered it...but as fun as it was, it was also very stressful putting things together on a tight schedule and waiting with bated breath to see what everyone thought.

Nowadays, if I get a new comic idea, I put it in NF Magazine. One comic every two months is a lot more manageable than two a week, and it lets me still have an outlet for if I want to do gags about Super Mario 35, New Horizons, and Sephiroth!

Thanks for the nice message! As time passes, it's been great hearing from people who experienced BitF when they were younger and are now adults. I'm glad to have helped you form some of those fun memories.

When not playing games or drawing, I enjoy playing piano and violin, singing, riding my bike, studying Japanese, playing board games (like Settlers, Pandemic, Munchkin) and playing card games, and generally hanging out with my wife and kids.

Thanks for the support over the years!

1) Super Mario Bros. Still one of my favorites and a huge inspiration! 2) A variation on Artist which is Artist-Who's-Overly-Self-Conscious-About-His-Work. Or maybe that's most artists, I dunno! 3) I haven't really gone looking for them but I've seen some one-off comics in the past that were pretty funny. I think anything that involves Nintendo characters getting into silly situations would be up my alley.

clicks

I checked a few in that link and they're very good!

I appreciate it. I'm glad you enjoyed BitF!

Thanks. It was the first of many, (too?) many Waluigi songs to come...

Thank you! I live to earworm.

1) You nailed it...! Well, that or Midnight Bayou. I feel like I was able to really put my all into the songs with lyrics and I'm happy with how they came out. I think the game's appeal really comes through clearest in those two stages.

2) I think Marx and Zero Two are both very cool fights. I like how the Kirby series can get dramatic when it wants to. Also, Masked Dedede from Super Star Ultra--it was neat having a more intense Dedede battle.

It's a (rather strangely-drawn) Onix! The idea is that Bug Catcher has found a new creature to be pals with after parting ways with his Thwomp "Pokemon." Like the Thwomp, this Onix is big, rocky, spiky, and has a similar grumpy expression, so Bug Catcher is instantly drawn to it. It's funny that you drew my attention to this moment because I'd forgotten all about it until looking closely at it again!

Thanks for such a nice message! I hope you continue to enjoy the stuff I do for years to come.

I appreciate the support! WAAAA

Hi JohnaX, thanks for being a fan for so long!

1) As far as newer Switch games go, I played through and loved Streets of Rage 4 and Bug Fables. My kids and I have had a lot of fun with Mario Kart Live as well, and I'm dipping into a couple older games this month with Bioshock Collection, Xenoblade DE and Yooka-Laylee.

2) Thank you very much! As someone who's not a professional voice actor, I appreciate it. I wouldn't mind doing voice-over work as I feel it's an underrated art and I have a lot of respect for the people in the field who bring to life animated characters with unique voices.

3) That's an interesting question. I think I would have trouble figuring out Kirby's voice, to be honest!

4) I have all the localized Rhythm Heaven games. They're great! Some of my favorite minigames are Munchy Monk, Frog Hop, Fever's final Remix, that sleepover one with all the pillows, and of course Ringside.

5) We do still have a few Baton mini-plushes left. I'm trying to decide if it'd work best to offer them as an add-on with the Gamemaster books (just as I did with the Waluigi ones) or if I should just put the remaining ones on the BitF store.

Hi Ryguy,

Thanks for being a fan for so long! I quite enjoyed Robobot (I especially loved the ending battle and the addition of ESP to the roster, one of my favorite Copy Abilities).

My favorite Kirby game however is Super Star. It's got that extra coat of Sakurai polish and was really the game to really give the Copy Abilities the full-moveset treatement. I also felt that the music and visuals were outstanding, and the fake compilation feel was one of those weird Sakurai touches that really added to the fun. Would love to see him spearhead a new Kirby game!

Hi SacredRealm,

Thanks! The Dededoll is...tricky. I wish I could order more since there are a handful of passionate fans like yourself who really want one, but the minimum number requirement means my house would be positively "stuffed" with these things if I ever reordered. I wish there was a better way to distribute them, I'm sorry!

Oh, that was awesome seeing Adeleine in Star Allies, and I even made a little comic to celebrate. It was actually a reveal more exciting to me than most Smash reveals!

BitF ended in 2014, so I think the last one was Triple Deluxe at that point (I had made a comic about the Circus ability shortly before the end). I think the Kirby games have been very consistent since then and I've played them all, but I'd like to see the series go through a bit of a rejuvenation soon since they've stuck to a similar formula since Return to Dream Land.

I honestly have no idea what I'd do in the event of Waluigi in Smash...! I feel like all eyes would be on me! Maybe a Waluigi chorus version of Lifelight, or another new song? Or maybe new comics; making 200 of them for the book wasn't quite as tough as I'd initially thought...!

Thank you for for reading! When I made The History of Nintendo, I was battling a pretty rough bout of Crohn's Disease and finishing the song became something of a goal of mine over those couple of months. So that song has kind of a special place for me and is my personal favorite. I also have a lot of attachment to One Final Song for obvious reasons.

Sure! I'd posted the first few strips on a couple message boards and got good replies from people, which inspired me to do it regularly. But I felt that if I kept it solely to Kirby, the potential audience for the comic would be pretty limited. So I aimed to expand the style of humor in the comic to other Nintendo series as well. It was around that time that I'd decided on the title Brawl in the Family to convey the Smash Bros crossover theme (as SSB Brawl had just released that month).

Speaking from my own experience, I think there were three things that really helped BitF. First, I made something I would want to read. I know that seems obvious, but focusing on what you find funny or interesting will light a fire under you and get you excited about working, which brings me to point two: keep a consistent schedule! Two or three a week would be great for starting out, so that people will want to come back for more and will know when they can get more. The last point is something everyone will say, but it's true: draw, draw, draw. The more you draw, the more you improve, and the more content you'll have.

With social media's popularity these days, you never know when something will go viral and suddenly be a big hit, so don't get discouraged when starting out! Best of luck to you both.

Hi, good to hear from you!

I haven't actually heard very many (any?) covers of the musical songs, but I'd like to!

Who doesn't like The Beatles? I still quote Ringo from that Simpsons episode.

Thanks for being a fan!

I was doing the music for Quest of Souls. It wasn't able to reach its KS goal, so its creator started smaller with a side-game in the game's universe called NecroBall (which I also provided the music to). As far as I know, it's currently on hiatus, so I'm not sure what the plans are for it at this time.

Thank you for such a nice message! Three times is probably more often than I've read BitF myself. ;)

1. You'd think so, but I actually am a Daisy kinda guy!
2. A little amused, a little proud, a LOT guilty.
3. "EXPECTING DIFFERENT QUESTIONS? TOO BAD. WALUIGI TIME." Who am I to stand in the way of Waluigi Time?

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed Tadpole Treble so much! And since the Wii U games apparently expire and get removed from the shop (!!) we were more than happy to bring a version to Switch.

Hi, always glad to hear from a fan.

1) My top five are 5) Ocarina of Time, 4) Super Mario Bros., 3) The Legend of Zelda, 2) Final Fantasy III (VI), 1) Super Metroid.

2) Fun question. It'd probably be Rebecca Chambers from Resident Evil or Palutena from Kid Icarus.

Hi! Thanks for being a fan for so long.

1) Quite a few, many of them picked up on discount. My favorites are Ness, Lucas, Hero, and BotW Zelda. 2) Chris is doing well! He's married now and still helps me with site stuff from time to time. You can hear him on a recent Q&A I did with Howard Phillips on the BitFinity YouTube channel. We enjoyed doing the podcast but the workload made it a lower priority for us. But you never know, we could always do more at some point.

That's a good idea! I'd have to look into it. The thing with music though is that the parody rights can be tricky to handle--it's why the BitF site only sells the three original songs I did while the others are just available for free on their YouTube pages.

That's great to hear! Thanks for being a fan.

Interesting question. It'd need to be someone that people similarly disliked or were indifferent to (at the time) that also wasn't much involved in the comics up to that point. Possibly Tingle? I can't imagine he'd have as much to work with as our favorite purple blighter though...

Thanks for being a fan! And for playing one of the characters who gives me the most trouble in Smash. ;) (I still struggle against Gordo + Inhale)

1) Initially they were just silly doodles I made during my art history college classes and weren't meant to last longer than a handful of strips. Once I realized people liked them, I aimed to make a Nintendo-centric webcomic that had the cast mostly stay true to character, as that's what I felt would be most fun to draw and read.

2) I do enjoy game design a lot and have some other ideas for games, but it's a tricky industry due to how front-loaded the costs are. One of these days I'd love to make another game...!

3) Hmmm...I had a lot of fun making the original lyrics to Wa-Elegy and leaning into the Smash rejections gave the character a certain timeliness. But I might have to go with One Day More as I'm a big fan of Les Mis and have always wanted to perform that song in some fashion (even if it was a shrill, nasally fashion)!

Overall, I have! I'm less a fan of FP2 than FP1 though. Generally, I really like characters that can bring in un-repped series that I'm a fan of. Phoenix Wright, a Resident Evil character, anyone from Advance Wars, anyone from Rhythm Heaven, or (Pig) Ganon from Zelda (which IMO is kind of UNDER-repped now) would be my top choices.

Galaxy was probably my favorite Wii game, and I was particularly impressed with its soundtrack (in my top 5 of all time, likely). 3D World was fun but I preferred the Galaxy titles. Odyssey was great and one of my favorites on the Switch--lots of things to do and a very fun moveset with bouncing off Cappy. I haven't played Bowser's Fury since I still have my Wii U hooked up and wasn't ready to double-dip, but I hear good things about it and it looks cool!

Thank you so much! That means a lot to me.

Hi, thanks for all the support!

My biggest influence was probably Miyamoto and Super Mario Bros; I really enjoyed drawing the characters from that growing up and designing little levels and stuff. But I also really liked The Simpsons, Calvin & Hobbes and Hey Arnold for iconic and straightforward character designs that also were clean and fun to draw. I haven't really kept up with webcomics as much but I've enjoyed a lot of one-off Nintendo-related strips that sometimes make their way around social media, etc.

You're welcome, and thanks for your nice message!

Thanks for your support over the years! I'm pretty satisfied with how BitF was handled, although I probably would've put a bit more effort into the early strips' art had I known I'd be making books about it and such. I actually considered a Dededoodoll (Dededooll??) at one point as a sort of standalone thing and possibly a little cloth hat, trench coat and mustache!

Wow, Turnabout Musical is from quite a ways back! Thanks for the support for so long.

I've been harping on Michael to fix that Mandarin bug...thanks for the reminder for me to let him know again! I'd hate for people to have weird issues in TT. I'm considering putting the remaining Baton plushes on the site for sale, but I may put them as add-ons for the Gamemaster book first (since it's much simpler on my end to bundle them with an existing order rather than send them on their own).

ABSOLUTELY, I DO. (with ham and bacon)

It also belongs on burgers.

Of course, I have somewhat controversial pizza opinions. I'm a fan of anchovies, one of the least-popular foods ever!

Thanks a lot and best of luck with your own webcomic!

Shortly after the site began and I had some 30-odd comics on it, I remember hearing it praised in a Nintendo-centric podcast. It really surprised me that someone else (who wasn't prompted by me directly, didn't know me, etc) was bringing up Brawl in the Family out of the blue like that. And also that they liked it so much! I think that was the point where I realized I could get a pretty big audience of Nintendo fans, so I should do the best with the strip.

Thanks, glad you liked BitF!

It was mainly just very stressful coming up with jokes so frequently. I'm more comfortable working in longer-format stuff (like the Waluigi or Gamemaster books) or things that don't necessarily build to a particular punchline (like the songs).

I appreciate it! Fun to see a member of the old forums again too. It was surprising how many more people suddenly checked out my stuff due to the Waluigi covers.

Thanks! The book is available here: http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/store/

I'm glad I'm not the only one that does that. Thanks for the nice message!

Hi! I do have other plans for the future, but they're pretty far away so I'll have to keep them secret for now. I will say I'm considering something that is not a follow-up or sequel to anything I've done, but fans of mine would be interested still. Feel free to mention the Waluigi or Gamemaster books however you like!

Oh, and random question, what are your thoughts on the most recent Kirby games (overall and LORE wise), and how do you feel about indie game World of Goo, if you've played it (Also shoutouts to @violet_sama for singing the song I posted, and everyone else who worked on that project)

Hey, nice pipes, Waluigi!

Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate it. :)