You Damn Kid!

Infobox Webcomic|
title = You Damn Kid!


caption =
author = Owen Dunne
url = http://www.youdamnkid.com/
status = Weekly
began = 1997
ended =
genre =
ratings =

"You Damn Kid!" (or "YDK") is a comic strip by cartoonist Owen Dunne. While originally appearing in non-mainstream newspapers, it has run as a webcomic since 1997. The strip is a fictionalized version of Dunne's life as a child in the late 1960s. Much of the humor in the strip comes from the juxtaposition of childlike innocence and nostalgia with the darker or more disturbing realities of life; it explores themes such as death, mental retardation, and sexual abuse by priests. The strip is very critical of the Catholic Church and the hypocrisy of the middle class.

"You Damn Kid!" is part of the Keenspot webcomics group.

Neither "You Damn Kid" nor its affiliated strip, "The Beevnicks", has been updated since October 2007. An October 4 message on the "Beevnicks" website announced that Dunne was leaving the webcomics world. His statement also said that he would complete the current storyline and post details on the "You Damn Kid" website; however, neither of these have been done.

Format

The strip is told mainly in the first person. The main character's name has never been mentioned in the strip. It was mistakenly thought to be "Casey" because of one misleading strip. In the strip (http://www.youdamnkid.com/d/20041011.html) the main character's mother says "This is my son, Casey," referring to the person she is talking to (Casey Ricardo). However, the author decided to make it the main character's name, too [http://www.youdamnkid.com/about.html] . The main character attends a Catholic grammar school taught by nuns. He has a younger sister named Dot. Their ages are never specified, and appear to change from memory to memory (the entire strip is told in flashback).

The location of the strip is also never mentioned; the presence of snow in the winter, and various cultural traits, imply that it is somewhere in the northern United States. It is possible that it is the creator's home state of Rhode Island, but this is never made explicit. A 2006 strip states that the family lives in Parker County; the only Parker County in the United States is Parker County, Texas. However, in the same strip, Parker County is described as bordering Midland County; while Texas does have a Midland County, it is not near Parker County.

Other hosted comics

"You Damn Kid!" used to be the primary and semiregularly updated comic on Dunne's website, but Dunne has been ambitious, launching several different comics on his site: "The Beevnicks", "Norman P. Function", "Those Darn Kids" (a spin-off of "YDK"), "Nippleshine Manor", "Ed Seriously", "Banion" (a spin-off of "The Beevnicks"), "Pencil and Ink", "Those Crazy Aliens", "Dizzy Dustbin", "Tommy Watches TV", "Pek", "The New Beevnicks", and most recently "My New Mommy". All of these comics have been discontinued. Several of the strips, such as "Pencil and Ink" and "Pek", never seemed to progress beyond a single strip.

The Beevnicks

"The Beevnicks" is another webcomic, hosted originally on the same site, as a spin off of "You Damn Kid!". It was originally started January 16, 2000 but Dunne stopped drawing it in 2003. Known as the "Original Beevnicks", it consisted of very simple clip art drawings copied and pasted in a paint program. The characters rarely changed facial expressions.

"The Beevnicks" is a gag-a-day strip, but every so often Dunne will introduce a rather ludicrous story arc, one that typically involves either Tom or Lorranie Beevnick in some form of deviant sexual behavior, a subsequent murder or crime to cover up this behavior, and a subsequent investigation by Detective Banion and the Tiverton Falls police. Dunne's usual method of wrapping up these story arcs is to have them be a dream sequence or fantasy, and return the strip to status quo ante.

On May 1, 2006, Dunne suddenly relaunched "The Beevnicks" and it replaced "You Damn Kid!" as the primary comic. The new version of "The Beevnicks" involved more background and foreground detail, but still largely copied and pasted drawings. On August 1, 2006, "The Beevnicks" moved to beevnicks.com and Dunne reformatted his "You Damn Kid!" site, youdamnkid.com.

"You Damn Kid!" in other media

On May 30, 2004, "You Damn Kid - Fun at A.A. Meetings: The Comic Strip for Grownups About Being a Kid", became available for sale at Amazon.com with the followup collection, "You Damn Kid: Naked Lady Balloons", becoming available from June 30, 2006. On September 20, 2005, it was announced that "You Damn Kid!" was optioned for television by FOX.

External links

* [http://www.youdamnkid.com/ "You Damn Kid!" home page]
* [http://www.beevnicks.com/ "The Beevnicks" home page]