Brawl in the Family (webcomic)

Brawl in the Family is a gag-a-day webcomic written and drawn by Matthew Taranto, featuring various Nintendo characters, such as Kirby and Mario. The webcomic concluded on October 3, 2014, having produced a total of 600 comics.

Brawl in the Family
The logo of the webcomic, promoting the complete collection of comic books
Author(s)Matthew Taranto
Illustrator(s)Matthew Taranto
Websitebrawlinthefamily.keenspot.com
Launch dateJune 13, 2008
End dateOctober 3, 2014
Genre(s)Comedy

Setting and cast

Brawl in the Family, the title a pun on All in the Family and Nintendo game Super Smash Bros. Brawl, features a variety of playable characters of the Super Smash Bros. series, with Kirby as its protagonist. Other characters playing a large role include King Dedede, Meta Knight, Captain Falcon and Jigglypuff, along with fellow Kirby characters Adeleine (who at the time had made her only appearance in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards) and Waddle Dee.[1] Brawl in the Family is known for its short visual jokes and wordplay, but sometimes features longer storylines and music videos.[2]

The webcomic later introduced a few original characters, such as Eario, the unseen janitor of Mushroom Kingdom, tasked with cleaning up in Mario's wake. Brawl in the Family expanded upon existing Nintendo characters by creating romances between Kirby and Jigglypuff, as well as Samus Aran and Captain Falcon, and by turning originally minor characters into recurring characters, such as Waluigi and a Bug Catcher from the Pokémon series.[3] Gaming website Retro described Brawl in the Family as "almost aggressively lighthearted," because where "a lot of comedic webcomics tend to veer into cynical territory," Retro described Brawl in the Family as having a "warm, family friendly tone."[2]

Notable comics
A small portion of one of the "Kirby eats something" strips

Brawl in the Family started under the title of Kirby Comics and was only uploaded on websites such as GameFAQs and IGN forums, until Taranto decided to expand the comic's cast and publish it on his own website, which was designed by Chris Seward. The first strip on the website is "The Showdown", published on June 13, 2008, showing a visual gag of Kirby transforming into his nemesis/best friend King Dedede.[3][4] The character Waluigi was introduced in the April Fool's Day 2009 strip, becoming a recurring and popular character with readers.[5][6]

Musical comics were introduced with the 115th comic, How the King Stole Christmas Part 2, featuring the song "You're a Mean King", which parodied "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". The 400th Brawl in the Family strip is a music video titled "The History of Nintendo", which covers the US releases of many Nintendo games throughout the company's history. Nintendo Life stated that the video "crams some good detail into its 3:42 running time" and described it as "catchy."[7][8] Taranto himself called it his personal favorite Brawl in the Family video.[9] "The History of Nintendo" was released shortly after Taranto underwent major surgery and was temporarily unable to work on more strips.[10]

In response to Mega Man being revealed as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and as the comic's 500th strip, Taranto uploaded a short video titled "Prodigal Robot" as a tribute to the iconic game character, while poking fun at the "popularity curve" of the Mega Man franchise.[11][12]

Nintendo Force

Taranto was contacted by Lucas Thomas of IGN to be one of the comic artists of Nintendo Force Magazine. After stopping with Brawl in the Family, Taranto continued working on Nintendo-themed comics for the magazine.[9][13]

Ending

Taranto announced his comic's end on July 25, 2014, in his 580th strip titled "World Eight-Four".[14] Taranto later confirmed his final strip to be released on 3 October, precisely on the date Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS was going to be released. Though this was purely coincidental, Taranto described it as "very fitting", as the comic started around the time Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released. In an interview with WiiU Daily, Taranto detailed his reasons to stop with his comic: "[I] feel like I’ve pushed it about as far as it can go by this point. It’s gotten more difficult to come up with unique concepts for strips that I haven’t already covered at some point, and I’m ready to dive into projects that involve non-existing IPs."[9]

The final comic, "One Final Song", was described as "a very nostalgic musical number, drawing together tracks from [the comic's] long and musical history"[15] and was dedicated to "all of the individuals that have enjoyed his work over the years."[16] Armed Gamer stated that the song "really hits in the feels" and praised the five "Meet Me at Final Destination" comics that led up to it.[17]

Kickstarter campaigns

Taranto's first Kickstarter campaign was to fund Brawl in the Family: Volume 1, a comic book treasury containing the webcomic's first 200 strips, as well as bonus content. The campaign reached its initial goal of $10,000 within the first 24 hours and raised more than $56,000 in total.[3]

Around the time of the comic's end, Taranto started a Kickstarter campaign to fund the release of two more hardcover and paperback comic book treasuries containing the remaining 400 comics, as well as a large amount of bonuses. Each book contains a total of 200 strips, covering 244 pages. Available Kickstarter rewards included, but were not limited to, paperback and hardcover versions of all 3 books, a slipcase and signatures. Though the campaign hit its goal, the two new books were almost exclusively given to Kickstarter backers.[15][18][19] On March 31, 2018, Taranto launched a Kickstarter for Too Bad. Waluigi Time, a comic book treasury featuring all of Waluigi's previous appearances in the comic, along with 200 new strips focusing on the character and 30 additional Brawl in the Family comics.[20] The book reached its $25,000 goal in three days, ultimately raising over $90,000 by the time of the campaign's conclusion.[21][22]

Tadpole Treble

In November 2013, together with his brother Michael, Matthew Taranto started a Kickstarter campaign for Tadpole Treble, a music video game featuring a tadpole named Baton. In this game, the music determines the layout of the level. There was a demo of Tadpole Treble available during the Kickstarter campaign. The game was successfully funded on December 7, 2013, and was released for Steam on May 6, 2016 and for Wii U on August 11 of the same year.[26] An enhanced version of the game, titled Tadpole Treble Encore was announced for Nintendo Switch, and was released on January 21, 2021.[27]

Podcast

Taranto and website designer Chris Seward launched the Brawl in the Family Podcast in February 2013.[28] The podcast is mainly based around the discussion of video games, and has continued even following the end of the comic.

References
  1. Matthew Taranto. "About Brawl in the Family".
  2. Reed (2014-10-03). "'Brawl In The Family' Webcomic Comes to an End". Retro. Archived from the original on 2015-01-23. Retrieved 2015-01-23.
  3. Pereira, Hugo H. (2014-06-29). "Conheça Brawl in the Family: Volume 1 e sua coleção de hilárias tirinhas" (in Portuguese). Nintendo Blast.
  4. lince99 (2015-01-01). "Homenaje a Brawl in the Family" (in Spanish). Vrutal.
  5. https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/waluigi-memes/
  6. https://venturebeat.com/2018/06/29/listen-to-waluigis-super-smash-bros-ultimate-lament-and-bring-a-tissue/
  7. Newton, James (2012-04-13). "Sing Along to The History of Nintendo". Nintendo Life.
  8. Fernandez, Erica (2012-04-12). "The History of Nintendo - Brawl in the Family". ZeldaInformer.
  9. Malone, Colin (2014-09-03). "Interview with Brawl in the Family's Matthew Taranto". WiiU Daily. Archived from the original on 2015-01-23. Retrieved 2015-01-23.
  10. Ponce, Tony (2012-12-04). "Brawl in the Family celebrates 400 strips with a musical". Destructoid.
  11. McIsaac, Colin (2013-07-17). "Brawl in the Family — Prodigal Robot". Gamnesia.
  12. Ponce, Tony (2013-07-18). "Mega Man joins the brawl... Brawl in the Family, that is!". Destructoid.
  13. Rumphol-Janc, Nathanial (2014-07-30). "Zelda Fan of the Week: Matthew Taranto (Aka, Brawl in the Family Guy) - All Zelda Comics". ZeldaInformer.
  14. NintenDaan (2014-07-25). "Brawl in the Family 580, comic ending later this year". Go Nintendo. Archived from the original on 2015-01-23.
  15. Moorhouse, Reuben (2014-10-03). "Brawl in the Family ends after 600 comics". Pixel Dynamo. Archived from the original on 2015-01-23. Retrieved 2015-01-23.
  16. Galizio, James (2014-10-03). "Brawl in the Family Ends After Over 6 Years of Comics". TechRaptor.
  17. Crane, Stephen (2014-10-03). "Brawl in the Family Comes to a Bittersweet End". Armed Gamer.
  18. Hurst, Samantha (2014-09-02). "Video Game "Brawl in the Family" Returns to Kickstarter in Comic Book Form; Over $18,000 in 24 Hours". Crowdfunder Insider.
  19. Taranto, Matthew (2015-08-18). "Brawl in the Family: The Complete Collection, Update #18". Kickstarter.
  20. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/437762268/too-bad-waluigi-time/
  21. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/437762268/too-bad-waluigi-time/posts/2152258
  22. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/437762268/too-bad-waluigi-time/posts/2178835
  23. http://store.steampowered.com/app/354400
  24. http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/tadpole-treble-wii-u
  25. https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/tadpole-treble-encore-switch/
  26. Taranto, Matthew. "Tadpole Treble". Kickstarter.
  27. "Brawl In The Family Creator's Award-Winning Music Game Tadpole Treble Is Coming To Switch". Nintendo Life. 2021-01-12.
  28. "The Brawl in the Family Podcast". brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com.
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