Applebee's & Me
When I was briefly a virus (went viral)
Back in late 2013, my comic series SEX CRIMINALS with Mr. Matt Fraction came out. It was a wild time. Like, life-changing. But even still, it wasn’t the biggest thing to happen to me during that period. That would be the conversation I had with my hometown Applebee’s.
Applebee’s Barrie had maybe a hundred followers on Facebook. I found out about the page because both of my parents clicked “like” on a photo of a hamburger there. As far as I could tell they were basically the only people who interacted with the page. It was just post after post from an eager social media manager trying to drum up interest in Marguerita Mondays with zero people responding.
So, I started responding.
It was just me and Applebee’s. Having a pleasant conversation with an audience of almost no one. A true delight! I started posting screenshots to my tumblr (RIP) and people seemed to like them, so I kept going.
“Plenty to eat at home” is a reference to former Toronto mayor Rob Ford (RIP) and what was maybe the most amazing press interaction of all time. It was a wild time to be working at a newspaper in the city I tell you:
Anyway, I continued enjoying my time with Applebee’s Barrie:
At one point I introduced my senior citizen uncle Melvin (who later become Melvon in KAPTARA), just to spice things up. I apologize to the Italian community.
It was all fun and games until Buzzfeed did an article about these interactions. It went, as the kids, say, viral. My phone blew up in a way that I haven’t experienced since. I was interviewed by NPR, Vice and The Atlantic. Marketing blogs wrote about me as an example of how to increase brand awareness. The Applebee’s Barrie page had thousands of new followers, all asking about me. It was weird.
Eventually, the restaurant in question publicly invited me for a free lunch, and the city’s mayor invited himself along to join me. But I declined. It turns out that driving an hour for a meal I don’t want with a man I don’t know wasn’t that enticing!
The whole thing was fun and surreal and a little overwhelming since I was still working full-time at the newspaper and also drawing Sex Criminals. When it finally all died down, I was pretty grateful. The biggest benefit of me going viral was that Matt and I were able to use my newfound “fame” to help promote our dumb little sex book.
Holy shit this was almost ten years ago.
I’LL BE HONEST YOU’VE AGED HORRIBLY
Comics, man. Comics.
Anyway! I hope you all have a lovely weekend! For my sweet and beautiful paid subscribers, here’s the next chapter in PUBLIC DOMAIN!