Yet more Hoo●Hoo●HAs & Hoka●Hoka●HEYs!

Great correspondence coming in from all over the place: via gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and of course right here on the blog.

As always...italics are me--roman font is you guys!
(I'll be jumping into the letters and commenting as we move along!)

Damin Toell wrote:

Hi Larry,

Excuse my being dull if I'm missing it, but is there a way to order the recent Dark Horse BEANWORLD publications autographed by you? I tried going through your blog a little while back, as well as the links to retailers you have, but I didn't seem to turn anything up. Perhaps there's a way to order directly from you?

Please accept my apologies if this isn't something you're inclined to provide, but it seems like such a celebratory time for us Beanworld fans (between the books and your online presence) that it has awakened a geeky/youthful optimism in me.

I greatly appreciate that awakening, Damin.
As far as inquiring about autographed books via the mail, it's certainly nothing to apologize for, but the answer is regrettably this isn't something I'm set up to do.
Nowadays anyway.

The reason I go to conventions and make the occasionally store appearances is to sign as many things as a fan puts in front of me. I really enjoy meeting, greeting, and otherwise intermingling face-to-face with Beanworld fans but in the meantime it is in every one's best interest for me to devote all my time and energy to making more Beanworld stories.

Anonymous wrote:

I've read Here There a couple of times already and plan on many more re-reads, knowing I'll find new things each time.

I'm still not 100% clear on one thing though - In the previous volume, Heyoka changes the bean template by entering it, and in this volume, when she leaves it, it reverts back to normal. At least that's my reading of the situation.


That's correct.

My question, though, I guess boils down to, what was the point of that episode? I don't really get a sense that her alteration of the template really did anything, other than remove her from the playing field for awhile. Does the template affect the beans or the whole Beanworld?

If it affects the beans themselves, could it have affected the Cuties even if the alteration happened after they had already emerged from their Pod'l Pool? They have displayed unusual growth patterns re: their limb growth after all, though I don't see how that matches up with Heyoka's alteration to the template. I'm a bit flummoxed on this one. Anyone else have any thoughts on just what did or didn't result from Heyoka's time in the template?

I'm glad you made these observations and asked these questions, Anon.
Beanworld wanted its readers to start wondering about these very things.

The" Beanworld Influence" at the Goofy Service Station, or as the Goofy Service Jerks call them the "Factories," are the source of "Blessing Stuff" that the Jerks call "Reproductive Propellant."
Reproductive Propellant allows Gran'Ma'Pa to make new Pod'l'pools.
And out of the Pod'l'pools come Baby Beans.

Once the Reproductive Propellant leaves the Service Station it is no longer attached to it it in any direct way.
So any affect/effect Heyoka, may or may not have on future Reproductive Propellant is up in the air at the moment.

What went on and (will go on) between Heyoka and the Beanworld Influence is looming large in the creative process right now.
There will be more about this in Book Four, "Something More!"
I know this because I spent the better part of yesterday drawing a sequence that takes a look at this very subject.
I guess that can suffice as a small Tuesday teaser!




Jesse wrote:

I've been a fan of your work for the better part
of my life at this point. A kind uncle of mine turned my father and I
towards the Beanworld back when issue 5 of the comics had just come
out, and we avidly collected and read and hypothesized from that point
forward. We pored over the letter pages as much as the panels looking
for clues, and chided ourselves for not noticing the single left
handed Hoi Polloi before you'd called it out yourself.

(I don't think you are alone on that account. And for those of you that are newer to the Beanworld--check out "Wahoolazuma!" pg 67)

My dad and I had some wonderful, amazing times both with your books
and inspired by your books. Trips to the local comic shop were
exciting times for a 12 year old me, and no matter what else I was
reading at the time if there was a new Beanworld out whatever else had
my attention was put down so that it could come home with us.

That same kind uncle even took me out to the San Diego Comicon one
year (I'd guess in the mid-to-late 80's) and I got to actually meet
you and shake your hand and thank you in person for what you'd done.

You were kind and gracious to me, even when i gawked and pestered you
like a nerd.

(Jesse, no matter how cool anyone might seem sitting on the other side of the table, in the comics game, we are all nerds!)

And! You gave us action figures! We held onto those
little dried beans so long that one of them actually sprouted.

(As I've said before, that is my favorite phenomenon! When FREE Beanworld Action figures...well...do some action!)

A few days ago my fiance's eyes flashed across the sharpie-drawn
artwork she'd seen a hundred times before on the back of my old bass
guitar, but this time she called out "Hey! That's Beanish!"

She's been reading the old issues with interest and fascination, and
encouraging me to email you just to say "Hi!" since the magic of the
Internet has made you so easy to drop a note to these days. When she
recognized Beanish and called him out by name it gave me the push I
needed to send this to you.

(Thank you, Jesse's fiance!)

I've attached a phone cam picture of the back of the headstock so that
you could see the faded remains of the lovingly-scribbled bean and
miscellaneous mixed realities that i had scrawled on it when i was 18
or so. I'm hoping it at least gives you a grin, because your work has
made me smile (and ponder) since I was a child.

(I love seeing ancient Beanworldish artifacts!)

I can't thank you enough for picking this all back up again. We have
missed you dearly, and now I'm back to eagerly anticipating and
pondering with childlike glee.

I'm glad simply that you're out there, being Larry Marder. Thank you
so so much for sharing yourself with us.

Thank YOU, Jesse. I had too many truly amazing adventures in other dimensions to regret the time I was away from Beanworld, but enough was enough, and I'm back to stay!
I truly believe the best is yet to come.

Keep those cards and letter coming folks!

Hoo-Hoo-HAs & a Hoka-Hoka HEY!

Once upon a time, long long ago there was a comic book called Tales of the Beanworld. And at the end of every issue there were several pages of this archaic thing called a letter column. It was titled "Hoo-Hoo-HAs & a Hoka-Hoka HEY!" and instead of having you all poke through various treads, I thought I'd run some correspondence under the old flag.

Mark I said:
It's up! Our long Beanworld drought is over!
Congratulations, Larry.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

I owe a lot of thanks to Mark Irons, the curator of the Beanweb.

During my long years wandering in the wilderness, he never gave up the faith that someday I might return to the Beanworld. He, and my wife Cory, had an email correspondence that kept the flame alive.

I refer to the amazing compilation of information on his site almost daily.

He's a really good guy.

Bob said:
What's that word again? Oh yeah...Wahoolazuma!!!

And the same goes for Bob Heer, who I've never met, but has done an astounding job of you folks in the Beanworld community linked together and well informed at Gunk'l'dunk.

And don't forget, that word, "Wahoolazuma!" is also the sub-title of the first new hardcover volume of Larry Marder's Beanworld.

Anonymous said:
great story! i remember years ago the topic of recycling came up in TOTB lettercols and it's exciting to see the idea come up organically in the story. I am so excited to see more! What an amazing pleasure to finally read a new Beanworld story again after so long!

The nature of the Four Realities has been on my mind now for decades. I have a lot to explore in that area and this story was just a taste of what is to come.

JJA said:
Poor Proffy! Acetone hasn't been invented yet. Perhaps the Boomers can change their tune a bit...Also, what happens to the spears that the Beans leave behind in the Hoi-Polloi? Once they are pulled out and discarded, do they wind up in Der Stinkle?The Fix-It Shop appears to be growing. It now has a curl on top like the Cuties. I don't know if this counts as a clue.

A question of continuity - Does this episode come before or after "While We Were Eating?"

JJA, you never cease to amaze me.
Your observations are always right on the money!

As far as continuity goes, "? and !" and "Every Cutie Deserves a Toy!" both take place between issues #19 and #21 of TOTB.

"While We Were Eating?" takes place after TOTB #21 and before "Remember Here When You Are There!"

Carol said:
My favorite sequence is Proffy's pondering leading to revelation leading to the realization that their were holes in her reasoning.

Speaking of where things end up, what does Beanish do with all his old Look-See shows?

In your mind, were the beans always that color scheme (Blue for he wee and red for she wee) even though the comic was originally in black-and-white?

I notice there are several chow sol'jers and a Boomer bean missing from this comic.

Great story! Keep 'em coming.

I will, Carol.

Look-See Shows are accumulating in an area that seems to be called the Look-See Library.

I can't say I had the color scheme in mind since the get-go--'cuz I didn't use it in the early days of TOTB when I had some colored illos on the back covers.

At some point I decided on the color differences. I certainly had adopted it by the time I designed the Graphitti Designs t-shirt in the late '90s because I incorporated into the shirt coloring.

Yeah, there were a whole bunch of Beans missing in that story. In the first draft, they were all there but their sequences got edited out along the line.

Here is what they were doing.

There are 5 Sol'jers dancing with the Cuties.

The others were playing volleyball.

The other Boom'r was doing a Blank Tank gig for a Sol'jer who had a case of Krink'l Arm.

If you take a census, you'll see everyone was present and accounted for. Their stories just didn't fit into 8 pages. The first outline I wrote could have easily filled an entire issue of TOTB. I had to do a serious snipping but that draft resulted in pages and pages of good story material that will find a home when it's time to re-examine the ideas in the MDHP short story.

Also, some kind of production mishap occurred somewhere in the pipeline. There is a blot of a shape in panel 2 of page 3. Below is the correct panel. At least the blot didn't step on the joke!