You'll notice a strong wrestling motif with this week's Xomix. That's no coincidence. We join the world (without exaggeration) in honoring the life of Randy Savage and offer brief consolation, sincerely demonstrating the impact he and few others had on our developmental years.--cXnX mgmt.

Paul: The Flaming Jalapeno was a puzzle to me. This was his one and only appearance in our comic series. If I had to guess this was a small part of a bigger idea that we had that ran out of steam.

Ian: The Flaming Jalepeno was a normal guy who found what is more or less and enchanted torch(?).  As you'll see in later xomix, the Jalepeno gained his power from the torch, which included flying like Johnny Storm and I think shooting fire.  The torch also created a flaming aura around FP.  He created the name, and the suit, however, on his own I believe.  So, essentially, he should have been a wrestler, but you'll see he career is cut short.  You'll notice this is #4, created approx one month before "Paul v. Ian". 


Paul: The first thing I notice is the quality of this comic. I'm not sure if Ian remembers the cicumstance, but its obvious that we did not take this one seriously. I'm not sure if this was towards the end of our comic making days, but this one is amateur even for us. One other thing I will add is that the earring and Metallica shirt were both real things that I owned.

Ian: I believe this one was started on a dull summer night, and a rare one where Paul was actually home.  I had an entire notebook filled with concepts for characters and The Flaming Jalepeno was one I was particularly proud of.  I tugged on Paul's coattails about doing a storyline and he begrudgingly obliged.  The first page was drafted without my consultation and I think I got the notion that Paul wasn't too interested in this one.  I will note the respecful observation of the trademarked name and that in this issue, Paul's power (always changing?) is plasma blasts.  Since Paul is listed as the sole writer, I think the succeeding frames were his suggestion... My attributions are never less than accurate.

Paul: It looks like I let Ian finish this comic himself. Too bad we never got to see what the Jalepeno was capable of besides his love for cheeseburgers. Our poor victim was remarkably normal with no real costume to speak of. We stuck to the formula of just being in the same area caused an altercation. The poor Jalapeno didnt even make eye contact me with before I blew his head from his body. A clue to what the Jalepeno's power may have been in his mask since it survived the blast in tact. The quote "Hmmm institutional" was so advanced for a 12 year old and very funny today.

Ian: In deference, or response, to Paul's violent initiation (new to me at this point, as this was an earlier issue in the series), I decided to end the xomic quickly and brutally to Paul's approval.  I'm glad and proud there were no racist undertones here, like having FP eating at a taco stand in his civilian clothes.  I don't know if this is a prequel and the next appearance of the Flaming Jalepeno is a new torchbearer or if the events in this strip postdate the events of future installments and are presented out of order.  Since this was completed a month before the next attempt at a xomic, I get the idea that Paul was either not around much or not interested in knocking these out at the time and we decided to give it a rest.  As this 3-pager indicates, we were definitely burning out early.  He was finna eat a hamburger and it landed, unscathed on the ground next to a pair of what I assume are broken goggles.

Paul: It was inevitable that we were going to do a wrestling comic. Our love for wrestling paired with our love for violence had this made sense to do.

Ian: We had definitely gotten our creative juices flowing again.  This one immediately follows "Paul v. Ian" by about a week and I think Paul was ready to get even, if we're to believe I was victorious in the preceding adventure.  I'm not sure if we collabbed on the idea first or if, as Paul's lettering on the cover indicates, he approached me with the idea for this scenario and a completed title page and we took it from there.  What I do remember is that this was executed on a quiet afternoon in the family room (next to the kitchen) as our mom was grooming and we were left to our devices.

Paul: I remember the days of 1% body fat, and weighing a svelte 130lbs. The body suit and mask is a strange choice since I loved the face paint guys. I'm not sure when I defeated the previous World's Shiniest Wrestler to gain the title, but the belt was very underwhelming.

Ian:  All I can ask is how someone with so much muscle mass can only weigh a buck thirty... Anyway, we were back to a straight collab on this one and I remember actually discussing some story elements before putting them on the paper.

Paul: The first thing I notice is the nickname "da shit" it was very uncharacteristic of us to include any curse words in our comics since our privacy was constantly invaded and such a crime would be prosecuted in our home. It looks erased so I forget what Ian's intention for such a brazen act was, or even what the original name was. Ian did select Charlie Tuna as his manager, a Burgess Meredith impersonating tuna fish. I'll let Ian elaborate on the drawing, but I did add the gas puff post release.

Ian: My original tag was Stinkfoot.  It was not replaced at the insistence of Frank Zappa's lawyers but rather in an attempt to publicly display these xomix to other 12 year olds without being embarrassed by what were clearly the funnier elements of our characterization.  So, I changed Stinkfoot to something tougher sounding (probably to show to then-neighbor Jason Offord would be my guess) to avoid judgment but really, who would go around with a big turd on their costume??  Yes, Charlie Tuna was intended to emulate Mickey and not the voiced cartoon that was a little quippier and a little more approachable, so imagine him with a much gruffer voice than you're used to from the commercials.  It's a good but rare example of how pop culture invaded our creative process on a slightly more subliminal level (at this age I was neither a Rocky fan nor a xlassic commercial connaisseur) I can't tell if that's supposed to be muscle or a buttload of cellulite engorging my legs.


Paul: What a disappointing end to this match. My dropkick looked textbook, and powerful enough to decapitate Ian upon impact. Charlie Tuna seemed way too comfortable with stone cold murder, and for only a count out loss what a loose cannon.

Ian:  As this was a summer afternoon, I recall that Paul got a call to go out with friends (I'm assuming another Jason) and left em to finish the piece (as I wasn't patient enough to wait, or certain that Paul would be interested in completing it).  I assume this was a cross-promotion exhibition match, because we both hold titles, mine being World's Smelliest Wrestler???  I think, in Charlie's defense, I can say he had been training me for the match for months and was tired of me consistently letting him down.  Either that or it was a quick finish.  I'm not sure if the countout occurred when I was reforming or if I had let rage paralyze me and perhaps could have still made it back in the ring in time had I not paused to stew.  If we're to take the proportions of the last frame seriously, Charlie Tuna was gigantic.

Paul: I have a feeling again that this was supposed to be something that was more elaborate, but fell to distraction. There is no way we would have wasted our wrestling idea for something so short, for no good reason.

Ian:  No room for sequels here. The hung cape makes it pretty clear that, although there was probably no title change, that I had either died from a gunshot wound or retired, no longer to find a manager or promotion that would support me.  Either way, it's pretty clear that I polished this one off without intentions to resume a wrestling career again, set the book aside, and picked up the SNES controller.  After this, we would head in a more typical direction with our stories.