Goodbye, Michael...
Our founder retires and we conclude a Bugtime Story.
Hello Bad Bugs!
It’s with a heavy heart (who am I kidding? I’m overjoyed!) that I have to announce that our founder and CEO Mike Tener is retiring, effective immediately. We will all miss him, I guess.
In other news, Mike has ceded all interest in Bad Bug to me, Kris Jerome, and I will be making some significant changes going forward:
No more Bad Bug Midnight titles! It’s time to clean this company up. (I’ll the let the few on KS finish up…I guess.)
Scott Wilke is fired, effective immediately.
We will be starting our new imprint, Bad Bug Jr. before the end of the month.
The majority of our titles will no longer have pictures! That’s right, just regular-ass books. See here, for examples.
Allen Dunford is now in charge of shipping and producing branded tape for all of our packaging.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks! While this sets in, please read the ending that you voted on from last week’s Bugtime Story…
The squirrel just stared at him dumbly with those cute little eyes. No matter how many pieces of bloody flesh he cut off of Percy and tossed toward the creature, it refused to come any closer.
Maybe this specimen wasn’t hungry? That had to be the case. There was no way that Allen had been wrong about this. He had to try again.
For the sake of science, he bent down to the corpse and sliced a piece of Percy’s cheek off, pulling the bloody scrap of flesh loose with sticky fingers. This time, rather than toss the meat to the Sciurus, Allen slowly approached the animal while holding the meat out like a supple treat.
“Come, try it,” he cooed. “He was no toddler, but I’m sure the taste is similar.”
The squirrel chittered in response but didn’t move. When Allen was finally as close as he thought he could get, he squatted down to the creature’s level. After a deep breath, Allen placed the piece of Percy into his mouth and began to chew. The coppery taste reminded him of undercooked steak. After a few moments, he spit the flesh back into his hand and tossed it to the squirrel.
“It’s good,” he said. “Eat.”
The squirrel still didn’t move. Allen wiped the blood from his lips and let out a sigh. What was wrong? Why wouldn’t the creature eat? The signs had all been there. They had swarmed the bodies of the larger creatures and ripped flesh from bone. He had seen the signs…
“That’s it!” he shouted. “You won’t eat alone!”
Allen jumped to his feet and returned to the body. Looking around the camp, he found what he needed to form a sled in short order, and rolled the dead man onto it. Less than an hour after he had killed him, Allen was dragging the body of Percy deeper into the woods with the lone squirrel following them.
A few hours later, the exhausted scientist dropped the sled in front of the blind he had been sitting in earlier in the day and collapsed beside it. The squirrels needed to gather in numbers to feast, that was the problem. Allen considered climbing back into the blind to watch, but he was far too tired to get up. Instead, he was lulled to sleep by the sounds of the forest and the distant chittering of the squirrels.
While he slept, Allen dreamed. He scampered from branch to branch, chasing the fluffy tail of another squirrel. After a few moments, they saw a human child wandering between the trees. The boy stopped and held out his hand. Another squirrel sat on the ground just opposite the boy, and he was trying to touch it. The squirrel bit the boy’s finger and he yelped. Suddenly dozens of the creatures swarmed the boy, and Allen was among them. He tasted Percy again—and he liked it.
A sharp pain brought Allen back to the waking world. The sun was sinking behind the treeline, and his eyes struggled to focus. Another sharp pain.
“Jesus Christ!” Allen swore, sucking on his injured fingers.
He tried to sit up but found that his chest was heavy. Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he was able to find what was left of Percy—little more than bones and clothes. Allen was ecstatic. He has been right! He had always been right! It was the squirrels. Now where were they?
Once again he tried to sit up, but something held him fast. He tried to brush off his chest and realized that he was covered in dozens of furry bodies. The squirrels were lying on him, but why? Surely, Percy had been enough. One of the Sciurus climbed up to his face and looked him in the eye. It was such a beautiful thing. Then the squirrel sunk its teeth into Allen’s lip and tore.
Kickstart My Heart
Coming Soon! More Bear Skin!
Bear Skin: Keep a light on for Mrs. Kern’s Boy - Jason Pell’s dark and moody series about a deranged lunatic in a nasty bear costume continues on Kickstarter soon! Click here to follow along.
Flickering Lights #5
Flickering Lights #5 - 9 days left on this erotic sci-fi/horror series! The source of the Siren invasion has been discovered, but can anyone get out alive? Back it here.
Written by Jason Pell, art by Emilio Utrera, and edited by John MacLeod.
AstroWitch #4
AstroWitch #4 - She’s back baby! A vibrant gamer becomes the host to a powerful ancient entity in this adventure series! Click here to back it now!
Written by Ruben Romero & Casey Bowker, inks by Alessandro Amoruso, colors by Erika De Simone, letters by Justin Birch, and edited by John MacLeod.
Final Girl Next Door #2
Final Girl Next Door #2 - Live now! After moving to a new town to avoid a gaggle of serial killers—which of course fails spectacularly. Click here to follow along and be the first to know when it launches.
Written by Allen Dunford, with pencils by Kit Wallis, colors by Dave Swartz, letters by Dave Lentz, and edited by John MacLeod.
Be sure to come back next week to see how much I can run this company into the ground!
Bugs and Kisses,
Kris and the Bad Bug Team
