mikeperrucci

[mikeperrucci]

i've been missing the nostalgia of smileys and have been putting them in my discord servers to use nowadays and ur website was a gold mind to find thank u so much!

I'm not sure if this is true or if you're trying to make me feel better after my self pity party last week, but either way I thank you. Discord didn't even exist when I started making smilies 24 years ago. Maybe they can still be useful in a new forum...

[mikeperrucci]

Chuck’s Devils: What Have We Learned?

Well, it’s over. After 504 pages of Chuck’s Devils and its Mini-Devils spin-off, there will be no more. Including prep time, I dedicated the past seven years to the comic. That’s about 15% of my life spent creating characters, writing dialogue, and devising storylines.

And I have nothing to show for it. No job, no money, no discernible fan base. I can’t say I’m surprised. There have been several other endeavors that I’ve spent years working toward only to have them completely fall apart.

Graphic Design

I graduated with only an associate's degree from a community college in 1999, yet I managed to get a job building websites from a local Internet service company. They went bankrupt two years later, but I got lucky when Bravenet Web Services found my online portfolio. They hired me to make art for their web tools, a position that lasted five and a half years.

I thought I would find another job in the graphic design field, but I went without full-time employment for over four years. Had I known the drought would last that long, I might have gone back to college. Instead, I swallowed my pride and went to work stocking groceries for Walmart. Today, tuition is way more expensive, and it’s much easier for people to create websites or AI-generated images. I’ve come to terms with the fact that a career in graphic design is no longer possible for me.

Smilies

In 2001, tiny emoticons called smilies were popular on forums. I decided to try making a few of my own, and they ended up becoming pretty popular. I was receiving requests from fans, so I kept making more. I signed a few licensing agreements and received some donations, but nothing substantial.

Over time, I had amassed over two thousand smilies. After twenty years, I ran out of ideas for new icons. At the same time, emoji emerged as a more popular, easier to use version of emoticons. I haven’t made any new smilies since 2021, and rarely dabble in pixel art anymore.

Domino Toppling

My brother and I used to set up domino courses with various stunts in the 90s. I put some of our old VHS videos on my website which were discovered by the producers of Penn & Teller: BS. They flew us to Las Vegas to spell out the name of their show in dominoes. When we got back, we decided to make our own dominoes in case we got any more paid gigs. They came in handy when the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in Vermont invited us to put on exhibitions for five years.

Eventually, my brother had obligations that prevented him from taking time away from work, and I took the aforementioned Walmart job. Despite one of our YouTube videos somehow getting over 28 million views, traffic died off quickly and monetization was disabled. I tried to revitalize the channel by making smaller domino courses, but viewership was minimal. Besides, my knees, back, and butt are too broken down to set them up nowadays.

And the Rest

There are even more activities I’ve attempted and abandoned. I took piano lessons for two years until I got bored and stopped practicing. I played three games of Little League before I accepted the fact that I don’t have an athletic bone in my body. And I quit on my quest to score half a million points on NES Tetris.

I turned 47 not too long ago. As I approach half a century in this world, I realize I’ve spent most of it making things intended to entertain others. My website has many more examples of hats I’ve worn that have earned me zilch: Artist, illustrator, animator, game maker, writer, and now comic creator. It’s like a big monument to futility.

I have no one to blame but myself. If I had focused on getting really good at one discipline instead of being mediocre at a bunch of different stuff, my life would be much more bearable today. I suspect I’ve got some kind of disorder that explains my inability to focus, but I can’t afford to get tested, much less treatment. So I just do the best I can; unfortunately, “my best” totally sucks.

Trying to Stay Positive

So, is there anything I can be happy about? I suppose the fact that I actually finished Chuck’s Devils is something to be proud of. As you’ve seen, I’ve given up on many endeavors for many reasons. There were a couple of times when I went months without touching the comic, but I eventually returned and completed the story. The Mini-Devils reuniting with their taller twins confirms that everyone is living happily ever after and wraps everything up in a nice little bow.

Also, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank anyone who has ever read the comic. I’m not sure how you found it, since I’ve done such a horrible job promoting it. If you’re one of the handful of people who knows Chuck’s Devils even exists, I hope you got some kind of enjoyment out of it.

What’s Next?

I’ve always liked playing room escape games, and would like to design my own. I pretty much already have for Episode 40 of Chuck’s Devils, and I even escaped from a real one for my 40th birthday. Solving puzzles gives me a sense of accomplishment I don’t get in my day job. I don’t work at Walmart anymore, although I still stock groceries, and have been for the past thirteen years.

Of course, the popularity of the room escape genre seems to have vanished at the same time Flash did, so who knows what I’ll do. Now that the comic no longer takes up any of my time, I’ll be working more hours at the store, so whatever my next project is will take a while. There’s only one thing I know for sure: No matter what I try, it will end in failure.

Goodbye, Candace, Yu-Ri, and Lily. For the past seven years, you were the closest I’ve come to having friends. Helping you resolve your troubles and reach a brighter future was my sole mission in life. If only I could do the same for me.

[mikeperrucci]

Chuck's Mini-Devils have wrapped up their adorable antics. There will be no more episodes starring them or their tall twins, but both series will remain archived here: www.chucksdevils.com

Feel free to revisit all of their adventures any time you want. Thank you for reading!

[mikeperrucci]

The Mini-Devils return home, where Rose seeks out a potential love connection.

Part 7/8 of the series finale.

[mikeperrucci]

Mini Rose extends an olive branch, followed by the newlyweds celebrating with the wedding cake, and that's no lie.

Part 6/8 of the series finale.

[mikeperrucci]

Rose gives her smol sister some relationship advice.

Part 5/8 of the series finale.

[mikeperrucci]

Mini Rose voices her objection, and reveals the source of her frustrations.

Part 4/8 of the series finale.

[mikeperrucci]

One couple getting married is great, but three is thrice as nice.

Part 3/8 of the series finale.

[mikeperrucci]

The Devils introduce their chibi counterparts to their friends.

Part 2/8 of the series finale.

[mikeperrucci]

The Mini-Devils use the magic Easter egg to visit their tall twin sisters once again, but accidentally interrupt Candace's wedding.

Part 1/8 of the series finale.

[mikeperrucci]

Rose pranks the Mini-Devils, but Candace has prepared her own surprise.

[mikeperrucci]

Rose is after Tyler's pot of gold, but he has a trick up his sleeve.

[mikeperrucci]

Trouble is afoot when Yu-Ri licks Lily's ticklish toes.

[mikeperrucci]

Chuck's Devils Part Five, Six, and Seven?

No, no, and no. There will be no more episodes of Chuck's Devils. But if by some miracle the series became a popular TV show, how might it continue? I've given it some thought and came up with a rough format for additional seasons. Before I get to those, some changes would have to be made to the original ending.

Part Four

Chris, the beleaguered security guard from the Devils' first mission, wouldn't be one of the wedding crashers. More on him later.

After returning from their honeymoon, Chuck presents the Devils with another offer. They insist their thieving days are over, but he assures them it's something different.

Part Five

Chuck and Destiny want the Devils to pretend they're still thieves, but secretly working for the police. In other words, double agents, much like Rose.

While busting bad guys, they repeatedly cross paths with a crime family with a neglected young girl (possibly named Annemarie). After her parents go to jail, Yu-Ri and Lily adopt her to give her a better life.

Part Six

Things seem to go going well for the Devils. Candace and Tyler get married, and Yu-Ri and Lily and adjusting to parenthood. The only problem is Annemarie accepts Lily as her mother, but not Yu-Ri.

Then the Devils' home catches fire, and Yu-Ri rescues the child. After a talk from Aunt Candace about how she lost both of her parents when she was Annemarie's age, she embraces both of her moms.

Part Seven

Their house burning down was no accident, as more misfortune befalls the Devils. In one case, Lily is ambushed, and her ponytail is cut off. They're shocked to find out they've been stalked by Chris.

After the Devils stole the vase from the museum, Chris was fired and his life fell apart. They offer to help him fix his problems, but he is dead set on revenge. Fortunately, Destiny saves them in the nick of time.

The experience rattles the Devils and they decide to end their arrangement. They want to focus on being parents to Annemarie and Candace's expectant child. Their absence is ably filled by Shirley Holmes, who joins the LAPD's junior detective program.

The Devils leave their lives and crime and crime-fighting behind, but don't return to modeling. They team up to open a Korean / Soul Food fusion restaurant. Yu-Ri cooks in the kitchen, Lily manages the staff, and Candace handles promotion.

Almost Done

Like I said, none of what I've just outlined will happen, at least not in comic form. What is coming are the final episodes of Chuck's Mini-Devils. The next one arrives on March 3rd, then St. Patrick's Day, April Fools' Day, and an eight-part finale starting on Easter.

There's just a couple of months left to go, after which I'll share my thoughts about the entire Chuck's Devils journey.

[mikeperrucci]

I've been making a comic using vector graphics for the past six years, and haven't drawn much by hand. However, at some point in the middle of that lengthy project, I found time to sketch a tiny self portrait.

I recently rediscovered the drawing and cleaned it up a little. Then I had the idea to reverse the colors by making a negative image. The result is a pretty good representation of how I feel most of the time.

Now that my comic is almost over, I'd like to do more physical artwork. It's just a matter of figuring out what I want to draw.

[mikeperrucci]

Tyler doesn't have the heart to shoot Candace with a love arrow.

[mikeperrucci]

Lily finds herself reliving the same events over and over again.