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Chapter 9: The Saga Continues As the fifth anniversary of the current incarnation of Undertoad Comics looms, it seems only appropriate that a new chapter should be added to this illustrious history. While a mere two years have passed since we printed our original eight-part outline of this great institution, it has been one of the most action-packed, event-filled two years in the company’s entire venerable history. To the public at large, the events occurring behind the scenes have
been something of a mystery when inexplicably, regular updates to the
website ceased with nary a warning. Brief confusing messages were put
up blaming incompetent employees while promised updates took months
to come or never surfaced at all. Most mysterious of all was a message
purporting that OmniGrip, Inc. was attempting a hostile takeover of
Undertoad, an appalling prospect that left more than a few “Toadheads”
in inconsolable tears. |
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 “Pig” Whitley C. 2007 |
After failed attempts to move in with his parents and a casual acquaintance who he erroneously believed to be his girlfriend, “Pig” began sleeping in a dog park at the corner of Marshall and Lyon in Milwaukee’s lower east side. It was here that in a chance encounter he met Reginald Stanley Watergate, CEO of OmniGrip, Inc., a New York based multi-media giant. At the time, Watergate was visiting his daughter Typhanee, a student at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The two struck up a conversation and “Pig” ended up volunteering information about his former employer in the absurd belief that Watergate would set him up with his daughter. |
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Still reeling from the loss of some of their best talent, Undertoad
faced an even greater challenge in August of 2007 when Watergate managed
the unthinkable: by the pulling of strings and the greasing of palms
he had the unimpeachable co-CEO Count Warren Iles deported back to Holland.
Iles was forced to return to his ancestral castle on the Isle of Klapstuck,
where he was reportedly so depressed that he took on the “life
of Tom Mango” doing nothing but watching TV and playing video games
for upwards of seventy-two hours straight. |
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Charlie Beck, co-CEO and primary creative force, was left as sole leader
of a company that he frankly knew very little about. Hiring ace legal
beagle Horatio P. Quicklemate, he began the defense of his family legacy,
his beloved company. The efforts drained him emotionally, creatively,
and financially, and his creative work dropped off to a bare trickle.
As the battle dragged into months, production of new comic work ceased
almost entirely. |
 Charlie Beck c. 2005 |
| A master of disguise, “Claw,” posed as a recent
college grad twenty years junior to her actual age and immediately caught
Beck’s eye. However, though intended to be Watergate’s greatest
weapon, she was ultimately his undoing. In a story straight out of a “B”
movie, Dea fell head over heals in the love with Beck, entirely enamored
by the charming young entrepreneur and particularly enthralled by his
creative work. The duo was married a mere five days after meeting at the
Milwaukee County Court House in May of 2008. Moving into a ten-bedroom
mansion on Milwaukee’s ritzy Lake Drive, the pair settled into a
comfortable though uneventful marriage. |
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