Recovery of the Totem of My Fictional Existence

Day 2 of full-on blogging and boy, what an emotional couple of days I've had. First the ever-present tucking in of my shirt-tails (which by the way, day 2 of is going smashingly well), and then today, the find of a long lost souvenir so dear to my heart that I have been crushed since its initial loss. The souvenir I speak of is the regulation hat issued to the three founding member of the Océanographique Exploratory Society.

There's the hat being modeled by the three founders... Capt. Thatch Harrington, Ernst Winterburry and Dr. Christopher McCandless, PhD (respectively). The Society was founded on my 23rd birthday (May 26, 2006) in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Their travels have been somewhat chronicled in the massively entertaining, yet critically destroyed blog The Liverpool Wanderers.

My alter ego, Ernst Winterburry was the species cartographer, because I enjoy drawing and writing and the like. For the two months I was abroad last year, this alter ego was a great escape and a huge source of fun, especially during those times of awkwardness when Jonathan, Pat (the two on the side of me there) and I were forced to interact with people we didn't really care about either way. Like in München (or Munich for the lay folk), when we participated in a Pub Crawl. The few people we met were pretty cool at first, but it became apparent as they got way more drunk way faster than us that they might not have been so in the end. I mean really, they were a bunch of kids going into their first year of college back in the States, spending a few weeks in Europe and using it as their toilet. So we just started screwing with them, telling them our story, how we individually met while in our Undergraduate years prepping for the eventual Society, where we would go on to study Aquatology among many other of the Maritime Sciences. Trust me, we could throw out some incredible bullshit.

Most of the people totally believed us, which was really funny. Those that were a little suspicious at first were totally won over when we busted out the red hats.

"Oh, so like The Life Aquatic?" they'd come through with, to which we would immediately put on a heir of anguish. Frowns and furrows, shaking of heads and fingers.
"No, not at all. Nothing like The Life Aquatic," we'd clearly state, as if hurt by the likening. "That movie mocks everything we stand for. Did you know they stole actual documents from our research labs in the process of preproduction?"
"Oh my," they'd gasp. "I had no idea it was such a big deal, or that something like you existed at all." (in truth, obviously, the Océanographique Exploratory Society doesn't exist) "Where is your research lab?"
"Monaco, of course." Well, it was at least a little truthful, the Oceanographic Museum co-founded by Jacques Yves Cousteau was really in Monaco (it's where we got the idea). It only solidified our story more when they read the monogram on the little red hats -- "Musée Océanographique de Monaco"

Yes it was deceitful, yes it was mean, but man was it fun. We were artists of the Maritime Sciences, and no one knew it was all a sham. But I digress...

The point of this entry is that I lost that little red hat, and this sent me into a long depressed stupor. That is until this morning when I found it under a pile of old shirts at my parents' house. Oh the joy and unending praise to the heavens. My week was made infinitely better at this find. So in celebration I thought I might share a comic I made upon my return to the states, a comic about the Océanographique Exploratory Society (t.O.E.S.). And yes, before you get too ahead of yourself, there are striking similarities to The Life Aquatic, but I want you to know that the Society was not founded under the film's pretenses, in fact I am the only member of t.O.E.S. to have actually seen the thing, and while I found it enjoyable, the basis on which t.O.E.S. was founded is more about the bonding of friends during the insanity of travel than anything having to do with a film. So at last, here's episode one of the Océanographique Exploratory Society.

[yes it gets bigger, just click it]