(Note from the archivist: This article is actually a composite of two emails that were sent to the Shrine. A few things have been clipped to protect identity, and the two have been stitched together, so it may make little sense at some points. For this I apologize, but this piece was such an inportant bit of GonterHistory that it needed to be brought to light. I cannot possibly extend enough thanks to the brave soul who submitted this. Per their wishes, they will remain anonymous.) The majority of us--Sonia/Suni (Emily Smith), Vixie Lamenta, Ultrakid, etc.--met through the Sonic the Hedgehog forums in the Cartoons area of AOL, periodically uploading our fan stories and fan artwork to the slow-as-hell AOL file server. Apparently they took that down in subsequent releases of AOL, but for a lot of us at the time, that was our social gathering. Maybe once or twice a few of us would surface in non-Sonic forums, but for the most part, we were strictly Sonic fans. Especially the Dave. He was about the most prolific of any of us, and wrote his Blood and Metal stories and posted related artwork like nobody's business. Suni eventually developed an online relationship with the Dave--for reasons she still kicks herself over to this day, apparently--and at various points everyone would write fan stories related to them... to the point where some were likely thinking, "Sonic WHO?"

Besides Sonic, Sailor Moon had just been ported over to the U.S. at this point, and they had the voice actor dress up as Moonie during the commercial interludes and during what is now "Sailor Moon Says" (if they still have it--I haven't watched in a while). It was scary to me that he liked this, although I must admit the artwork is pretty (I don't mean Dave's), and once they stopped making the voice actor dress up, I could stand watching it, myself.

(Here is where the second email began. -ed.)

Due to my unwarranted "support" for the Dave, he sent me a copy of Sailor Moon USA #1 that he made (so he says) for the Save Our Sailors movement awhile back, before they got the "new" seasons on Cartoon Network. I was, of course, less than amused at the work since it was barely a step above the version he had online (there was an intro that flowed into the first page of action, rather than this abrupt beginning). He had as a print-only exclusive, a commentary from Dave about Usagi and a commentary from Usagi about Dave (both groaners). Usagi is, of course, portrayed as a bubbly, drooly, airheaded fangirl of Dave's, but I think the main line from Dave's commentary that clinched it was (I'm paraphrasing, since I long threw away the comic):

"I would rather date a cartoon girl than a real woman any day."

About the only plus for SMUSA was that it WAS a comic (I grow weary of fan stories--they're too easy to make by anyone with a keyboard) and that he threw out the "Sailor Moon is my illegitimate saved-from-abortion-by-a-biological-impossibility sister" storyline from SMAK. I 'regret' that I don't still have these examples to show, but then again, I thought the hurting would stop...

At some point in time, the Dave confessed to me that Haunted Fantasies was indeed autobiographical... which meant little to me, since at the time I had only barely read part of part four or so before preferring to save my brain cells. Oddly enough, he never seemed to mention his father much except as a passing fantasy about "The Dad I Never Had," who was 'scared away' by his Evil Mommy who made up for it by making Innocent Little Davey-Kins' life to where Hell would have been a welcome vacation and where, "Comics were [his] escape, if only [he] could make it until Thursday, when the new ones came in." At school was no better--he claimed to be beaten fairly regularly by schoolmates and teachers alike...

...which is a fascinating account, considering that someone who confessed to having gone to school with the Dave pointed out that they weren't mocking him--they were scared to death that one day he would just *snap* and go postal on everyone.

So, naturally, all of this means that the Dave alone is allowed to bend copyrights to his whim and that he must always be portrayed as some sort of underdog of a hero *just* because he draws his crappy comics.

In at least some of the stories I've attached (I haven't read them all) and even in the works he still admits to creating, there *is* a remarkable inconsistency regarding swearing, sexual expression, etc. which J.C. also notes. I don't think that it's like that because the Dave is inherently a child--he is stuck between blind innocence and maturity, where he's aware that he's not a child anymore but still wants to appeal to them (either out of admiration or a kind of warped jealousy) and yet he will never acquire the type of maturity that would gain him more respect from people overall (and, perhaps, he subconsciously doesn't *want* to).

He's also not based out of St. Louis. Right now he lives in Pontoon Beach, IL (somewhere *near* St. Louis, I think) after moving from Granite City, IL. It might be something like how people who work in Washington, D.C. will commute from northern Virginia, that maybe he visits St. Louis once in a while, or lived there at one time but moved away. He seems to have a fascination with promoting St. Louis, yet doesn't promote anything about it except the archway (at least, in the comics--again, I haven't read all the stories) and himself (if that counts).