WHEELER, Shannon L. 1966-

PERSONAL:

Born August 13, 1966, in San Francisco, CA. Education: University of California—Berkeley, B.A., 1989.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Adhesive Comics, P.O. Box 14549, Portland, OR 97293. E-mail—wheeler@tmcm.com.

CAREER:

Graphic artist, writer, comic creator. Austin American-Statesman, cartoonist, 1991—; Adhesive Comics and Press, Portland, OR, publisher and editor-in-chief.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Eisner Award, 1993, for "Too Much Coffee Man."

WRITINGS:

Too Much Coffee Man: Guide for the Perplexed, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 1998.

Too Much Coffee Man's Parade of Tirade, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 1999.

Too Much Coffee Man's Amusing Musings, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2001.

Creator of Too Much Coffee Man, the comic book, the magazine and the strip, beginning c. 1995; coproducer of Jab (comic anthology).

SIDELIGHTS:

Shannon L. Wheeler is the creator of the strip and comic book that after ten years became a magazine titled Too Much Coffee Man (TMCM). The strip appears primarily in alternative newspapers, and Wheeler's work has also been collected in several volumes. Wheeler maintains a Web site dedicated to his postmodern superhero.

Texas Monthly contributor Andrew Goldman noted that when the comic anthology Jab, that first featured Wheeler's character, failed to achieve popularity, Wheeler arranged to have every issue shot with a bullet as a marketing ploy, and sales tripled. When he featured his character in his own black-and-white comic, the cup-headed, espresso-loving, caffeinejittered character who spends much of his time in front of a television took off. Wheeler first gave away a mini version of the comic in the Seattle area, but it soon blossomed into an indie comic. Goldman wrote that the TMCM character is "not even much of a crime-fighter. When he encounters evil deeds, he flees—cautiously, of course, so as not to spill his coffee."

In the Washington Post Book World, Mike Musgrove reviewed Too Much Coffee Man's Guide for the Perplexed, noting that other characters include Too Much Espresso Guy and Too Much German White Chocolate Woman with Almonds. Musgrove said that "there is an occasional burst of action in TMCM's life … but for the most part, this superhero leads an average life of quiet desperation." In one of the episodes, TMCM has a run-in with the law when he is mistaken for Too Much Crack Man.

Tom Waters wrote about the comic's transition from comic to magazine for Acid Logic online, saying that "a few issues later and the cult has grown and the magazine is the buzz of the Starbucks jet set. All the mom and pop chains that entertain people who mooch free refills and spend the majority of their evening swilling mud and breaking down the latest Woody Allen film. The magazine is really brilliant for a newcomer. It takes chances, and it's not… homogenized."

Waters interviewed Wheeler and asked him if he sees his character "as a vehicle to tackle political, religious, and philosophical topics now, or has he taken on a life of his own?" Wheeler replied, "Yes and yes. Early on I figured out that I would get bored if what I was going to do was coffee jokes, that it would end very quickly. What I was thinking about was personal responsibility and our obligation to the planet and the quandary of our lives."

Waters asked Wheeler if he found Seattle supportive, and Wheeler said, "I have a hard time in Seattle, because I think they hate their own reputation. They see me as part of the problem, so outside Seattle I might become a symbol for Seattle, but the town needs to look past the obvious aspect of TMCM."

The magazine, each issue of which has a special focus, contains interviews, articles, comics, including work by others, and complete coverage of the coffee industry. TMCM t-shirts and coffee cups are popular with fans of Wheeler's character and magazine.

Yankthechain.com interviewer Eric R. related that Wheeler "once did a whole strip that was just a Balzac speech about coffee. In it, Balzac concludes that coffee makes you 'brusque,' 'ill-tempered,' makes you 'argue about everything,' and 'harangue with monumental bad faith.' He also states that coffee makes ideas 'march through your head' and makes you extremely 'lucid.' Do you share this conclusion? Do you often work while or after drinking coffee? Do you avoid drinking coffee in social situations?"

Wheeler replied, "sort of," and said he likes the part of the speech in which Balzac says that coffee "makes the boring more boring. But it's a great little drug that does many different things to different people. Also, I think he was talking about drinking coffee in a great excess."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Texas Monthly, July, 1995, Andrew Goldman, review of Too Much Coffee Man, p. 80.

Washington Post Book World, July 26, 1998, Mike Musgrove, review of Too Much Coffee Man: Guide for the Perplexed, p. 10.

ONLINE

Acid Logic,http://www.acidlogic.com/ (August 1, 2003), Tom Waters, interview with Wheeler.

Shannon Wheeler Home Page,http://www.toomuchcoffeeman.com (December 4, 2003).

Twoheadedcat.com,http://www.twoheadedcat.com/ (September 30, 2002), James Cosby, interview with Wheeler.

Yankthechain.com,http://www.yankthechain.com/ (September 22, 2003), Eric R., interview with Wheeler.*