Kiwis by Beat! (partially lost webcomics & related material; 2003-2015)

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KBB Socks.jpg

Recovered page from an unidentified chapter of "Socks".

Status: Partially Lost

Kiwis by Beat! is the collective title of webcomics and art created by Ryan Armand, and the name of the website in which most of his webcomics were hosted. Armand’s webcomics were often of the black comedy and drama genres. His most popular work was the webcomic minus, which ran from 2006 to 2008 and was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2007[1]. The original Kiwis by Beat! website expired in early 2016, and nobody has discovered Armand’s whereabouts since (online or otherwise). Thanks to the work of a handful of dedicated fans, however, most of his comics are available for viewing on “mirror” websites, though there is still some material of his that has yet to be recovered.

Ribald Youth (2003-2005)

This comic is primarily about a Japanese elementary school girl named Mayo coping with the aftermath of her mother’s death. Armand’s original website[2] was named after this comic and hosted it, and the comic itself has been fully preserved. The original website did, however, have other content that has now been lost. Evidence of their existence now comes only in the form of faulty links in the website’s blog posts[3] and “Extra” page[4].

  • In June 2003, Armand made three animated shorts about Ribald Youth. He wrote about them in some detail on the “Extra” page:

One short cartoon featuring Jibushi and his gang split into 3 parts. Each is about a minute or so long. They get in fights and eat in the middle.

Although all three of the shorts can be downloaded, none of them are functional.

  • In June 2003, Armand made a, “character quiz”, with the Ribald Youth characters. Although the page with the actual quiz on it was archived, the result pages of the quiz were not. It is unknown whether or not the result pages included unique art or other content that was not preserved.
The only archived picture from the Ribald Youth "Photo Album".
  • In the 11/10/2003 blog post, Armand included a link to a page with, “Photo Album”, art that he made of the Ribald Youth characters. There were nine images included, but only the first one was archived[5].
  • On the “Extra” page and in a blog post, there is a link to a forum page from March 2004 which is for the website of a webcomic named, “Over Under Tokyo”[6]. This forum page originally included an eight-page comic written by Armand that was named, “Ribald Tokyo”. None of this comic’s pages were archived.
  • In the 07/26/2004 blog post, Armand included a link to an update of a webcomic named, “God Hates Us”, that he contributed to. It was not archived.
  • In the 08/02/2004 blog post, Armand included a link to a guest comic that he made for a webcomic named, “Oh the Humanity!”. The comic was not archived.
  • In the 10/04/2004 blog post, Armand included a link to a cameo appearance that the Mayo character made in the, “Over Under Tokyo”, webcomic[7]; the webcomic page was not archived.
  • In the 01/17/2005 blog post, Armand included a link to a guest comic that he made for a web comic named, “Jesus and the Man”. The comic was not archived.
  • What appears to be a list of lost file names related to the Ribald Youth website has also been compiled[8].

Socks (2006-2009)

Armand described this comic as being, “A story about boredom”[9]. It appears to be about a Japanese high school girl, but very little of it has been recovered. Of 39 parts comprising twelve chapters[10], the only parts of this webcomic that were archived were part 1 of chapter 1, and the second part (part 12) of chapter 5. Other than this, a few other pages have been recovered, and all of them are currently hosted on the .net mirror website for Kiwis by Beat![11], which seems to be the most current mirror website for Armand's works. This comic was never published.

The Thing in the Water (2012-2014)

The content of this comic that has been recovered is mostly about a kind of monster that abducts small children and turns them into string puppets. Three parts of this comic are currently hosted on the .net mirror website[12]. The total length of this comic is apparently unknown, and it was never published.

A banner that was on the KBB website in July 2014; showing a picture from an otherwise lost page of "Fist!"

Fist! (aka Georgie the Fist) (2014-2015)

This comic is about a dangerous school bully named Georgie who becomes popular by doing extravagant favours for the school in return for receiving an endless stream of money from the other students. Only two parts of this webcomic currently exist online; comprising a total of 32 pages[13]. The total number of pages is 89[14], meaning that most of the comic is lost. This comic was never published.

A banner that was on the KBB website in October 2014; showing a picture from an otherwise lost page of "Fist!"

The Mildly Inconvenient Journey of Pelen Purul (2014-2015)

This webcomic is in colour. It is about Pelen Purul; a girl who is a member of a race of extremely small humans, and her journey to return to her family, who she is separated from at the beginning of the story. This webcomic comprises eleven parts, and none of it is truly lost, but part 8 has only been recovered in a low resolution so far[15]. This comic was never published.

Modern Fried Snake (2010-2015; unfinished)

This long webcomic is about a girl named Rag who hunts birds for a living in a fictional setting inspired by ancient East Asia. It was preserved well, and it appears that the only pages from this webcomic that are missing are page 920 from chapter 9[16], and pages 1103-1111 from chapter 10[17]. Only the first six chapters of this webcomic were published; in the format of two books[18], and it was probably unfinished at the time of the original website’s expiration.

Other lost media

Lists of file names of other lost media from the Kiwis by Beat! website have been compiled[19][20]. Unless the identity of all of this other lost media is clarified, nothing more can be written about it.

# Webcomic Title Status
1 Socks (2006-2009) Partially Found
2 The Thing in the Water (2012-2014) Partially Lost/Found
3 Fist! (2014-2015) Partially Found
4 Modern Fried Snake (2010-2015) Partially Lost

There is probably some hope of the lost webcomic pages being recovered, but less so for the more obscure material. Unless Ryan Armand himself returns and makes all of his lost content available again, the search for lost Kiwis by Beat! media will continue.

External Links

References

  1. Article about minus getting nominated for an Eisner award. Retrieved 28 June '20
  2. The Ribald Youth website (archived). Retrieved 28 June '20
  3. The Ribald Youth website's blog posts (archived). Retrieved 28 June '20
  4. The Ribald Youth website's "Extra" page (archived). Retrieved 28 June '20
  5. The Ribald Youth website's, "Photo Album" (archived). Retrieved 28 June '20
  6. The forum page that hosted the, "Ribald Tokyo" comic (archived). Retrieved 28 June '20
  7. The webpage that hosted the page with Mayo's appearance in, "Over Under Tokyo" (archived). Retrieved 28 June '20
  8. A list of lost files from the KBB & Ribald Youth websites. Retrieved 28 June '20
  9. "Socks" main page (archived). Retrieved 28 June '20
  10. "Socks" contents page (archived). Retrieved 28 June '20
  11. All that has been found of "Socks". Retrieved 28 June '20
  12. "The Thing in the Water", Part 1. Retrieved 28 June '20
  13. "Fist", Part 1. Retrieved 28 June '20
  14. A list of lost files from the KBB & Ribald Youth websites. Retrieved 28 June '20
  15. "The Mildly Inconvenient Journey of Pelen Purul", Part 8. Retrieved 28 June '20
  16. A list of lost files from the KBB & Ribald Youth websites. Retrieved 28 June '20
  17. "Modern Fried Snake", Chapter 10. Retrieved 28 June '20
  18. "Store" page listing Armand's published webcomics. Retrieved 28 June '20
  19. A list of lost files from the KBB & Ribald Youth websites. Retrieved 28 June '20
  20. Page including a list of lost files from the Kiwis by Beat! website. Retrieved 28 June '20