Brother Grimace

Biographical Information

Brother Grimace attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where he was enrolled in the English and Cinema & Photography programs. While at SIU-Carbondale, Brother Grimace was a writing consultant with SPC-TV, one of the two student-run campus television stations on the SIU-C campus.

He also was involved with the SIU-C Strategic Gaming Society in the early 1990's, where he was known for his Marvel Super Heroes role playing game campaign 'The Marvel Wars' - a popular, high-powered, roleplaying-intensive campaign that ran for two years (1992-1994). Due to the intense nature of 'The Marvel Wars', Brother Grimace gained a reputation in the gaming community as 'the most dangerous GM at SIU-C'.

After leaving SIU-C, Brother Grimace began work in the Media Services Department of PCCEO, Inc., a non-profit, community action agency located in Peoria, Illinois. During his time at PCCEO, Brother Grimace was responsible for day-to-day studio operations and a slate of original community-oriented programming; for producing a multi-part series on community-based health issues, he received an award from the American Red Cross and was nominated for another from the City of Peoria.

Fanon and Fan Culture Contributions

Brother Grimace has won three Daria Fan Fiction Awards - two for The Trouble With Veronica, and one for Crusts Of Pizza. He is also arguably one of the more visible members of the group of Dariafic writers known as the Angst Lords.

"Daria Mental-Torture Fics"

The first Daria author to fully visualize the fanfic characterization known as Bitch Daria in his works, Brother Grimace began his fan fiction with the first of his 'Visitations' fics, The Sun Will Come Out, Tomorrow. His writing efforts have been noted by Daria fan TerraEsperZ as actually being in a separate sub-section of angst-driven works in the Daria fan fiction universe, which he has dubbed "Daria mental-torture fics." In these fics, Daria is featured as not only being responsible for her own problems, but seemingly deserving of the negative effects brought forth because of her attitude and unwillingness to change or even compromise - even when it is obviously in her best interests. In these fics, Daria also seems to go through a great deal of inner turmoil and torment, leading her to act out in graphically non-canon fashion on occasion at others around her; another mark of these fics is the interior examination of other characters (primarily Sandi Griffin), which leads to betterment of the character. (This character trait has come to be known as Redemption Sandi.) There was some belief at one time that this tendency towards a negative depiction of the character may have been among the reasons that Brother Grimace has never been selected for a spot on the "Recommended Authors" list at Outpost Daria.

(TSWCOT was, as mentioned in a CINCGREEN review, the first attempt to view Daria in such a manner, and at the time "The Sun Will Come Out, Tomorrow" first appeared on Daria web sites, shippers were the current popular trend. To be fair, it should be noted that half of the authors listed as Angst Lords have NOT been selected to the RA - formerly the 'Featured Authors' - list.)

At the time of TSWCOT's initial release, in June 2000, such a view of Daria and her world was considered almost heretical, and many fans maintained a slight resentment towards the author because of these works that is still slightly present in the fandom. This could be considered ironic, as Brother Grimace's works almost always contain sequences where characters within, including Daria, undergo near-religious moments that allow them to experience relevant and positive insights and changes, as well as surprisingly positive themes and upbeat endings. Examples include the NC-17 rated "The Winters of Those Gone Before," where Daria and Jane experience a very deep examination of their relationship and emotions for one another without experiencing or desiring physical intimacy with one another, and in "Victory Lane," where Jane fully embraces her sense of freedom after meeting a Daria seemingly entombed within her own enforced desire to be perceived as "one of the crowd."

Brother Grimace's fics tend towards prose, and are considerably longer than the average Daria fanfic. At present, two of his works - the unfinished "It's All About Respect" and the Dariarotic work "The Winters Of Those Gone Before" - are among the largest stand-alone works in Daria fan fiction history. (Steven Galloway's epics, "Revelations" and "Visitation," are the largest stand-alone works.) He also tends to use very descriptive prose (most famously parodied by TAG in "The Original Underground Government-Suppressed Version of Brother Grimace’s Classic ‘Daria’ Fanfic, 'The Sun Will Come Out, Tomorrow'"), and uses a great deal of background information on his characters, as well as much internal dialogue.

'Over-The-Top?'

There are some Daria fans that see Brother Grimace's writing style as 'over-the-top' - that is, primarily skewed towards melodrama, generally unrealistic premises and storylines, and that most of his fics are written that way. (In one notable instance, Kara Wild held an Iron Chef challenge in which she challenged him to write a 'down-to-earth' fic while she wrote an 'over-the-top' fic. The fics written were A Slice Of Pizza and They Came from Planet Xulfanex.) While a number of his fics do fit in that mold (most famously Another Stupid Daria Internship Fic and The Winters of Those Gone Before), the majority do not.

A New Take on Veronica?

In "The Trouble With Veronica," Brother Grimace developed Robert Nowall's original character of Veronica into a character beyond a mixing of Quinn and Daria's physical, mental and social traits.

In this fic, Veronica is a incoming senior at Grove Hills, and one of the most intelligent students ever to study there (Daria mentions that Veronica's IQ is rated somewhere in the 190's. Veronica has several traits that are unique to her but not unknown in her family; she has a highly-ranked talent for music (like Jake, but Veronica is actually a VERY good singer), is a voracious reader (unlike Daria, her tastes are more broad-spectrum), and shows a talent for fashion (like Quinn). She also has the same eye problems as Daria and wears similar glasses, but prefers contact lenses (which she has no problems with) or prescription sunglasses. Unlike her sisters, Veronica hasn't shown any interest in dating - yet - and it was the fear of her awakening sexuality that had prompted Helen to try to remove her from Grove Hills and enroll her at Lawndale High. An upcoming fic shows that Veronica was allowed to stay at Grove Hills, where she was awarded a full scholarship and serves as a School Ambassador.

Veronica is easily the tallest member of her family at 6'0. She also has a pet ferret named 'Alabama', which she got from Vidalia Johanssen, her best friend at Grove Hills.

Kyle Armalin

See full article on Kyle Armalin.

Angst Lords

Brother Grimace is known in Daria fandom as an Angst Lord - a designation used to describe those Daria fan authors whose works were notably dark.

Brother Grimace also seems to enjoy beta reading the works of other authors.

Brother Grimace

Contents