Back in the early 2000’s, reality television was entering its golden age. American Idol, Survivor, Big Brother, all shows that promised a peek into the lives of average people in extraordinary circumstances. Because the relative cost of these shows were lower than their scripted brethren, they were attractive to television executives who looked at the growing ratings this sort of entertainment could provide. Almost anything could be greenlit, such as a show about a murder, and the contestents who had to solve it.
Murder in Small Town X premiered on the FOX Network in 2001. A critical hit, its dedicated fanbase unfortunately could not prevent the cancellation of the show. Among those fans? David Gonterman, who found himself inspired by the small town murder mystery. Having already started the second era of his webcomics with Fauna Force and Night Soldiers, a new idea hit. What if he wrote a comic based on a reality show? As far as he knew, it hadn’t been done before. Infuse a bit of anime madness, and boom - there you go.
Each strip featured two commentaries by Gonterman. Labeled the “Black” and “Red Envelope,” these musings reflected the two enveloples the contestants on the original tv show would have to open, though they did not serve the same purpose. There, it provided clues on what to do next. Here, it just gave Gonterman twice the room to talk. The strip also was the first appearance of Adam Packbell, in comic form, a character that would become a prominent member of Davey's recurring cast until the novel Lost Boy Found, though Packbell’s origins were vastly different here.
Before the mystery could be solved, BakaBreakers was abandoned, Davey’s interests shifting towards his Magic: The Gathering-inspired comic, Planeswalker. It was briefly resurrected in 2003, described by Gonterman as “DVK's self-insertion saga returns as an Planeswalker Expansion!!” That strip also was short lived, serving as the precursor to another, longer-running, story, Livewire Latte...
Please note that the images below link to the original html the webcomic was presented in. Due to how Archive.org crawled through this story, there are pages with commentary where the image has been lost to time. Until those strips are rediscovered, they have been labeled as missing, though one can still read the notes Gonterman wrote for his audience.
