Jeremy: Welcome to day 2 of the 2nd anniversary week of The Ouro Bros. and the Neverending Tour. Let the story begin!

Looks like somebody is having a bit of a flashback, and it’s of Elles Belles – LIVE! The last time we saw these guys play was at this show, eh? Seems like Elle has the coughs this time, though. That club must be pretty smoky.

Jeremy: Here it is, Sunday May 27, 2012 – the 2-year anniversary of the day we started this little comic! And to celebrate, we’re making it much bigger this entire week in celebration. If you couldn’t tell from today’s cover, we are doing this week-long story in full page comic book format! For all of you that have been missing Elle, we are going to give you a glimpse into her world this week. We hope you enjoy this week’s story, which will run every day through Friday, June 1.

As we mentioned in Thursday’s post, we would love it if you guys would help us promote the comic heavily this week to brand new people. Can you think of a friend that might be into the Ouro Bros who you haven’t told yet? Do you have a blog, and would be willing to write a post about what you like about Ouro Bros, highlighting this 2nd Anniversary week offering? We want to give a huge shout-out to Ken Mueller, who already wrote this awesome article on his blog over at inklingmedia.net. Every little bit helps, and we would love to turn on some brand new readers to the comic. Please, share it in any way possible. We would greatly appreciate the word being spread even further.

So, without further ado, enjoy our anniversary present to you! (That rhymed, didn’t it? Just can’t stop writing poetry over here)

Hey everybody! Did you know that as of this Sunday, May 27, we will have been creating The Ouro Bros. and the Neverending Tour for two years now? It feels like an awesome accomplishment to have stuck to the fun routine of delivering weekly comics for all of you to read, for that long a period of time. It has been an incredibly enjoyable ride for the both of us, and I hope all of you have felt somewhat enriched by the stories and drawings we have provided these past 2 years.

You may remember that for our one-year anniversary, we gave you weekday installments (Monday-Thursday) of single panel “Thrift Store Fashion” comics , starting with this one, and finishing up on Friday May 27 (our official one-year anniversary) with this one. Well, for our two-year anniversary, we are doing something along the same lines. It’s another big “thank you” to all of you readers who have found our comic along the way, and have stuck with us. Since our anniversary this year is Sunday May 27, 2012, we are going to start the week with a Sunday update, and then keep the comics going all the way through Friday June 1, 2012. That’s 6 consecutive days of updates to thank you all for reading The Ouro Bros. and the Neverending Tour! And suffice it to say, it’s something that we have been working on for quite a while, so it’s going to be big. Literally.

It means a great deal that you have stuck with us, and Re-Tweeted and shared our comics each week. And we don’t ask for too much here at Ouro Bros. Central, but all next week, Jeff and I are asking a simple favor from you guys. What we are about to ask takes this one small step further, as we try to spread the word about The Ouro Bros on a bit of a larger scale. Here are some ideas that we wanted to throw your way:

• Tell your friends. Maybe send out an email/Facebook message to those that you think might enjoy the Ouro Bros. Tell them why you like it, and why you think they might enjoy reading.
• Share on Facebook. Post a few sentences as a Facebook status update about what you like about the Ouro Bros, and link them to our 2-year anniversary week comics any (or all) days next week.
• Write a blog post. If you’re a blogger, share the Ouro Bros with your readers.
• Are you a fellow comic creator? Please consider posting a message with one of your normal updates, with a link to our site next week, during our full week of comic updates.
• Share freely across the web. Use the sharing buttons we provide (under our comic blog posts) to spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, G+, StumbleUpon, Digg, Pinterest, or any other site you use.

Those are just a few ideas that we came up with, and if any of you have other ideas to seek out a few new readers, please feel free to do whatever you would like. Let’s see if we can’t get the word out and bring new readers to the fold. We have appreciated the support over the past two years, and appreciate any help you give us in spreading the word.

We thank each and every one of you for reading our comic, and we will continue to bring it to you as long as we possibly can (which, with our level of enjoyment and the stories we have planned, should mean that Ouro Bros will be going on for quite some time).

Sincerely,
Jeremy Bentley and Jeff Burkholder

Jeremy: Elle returns… with glasses? I guess all this time she was wearing contact lenses, offset by the blue eyeshadow. Wait, no blue eyeshadow either? What is this girl doing? Why does she look totally different? What is her… SECRET?!!

Jeff: Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s…MAYBELLINE! …Okay, it’s totally not Maybelline. Although she may use Clairol for the blue hair highlights. Anyway, whaddaya think, guys? Elle’s back, and not lookin’ so punky. What happened??

Jeremy: This is one of those comics where I decided on a treatment by accident. I had drawn out all panels except for the cutesy one with the cricket sounds, and then I did a quick sketch of that panel for placement of characters to send to Jeff and get his opinion. Basically, it was just ovals on top of blobs to represent each person (with the intention of eventually giving it the same drawing style as the others, but at that point, I just wanted to get Jeff’s opinion on placement/perspective). Once I got started drawing the panel, I thought, “hey, those blobs kinda remind me of cutesy/chibi characters. And thus, a panel was arrived upon quite by accident. But I think it makes for a fun transition, don’CHEW?

Jeff: Now I kinda wanna write a spin-off comic: Li’l Ouros! Particularly with Li’l Baby Chester. He’s so cute, wif his widdle keytar! D’awwww!

Jeremy: With so many people going paperless these days, it’s comforting to know that Mick is keeping the index card companies in business. And Chester, these folks agree with you: link to a video <—–click on it.

Jeff: That Mick…he’s one formidable emcee, huh? He’s the hip-hop-opotamus, his rhymes are bottomless, he…erm…huh. Yeah. Woo. Clap.

Jeff: Uh-oh…looks like Mick might not have gotten the crowd they were hoping for… But Chester’s EZ-Bake Spotlight (pat. pend.) is on the job!

Jeremy: I don’t know if this is going to work. Personally, I would be a little annoyed if someone pulled this trick on me. But then, I am not the Ouro Bros. Maybe they will love it!!!

Jeremy: Balthazar Butt!

Jeff: Gotta feel for poor Mick, here, huh?

Jeremy: All I have to say is, I want to be part of a team that has an Operation: Flash Mob. Better yet, that is the name of my newest band. You can come see us at places that we randomly appear without you knowing about it. Thank you.

Jeff: Huh. It looks like the International Ouro Bros Fan Club (Kilgore, TX chapter) may be a bit light in the membership rolls… And that Luis looks like a real #winner to me.

Jeff: It’s been a while, but it’s finally time to add another real-life person to the ranks of those who’ve been Ouro-ized! (…and I really am not sure how that would be pronounced…) We’d like to thank Todd McElmurry for his regular support of our little comic-that-could…by having him appear as a completely ineffectual fan club president. Way to go, Todd!

Jeremy: Yes! Todd McElmurry has been a regular reader, Re-Tweeter, and general spread-the-worder of our comic since practically day one. For a long time, we have been wanting to find a way to Ouro-ize him, and we finally thought up a storyline that gives Todd’s character more than just a quick cameo. Hopefully Todd likes “Mick L. Murphy”! Thank you, Todd, for being a such an awesome (and now literal) part of the Ouro Bros and the Neverending Tour, and thank you to everyone else that has stuck with us for what is now 100+ strips!