JoeMerl

**JoeMerl** is a Daria fanfiction writer and occasional bad fan artist.

## Biographical Information

JoeMerl has spent most of his life in Pensacola, Florida. He currently lives in his parents' overcrowded home without any sort of stable job. And believe it or not, he's single, ladies! ;D When not wasting his time in the Daria fandom, he is usually wasting his time in other fandoms or pretending to be writing a novel.

His father watched Daria when it first aired, and JoeMerl (then around ten or twelve) can remember watching at least a few episodes or snippets thereof. In 2010 his parents, determined to find a Christmas present that he could not guess just by feeling the wrapping paper, bought the DVD set, correctly deducing that JoeMerl did not realize it existed. This led to him joining Paperpusher's Message Board in February 2011. The rest is history, at least in the sense that it has a written record.

## Fanon and Fan Culture

JoeMerl tends to wander in and out of the fandom without notice every couple of months; he posts actual fanfiction only infrequently, because he is lazy. (Short Iron Chef entries are a bit more common.) He occasionally does fanart, but is terrible at it, by his own admission.

If asked to pick a favorite character on the show JoeMerl would probably spend a lot of time equivocating between Daria and Quinn. However, JoeMerl has a particular fondness for minor characters, particularly Ted DeWitt-Clinton and Link. In fact, JoeMerl will insist that he likes every character in the series and will defend any of them against bashing. (Except for Amy. He sort of hates Amy.) He particularly dislikes bashing of Timothy O'Neill, and has an unofficial goal to write a story about each character he feels is too easily dismissed by the fandom.

JoeMerl lists "Depth Takes a Holiday," "The Lawndale File" and "Daria!" among his favorite episodes and doesn't understand why anyone else wouldn't. "Is It Fall Yet?" is a more conventional favorite. His two favorite pairings are Daria/Ted and Mr. O'Neill/Ms. Barch. Basically, JoeMerl has a lot of unpopular opinions.

## Fan Works

#### **Written**

Apathymorphs: The Invasion (Daria/Animorphs)

Paperpushing It: basically just a bunch of Iron Chefs and other drabbles collected into one place.

One-Shots:

* 50 Words of Barch and O'Neill
* Awful Wedded Strife
* Cats, Cast and Card
* Closing the Door
* Paint You a Picture
* If Elected, I Will (Not) Serve
* Sitting on the Sidelines (Evan Landon focus)

#### **Drawn**

* Ed "the Head" Parker
* Homemade Necklace
* Nostalgia Chick Daria

## Daria Fanworks Awards

In 2011, "Paint You a Picture" was nominated for "Favorite Drama" and "Favorite Pre-Canon." It won neither.

In 2012, "Apathymorphs: The Invasion" tied for "Favorite Science Fiction."

In 2013, JoeMerl received seven nominations:

* "50 Words of Barch and O'Neill was nominated for "Favorite Romance--Straight" and "Favorite Use of a Background Character from the Series" for Ms. Barch.
* "Cats, Cast and Card" was nominated for "Best Overall," "Favorite Pre-Canon," "Favorite Character Development" and "Favorite Use of a Background Character" for Brian Taylor.
* "Nostalgia Chick Daria" was nominated for "Best Comedy" in Fanart.

In 2014, "Sitting on the Sidelines" was nominated for "Favorite Drama," "Favorite Post-Canon" and "Favorite Use of a Background or Supporting Character from the Series" for Evan Landon.