THE STORY
Webb is the story of a young stock car racer fighting to live life on his terms, not to sell out to the all-consuming forces of Brand Celebrity as his racing legend late father did.
Dave Flannigan, CEO of Brand Management Industries, has other ideas. The death of the elder Browntree has seriously upset Flannigan's game plan to create a better, more naturally processed world where everyone and everything comes in a convenient pretty package and is available NOW in stores everywhere.
Flannigan needs another hero, another Nick Browntree, to give people hope again. He knows that Webb can be that hero, providing he can get him to sign his name on that precious " Brand " contract.
Our setting is Shadybrook USA, a seemingly ordinary Midwestern town with a tidy town square; tree-lined streets and tire swings; acres of farm land with rusting barbed wire. Thanks to Flannigan, it is anything but a postcard from Kansas.
More like a trip down a billboard-dotted yellow brick road.
Or down a rabbit hole with a Mall of America mixed up in it.
You can see the Future as Flannigan envisions it across the tracks in Shanty Flats.
Imagine a shantytown where brand mascots like the Pillsbury Doughboy and the Jolly Green Giant live in squalor next to each other. Where your next door neighbor could well be The Dominican Ham Girl, a classic American social climber stuck in a ham costume.
And we do mean stuck. You see, in Webb's world, people can completely lose themselves, by contract or commerce, to the products they use and obsess over every day. They turn into product mascots in the portfolio of Flannigan's consumer products conglomerate. Here they are built up and supported with multi-million dollar ad campaigns, and "harvested" when they fail or fall out of fashion.
Unlike Webb, who wants the freedom to be what he wants to be, those who have turned into product mascots have given up their own dreams and identities by living someone else's idea of a good and productive life.
There's a great supporting cast of strong female characters (like Molly Piper, a single mom who runs the Happy Plate Diner, and Brenda who jumps buses at the track in her Chieftain Satellite rocket car) and adversaries such as product mascot SCROD, a jar of super-concentrated red octopus dye, who just wants to find a job and get the respect he deserves.
Dave Flannigan has no intention of letting Webb or anyone else get in the way of his plan for world Consumerization. He'll do whatever it takes to have his way, including selling your soul to the Devil without you knowing.
Webb is not the only one who wants to take Flannigan and Brand Management down but as the opposition ...um ... dwindles, he's Shadybrook's last and best hope for freedom from the madness.