• Twitter consumer “bigolas dickolas wolfwood” seems to have bumped up a ebook’s gross sales with a viral tweet.
• Bigolas instructed Insider that they did not anticipate their tweet to go so viral. 
• It is also thrust their present fandom, “Trigun,” into the highlight as effectively. 

There is a new literary large whose phrase appears to hold large sway within the book-selling world: Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood, a.ok.a. @maskofbun on Twitter. 

“learn this. DO NOT lookup something about it. simply learn it. it is solely like 200 pages u can obtain it on audible it is solely like 4 hours. do it proper now i am very extraordinarily severe,” the 22-year-old Twitter consumer’s Could 7 tweet reads, accompanied by a picture of Amar El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone’s queer science fiction novel “That is How You Lose the Time Struggle.” 

“*grabs you personally by the throat* you’ll do that. for me,” they mentioned in a follow-up tweet. “you’ll go to the counter at barnes and noble. you’ll purchase this. i will probably be enormously rewarded.” 

—bigolas dickolas woIfwood (@maskofbun) May 7, 2023

Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood’s plea — nay, command — went viral. Days later, it has over 114,800 likes and roughly 79,300 bookmarks. These numbers aren’t the one influence, nonetheless: El-Mohtar, the creator and a books columnist on the New York Instances, has chronicled the real-time effect of the tweet in a thread of screenshots of the ebook climbing up Amazon’s rankings. As of Thursday morning, the novel was sitting at #3 on the Amazon Finest Sellers listing.

Along with the ebook’s virality apparently resulting in precise ebook gross sales, it is also led to Bigolas Dickolas — whose identification Insider has verified however who prefers to go by their Twitter deal with, maskofbun, slightly than their authorized identify — being thrust into the highlight together with their major fandom: Yasuhiro Nightow’s seminal manga collection, “Trigun.”

Maskofbun’s tweet represented the uncommon optimistic viral second

When requested in the event that they put a lot time or thought into crafting the promotional tweet that El-Mohtar mentioned in an interview with Slate had “poetry to it,” maskofbun’s reply was a convincing, “hell no.”

“I made it at 2 a.m.,” they instructed Insider. “I used to be simply actually excited!”

Whereas the 22-year-old had gone viral earlier than, it had by no means been to fairly this extent, or with fairly this optimistic an end result, they mentioned. 

El-Mohtar made comparable feedback to Slate, telling the publication that this specific wave of virality — and the spades of individuals saying how a lot they cherished her ebook — felt totally different. 

“Taking place the replies was so beautiful, in a manner that has been very unfamiliar to me on Twitter for a while,” she instructed Slate.

The agent representing El-Mohtar and her coauthor Gladstone instructed Kotaku that whereas they did not have stable gross sales figures simply but with the intention to measure maskofbun’s influence, all they knew was that “we have constantly been climbing the ranks on the gross sales charts since our new good friend’s submit.”

If we’re speaking about Wolfwood (of the ‘Bigolas Dickolas’), now we have to speak about ‘Trigun’

The actual information cycle round this additionally had a secondary impact: drawing consideration to maskofbun’s present fandom — “Trigun.”

“Trigun,” and its assorted variations and variations — the 1998 studio Madhouse anime collection, Nightow’s manga (later rebranded as “Trigun Most”), and a 2023 reboot (“Trigun Stampede”) from studio Orange — all observe Vash the Stampede, a gunman referred to as the “Human Storm” with an obscene bounty on his head regardless of his pacifist nature. 

Maskofbun had been conscious of “Trigun” since their highschool years, however actually obtained into the collection via “Stampede” earlier than binge studying “Trigun Most,” they instructed Insider. Their username has drawn some questions, nevertheless it’s actually fairly easy — it is about Nicholas D. Wolfwood, a personality from “Trigun,” having a giant dick. 

“One other consumer really impressed me,” maskofbun instructed Insider of their username. “I made a ballot titled, ‘Does Wolfwood have a giant dick?’ and another person responded, ‘Properly, they do not name him Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood for nothing.’ I assumed it was hilarious and requested for his or her permission to make use of it as my deal with. The remainder is historical past.”

Nonetheless, maskofbun mentioned, the joke identify is rooted in a real love for Wolfwood, a priest with a large, cross-shaped gun referred to as the “Punisher” who’s a touring companion to the collection’ protagonist Vash the Stampede. Maskofbun instructed Insider loads of their favourite qualities within the character — his need to guard, his killer “The Punisher” moniker, or his capability to see via Vash’s affable façade.

Nevertheless, they mentioned that Wolfwood is “finest skilled by yourself” via “Trigun Most,” which they hope will probably be reprinted by Darkish Horse Comics.

Whereas the manga is out there digitally via Darkish Horse, it has been out of print for years, and maskofbun hopes that it may well change into “accessible to as many individuals as potential.” On Wednesday, after a number of days of viral fame, they despatched a very polite tweet asking Darkish Horse for a reprint. That tweet has since been preferred over 5,000 occasions — they usually’re not the primary to voice a need for a reprint. 

“Darkish Horse may be very a lot conscious of the curiosity within the ‘Trigun’ manga, and whereas we will not share specifics simply but, followers ought to keep tuned for some thrilling information very quickly,” a consultant for Darkish Horse instructed Insider. 

In the end, your entire affair has represented a slightly heartwarming melding of worlds. El-Mohtar wrote in a weblog submit that “all the company advertising folks at Simon & Shuster now know the identify Bigolas Dickolas.” “Trigun Stampede” producer Yoshihiro Watanabe tweeted on Wednesday that he had “purchased the ebook” — to which El-Mohtar replied that she had “Stampede” queued up.

—Amal El-Mohtar (@tithenai) May 10, 2023

Maskofbun mentioned that they could not be happier that folks have been being uncovered to “Trigun” within the course of.

“It is lengthy overdue,” they instructed Insider. “Trigun deserved this a lot consideration, however acknowledging that Wolfwood has BDE can be deserved. He’s the best dude in all of the Wild Area West.”