Hero Revisited, Revisited

This originally appeared in the premier issue of PRIME CUTS, published by Fantagraphics in 1986.
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A Jamaican Switch

When these pen drawings came tumbling out of the archives, I thought of this old street lingo. It’s a method of duping a “John,”  a guy who's in search of a prostie. One pimp promises to deliver the goods, then cajoles the hapless fellow out of a deposit. He is then led into a waiting room or bar where his quest for fleshly delight proves futile. It was ’97 when I got a call out of the blue from an author who had written an American history of cruel misdeeds that had been perpetrated by the military, science, industry and government. “We saw your work in the New Yorker and loved it. We absolutely want you to illustrate our book. We just need a couple illustrations to show the publisher.”
  I had yet to grapple with Photoshop, much less Quark. This was my attempt to provide a certain ultra clarity of line that was increasingly becoming the stylistic norm. I did this through a series of tissue overlays and xeroxs’. I worked hard on these to prove that I could still keep up with the latest technology, though in a John Henry sort of way. More importantly, I badly needed a freelance gig that would allow me to work while on the road. But I was blindsided by the rejection. Another artist had been given the same line by the author and we were both unwitting competitors enlisted to submit finished art for free.
  The first illustration shows the intentional radiation poisoning of a test subject in a military hospital during the mid-'40s.
  The second is an actual pygmy who was housed at the Bronx Zoo near the turn of the 20th Century.
  Not shown is me sitting near the phone, an old-fashioned black cradle type, waiting for that cash call that was to be my imagined salvation. But the other guy got the girl.

 

 

Fate is kind, too

  I am constantly amazed by the seeming randomness of events which bring delays or petty annoyances that are ultimately fortunate. This strip was one of the 100+ Musical Legends biographies I did for Tower Records’ PULSE! Magazine during the ‘90s. (The collection is still available from Last Gasp.) It describes how an improbable series of actions and non-actions led to an occurrence that was perfectly timed. I recently experienced such a remarkable chain of events on a long auto trip. All the stops and detours along the way determined the exact time of arrival. Salvation came in form of a slow school bus ahead, that suddenly made the scenic route unbearable. The difference of ten minutes (gained by getting back on the freeway) would have been a matter of life and death. 

Love By Trial and Error

Pen and ink with watercolor, 1999

A Name That Should Be An Adjective

This one was done in watercolor and pen and ink back in ’93 after an intense study of Thomas Nast. It was part of a freebie fundraiser project for WFMU, the great little station in NJ that has a signal strong enough to reach Manhattan, from where the Great Prevaricator holds forth daily. I am amazed that he’s still standing, on the top of the world, no less. Busted for Oxycontin abuse, this pudgy pundit’s credibility among his vast Republican audience is never questioned. Almost 20 years later, all I would have to do to bring this image up to date in Photoshop is whiten the hair, add some wrinkles and “lasso” the pile of shit, then  “free transform” it to about ten times its current scale.

  Much is made of the Diebold theft of the previous election and the earlier Florida cabal that sealed Gore’s (and Iraq’s) fate—both by such close margins. But what about the low IQ, racist, xenophobic, superstitious sector of voters that this blowhard delivers into the Republican fold every single election? Speaking of campaign finance reform, what are the economic tendrils which reach beyond his mere advertisers?

"Must" Reading

This charming bookplate will be included in the whopper (about 250 pages) anthology NO ME, which will be released this April at the Stumptown Comics Festival in Portland, OR.  
  The black & white extravaganza will feature line works by scores of pen-pushers personally invited by Jason T. Miles to submit work in exchange for three free copies.  These will no doubt fetch a pretty penny at auction, should cash-strapped artists decide to pay rent rather than bequeath bagged copies to their heirs. A very small edition will be available for sale to the public.

  A longtime employee of Fantagraphics, Miles soldiers on there, wearing many hats. This project, though, is his sole production. Good luck to all of us!

Wretched Excess

This one appeared as the back cover of Fantagraphics' Zero Zero. Mid '90s, but I don't remember the exact year, only that 100 MB was considered to be a lot of memory back then. So to bring this up to date you'd have to include cell phones (20); digital devices (50); DVDs (1000); I forgot Sports Memorabilia (100 lbs.). I'm sure there's other stuff I've forgotten, but memory--the biological variety--is maxed out.