A couple months ago the Abilene, Texas-based paper The Creative Pulse ran an article on me. I just recently saw it and now their back issues are archived online. You can download a copy of the issue from their Myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/thecreativepulse
It's Volume 2, Issue 4 on the left-hand side of the page.
Thank you to Derek Stallings for the great piece!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Comic for 08-26-2007
Maybe one day Pope & Pig will quit selling stuff. But for now I have too much fun with it.
I have been very lazy this week since I came back from vacation. I've barely done any drawing. And I just bought an Xbox 360 and a copy of Bioshock this weekend, so that probably won't help any immediate productivity....On the other hand, Bioshock is awesome! I'll probably be done with it sometime in mid-2009. But I have worked on some stuff for an upcoming art show. More info on that as it approaches!
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Start with FZ, End with ME
Right now I'm taking a vacation in Florida, visiting my family and such. Traveling cross-country means I spent most of yesterday in airports and in the air. I used this time to read a big chunk of Barry Miles' Frank Zappa biography. I've been plugging away at it for months. I am an incredibly slow reader. No matter the book I usually only get through a few pages a day. I tend to take a long time just taking it in. I'll often read a couple paragraphs and then reread them just to make sure I got it all. Yesterday I got through about 70 pages, which for me is a goddamn miracle!
Despite everything I--as a committed Zappa junkie--already know about the man, Miles' book has given me much more insight into him not as just a musician and composer but as a person. FZ died when I was 13 so I wasn't old enough to know what he was doing when he was still alive. I'd read and heard many stories about how poorly he treated those around him but this book brings it out much more clearly. FZ's music has been my biggest artistic influence and it's so strange to finally understand that when it came to people he was barely more than a cold businessman.
What's even weirder is that despite his desire to create product that would sell he constantly produced material that couldn't possibly be embraced by Mainstream America. He often complained about how much he had to pay musicians and yet he created bigger and bigger bands that often failed to make a profit. He was his own worst enemy, whether he realized it or not. I think much of this came from his complete disgust towards American society and consumerism. He loved the ideas of freedom in America but hated society's hypocrisy when it came to allowing truly free expression. An interesting example is a beautiful orchestral piece he wrote, one that orchestras around the world would theoretically love to play--if he hadn't titled it "I Promise To Not Come In Your Mouth." No respectable orchestra is going to print that on their playbill, in just the same way that no "respectable" comic book company is going to put out a book called "The Morning Fucker."
I see a lot of Zappa's attitudes toward freedom and art and society in myself. However this does not mean I believe Zappa's work gave me the ideas I have. Rather, I believe that his work allowed me to realize that I can and should express myself as freely as possible. This brings me to another point.
Much of Zappa's work includes explicit sexual lyrics. He loved to write about sex, especially of the sexual adventures and tastes of the guys in his bands. However, in song these stories were rarely sung from the point of view of Frank himself. It was always about things other people were supposedly going (i.e. "I have this 'friend' who's really into such-and-such.") He would never acknowledge that this stuff might somehow be related to him psychologically. And hey, guess what? I have this same problem!
Everything I write is from the point of view of my characters and I rarely freely claim their tastes as my own. However their tastes must come from somewhere, right? How can I say my comic is personal artistic expression when at the same time I tell people "Oh, that's just my crazy character, haha!" At some point I'm going to have to make a decision and just admit "hey, this is all me." But I'm not ready to do that yet. It all has to do with me still being uncomfortable with myself. Maybe one day I can be happy with who I am and what my art says about me. But I'll probably need some help with that.
Anyway, back to the whole commericality vs art thing. This is something I really need to work on. "Pope & Pig," "Satan Funnies," "The Morning Fucker," "Two Goats Bathing in Milk"....do any of these titles say "mainstream cash" to you? At the moment they're barely providing and "niche cash." Actually, none of them are. Only "Load" is. Trying to get any comic into alternative papers is an uphill battle, but trying to do the same for one about sex and love? Good luck, pal. I'd love to say I'm going to rethink my work and attack it from a different direction, but honestly, I've always gone where my desire for expression takes me. I'm at the mercy of whatever it is that makes me write the things I do. I don't know if that's my passion or my spirit or my ADD or my OCD or my fetishes or God or Satan or the Celestial Tranlogath. Whatever it is I go where it takes me, whether that's drawing a comic about boner pills or doing a portrait of a cute little kitty cat. It's all me, baby. Although for the record I do not need boner pills!
Despite everything I--as a committed Zappa junkie--already know about the man, Miles' book has given me much more insight into him not as just a musician and composer but as a person. FZ died when I was 13 so I wasn't old enough to know what he was doing when he was still alive. I'd read and heard many stories about how poorly he treated those around him but this book brings it out much more clearly. FZ's music has been my biggest artistic influence and it's so strange to finally understand that when it came to people he was barely more than a cold businessman.
What's even weirder is that despite his desire to create product that would sell he constantly produced material that couldn't possibly be embraced by Mainstream America. He often complained about how much he had to pay musicians and yet he created bigger and bigger bands that often failed to make a profit. He was his own worst enemy, whether he realized it or not. I think much of this came from his complete disgust towards American society and consumerism. He loved the ideas of freedom in America but hated society's hypocrisy when it came to allowing truly free expression. An interesting example is a beautiful orchestral piece he wrote, one that orchestras around the world would theoretically love to play--if he hadn't titled it "I Promise To Not Come In Your Mouth." No respectable orchestra is going to print that on their playbill, in just the same way that no "respectable" comic book company is going to put out a book called "The Morning Fucker."
I see a lot of Zappa's attitudes toward freedom and art and society in myself. However this does not mean I believe Zappa's work gave me the ideas I have. Rather, I believe that his work allowed me to realize that I can and should express myself as freely as possible. This brings me to another point.
Much of Zappa's work includes explicit sexual lyrics. He loved to write about sex, especially of the sexual adventures and tastes of the guys in his bands. However, in song these stories were rarely sung from the point of view of Frank himself. It was always about things other people were supposedly going (i.e. "I have this 'friend' who's really into such-and-such.") He would never acknowledge that this stuff might somehow be related to him psychologically. And hey, guess what? I have this same problem!
Everything I write is from the point of view of my characters and I rarely freely claim their tastes as my own. However their tastes must come from somewhere, right? How can I say my comic is personal artistic expression when at the same time I tell people "Oh, that's just my crazy character, haha!" At some point I'm going to have to make a decision and just admit "hey, this is all me." But I'm not ready to do that yet. It all has to do with me still being uncomfortable with myself. Maybe one day I can be happy with who I am and what my art says about me. But I'll probably need some help with that.
Anyway, back to the whole commericality vs art thing. This is something I really need to work on. "Pope & Pig," "Satan Funnies," "The Morning Fucker," "Two Goats Bathing in Milk"....do any of these titles say "mainstream cash" to you? At the moment they're barely providing and "niche cash." Actually, none of them are. Only "Load" is. Trying to get any comic into alternative papers is an uphill battle, but trying to do the same for one about sex and love? Good luck, pal. I'd love to say I'm going to rethink my work and attack it from a different direction, but honestly, I've always gone where my desire for expression takes me. I'm at the mercy of whatever it is that makes me write the things I do. I don't know if that's my passion or my spirit or my ADD or my OCD or my fetishes or God or Satan or the Celestial Tranlogath. Whatever it is I go where it takes me, whether that's drawing a comic about boner pills or doing a portrait of a cute little kitty cat. It's all me, baby. Although for the record I do not need boner pills!
Friday, August 10, 2007
Comic for 08-12-2007
Hey kids! I'm heading out of town for a few days so this comic's up early! Wowie! And holy smokes, The Morning Fucker returned--how about that??
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
What publications do you read?
If you weren't aware, Load is published in a few magazines around the US, and in the case of Nude Freitags, in Germany as well. But I'm trying to get Load run in more places. So my question to you is this: What magazines, newsweeklies, zines, etc, do you read? Preferably these should be publications in which Load would be suitable, if you know what I mean. Something open-minded that could use a little Load in it!
Comment back or email me links to your suggestions!
Thanks in advance!
Comment back or email me links to your suggestions!
Thanks in advance!
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