The ancient Greeks had their angry gods of wit, strength, speed, lightning bolts and betrayal, and the Norse had their bastion of immortals wielding swords, shields, hammers, lightning and lies, too. Moralistic mythologies that were, arguably, superhero stories for all ages. It wasn’t until 1938 that America gave birth to its first sustainable superhero when [...]
Tag Archives: Room Tone
JACK KIRBY MAKES ME STUPID
What can be said about the “king of comics” that hasn’t already been said by fans, academics, and much better artists and writers than I will ever be? What can be discussed that isn’t already empirically evident in his work? Jack Kirby was, simply put, the best American cartoonist that ever lived. And, he had [...]
The Answering Machine
She was my ex-girlfriend’s best friend and she had two baby daughters. One of the last times I saw her, she asked me to take nude photos of her 8-month pregnant body for posterity before giving birth to her first child. No matter how innocent that photo session was, her husband wasn’t happy that we [...]
Surveillance in America: The origin of a book cover
Author Ivan Greenberg and I had such a good time designing his first book cover, THE DANGERS OF DISSENT: The FBI and Civil Liberties Since 1965, that when he asked me to design the cover for his second book, SURVEILLANCE IN AMERICA: Critical Analysis of the FBI, 1920 to the Present, I couldn’t wait. Ivan [...]
GOD
I don’t believe in God. Never did. I’m 44 years old now. By the time I’m 50 I hope to be able to impart some kind of wisdom from my life experiences. I hope I have something more to say than I already have. I don’t believe in God but believing in something; people, art, [...]
Switch To The Illy-Mode
I was blotto on cheap vodka when I smoked my very first hit of marijuana. Me and my high-school friends were watching David Lynch’s ERASER HEAD when the scene with the radiator lady and her creepy cheeks came on, doing her slow dance while avoiding airborne abortions or falling testicles or whatever the hell those [...]
You Can’t Unsee Me
My gregarious behavior is probably a symptom of my dedicated desire to overcome my shyness. I mean, it’s so painfully obvious it’s almost pathetic but I’d rather hang out with someone who at least attempts to show up to the party rather than spend my precious free time to woo that person in the room [...]
Cursed
Bernard was a monster of a man with a thick mustache who owned a local postal service where he lifted weights in the back room. His face was radish red from high blood pressure and he wore a hand towel like a boa constrictor around his neck to wipe the intermittent sweat from his brow. [...]
Make Mine Me
A friend of mine, a writer, sent me a 14-page pitch for a famous franchise character. He’d even written the entire scripts for all 5-issues. 20-pages of panel breakdowns, description, and dialogue per issue. That’s 100-pages of unsolicited work + development. That’s 100-pages he can bury in a drawer. I used to ONLY want to [...]
Montero Bar & Grill
When Stephen Elliott, author and editor-in-chief of THE RUMPUS, invited me to participate in, “Letters In The Mail,“ I was honored and excited to add my sensibilities to a project that attracted writers like Dave Eggers, Marc Maron, Janet Fitch, Nick Flynn, Margaret Cho, Cheryl Strayed, Wendy MacNaughton, Emily Gould, Tao Lin, and Jonathan Ames, [...]
