Different People, One Neck

Two variations on how I've sounded in public over the years, to differing degrees of embarrassment: the first is the above video from the good people of Quimby's of my recent reading/signing there, where I read some voice overs for non-existent movie trailers. The second is me yelping with my old band Arks on the Inkstuds radio program, played as part of their latest funding drive (that episode features tons of music written and performed by cartoonists... Arks is around the 49 minute mark).

Post-Road, Pre-Turkey

Happy almost-Thanksgiving to everyone. And thanks to everyone who came out to our various readings/signings/slide shows on the east coast and in the Midwest.

This tour was filled with more people and events than I can possibly summarize in the little time I have before heading out on the road to ingest too much stuffing... so I'll give it a pass. But on the musical front: we saw The Jesus Lizard in Boston (as I previously posted), and wrapped up this leg of the tour by seeing Shellac in Louisville. Not a bad couple of acts to catch in a single tour.

While The Jesus Lizard has always been one of my favorites (their song "Thumbscrews" was the opening song to my briefly lived radio show in college), the Shellac show was far more poignant. Shellac, Shannon Wright, and The Web were all playing as a benefit for Jason Noble (of Rachel's, Rodan, and Shipping News fame) who was recently diagnosed with cancer. If you've ever enjoyed work from these bands, or just have a little extra in your wallet to help out an artist in need, please visit his Caring Bridge blog and donate.



Let it not be said that Jay Ryan closes a tour poorly: As pictured above, Jay took the stage with Shellac and whipped the crowd into a frenzy for half a song. I love Jay's band Dianogah, but the world is missing out on one formidable punk frontman in Mr. Ryan.

Thanks again to everyone who came out, and we'll be looking forward to seeing everybody else on our west coast tour starting in early December.

Lizards, Rocketships, and Robots

Thanks to everyone who has come out to see Jay and me thus far on the tour. We've had great events in Chicago, Milwaukee, Boston last night, and Brooklyn's Rocketship tonight, and hope to continue things with our event at Giant Robot NY happening Monday night.

The details for tonight:

Monday, Nov. 16, 6-8pm
Giant Robot
437 East 9th St.
New York, NY

Hopefully I'll get a chance to post a more detailed account of some of the tour's events in the near future, but in the meantime, you can read an interview conducted with Jay and listen to my reading of "The Spoils of The Fair" during our event at Wholly Craft in Columbus.

Also, I will report that our favorite overheard line from the Boston Jesus Lizard show we attended was a man insisting "I didn't hump anything! I'm not a humper!" (Though nobody – humpers and non-humpers alike – beats the ever-inimitable David Yow (of whom I grabbed the above shot, as he dominated yet another crowd).)

Animals and Sundry Tour: Tonight, Chicago

Tonight Jay Ryan and I start the Midwest/East Coast portion of our tour at our friendly neighborhood Quimby's here in Chicago. If you'll be anywhere in the area tonight, stop by. I think I'll be reading "Beginning Paragraphs to Stories I'm Not Going to Write" and "Voice Overs for Non-existent Movie Trailers." Jay will be tall and affable as always.

The details for tonight are:
Wednesday, November 11, 7pm
Quimby's Bookstore
1854 West North Ave
Chicago, IL

Tomorrow we'll be on the radio before our Milwaukee event at 4:30 on WMSE 91.7FM. You can listen to it live online, or it listen to it once it's archived here.

The details for the Milwaukee show are:
Thursday, Nov 12th, 7pm
The Sugar Maple
441 E. Lincoln Ave
Milwaukee, WI

From there, it's on to Columbus, then the coast. I'll do my best to make posts along the way, detailing the events, our on-the-road hysterics, and the disastrous amount of rest stop fare we're sure to consume.

Strange Tales and Lip Balm

The interview I gave (conducted by Sean Collins) for the third issue of Strange Tales is up on Marvel's web site. I digress about everything from British mysteries to ALL detergent. Sort of. My apologies for the inaccuracy in the interview: when the interview was conducted I had planned on Wolverine being the recipient of the lip balm, but for reasons that escape me and hopefully everyone else, I transferred the chapped lips' ownership to Cyclops. I've also never won an Eisner award as the lead-in states, but I will accept this pretend award with hypothetical pride.

Marvel has a couple pages from my story accompanying the interview, or you can see those pages (in a bit easier to view format) along with an exclusive peak of one of Jeffrey Brown's pages for the same issue on Publisher's Weekly's comics blog, The Beat.