Beat on the Brat!

One week later, the blogosphere is still abuzz about the San Diego Comic Con (and my blog is no exception), so I've decided to post another of my karaoke-themed sketches. This Spider Jerusalem piece was actually the first I acquired, from Darick Robertson, who understandably opted out of drawing a microphone in favor of some Ramones lyrics. Righteous!

Karaoke Love

Having a blast at the San Diego Comic Con, specifically in asking artists for karaoke-themed sketches. Here's a favorite from The Simpsons/Futurama animator Ira Sherak, of the Hot Mexican Love Comics brain trust.

Anticipating San Diego

For those fanboys that only venture there for Comic Con, you may not realize that San Diego is as beautiful and exciting a city the rest of the year, as well. It's everything Will Ferrell says in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy -- what with its breathtaking coast, bustling Gaslamp District, and and boisterous karaoke. Oh, that's right . . . karaoke is alive and well in San Diego, specifically at its The Lamplighter, a tavern that boasts karaoke seven nights a week. As a karaoke aficionado, I've been there quite a few times, with none as memorable as the first time, which I've chronicled in my first solo self-published comic, Karaoke Comics #1. My establishing shot doesn't do the old building's exterior justice, nor did I have the space to explore the many colorful characters that inhabit this joint, so I highly recommend escaping the trappings of the convention center for a few hours to check it out. If this place is any indication of what San Diego is like the rest of the year, it's no wonder I keep going back for more!



To see a three page preview of Karaoke Comics #1, visit my ComicSpace, and to indulge in other "Karaoke Chronicles," click here! Karaoke Comics #1 is available for a dollar if you order via e-mail.

An Age of Prosperity

Today, Friday, July 17, celebrates the anniversary of Disneyland's grand opening back in 1955, so I submit for public consumption this appropriate poem, coincidentally from my latest poetry zine:

Home Goes the Imagineer

he’s spent the day
securing safety bars and lap belts
now he gets on the bus
in his green tux and tails
and wonders why this ride
isn’t equipped for emergency
maybe that’s the difference
between fantasy and reality
between imagination and certainty
that nothing is certain in a world
where talking animals make more money
than the men that wear their skin
and tour guides and doormen can only go as far
as the doorways they explore and hold ajar
by day bubble-wrapped with kings and queens
cotton candy fluff and the stuff
of children’s dreams
at night cocooned by simpler things,
like budgets and bills
television and the sleeping pills
that take him to a dream of his own design
a magical kingdom where the help are entitled
to a safe ride home

By No Sketch of the Imagination

I thought I'd kick off this new blog dedicated to my solo self-publishing efforts with a sketch of me . . . well, sketching, from the cover of my sketchbook, Sketchy at Best. Ironically, my sketchiest work has been done above the drawing board.