Calamity, NY

New project in the works, my friends! If you liked the style of Skateboard Heroes and ever thought a sort of Skateboard Heroes/Walking Dead mashup would have real promise, Calamity, NY is for you!

I’ve started uploading pages from the first issue and will try to get at least a page a week published going forward. Sometimes it takes a while to arrange photo shoots to generate the art, so please be patient.

And hey, if you have any interest in being an infected antagonist in the book (they’re not zombies!) we may be holding a casting call in the near future. You, too, could be a diseased and dying victim of chemical warfare coupled with crippling radiation.

In a fictional, comic book world of course.

I hope.

Good luck.

Be well.

Read.

New Duds

We hope you like the new site. We are renewing our focus on music – particularly upcoming performances and releases for sale, though your favorite independent Pope Street projects like Skateboard Heroes and Mad Science The Card Game are still here.

Surety

Some care. Some don’t. some are prepared. Some… not so much. Don Allred Insurance of Burlington NC may or may not help you to be prepared. I don’t know, but when it comes to Allreds, I’m a Michael and Laura fan. I mean, who didn’t love their FF run? Or for that matter, Madman? That’s one of those books gifted me in the mid-90s that brought me back to comics via weird and wonderful indie magnificence.

Remember?

Eh.

Let’s face it, heroin rehab ain’t for everybody. Some people just need to overdose. Am I right?

Maybe it’s just me.

And maybe that seems harsh, but the ongoing willingness of people in this country to forgive celebrity idiocy simply because someone is on the front page of a supermarket tabloid, yet pointing the finger of condemnation at someone who is just trying to scrape by in this tough world…

People suck.

Nonsense?

Sometimes I spill a bunch of nonsense. I know it. It doesn’t mean I don’t care. It’s just how I have to roll some days. But really, tell the truth, don’t you get a kick out of it? At least sometimes, right? Here, check this out: Raleigh creditor rights bankruptcy lawyers.

You’re like “what the… is he on drugs?” then you think, hmmm… after following his Dylan advice you suspect I may be a little unbalanced. You recall that my brother lives in NC and it comes up here once in a while. You know I sometimes have issues with legal entities and creditors. Hmmm. Maybe I should just hit you with a little Bob, in case you haven’t yet followed my advice.

Rosemary started drinking hard and seeing her reflection in the knife
She was tired of the attention tired of playing the role of Big Jim’s wife
She had done a lot of bad things even once tried suicide
Was looking to do just one good deed before she died
She was gazing to the future riding on the Jack of Hearts.

His bodyguards and silver cane were no match for…

Listen.

I don’t know what you’re into these days, but you should go find a copy of Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan. Or just do a Web search for Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts. It is not one of his best songs. I mean, musically. But it is a great story. It is just a great, fun, crazy ass story. If you go through life without spending 9 minutes in a dim room doing nothing other than listening to this song, you are less of a person for it. Seriously. This is bucket list shit. If you can’t spend 99 cent son this, or borrow the record from someone, you’re a dick. I have it on cassette, vinyl and CD. I will totally let you borrow it.

Is it the greatest song in the world? Hell no. the band fucks up at the beginning. Listen. They play an extra couple of bars because Bob misses his intro. It’s fucking GREAT. It’s what music once was. Great stories performed by a bunch of musicians and captured as a moment in time. Not this plastic shit we have come to expect. This level of raw awesome was the Indie Rock of its day. Don’t be a dickwad. Find ten minutes and close yourself up in a room and pretend you’re in a smoky dorm room with a couple of cool kid upperclassmen.

Hey, be super extra awesome and listen with headphones. If you’ve got a decent pair of headphones and the CD (earbuds and iTunes generally fail on this part) you can actually hear a recording studio anomaly in the first section. You can hear where they were recording over tape that was previously spliced. Because the splice removes a very short segment of recordable media from the process, there’s a fraction of a second of nothing. The aural effect is kind of similar to what a cassette tape sounded like when the tape flipped over. Over 30, you might have heard that in your walkman a couple times. Listen for it. You will be a better person for having spent the time. Your children will love you more. If you’re a guy, your dick will be a little bigger. Ladies, your breasts will be exactly the same size because, let’s face it, they are totally perfect just the way they are. But your bra will be a little more comfortable. Trust me. This shit is golden.

I mean it.

Listen.

 

 

Speaking of Projects

I was, right? Speaking of projects, that is. I actually think the next one is going to be soon upon me. The next crowd funding one, I mean. Mad Science the Card Game was a riot and many of us had a ton of fun with it. There is a music project I have in mind right now… and it is a massive one. But before I get to that I will probably do a somewhat smaller one, a publishing venture. One of the many books I’ve written mostly for my kids has gone through enough edits and iterations that I think I need to start looking into trade printing. I’ll let you know. It’s all about fairies. Tooth Fairies in particular. You’ll totally dig it.

Kids today

I was talking to this young guy in the office the other day and we were talking about computers. He’s a Mac guy, which is something I used to be, and something I’d love to be again. But the business world and short-sighted CTOs conspired against me 12 years ago and I’ve yet to go back. As much as I love the elgance and simplicity of the Mac, the cost at this point is beyond prohibitive.

Not for one machine. But the reality is that I would need to outfit my entire family with new machines. I couldn’t bear to have a screaming new Mac while my wife and kids struggled forward with Windows 7 and 8 disasters. The guilt would be too much.

This guy at work didn’t get it. I was explaining that my oldest is going into middle school and he is practically required to have a laptop in the relative near future. Oh yes, the times truly are a-changing.

Sure, they sell textbooks at becksbooks.com, but think about the college kids who will forego the used market to ebay their old laptops. Egads. Is this what those tech heads in 1999 were talking about when they called it a “new economy?”

Reading with my ears

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I’m an audiobook junkie! I started out on Old Time Radio cassettes and Lake Wobegon tapes like 15 years ago when I was crossing the great state of Massachusetts in my ’87 Corolla to make it to band practice or late night gigs. These days when I hear books on audio free I go kabloomie-nuts ‘cuz there’s nothing better than having someone tell you stories while you do stuff you just gotta do. Like dirving. And mowing. And washing dishes. Love it.

Save The Toys!!!

Hey, did I mention the awesome free Skateboard Heroes mini-comic we handed out at the annual Toys For Tots Extravaganza hosted by Alterniverse in Salt Point. It was totally radical and is totally free to download at www.SkateboardHeroes.com.

Do it!