Pinky & Pepper Update & Chicago Blog post <3

Hello patrons! As usual, apolocheese for the lack of update since March. YIKES!!! I just came back from CAKE in Chicago, where I tabled with Silver Sprocket. We were a little short staffed, just me and Avi (publisher) slinging books in a loud indoor basketball court in Chicago all weekend. We sold out of Pinky & Peppers and tons of other great books! Now would be a great time to support Silver Sprocket, since between pandemic and flooding of their basement, we've been working really hard to recoup our losses. I paid my own way to CAKE & did it for the love of the game, and came home to overdraft fees in my bank account, but cash in hand!! Fuck, I really love doing this.

Shoutout too if you came to CAKE. I met a lot of really nice fans, including a teen and parent where the teen said,
"I love your art so much I got in trouble for reading Pinky & Pepper"
and the parent clarified,
"You didn't get in trouble, we just had to have a Discussion."

Hahaha!! I thanked her for being a parent willing to have that conversation, and thanked the kid for being a fan. Moments like that really feel aligned with this truth I've been chasing, making art for the weirdos that need it. I also met Anya Davidson, a cartoonist I've been a fan of since reading "Band For Life" which is  this alternate reality punk/tour dairy of a band called GUNTIT. I was shocked to find out she's a fan of mine, cuz she's idk 10 years older and 50 times cooler than me... but she was sayin she used my "Making Comics Zine" to teach from and that my art really connects with the youth!

Well, I used to feel cringe about that, like my art shouldn't be touchable to youth (well, some of it certainly shouldn't be lol), but more the worry that I was making baby shit or that I was weaksauce or something just cuz kids dig my drawings. But I think it took a real punker to tell me that being popular with young people actually means you're on the very cutting edge. So I have to keep hacking at it! Visual art isn't as cool as music, but sometimes it's useful to think of your comics like albums and paintings like singles...  and what would my genre be called?

So, the visual contents of this post: something crazy happened recently, some random guy hits my line on ig, saying he found a stack of my artwork in a studio his band started renting out, asked if I wanted them back! Some bangers from Pinky & Pepper!!!! I never thought I would see this stuff again and i'm overjoyed. And that brings me to the "big news".....

PINKY & PEPPER FOREVER: SPECIAL EDITION comes out 2024!!!

This will be a new, bigger edition with NEW, NEVER BEFORE SEEN CONTENT both in the beginning of the comic, and THREE new mini-comics in the back. There will also be extra artwork, including some of this stuff I just got back, concept art and making-of art, and a new foreword by the internet artist OK Fox. Maybe even an interview? What would you fans like to see? Chime in!

I'm happy to be revisiting this book that in many ways launched my career as a cartoonist and give it the all-star treatment!! It's also nice because I have been a little creatively bankrupt these days, it seems like all I have time to do is make stickers and buttons and table events. Plus the pressures of the panopticon makes me wanna puke now that there's eyes on me. That's another way art is similar to music.. you can never recreate that first great album.

But you can reprint it!!!! Ha, ha, ha.

Thanks for listening! I'm going to update my sketchbook right after this lol.

If you are looking to support Silver Sprocket, my new book recommendations are:

Enlightened Transsexual Comix by Sam Szabo Hilarious. Great value for jokes per page. Aspirational and refreshing for the trans person who may struggle with unenlightened brain worms.

Prokaryote Season by Leo Fox Three they/thems in a love triangle struggle with the latent suicidality of wanting to become a single-celled organism. This comic has a great heart and a groovy medieval aesthetic.

Sad Girl Space Lizard by Iggy Craig A special edition with extras in the back! I keep describing this comic as "The Lighthouse" except the two guys are lesbian lizards and the lighthouse is a lesbian lizard mech.

Al Dente by Grayson Bear I'm pissed off that I love this comic so much, because I'M like Al Dente, the little bitch boy dog who hates other's success.

Be Kind, My Neighbor by Yugo Limbo Chasing that "Indie Graphic Novel" experience, look no further, this is a fun one to get into and will last more than a day of reading. The main character is a folksy tboy busker with an immortality quirk who's in love with a living scarecrow named Neighbor.