Tales From the Dougside # 145 - THRAK Review Print

I started writing and drawing my own comic strips and comic books when I was nine years old, and took a broader interest in art as I grew older, delving into painting, sculpture, and digital media. I started a weekly comic strip when I was a student at the University At Buffalo called Tales From the Dougside (yes, indeed, a pun on the George Romero produced TV series, Tales From the Darkside) in 1988. The satirical strip eventually migrated to a weekly entertainment paper, Nightlife Magazine in March 1992, where it ran until November 1998. In 1995 I self-published my first collection, SlackJaw, with three more following in 1996, and 1997. In 2000, My third book, Tainted Circus, was included in an exhibit of "underground publishing" at the University At Buffalo's prestigious Poetry And Rare Books Collection in Capen Hall. A chance encounter with musician Robert Fripp in 2005 led to a short story being published on the official King Crimson website, DGMLive in February 2012. This sparked a return to publishing in 2013. Eleven books have been created since, including a career spanning compendium, Antisocial Lawnmower in 2013, deluxe reprints of the original four books in 2015, and the most recent, The Nefarious Nomenclature of Norman Nigglebottom in 2020. Recently, Vermont's current Cartoonist Laureate, Rick Veitch, reprinted two of my strips in issue 24 of his experimental series Roarin' Rick's Rarebit Fiends. Tales From the Dougside derives its power mainly from pop culture, and artistically it has much more in common with underground and independent comics from the likes of Spain Rodriguez, Gahan Wilson, Robert Crumb, Rick Geary, Dave Sim, and Will Eisner with a dash or two of Frank Miller, Gary Trudeau, Gary Larson, and the more surreal eras of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko's careers.