chicago. It was fun to be in the city after spending a year drawing it for last year's Black Diamond Detective Agency. And like From Hell before it, I was better for working far away, less I should have been befuddled by the modernity of it.
Two 'readings' were organized for me in the windy city. But how do you read a cartoon strip aloud to an audience? The old time cartoonists used to perform what they termed a 'chalk talk' at a blackboard, but that has never appealed to me. I feel that a reading should be more like a jazz performance, an improvisation upon the text in which the author effects some new variations, and perhaps the events of the story even play out a little differently. With this in mind I had worked out a rough plan for a performance piece to be made with the book in hand. I put it over twice here, in Quimby's bookshop and in the upstairs bar of the Hopleaf under the auspices of Jessa Crispin and Bookslut and in tandem with local author David J Schwartz, who read excellent passages from his novel, Superheroes. My Bookslut moment was filmed, along with an interview. If It surfaces I'll let you know.
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Eric Halverson says he bothered me in Chicago to write an intro for him or something. I can't remember anything about it though I'm sure I deftly excused myself as is my wont. However, his stuff does make me laugh. Check it out.