Above is an original cover meant for the Spanish translation of Abandoned Cars, “Coches Abandonados”, being published by Ediciones La Cupula this year. The French translation will also be published this year by Delcourt Comics in France, under the title”Noir C’est Noir”.
Below is a scan of the most recent YOU ARE HERE column, as it appeared in print this week. I thought I’d post a sample of one of the columns in order to display how the texts and illustrations are displayed in hard copy, for those of you who have only seen samples of the column online.
SECRET HEADQUARTERS is a comic book shop in Los Angeles, CA (check out there website at secretheadquarters.com). The owners, Dave & David, apparently liked the cut-out collectibles I produced for ABANDONED CARS, and asked me to create a limited edition collectible of themselves (and their mascot raccoon), in conjunction with Fantagraphics, for the promotion of thier store. The collectible “advertisement” will be printed on their sales bags, and also apparently included in a group of collectible stickers they’re producing, as well. This was a fun project: I’ve always been interested in doing one of the cut-outs as portraiture upon request, and so here I got my chance. I also love to get the chance to produce the design work, and here I was shooting for a 1960’s Big Daddy Roth inspired over-the-top toy packaging kind of look. Dave and David are a couple of very cool guys…if you’re in the LA area, go give them some business! I’m trying to talk them into producing the cut-out as a life-size, full color lawn ornament. So, if you happen to go to there shop, please suggest to them how cool it’d be if they had one in their shop.
(This week’s YOU ARE HERE column)
OUTSIDE THE HOMELESS SHELTER
(New Life Evangelical Center, Downtown, January 14)
Extremely cold night. The streets, barren and gray, look harder than usual, like everything does when the weather’s this bitter. Outside the New Life Evangelical Center homeless shelter, a man in ragged clothes leans backward over the concrete banister, his face pointing skyward. The position looks uncomfortable and precarious, as does his apparent situation. His breathing is heavy and labored: When he inhales, he nearly tips over backward onto the street below; when he exhales, he slips slightly forward — a human teeter-totter without an anchor. He isn’t quite asleep, but he isn’t quite awake either. A plume of steam rises from his mouth when he exhales, then gets swept away by the wind.
A young guy leans against the wall near the entrance to the shelter, smoking a cigarette and watching attentively. What’s the story with the man on the banister? I ask. He’s too far gone, the guy says, too incoherent; he might be dead drunk or high on aerosol. He might be insane. Pathological. Who knows? The young doesn’t take his eyes off the man. You can tell he’s concerned, not sure what to do, but still compelled to keep watch as the man teeter-totters gently back and forth.
For a while we watch him together. Eventually I move closer to the man draped over the banister, poke his shoulder, ask if he’s OK. His eyes are closed and he’s smiling, apparently unaware of his predicament. He mutters something incomprehensible, then, finally, slides forward completely and remains hunched like a sack of old clothes in front of the shelter while we wonder, this other guy and I, what to do.
(Splash page for one of the new stories for FOLKTALES. Also my contribution to Peter Wild’s upcoming anthology, “Pleasant Dreams: Fiction Inspired by the Ramones”.)
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