F#@%ing J.T. Dockery!

So, I'm walkin' through SPX in one of my far too infrequent and much too short breaks looking at all the comics on the tables hoping to find something interesting... something special... something new... And I see this dude who looks like a young R. Crumb and talks like Tom Waits if Tom Waits was from Kentucky... And this dude is from Kentucky... And he's got this huge book that looks really crazy called In Tongues Illustrated... and the artwork is mezmerizing like it's the backwoods basterd child of a psychedlic Richard Sala and a countrified Rory Hayes*... and he's got a c.d. of his band The Smacks and I'm listening to that now as I'm writing this and they kick ass like a hillbilly punk rawk band should... AND he tells me that he used to play with Hasil Adkins (and he kindly corrects my mispronunciation of Hasil's name - sounds like "hassle" not "hay-zel") and it doesn't get much cooler/weirder than that... And then there's the first paragraph of "About The Smacks" on their myspace page:

An immortal psychic werewolf and an ethylene huffin' Old Testament prophet walk into a bar...and they play a giltter-billy rock and roll show. We are the Smacks! We are from Kentucky. And what we really wanna know, 'cause we're so tired of saying it, does cross-dressing count as lycanthropy?

SOLD!

So, anyways... I guess what I'm saying is J.T. Dockery is rad, and his book and music are among the best things I found at S.P.X. 2009!

* I apologize for using too many references because it doesn't do justice to Dockery's originality.

All-woman autobio apocalypse!

Venus in Blue Jeans, Venus in Furs /All the Ancient Kings- Julia Gfrorer: These two I picked up because the covers looked gorgeous, and then I got home and opened them up and the insides were not as enchanting. Venus has a few pages that show off some cool looking sketchbook pages, crammed in between a lot of small panels where nothing really happens. All the Ancient Kings is a series of short comics starring Hunter S. Thompson and Bob Dylan and a whole bunch of musicians and counter-cultural celebrities interacting. They might be roommates? It's the more entertaining of the two.

thorazos.net

Estrus Comics #6 : More Kiss & Tell Stories - MariNaomi: This is like getting drunk with your girlfriends and talking about your exes, the comic. I loved it. Brutally honest, perfectly concise, with blowjobs.

marinaomi.com

The Marty Chronicles - Liz Dunning & Teppei Ando: Basically a story about Liz's interactions with an awkward guy, Marty, centered around playing and watching college volleyball tournaments. Marty is somewhat awkward, and does odd things throughout the nearly 60 page story, but aside from being weird there's nothing hugely criminal happening. Teppei's art has this sketchy energy that carried the whole comic, though occaisionally it's hard to tell what's happening. The pacing could be better, and the dialogue can get a little tedious at times, but it's not a terrible effort.

teppeiando.com

In the tall grass #3 - Tessa Brunton: "Look, there's this girl I want you to meet, she's not the biggest looker in the bunch, but she is funny as hell! Great personality." Tessa's style is still getting there, but she seems to have found her voice. There's a bunch of short, funny strips that range from finding free stuff on the street to watching drunks on the BART, and two longer, more introspective/emotional pieces about dating and deaths at a water park. Add her blog to your rss or whatever, Tessa's got game.

tessasbraces.blogspot.com

Spaniel Rage- Vanessa Davis: Vanessa is totally the master of diary comics. She fits in more story in a panel than most people can do in a page, and she doesn't even use panels. You already know this is good.

spanielrage.com