LESSON 4: Colossal Team-Up

The mid nineties found me out of Cleveland and moving down to North Carolina. I was still working on Dr. Tobor and began to spread them around Asheville(which amounted to about 3 places). Which lead me to contribute to the free music paper Gank(see October 3, 11, and 23 for examples), for it's entire run. I also applied for the Xeric Foundation, which was a grant that helped fledgling comic book writer/artists self-publish their books. I got all I needed together and sent it out, waited and Dr. Tobor never did make it to the Diamond Distribution Catalog but I pressed on and started the book that I continue to work on today.

The origins of 80 Proof Comix Presents Tasty Treats is really clouded in mystery, as I cannot remember what made me start this one up, or use Jake Ace as the first story. Another puzzler was how Jake Ace went from cranberry juice and chewing gum(see Nov. 3) to whiskey in a flask and cigarettes(see Next Week). This version of Tasty Treats is one story per issue with the idea of rotating the characters each issue, but as it turned out you kind of stick with what's the funniest(at least to me) and the crossing guard crew had the best characters. Except for Issue 4(a failed experiment), I've enjoyed this run and have more or less been able to put out a book a year and will be posting them here as time goes on, and now that I've started this blog thing it maybe nice to start something new in the vein of the Dr. Tobor one sheets.


Tasty Treats #1 1997 #2 1998


Tasty Treats #3 1999-2000 #4 2001


Tasty Treats Back cover #4 #5 2002


Tasty Treats #6 2004


Tasty Treats #7 2005-2006

This ones a little short but I figure I'll write a little something as each issue is posted, I hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane, look for more doodles, some paintings, and finally some more comix(you gotta be tired at looking at all these covers). Enjoy Glenn

Lesson 3: Drinkin' and Drawin'

When last we met I was trying to figure out what was going on between 1993-95, well it looks like Dr. Tobor, and the birth of 80 Proof Comix. While Tasty Treats was a stab at some sort of professionalism, Dr. Tobor was born of doodles from the classroom and drunken nights of drawing in my sketchbook which usually had some sort of drunken rant(these type of drunken sketchbook drawings later went on to celebrating the New Year and usually included my album of the year). Now if I remember correctly(which I probably don't as I couldn't remember what I was doing between 93-95), a lot of the comics at the time were autobiographical type books. To me it seemed the Canadians knew how to do it best, they made them funny, thought provoking, and kept the artwork simple but always complimenting the story. But as with anything, for every good one there was at least two or three that came across as whiny-woo as me plus look at the crazy angle I can draw from headaches that they were. I don't need a panel that's looking up your nostril while you complain how crappy your life is because you got the wrong cup of coffee. Anyways the point being is that these books weren't fun, so in a way I knew that what ever I did next my goal was to make it fun which lead to 80 Proof Comix.


Sketchbook drawing 1993




80 Proof Comix 1








































Various Issues
Fliers
Dr. Tobor Collection

80 Proof Comix was a free Bi-monthly-one sheet-with pin-up-created in a sober/drunk mode-which lead to robots-killer robots-blood-some bad lettering-to be continued I was having fun and unlike Tasty Treats and my paintings it was immediate. If I didn't use the name 80 Proof Comix it probably would have been called "One Take Comics" cause that was how it was done, Pen to Paper-no pencil and drawn drunk. This lasted until Issue 7 where pencil started hitting paper, which was still fine as yet again whatever I put down first, stayed that way(unless it was god-awful). Plus I was still having fun with the covers and the pin-ups. The free issues were placed all over Cleveland as well sent out to Quimbys, and See Hear, this lead to receiving some fine comics from Tom Eaton(see link), and Jake Kelly and Stephe Kuchna's Summer Zine. I did a collection for the first six issues, finished the first story arc after I had moved to North Carolina and applied for a Xeric Grant(didn't happen), which leads right into Lesson 4: Skyland

While going through all this stuff I found the second Dr. Tobor story arc all penciled out...HHMMMM

Intermission-We now bring you..uh..uhm..ahh....A Painting..Lesson will be back next week

"Hey Rocky watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat" 70x84"

Lesson 2: Tasty Treats

Ah the early nineties, a light and breezy time it seemed creativity was in the air. The Simpsons were on a roll(which really should have stopped somewhere around season 11 or 12-whenever they went to England), my friend was introducing me to the world of Seinfeld(now tainted), there was still city specific music scenes(gone the way of my space and youtube) as well as record labels that specialized in more or less one sound. Fantagraphics gave us Peter Bagge's Hate and Dan Clowe's Eightball. Comic Books were beginning to get the respect they deserve(but only if you called them Graphic Novels), and punk rock fliers went from being plastered every and anywhere to limited edition prints hanging in art galleries. Vinyl was still viable and becoming quite collectible with record singles coming out in every color of the rainbow, sometimes swirled. I was working at a pizza shop and going to school to become a Art Teacher-determined to change how art was taught(HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA That is Funny), so yeah this is the stew that Tasty Treats crawled from.

The name Tasty Treats came from a delivery driver I worked with who had the habit of saying Glenn's Tasty Treats while I was making food, which in turn fit the book as it was an anthology comic. There was an exception though as I did have a continuing story "Knuckleheads" which was never finished(though it still rattles in my brain). There were some recurring character strips, but Knuckleheads and quite a few stories were inspired by the police blotter and Wmji's "Knuckledheads in the News"(Back then it was the Lanigan, Webster, and Malone show, presently The Lanigan and Malone show, Knuckleheads still on Thursday morning 8-9am). It seemed I was on some kind of roll, but Tasty Treats this form at least, stopped by 1992-incidentally the Jake Ace that was posted November 3rd was from the 3rd issue. If you could see how some of this was laid out it looks like a madman did it, pieces here cuts there, artwork was done on bristol board and I was still using rapidograph pens(HAHAHAHA that's funny too). Now I'm just trying to figure out what the hell I was doing between 93-95.

Next: The Birth of 80 Proof Comix


Tasty Treats 1 1991-92


Tasty Treats 2 1992


Tasty Treats 3 1992


Unfinished Flier

Lesson 1 and Rant #2

4 months in the making finally it's here, your proper Welcome to 80 Proof Comix so let's begin.
Named after one of my favorite movie series The Thin-Man starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, high society drinkers who solve crime on the side(though Nick is a ex-detective who always seems to run into guys he "sent up the river" and they are always happy to see him). The kind of movies they don't make anymore, dialogue fast and funny, a dog named Asta, all available on DVD-Find them, Watch them, and Enjoy.
The comic did not and I had no intention to capture the tone of the movies. The Thin-Man was a private detective, who didn't use a gun but his brain. Two issues were put out and a third issue was finished but never released. The Thin-Man did receive a nice Christmas card. Thanks

The Thin-Man #1 1987 #2 1988

I put The Thin-Man to rest and went on to a horror comic, Bloody Murder, the comics usually had two stories one serious and the other with a little more humor. There was a Crypt-Keeper type character-though looking through the issues I don't think I bothered to name him. Not much to say, it's a horror book-I like it(horror that is), still do(not the torture crap they're peddling today-but I'll save that rant for another day).

Bloody Murder #1 1989
Bloody Murder #2 1989-90
Bloody Murder #3 1990-91

But I will say this The cover of Issue 2 is loosely based-influenced by John Carpenter's The Thing, which is a remake of the Howard Hawk's film The Thing from Another World, which is based on the story Who Goes There by John Cambell-Whew.
Now the Hawks film is a classic, I remember it fondly as a kid. But there are certain times in your life when you See something, Hear something, or Read something, that makes your spine tingle and your Brain Turn Upside Down. Carpenter's The Thing did that for me, the story was there and the cast made the chaos, and the horror seem real whether there was a monster on screen or not. But it was the effects in that movie that turned my brain to mush, morphing, tentacle, chest teeth, dogs inside out hell beast animation that was in real time, and the best thing about it was that you knew somewhere that the Norris Spider Head was sitting somewhere in some Hollywood warehouse. The movie did everything a movie should, plus in my case it gave my brain an extra tweak, so when I read that they're planning a remake this was my first thought...

A Favorite

An oldie but goodie-Enjoy

PRESENTTTIIINNNGGG The First Jake Ace(or who the hell is that)

This may be as old as 1992 or late as 1995 found another strip that's from 1996, a history lesson is coming next week(I don't know who looks at this blog, but it's for your benefit and mine). So Enjoy

Another Other Oldie

Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown

Charlie Brown is on the run from the Peanuts Gang after the Great Pumpkin puts a bounty on his head in this wild animated student short by Jim Reardon. Early film by one of the classic directors of The Simpsons Jim Reardon-Enjoy

Hey Boss

Another oldie

FINALLY A COMIC

Originally done in the summer of 2002 in a very quick sketch, and redone in the version you see now in 2003. The very first Captain Waldo story. ENJOY!

Cleaning out the folders

Rant #1 (and a drunken one at that)

With all the crap in the world-this is what I'm ranting about-Enjoy

Sept. 1

Welcome