Hey Steve, Where is “Death in Oaxaca” #3 ?
Good question! Turns out my next comic book is right here on my drawing board. I’m inking page 14 today. Here’s a section of page 13, just completed:
The truth is, I’m working at a slow pace on this issue of my eventual next graphic novel. Why? There’s the basic economics of comics. I don’t make a living doing this, more like a bit of pocket money. Well, here and there I get a blast of real income from comix, so I settle in for some extended ink-slinging. In truth, I devote a lot of time to non-comix work to pay the bills.
Anyhow, I’ve been publishing since 1981. What’s the rush? I don’t have anything to prove. I came to this mudball to make comics, we can all agree on that. I’ve got a lot of bullets on my belt yet, so don’t go anywhere!
But I like doing other stuff too. I’ve been a runner since 9th grade. It’s a time consuming passion, and I don’t have any intention of letting up on it. Certainly I’m a better cartoonist than a runner; but what matters is that I enjoy running and competing immensely! Good for the heart, good for the head. I remember at 15 years old, a light bulb went off over my dome. “I am a runner, and a cartoonist. Yes, that is who I am”. Very happy with it all.
Finishing a 10K race, December 2015
Why stop there? I was an aspiring musician and singer as a kid from about 9 to 13. I really liked it, played trumpet, sang in the chorus, etc. But, I more or less consciously put it aside in favor of art as high school beckoned. You gotta decide, thought I. I’d been asked to sing in a rock band, but declined as I threw myself into furiously pumping out comics pages in my parents basement.
These days, I find that’s changed. Since moving to Oaxaca some 8 years back, I’ve been re-bitten and deeply smitten with music making. I’m the rhythm guitarist/singer/songwriter for a shit-kicking little outfit called Radio Insecto, a sort of country punky bluesy producer of raucous cacophony!
With Radio Insecto at Casa Colonial, Oaxaca, January 2016
So I soldier on with Death in Oaxaca, and it will appear in due course. As Iggy Pop once said, “Girls have beautiful shapes. I wanna live to be 98”. Well Iggy, I’ll see that and raise you a few years, so I can keep running, slinging ink (and guitar too for that matter!)
Buy Death in Oaxaca comic books from Alternative Comics