SLEEPLESS Stories: THE GIRL WITH THE KEYHOLE EYES

keyholecolor01

Here is another in my irregular series of posts about stories in my 24 hour comic collection SLEEPLESS, published this spring by Dark Horse. THE GIRL WITH THE KEYHOLE EYES was drawn in 2009 and published as a limited-edition mini comic to raise money for the medical expenses of underground cartoonist S. Clay Wilson. The jacket flap copy (which riffs on the then-popular Facebook feature 25 Random Things About Me), should tell you all you need to know about the story:

David Chelsea is reading: Fighting American
by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby

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First Thursday on Patreon: Zap Comix 3D Fan Art!

wwanaglyph

Yesterday was First Thursday, when I post Fan Art to my Patreon page. This month I have something extra-special for my loyal Patrons (as well as freeloading site visitors), drawings of characters from Zap Comix, all in eyepopping 3D!!

David Chelsea is watching: Phil Spector
starring Al Pacino

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Drawpocalypse Postmortem

The Spring 2009 Drawpocalypse is now history, and I’m catching up on my sleep. As people following this blog are well aware, l decided to make my own 24 hour comic a benefit for ailing comix legend S. Clay Wilson’s medical expenses, and six other artists at the event decided to join me: Kevin Cross, Joshua Kemble, Mike Getsiv, Tony Morgan, Josh Fitz and Ben Sarnoff. I’m still toting up my own pledges, but I think it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand dollars. For those who are interested in pledging, it’s not too late: I produced 24 pages on the nose, so pledges can be some multiple of that, like, say, $240, $480, $2400… All checks should be made out to to the S. Clay Wilson Special Needs Trust and sent to PO Box 14854 San Francisco CA 94114, or you can visit their site: www.sclaywilsontrust.com. In response to numerous requests they now have a Paypal account to take contributions online. Not tax deductible, but you do get a signed minicomic of the story I drew, which l have no plans to make available in any other way.
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Checkered Demon Update

 

The big day of the benefit 24 Hour Comic event to raise money for S. Clay Wilson’s medical expenses is less than two weeks away. Last November, the legendary underground comics artist suffered a severe brain injury in a fall. He spent a week in intensive care and faces a long recovery.  Even with insurance, Wilson’s expenses are beyond his ability to pay and have made him and his family paupers. For those of you who may not have heard of it, the premise of the 24 Hour Comic challenge is that an artist attempts to complete 24 pages of comics within 24 hours. I am soliciting pledges from friends and comics fans for each page I complete. Assuming I draw at least 24 pages, the pledges I have so far amount to over a thousand dollars, and I know my fellow cartoonists Kevin Cross,  Joshua Kemble, Mike Getsiv, Tony Morgan, Josh Fitz and Ben Sarnoff have been soliciting contributions as well. It’s not too late for you to contact me with a pledge.  
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Calling All Checkered Demons.

 

S. Clay Wilsons lady in distress
S. Clay Wilson's lady in distress

Comics fans have lately had distressing news about underground legend S. Clay Wilson, best known as one of the original Zap Comix artists. Last November Wilson suffered a severe brain injury after attending the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco. He spent a week in intensive care and faces a long recovery.      Although he is not as well known as some of the other pioneer undergrounders like R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman, Wilson looms large in my own artistic development,. Despite its dangers (flying beer bottles, venomous snakes, penis-shaped cannons) Wilson’s world was in many ways a friendlier mirror to the one I navigated as an adolescent growing up in 70’s countercultural Portland- like mine, it was full of shaggy drunks and spiky lesbians in leather- (though in contrast to the real-life lesbians I knew who fully embraced the man-hating, buzz-cut stereotype, Wilson’s dykes were no more menacing than the biker gang in Frankie and Annette movies.)  Continue reading Calling All Checkered Demons.