My old friend and Fantagraphics co-worker Jess Johnson has released a compilation volume of sketchbooks and “Auto da Fé” zines chronicling the past decade. Based on the description it is safe to say that it makes for some very interesting reading.
Five sketchbooks are represented here, along with all four issues of my zine. The first three are reproduced exactly as they first appeared. The fourth has been expanded, and new scans made. The fifth was never finished, and sees partial print for the first time. A decade of my life is recorded in these sketchbooks. In this decade, I divorced my wife and grieved her subsequent death. I went through a transition from ‘male’ to ‘female.’ I moved from Atlanta to New York, worked at CBGB’s, worked the erotic services page of craigslist, acquired a heroin habit, and lived for a season in a professional dungeon. I visited several drug rehabilitation centers in New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles. Eventually I made my way back to Atlanta, and I’ve been here ever since.
You might remember Jess’s (then Jeff’s) work from Zero Zero, Buzzard, Dirty Stories and the Nurture The Devil series from Fantagraphics.
