SR 1 PAGE FIFTY-THREE

Into issue three! And #3 is a big stinkin’ deal, because it’s the first issue made under contract with Slave Labor Graphics (SLG). A webcomic no more, Serenity Rose had made it to the big time: PAPER PUBLICATION (just like Swank). And with the country’s foremost distributor of goth-tinged funnybooks, too, home of spooky icons Jhonen Vasquez, Roman Dirge, and Serena Valentino. A huge honor! Always be grateful to SLG head honcho Dan Vado for giving my book a chance, after what I understand was a tremendous amount of deliberation.

INT. SLG BUNKER – NIGHT.

DAN VADO

Can I put my company logo on a book so obviously shoddy? Do I dare?

JHONEN VASQUEZ

Come on, Dan, it doesn’t look that bad. Give the kid a chance.

DAN VADO (bellowing)

You don’t tell me what to do!

Dan crushes Jhonen’s head like a grape in one mighty hand. A loogie of brain spits hard against the ceiling. Dan looks at the mess in his palm and screams (not again not again).

(RIP Jhonen Vasquez, 1884-2003.)

Getting published was the biggest thing that ever happened to me. Imagine, a real publisher backing my feverish little special-baby scribblings! INCONCEIVABLE.

The “biggest thing” status didn’t last, though, because within a few months something bigger happened: I started the first serious relationship of my life at age 26. First and only, because my best buddy Ami “Gofflin” Goff and I are still together twenty years later. First, only, and last, because Ami and I plan to launch ourselves into the sun in a homemade rocket ship by 2030. (Need to talk to Ami about this.)

The “ate a whole watermelon” line in Sera’s description is a reference to the classic 1991 Crispin Glover freakshow Rubin and Ed, which I’d never heard of until I met Ami:

SR 1 PAGE FIFTY-FOUR

This is the most adorable Sera’s ever looked, right? In fact, this is probably the most “spooky cute” page in the entire book. There’s even a comic book on the bed CALLED Spooky Cute!

Obviously I love anything that goes fluttering around the line between creepy and adorable. That’s where I live. Tim Burton most perfectly refined that vibe in the 80’s and 90’s, but humans have always liked playing in that space. Charles Addams’ stuff is an obvious reference point, but it goes way back. Some of Heironymus Bosch’s little guys are frankly adorable. I’m part of a long tradition! Not sure what makes spooky cute such an appealing aesthetic, but something about it definitely feels TRUE. The world is utterly terrifying but also capable of warmth and comfort. Something that embraces both ideas at once feels like reality itself in a nutshell.

Or maybe we just like the idea of darkness being tamed. That sounds very intelligent!

An example of darkness tamed is that cigar-chomping gangster cat in the lower right of the bed. A little nod to Sera’s origins in my hometown of Chicago. I remember for a few years in the 90’s the city had a museum called “Capone’s Chicago.” It was full of Prohibition-era gangster animatronics and weird memorabilia, including “Al Capone’s Lexington hotel bathroom door.” (“Honey, check it out! Scarface himself dropped a deuce behind this thing!”) Somebody gave my father a smilin’ gangsters t-shirt from the museum as a joke, but he felt weird about it, because, like, “Should we be celebrating this?” I don’t disagree! Never been much of a true crime person, myself. Real evil is just depressing. 

I like my monsters fictional. And occasionally cute.

(That dolly on the upper right of the pile has some real “Living Dead Doll” energy. Or maybe “Teddy Scares.” Anybody remember those?)

BACK TO THE PRESENT!

Sorry this post is late! I just got back from a trip to Hawai’i for my folks’ 50th anniversary celebration and time feels very weird right now.

Can you even imagine me going to Hawai’i? Turns out it’s spectacularly beautiful! Who knew?? I visited some sea turtles, walked through a lava tube, watched the sunset from the tallest mountain on earth, and didn’t even broil to death or anything. In fact, it was mostly rainy this time of year. Can recommend!

NEXT WEEK: KISS MY AY ESS ESS.