I was pleasantly surprised some months ago to read an online review of Tales To Demolish, a new comic book by one Eric Haven—surprised because I worked with Eric and knew him slightly, once upon a time; pleasantly because he's a good egg, and it's nice to see him garner some accolades.
We were comic-strip artists together, Eric and me. During the second of my two years at Syracuse University, Eric was the Art Director at the student newspaper, The Daily Orange. He also drew editorial cartoons and a daily strip. In those days, I had the temerity to fancy myself an artist, and was drawing a strip myself, and writing it with my good friend Steve George. Our comic was much-maligned—mostly by the other artists: though not without humor, it was an adventure serial on a page filled with gag strips, and other artists would sometimes use their strips to take shots at ours. (I found it bizarre then, and still do.)
Eric wasn't like that. I always got the sense that Eric appreciated what we were trying to do, even if he didn't always fully understand it. At one point, we even did a little crossover in our two strips, where we each drew the other's characters. Ours never looked so good as when Eric drew them.
When you look at a college paper's comics page, you can tell who's doing this because they dig the craft, and who's doing it for shits and grins. Steve and I fell somewhere in the middle—in love with the artform, but lacking the chops to make a serious go at it—but Eric, man, Eric; this guy was the real deal. A great line, beautiful composition, talent for days. You could also tell he was restless, and chafing at the strictures of the four-panel gag setup.
Since most of the strips (including ours) were published pseudonymously, I never knew most of the other artist's real names. Eric was the only one I ever actually met. Well, no—I take that back. I was in a class with one of them—with one of the artists who'd attacked our strip, actually. He revealed himself during a before-class conversation one day—a discussion about how much he hated our strip—but I kept schtum instead of tipping my hand and causing a stink, so he kept ranting and raving and never had a clue and now it's fifteen years later and WHO LOOKS STUPID NOW, JACKASS?!?
Ahem.
Anyway, most of the names I never knew and most of the ones I knew escape me—but seeing Eric's work again inspired me to try and track down some of the others whose work I remember.
Gabe Cattani ended up in management in a gymnastics education company. Unsurprising: he was a double major in Phys Ed and Philosophy, and his strip had the feel of a youthful lark.
Mark Ching is making movies now. Knew him only by reputation, but I liked his craftsmanship. His strip, Raventown, appeared only sporadically—I think he would do a bunch of strips until he ran out of ideas, then stop. Many comic-strip artists would do well to follow his example.
Kyle Outlaw drew under a pseudonym, though, remarkably enough, "Kyle Outlaw" was not the pseudonym. I forget the pen-name now, but I know (via Steve) that Kyle kept his identity secret because he feared for his safety! He did a fraternity-themed strip that apparently ruffled a few feathers in Syracuse's sizable Greek system. Well, I'm outing you, sonny Jim: it's been a decade-and-a-half, and I think the heat's blown over by now.
(If not, brothers of Tappa Kega Bru interested in settling old scores can contact Kyle at his digital media design business. Tell 'em Jack Fear sent you.)
(Or, you know, you could take some anger-management classes and get over it, you beer-soaked, paddle-happy pack of drone-souled, old-money, organization-man, herd-mentality clusterfuck jockrockets.)
(I'm just sayin'.)
As for Eric: the second issue of Tales To Demolish is out now. It's called "I Killed Dan Clowes."
Well, thank God; it's about time somebody did.
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