Geek A Week

As I mentioned last week, I will be at DragonCon this weekend plugging, selling and signing the new book I illustrated with Cinematic Titanic’s Trace Beaulieu entitled “Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children”.  (The panel is Friday afternoon at 2:30 PM at the Marriott Room A601-A602. At least that’s what the schedule is telling me.  Apologies for any last minute changes.) During the panel, I will be announcing who next week’s geek will be. This one will be pretty significant, because this announcement kicks off the second half of this project.  I say significant because I had no idea if this project would really take off.  I mean, I had hoped it would take off, of course.  But when I started it, 52 geeks seemed like a pretty tall order.  Now I’m halfway through it and I’m pretty certain that I’m going to be able to fill all 52 weeks with some pretty awesome geeks.

That being said, not only will I be announcing Week 27 of the project and premiering the card, but I will be announcing the next whole month of geeks coming up. I’m pretty excited about this because these are among some of the biggest names in the deck so far and I really cannot wait to share it all with you tomorrow.

What this means is that there will be no big Thursday announcement today.  You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow when the card and announcement is made. While you wait, please feel free to speculate.  I’d love to see who you think may be announced.

Have fun and see you in Atlanta, nerds!

Usually when I post a new Geek, it’s the trading card I want people most to see.  But in the case of Week #26, Toby Radloff, it’s the podcast element of the challenge that I am most eager to release. 

It’s ironic to me that in an art challenge, the ancillary, completely optional podcast portion of the project is what is most intriguing to me. If you end up listening to this week’s podcast, there are two moments that stand out to me.  One is funny, one is poignant. And both are moments that I would have normally edited out of the final interview.

At one point during the interview, Toby’s cell phone rings and he answers it. It’s a friend named “Jimmy” and he has a very funny, honest one-sided conversation with him.  I considered editing it out, but felt it was so in line with everything that Toby was about, that I thought it would be equivalent to handing someone a fully-popped roll of bubble wrap. The interview would lose some of its texture.  With Toby’s blessing, I left the conversation in.

Secondly, as with every interview I do, I ask the interviewee if there is anyone they feel comfortable putting me in contact with for the project. I always edit that portion out of every interview, but in this case I left it in.  When I asked Toby who he could put me in contact with, without a beat, he said “Harvey.”

“Harvey” as in legendary Clevelander, iconic comic book writer and creator of American Splendor Harvey Pekar. 

I had met Harvey briefly in 2003 during a Comics Symposium. I was scared to approach him. I felt that I would be bothering a genius by saying hello.  And I think that’s what kept me from contacting Harvey for this project.  Harvey doesn’t do e-mail. Toby actually gives me his home number during the interview.  I would have to call him, straight out at his home, and ask him directly.  That scared me.  A lot.  So I went on with the project, procrastinated and never contacted Harvey. 

Shortly after his death, I made this Legend Series card for Harvey.  Perhaps out of my guilt for not following through. In my mind, both Toby and Harvey’s cards are linked together. They were best friends and you certainly cannot think of one without the other. Being Week 26, the last week of the first half of the project, I am dedicating this week to my hometown Cleveland, Ohio, to Toby and to Harvey.  Sometimes you really have to appreciate the things in your own backyard.  And this is my way of doing just that.

Toby’s card was inspired by the interview.  When I called, Toby had just been hacked on Facebook and it was very disconcerting to him.  He wanted the power to look into his computer and find out who was scamming him.  The visual popped into my head during the conversation and I drew it exactly as I envisioned it.  In the style of R. Crumb, no less.