Horror of the Gag #361: “The Cold and Insular Reality of the Misguided Hellhorse”
Catch up on the “story” at horrorofthegagcomics.tumblr.com.
Debbie Duck merchandise now available for sale online! Own an ORIGINAL, hand-drawn Debbie by Dane Martin!! Each Debbie is one-of-a-kind and drawn by the artist himself, preserved for you in perpetuity as a versatile pin/broach with stainless steel bar pin enclosure. Part of an ongoing series of collaborations between Dane Martin and Katherine Poe! Truly a piece of Salt Mines Memorabilia history!
There are still some shrinky dink Debbies left! Put her on your trapper-keeper, refrigerator, or dorm room fire extinguisher!
(Source: bittensmenu.storenvy.com, via sessileblossom)
“The County’s Edge,” Page One
From the upcoming “Dane Martin Comic Book #1.”
spxpo.com
I was nominated for an Ignatz Award for “Outstanding Online Comic” for my comic “Big Dogs At Nite.” You can read it HERE.
Debbie Duck merchandise now available for sale online! Own an ORIGINAL, hand-drawn Debbie by artist Dane Martin!! Each Debbie is one-of-a-kind and created by the artist himself, preserved for you in perpetuity as a versatile pin/broach with stainless steel bar pin enclosure. Part of an ongoing series of design collaborations between Dane Martin and Katherine Poe! Truly a piece of Salt Mines Memorabilia history!
Katherine made some Debbies! I drew them, she put them in the oven and made them real. Buy them here!
(Source: bittensmenu.storenvy.com, via sessileblossom)
I have a new book out, “FORGET BORING TRUTHS.” It’s 42 pages, has a spine, and more or less fits in your pocket (4.25 x 6.88). You can buy it for $6 from Lulu.com HERE. It’s the 8th release in my new “Dane Martin Comic Books” series.
Sometimes I draw erotic Simon Hanselmann fan art. This is the tamest one.
My Only Inspiration
HELEN: I hear the fella owns a couple of racehorses. You know, trotters, like at Yonkers.
JERRY: Horses. They’re like big riding dogs.
ELAINE: What about ponies? What kind of abnormal animal is that? And those kids who had their own ponies…
JERRY: I know, I hated those kids. In fact, I hate anyone that ever had a pony when they were growing up.
MANYA: I had a pony.
(The room is dead quiet)
JERRY: Well, I didn’t really mean a pony, per se.
MANYA: (Angry) When I was a little girl in Poland, we all had ponies. My sister had pony, my cousin had pony. So, what’s wrong with that?!
JERRY: Nothing. Nothing at all. I was just merely expressting…
HELEN: Should we have coffee? Who’s having coffee?
MANYA: He was a beautiful pony! And I loved him.
JERRY: Well, I’m sure you did. Who wouldn’t love a pony? Who wouldn’t love a person that had a pony?
MANYA: You! You said so!
JERRY: No, see, we didn’t have ponies. I’m sure at the time in Poland, they were very common. They were probably like compact cars.
MANYA: That’s it! I’ve had enough! (She leaves the room)
ISAAC: Have your coffee, everyone. She’s a little upset. It’s been an emotional day.
(Isaac leaves, everyone looks at Jerry)
JERRY: I didn’t know she had a pony. How was I to know she had a pony? Who figures an immigrant’s going to have a pony? Do you know what the odds are on that? I mean, in all the pictures I saw of immigrants on boats coming into New York harbor, I never saw one of them sitting on a pony. Why would anybody come there if they had a pony? Who leaves a country packed with ponies to come to a non-pony country? It doesn’t make sense. Am I wrong?
(Scene ends.)
–Seinfeld, “The Pony Remark”
This blog, Popliteal Fossae, asked me three “interview questions.” I accidentally answered their original Tumblr ask message as private, so I’m reposting the answers here. Am I just supposed to answer these questions on my own Tumblr? I couldn’t find any contact info on the blog. Very mysterious.
1.) What are you most interested in at this time in relation to your work?
This first question is very difficult to answer. I have been drawing the way that I draw since I was in high school, just slowly trying to regularly draw comics in the way that I know how. I’ve always wrestled with a very deep-rooted and difficult selt of limitations, especially in regards to drawing ability. Over the years, somewhat of a “cast of characters” has appeared, and I’ve tried to just slowly keep building some kind of a body of work as it feels right. I hesitate to use the word “world.” It’s all become a lot more verbal in recent years, and maybe less “otherworldly” and “magical.” (“Fantastical?”) I’ve become a lot more focused in writing scraps and diatribites that are separate from the comics, and then trying to put them into comics in a way that feels right. I always did things “off the cuff” before, making it up as I go along, which led to a lot of dead-ends and strange, accidental endings. Right now it’s sort of a combination of just making things up and “sticking to the script.”
I would be lying straight to the horse’s mouth if I said I consciously think about things like “what I am interested in at this time in relation to my work.” It all builds very organically and stupidly. A turn-of-phrase or a particular way to draw a fence will spawn little stories or big stories or whole overarching ideas. Right now I am interested in making a series of books that connects to each other in subtle, nonsubtle, and contradictory ways. It’s always been difficult to finish full stories… I’ve always been a “scrap boy,” just drawing ideas and little candy remnants rather than fleshing out something. This year has been about trying to finish full comic book experiences, even if they are not as complete or well made as I would particularly like. I’ve been trying to make complete things that can feed into each other. Hopefully it will be enjoyable and sensible to do things this way for years to come. I’ve drawn seven comics this year, and hopefully they will keep coming.
I also have really enjoyed having the characters say “normal” things. More real world things have been oozing their way into the stories. This would have been unheard of just a few years ago. It’s been fun having my character Debbie reference things like “Limited Too.” I always liked how in “Peanuts,” these very abstract and personal, insular characters would suddenly be talking about Andrew Wyeth or Willie Mays or Lassie or a press conference in New Jersey.
I don’t even know if I’ve answered the question. I guess what I am saying is that my “physical method of production” changed this year, in January of 2014. I somehow finally tricked my brain into thinking I am “drawing for print,” rather than drawing thousands of pages in some kind of strange internet vacuum. Right now I am very much interested in the dead, soulless labor of pointless production. It’s been just what I’ve needed.
2.) What do you think of the idea that meaningful work should provoke an audience leading them to think more critically in order to see social injustice, etc. and be moved to act for change in the world?
I stared at this question for a long time. I could easily give you a non-answer and say that this sort of thing doesn’t particularly cross my mind when I’m drawing comics. My comics come from a place that is extremely selfish and personal. Inorganic, forceful real-world commentary, subtle or nonsubtle, written specifically for or ingrained in the fibers of the work, never really makes its way into the comics. I don’t have that sort of brain and there are hundreds of cartoonists that can do it and that’s fine.
But then I was thinking, all of the comics I do are sort of a response to conversations I’ve had all my life. I don’t consciously think about it too much while drawing the strips, but there is definitely a built-in function of comics that lets you tell “your version” of something. You can present your heart in a broken box. You can say “This is what I think!” in extremely bizarre ways. In a way it’s all about pointing out “social injustices,” but only in a way that is organic to the characters and the story presented. Referencing just enough real human emotions to get something across. The farthest thing from my mind is “changing the world,” but I do want to change readers’ brains a little, if only for the three or four seconds it takes to read about a character’s pain.
3.) Who do you think the perfect audience for your work would be?
I’ve found a little bit of a niche in the beautiful caverns of Tumblr, but the basic answer is that I have absolutely no idea. I don’t think it’s particularly comics readers… but maybe it is. I don’t know. I just do it and try to put it in the eyes of people who wouldn’t particularly hate it. I suspect my audience is 17 other cartoonists.