In Tongues Illustrated Book Release 9/27

When: Saturday September 27th 7-9pm
Where: Morris Book Shop, 408 Southland Drive, Lexington, KY
What: Music by Warmer Milks (http://tombstonegravy.blogspot.com/)

"In Tongues Illustrated is a paper product that, like toilet paper and the Bible, belongs in every home. Buy it and dig it or continue on your dreary way to the mass grave of mediocrity."--Nick Tosches, author of In the Hand of Dante
http://www.myspace.com/nicktosches

"Disorientation is common when viewing scathing white-hot truths such as those contained in Dockery's comics."
--Jeffrey Scott Holland, artist/writer, author of Weird Kentucky
http://www.jeffreyscottholland.com/

In Tongues Illustrated is my fifty page graphic novel meets art book, a signed & numbered limited edition of 250 copies, also including the first ten of which are in addition lettered A-J featuring an original drawing on the back page that can be had for a few extra dollars. The interior is offset printed with a cover that is a combination of offset and letter press (the latter done with artist-printmaker Ben Durham at his Tug & Maul press in Midway, KY), and the book is bound Chicago style, giving it that certain Frankenstein meets rustic primitive visionary essence (and what other essence would I strive for, really?).

In the month of September, I'll be building up the official book release by updating Covertly and by Snatches with examples of sketches that pertained to the development of the In Tongues book, as well as displaying the aforementioned original drawings for the first ten copies marked A-J.

Also tune in to Mick Jeffries's Trivial Thursdays (http://minglefreely.blogspot.com/) program Sept. 25th 7-9AM, the Thursday before the 27th, as I'll be the guest on his WRFL 88.1FM (http://wrfl.fm/) show, talking trash about my book amongst other (ir)relevant flotsam & jetsam, with special guest host Brian Manke.

The weekend of the 27th precedes my sojourn with the book to SPX (a sorta comic convention that's more in line with the underground/alternative/self-publishing tradition than simply the superhero thing) in Bethesda, Maryland (http://www.spxpo.com/).

Lastly, this release party will be bookended on the local Lexington tip with my inclusion in the Lexington Art League's "Comix" exhibition running February 7 to March 28, 2009, with a Gallery-Hop reception on Feb. 20th. If for some reason you can't make it to the release party at Morris Books, keep your dance card open for Feb. 20th.

Cheers.
J.T. Dockery
http://jtdockery.com/

I should go out and honk the horn; it's Independence Day. Instead, I just pour myself a drink.

The title of this post is a quote from Tom Waits. The sentiment is mine.

Anywho, ladies & germs, it's the 4th of July. This same day last year I spent the first night in the first house I've owned with my lady, Jessi Fehrenbach. She's off on some sojourn so this year on this particular anniversary/holiday, I find myself alone, spanking my pud, thinking & drinking.

Often, today, my thoughts have turned to my betrothed. Thumbing through a sketchbook that dates from the 2001/2002 era (the general time of the full flowering of our love, baby), I found several studies drawn in graphite of my lady. So this day I choose to pay tribute to the woman of all women in my life by proffering a couple of such artifacts.

And, boys, lemme tell ya: Get yerself a leggy woman. Not only is Miss Kitty Twister stacked up top but down below her legs are long & strong. My gal is red hot; your gal ain't doodley-squat.

A shrine to woman. Mary Magdalene. Hot tamale.

A Weekend's Meditation from Uncle Heraclitus

As I step forth, one foot at a time, into the weekend, I offer this humble bit of ink and paper and what all. As Jerry Lee Lewis would probably say, "Think about it, darlin'."

What a Difference a Discombobulation Makes

There's holistic and then there's just holes. I've liked this page from a recent moleskine sketchbook spread. But the elements just didn't seem to warrant a scan as a whole. You got the "cheese" gal, who is sporting the most Dan Clowes-ian mouth I've ever attempted to bestow upon a character.

Then you got this guy above, who seems to be my own personal meditation on decapitation and manifest destiny, if you will.

This arty head, which serves no practical purpose.

And then this guy, I don't even wanna think about too much.

But when you separate these images out and then put 'em back together again, the chemistry seems to coalesce into some kinda sparity as opposed to disparity. I mean, maybe.

Schematics For Today's Man

These guys seem prepared. Or maybe just self-deluded. There's bio mechanics and then there's the rest of us.

Anger! Guilt! Money! Monsters!

These are just a few of what I call the "wondrous compulsions." Witness, and smell the gnosis. Or, as Hasil Adkins put it, "Be that chicken."

Rebirth Yourself

I think about outer-space. Both as a reality, and as a metaphor-like. Sometimes I think about the tv show, Lost in Space, too (or three). When I was a kid, I used to watch it in syndication on Sundays, if I was lucky enough not to have to go to church, that is. "Rebirth yourself," was a phrase I caught from some redneck talking about drug rehabilitation, "You got to rebirth yourself," he said. It can be a fine line between poets of the ages and babbling moe-rons.