Daily doodle from the sketchbook. Today it’s those ultra-violent dairy products, Milk and Cheese! Why did I pick these anthropomorphic misanthropic wild men? Well their creator, Evan Dorkin (along with Dark Horse), just released a ginormous tome of Evan’s comics spanning his entire career called Nerd Inferno. And a big part of Evan’s work was the popularity of these lactose lunatics. Along with the Eltingville boys they are probably what he is most known for, which is somewhat unfortunate since he’s put out a lot of great stuff over the years, writing and drawing. His run on the Bill and Ted comics was, dare I say, excellent (and, if you were a reader of those comics, you were introduced to a myriad of great bands via Bill and Ted’s t—shirts) and the Beasts of Burden series has been a great joy to read. He has done too much great work over the years to list everything but let’s just say it goes far beyond these two “cheesy” characters.
I also wanted to note that Evan is a very nice guy. I met him at one of Tony Moore’s comic cons in Cincinnati (well technically Kentucky but….). I was tabling there through the good graces of Tony himself and, to be really honest, I didn’t belong among the talent assembled in what was the most impressive artists’ alley I’ve ever seen. Across from me was Fables writer Bill Willingham, two tables across from me and to my right was the amazing artist Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother, Beasts of Burden) and next to her was Evan and his equally talented artist wife Sarah Dyer. The talent pool was insane as I mentioned. Dave Wachter, Eric Powell, Ryan Browne, and the list goes on and on. Anyway, I got to talk to Evan a few times during the con during some slower moments (he had a lot less of those than me, believe me). He was overly generous with his time and we talked about comics like I was anywhere near the same level of talent, which was nice of him. The Eltingville collection had just come out and I congratulated him on it since it was a great book and included what was to be their final appearance. Surprisingly to me, he wanted MY opinion of the last story and if I thought it was a fitting ending to their legacy. I was honored that he valued some schmucks opinion of his work. Especially some bozo who was only there because I entered a drawing in a contest Tony Moore held to win a free table and there weren’t a lot of entries.
It was probably the best interaction I’ve ever had at a con. I’m usually very anxious when talking to “celebrities” at shows, I always feel like I’m bothering them and try to drop some admiration on them and dart. I also always feel bad that I don’t have a lot of money and can’t be as good of a patron as I’d like to be, and I don’t want to block actual sales. Evan was cool though and the two chats we had were very easy and fun. Now I wish I had talked to him more but then I really would have felt like I was being a nuisance.
The main thing that I want to say is that Evan Dorkin is a cool dude and that you should support his work. He’s one of the good ones. Go out and buy Nerd Inferno from Dark Horse and be prepared to fall in love with his impressive draftsmanship, his goofy, slightly dark humor, and multitude of crazy characters. Thanks Evan for all the great comics and for being a mensch.