The Adventures of Alex ze Pirate - 9781442146457 (ISBN10: 1442146451)
The Adventures of Alex ze Pirate - Life At Sea - ISBN-10 1460995066/ISBN-13 978-1460995068
Pattty Vol 1 - (ISBN10: 1411639626)
Aside from those, there was an anthology he put out called “Andy’s Hat”, he was one of the stories featured in “Alterna Tales #4”, and “The Adventures of Percy Philips”. There’s also a few old short stories he reposted on Gumroad, but those were distal downloads only.
Out of all of them, I think you can find used copies of Formera floating around online easiest. And I’m pretty certain at least one of the Alex ze Pirate comics is fully archived online.
You've probably heard the song before, but in case you haven't:
Inspiration
Though the song is an original, it's very influenced by "Trying to Get You" made famous by Elvis:
the first recorded version was made by "The Eagles" (not those Eagles, a 1950s do-wop group)
As you can hear, the lyrics and the melody are both pretty similar. "Trying to Get You" even includes the lyric "in spite of all we went through."
Lyrics
In spite of all the danger
In spite of all that may be
I'll do anything for you, anything you want me to
If you'll be true to me
In spite of all the heartache that you may cause me
I'll do anything for you, anything you want me to
If you'll be true to me
I'll look after you like I've never done before
I'll keep all the others from knocking at your door
Didn't realize how short a song it was until seeing it laid out like that.
In The Lyrics Paul says:
The most important thing to know about In Spite Of All The Danger is that this is the only McCartney/Harrison writing credit on record.
and
George made up the solo, but some of it did come from John.
This song is also noteworthy for being the only Paul composition that John sings lead on. This could be because they were still thinking of John as the 'lead singer'.
Interpretations
We have found many different ways to break down this song. These are all the things we've considered:
Gay Theories
We're both of the opinion that Paul likely had a crush on John at the time this was written. He has mentioned spotting him around Liverpool before The Fete, and the way he describes early meetings sounds like attraction.
"I'd seen him a couple of times and thought, 'Wow, you know, he's an interesting looking guy,' And then I once also saw him in a queue for fish and chips and I said, 'Oh, that's that guy off the bus, I'm talking to myself, in my mind I thought, 'I saw that guy off the bus, oh he's pretty cool-looking. Yeah, you know, he's a cool guy. I knew nothing about him except that he looked pretty cool. He had long sideboards and greased back hair and everything… it was the Teddy Boy look. All of us were trying to do a bit of that at that point, so if you ever noticed someone who was trying to do it you thought, 'I'll probably get on well with him, But I didn't know anything about him. And I didn't know who he was except that I'd seen him on the bus and I'd seen him in the fish and chip shop."
- Paul to Sean on the Lennon 80th Birthday podcast series
So the song could be about wanting a relationship with John, and being willing to brave the dangers of being in a same-sex relationship in 1950s Liverpool.
While it is likely Paul wrote it about John, we had a few other theories as well.
We discussed the possibility that Paul had a crush on George, and wrote the song about him, but we concluded that Paul thought of George as much younger than him, and this was unlikely. However, it's possible that Paul believed George had a crush on him and wrote the song from George's perspective.
Julia
Hunter Davies (in his book The Beatles Lyrics) speculates that the 'danger' in question could be loving "an older woman" (HM the Queen?). Jokes aside, could the older woman be Mary or Julia??
Both John and Paul wrote love songs about their dead mothers. However, given when the song was likely written, it's unlikely Paul was writing about Mary. That said, Julia was very much a fixture in their lives when the song was written. Paul mentioned things about Julia in a handful of stories that suggest an attraction. So did John. Ruth McCartney spoke about this once:
"The Nurk Twins, live without the aid of a net - ably backed up by their band The Oedipus Guilt Complex"
- Ruth McCartney
but John didn't write this song so we can avoid that topic for a while.
And not going down the incestual romantic rabbit hole, it was not unusual for the Beatles to write songs that were apparently about romantic love, but actually about other relationships (we'll get to more examples of that later.) Mimi was obstructive about John spending time with Julia, so the danger could have been from Mimi. In this context the "I'll look after you" recalls Paul's later song "Teddy Boy".
We can't know for sure what the song is about because we don't know when the song was written. If the song was written at the Harrison household, which is what many have speculated, it's possible it was before John came into the picture. But most historians put the writing in 1958, the same year the song was recorded.
1958 Recording
The two songs (this and "That'll Be The Day") were recorded very close to Julia's death (two days prior) on the 12th of July 1958 at Percy Phillips' home studio. That may be why the Beatles never revisited the song, even when they were going back to their earliest compositions in early 1969.
Paul often tells the story of what happened to the shellac recording . To the point that you probably know this story by heart. But if not, or if you want to hear it again now that you have context, here's an example from the 2022 Got Back tour:
Phillips didn't give the disc to the Quarrymen straight away though, because they hadn't paid the full amount. This implies that they collected the disc after Julia had died, and it's possible that John never took his turn with the disc. Could this be the real reason Duff kept it so long? Each member of the band in turn being unwilling to approach John about the disc, maybe even concerned about what he might do to it?
And if John never had it, that means he never heard it after it was recorded. Which is just a little factoid that made us think.
Personnel
John Lennon – lead vocal, rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney – backing vocal, rhythm guitar
George Harrison – lead guitar, backing vocal
John "Duff" Lowe – piano
Colin Hanton – drums
LECTURE 7: MEET THE BEATLES (PART 2): Liverpudlian Percy Phillips, who ran a small studio in Liverpool called Phillips Sound Service out of his house at 38 Kensington, charged the Quarrymen a fee of 17 shillings to make a double-sided 78rpm acetate recording. Like so many milestones in the early months and years of the Quarrymen, the exact date of the recording is debated by Beatlemaniacs. As Mark Lewisohn writes in his epic masterpiece TUNE IN:
A plaque above the door of the house [once owned by Phillips], unveiled in 2005, gives a precise session date of (Monday) July 11, 1958, but how this was arrived at has never been convincingly demonstrated; it could have been a month or two earlier. (Tune In, p. 177)
I used to follow Dob on DeviantArt way back in middle school, and I remember this one comic of I think a guy c#tting himself in his bathroom? I'm just wondering if that had any context or what the name of it was, because I remember how distraught I felt when I first saw it (I must've been either 13 or 14...)
Was it this?
Hey there’s a couple of pieces of art about a “Percy Phillips” that he supposedly did do you know anything about that?
I do know a bit abou
If not, I do vaguely recall an art he drew in college that was dark like that. I’ll have to go looking through his old art archive and see if I can find it.
On the 12th of July 1958 the Quarrymen recorded two songs at Percy Phillips' home studio. The first was Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day"
And here is Buddy Holly's version:
It's noteworthy that is is a very faithful rendition of the song. It's rare for the Beatles (or the Quarrymen, as they still were at this point) to change so little about a song when they record it.
There are changes, to be sure, but they aren't much more than filler words. There's no content change this time, as becomes common for them later.
Even Paul's backing vocals are very similar, and George's guitar intro and solo are more or less the same as the original.
We were speculating this might be because it's the first recording they did and staying true to the original might have been seen as being more professional.
It also might just be because it's Buddy Holly and they all revered him.
That Percy Phillips comic reminded me of that tumblr post I see around occasionally, the difference between a smart character written by a smart person, and a "smart" character written by a dumb person. With a smart writer, a smart character will have a traceable methodology and process that the audience can follow but in the hands of a less intelligent writer, a smart character will just pull deductions out of thin air with no method, like Percy just knows why his friend was late for no reason.
I’d say that’s pretty accurate. Dobson himself is an idiot trying to come across as an intellectual superior, after all. It makes sense that would come across in his comic
Does/Did Dobson ever have his own comic series or has it all been strips of him bashing people of different mindsets than his? I mean I know of that- what was it- the thing about lesbians comic but did anything even come out of that???
He’s had a few, though nothing has lasted very long save for a couple...
Untitled Video Store Clerk/Autobiographical comic - probably his first comics posted “professionally”, part were stories about a clerk at a video rental store. Heavily manga inspired and bizarrely wacky. Others could be considered a precursor to SYAC, in which Dobson drew comics about his day-to-day life working at a video rental store. Actually shows off a lot of the talent he started off with. Can be read and seen here.
Patty - Dobson’s “realistic” take on how a tomboy in high school discovers she’s a lesbian. Lasted one volume which can be read here. Occasionally draws art of the two characters to show what a good LGBT “ally” he is. Recently drew a “redesign” to see if people were interested in seeing him redo it.
Formera - very generic “young boy magically and randomly transported to other world and meets cave girl” story. Lasted two volumes. Not really much to say about it due to how generic it was, though a follower did point out the hypocrisy between how Dobson hates on Quiet from MGSV vs how he wrote said cave girl.
Legends/Alex ze Pirate - pirate girl and her crew gets into wacky hijinks. Originally created by a girl Dobson had a crush on and was about space pirates. Lasted two volumes mixed with some comics only posted online. Best know for “Lesbian Kick”
Percy Phillips - massive Sherlock Homes rip-off. Covered in full detail here.
Danny and Spot/Danny and Spot 2: Stop Making Fun of my Wii, Assholes!) - flat-out Garfield rip-off about a guy and his talking cat. Lasted only a few comics in its original run, brought back as a comic calling the Wii the best console ever and bashing the PS3/XBox360 because some people on a video games forum made fun of Dobson for being a such an intense Nintendo shill
So You’re A Cartoonist - His longest last comic to date. Started out as a sort of “day in the life of” comic about being a webcomic artist, but quickly became a strawman comic for Dobson to bash people and things he disliked and imply anyone who disagreed with him was stupid. Origin of his blue bear persona and the “STOP DOING SEXIST CRAP!” comic. Basically, if you see a blue bear, it’s a SYAC.
Brentalfloss: The Comic - was hired to be the artist of a comic written by Brentalfloss(of “What If ~video game song~ Had Lyrics?” fame) and one of the McElroy Brothes. Lasted over a hundred comics before being cancelled. Dobson has no input aside from drawing it, so the jokes and writing are stronger than his usual stuff.
Unnamed Mythological Ski Resort comic(aka Muslim Vampire comic) - project Dobson has supposedly been working on for years but has no physical proof outside of one image. Bragged about how there would be no straight white men anywhere in the comic and mocked people who asked him why. Dubbed”Muslim Vampire comic” became Dobson claimed that the comic would be “very inclusive”, giving a vampire being Muslim as an example. Most likely will never see light of day.
The Adventure Zone: Amnesty webcomic adaptation - Dobson’s fancomic of a D&D audio podcast by the McElroy Brothers. Blatent attempt to be hired as their comic artist for an “official” adaptation of the podcast. Deflected any criticism of the comic by claiming it was a “direct adaptation” of the podcast and not adapted for better flow in a comic, so people were really just hating on the podcast itself. Abandoned after three chapters because he wasn’t getting the attention for it he wanted and the McElroys never contacted him.
Soapbox Derpy - what Dobson calls any political comics he makes. Had a couple made five or so years ago before churning out a ton after Donald Trump was elected president. Can be summed up as “all republicans are evil sexist Nazis and are also stupid racist rednecks”.
Bonus: Monkey Love: comic idea he never got off the ground about the son of a janitor and a monkey he fell in love with at the zoo. Seriously. No, I don’t know why.
Daily reminder that Dobson’s detective comic from back in the day would have probably been a huge Detective Conan rip-off
Oh, I guarantee it was a Detective Conan rip-off. Hell, according to Dobson himself, the “breaking point”for him hating anime was how it got called “Cased Closed” when released in the West. So it’s very apparent how big a fan he was of it around the same time he was writing the comic.
