SOME KIND WORDS, PREVIOUS:

"..it is such efforts [IN TONGUES ILLUSTRATED] that benefit society with the intellectual chasm never before spanned, the emotional ice pack not previously shattered. I applaud the seriousness of Dockery’s effort, the sincerity of his engagement, the severity with which he commits to the grapplings of the soul."--Bob Levin, The Comics Journal online, 11/30/09

"His comics are awesome, his art is awesome and his writing, Yes, you guessed it: Awesome."--Dylan Williams (RIP), Sparkplug Comic Books blog 6/21/11 

Broad Strokes:

I am J.T. Dockery, Kentuckian.  I am disabled due to psoriatic arthritis, yet I manage to function in the manner that I do, and make my detailed drawings/comics narratives with hands permanently damaged by arthritis.  Due to the limited means I have at earning a living, I am seeking funding for my new collection of work.

I'm also partnering with Institute 193, of Lexington, Kentucky as a sort of cross-branding/co-publisher.  The Institute, a non-profit established to promote regional Southern artists to a larger market, recently exhibited my work at the Outsider Art Fair NYC and garnered attention from art critic Roberta Smith in the New York Times.  Go here to listen to an NPR report resultant of that with an interview with yours truly.

This book is a serious effort, a culmination of much work, and will be building on my previous solo collections, IN TONGUES ILLUSTRATED, and SPUD CRAZY (in collaboration with author Nick Tosches).  It's a hard-scrabble for most artists to bring their visions to fruition, and I'm asking you to join me on this journey.

The Lowdown:

In addition to my lead story, THISEATSITSELF, this book will also contain ten of my adaptations into comics form of Stephen Crane's THE BLACK RIDERS AND OTHER LINES.  

I am also "sharing the Despair" with guest artists, Julia Gfrörer (endpaper design) and Chris Wright (featured back up comics short story).

J.T. DOCKERY's DESPAIR will be a 48 page (plus front and back covers) oversized black and white comic book of refinement and taste.

2,038.61 dollars is needed for the print job of 250 copies, based on the estimate from the printer.  I am using the same local printer I have used previously for IN TONGUES ILLUSTRATED and SPUD CRAZY.  Additional money above printing costs is to pay my guest artists for their contributions, and to be used towards promotion and travel of the finished book.

If I don't reach my goal, the money still goes towards the printing, etc.  The book WILL get done, regardless.  

As far as perks go, I've got a pretty good rep of meeting deadlines and being timely with bartering art.  Ask anybody.

The plan is to have it printed and ready by the indie comics festival SPACE in Columbus, OH in mid-April where I will be sharing a table with Baltimore based artist, Eamon Espey.  And then, on May 16th, a book release in conjunction with Eamon and Lisa Krause's puppet show, ISHI'S BRAIN, based on a section of and to promote his own new book, SONGS OF THE ABYSS, at Institute 193 in Lexington.

DESPAIR the World Over:

The whole point of collecting this work under one umbrella is not to wallow in DESPAIR (of which there's plenty to go 'round), but, to quote my own introduction to the book:

"ideally/hopefully a conduit to observe woe unblinkingly; the intent is a form/forum to contain despair, to explore and chart its terrains, to make caricature of it, to, in essence nullify it with the ancient rites of making marks on a surface, and to, in turn, reproduce those original marks in a reasonable fascimile on paper and distribute them in portable bound bibles."

I hope you are interested in helping to bring Doc's New Testament to print!

Share It!

So what, you ain't got the geld right now, you can still tell a friend, link to it, help me spread the mustard.  Any form of help is APPRECIATED, truly.