Yesterday I got a random friend request on facebook from a guy named Chuck. I didn’t recognize him right off, and his profile had a link to a site that I couldn’t click through to without a warning that it might blow up my computer or something. Nine times out of ten that’s enough to get me to pass on that kind of friend request, but Chuck had eight solid mutual friends, and so I accepted. Boy am I glad I did! Chuck followed up with this DM:
Hi Ken – I’m sorry it’s taken so long to check in but I’ve just stumbled across the Nix site and it looks brilliant. (Tho it could use a “contact” tab somewhere!) I’m one of the lucky few that loaded up on your sketchbook sleeves at the 2016 WFMU fair, but you’re more likely to remember my 12-year-old “T” who wheedled extra Belligerent Kitties from you. Anyway, we drove home to Worcester County just in time to see our house to go up in flames. Then three years later we’d mostly re-built but then had a second fire in the only two rooms that hadn’t burnt the first time – which is where all the records were. By incredible good fortune everything of yours survived both inferni …and I still laugh myself to tears every time I thumb through them. Three of the 20 or so – possibly live-at-WFMU creations – don’t seem to be on the Nix sketchbooks page, but I should send you a list of everything that’s here anyway. Please drop me a line and I can get you scans and/or whatever. Looks like I also need a set of Tales From The Crate+? Peace, C.
So it sounds weird to say, but I was really happy to get this message. Well, not about the fires, obviously, but I do very much fondly remember that WFMU record show, including Chuck & his son T. Their enthusiasm for my work was a notable high on a weekend that included getting to table next to Steve Keene, meeting Miriam Linna from Norton Records, and hanging out for the first time with Nix Artist Pat Redding Scanlon.
At least I think that was all 2016 trip. I had been the year before with Bela to promote the Jim Shepard comic-zine, which was also a great trip. I had planned to make it an annual excursion, but for a few years in a row WFMU was in schedule conflict with SPACE here in Columbus and then… y’know… Covid. Hopefully I can pick it up as a regular thing sometime in the future.
Anyways, I got back in touch with Chuck, Turns out his site, which featured comps he put out of 80s punk and post punk rarities, is dead because of hackers. Anyways, indeed he had a couple of pic sleeves I had missed scanning. (I know that there are more out there!) Kind of an interesting set in that they show me transitioning from my Matt Groening/Peter Bagge wannabe style with Preston Epps to whatever it is I do now with the Link Wray pic.
I shared with him that this was actually my second story about weird random things surviving fires. At Simon’s Rock my dorm caught fire. My room, despite being in the same quad as the room that went up, didn’t burn but was thoroughly smoked and soaked, destroying most of my belongings. Weirdly, though, I had a more-or-less life size Superman poster on the inside of my door; It was by José Luis García-López I think. This poster was completely unharmed by the heat, smoke or hose.
I don’t know if I have some magical power to preserve random comic art artifacts from fires… Maybe… Hell, probably… but I’m not going to test it. I’m just glad that my little pictures were able to bring Chuck a little lightness and levity to what was a traumatic turn of events!