The brief preface to the strip that I used to get it into Flak Magazine:

(links to pictures of the characters)

SCENIC WEST MONROE about two brothers HARRIS and WARREN
SINCLAIR and their dog, LTC. JAMES McSCRUFFY.

SCRUFFY, a Pug/Mastiff mixed-breed, like any self-respecting marginalized
figure in America has very radical views; a tenured position in a
doghouse; and enjoys smelling his own fecal matter.

HARRIS and WARREN attend 4th and 3rd grade respectively at St. Michael's
Academy in Groverston Twp.

Rough Scenic West Monroe Archive (for Curious Types)

Most Recent

Fall 2004 -- In both The Daily Targum and Flak Magazine


























Fall 2004 -- Just the Daily Targum and subsequently no thumbnails.

Warren and Maple, first day of school
Maple and Jane at lunch
Jane, Harris and Warren
Harris and Ltc. McScruffy
A week of parody New Yorker Comics

Older in Chronological Order

Fall 2001 -- The Daily Targum
None of these are online yet, which may or may not be a good thing.

Spring 2002 -- The Daily Targum
Also not online yet. The strips from this whole academic year had been drawn in advance out of necessity and the summer reserves had pretty much dried up by this semester. I think I only lasted 3 weeks and then published a really melodramatic note to my "readers."

Fall 2002 -- Rutgers Review

This dentist storyline first appeared over the course of three issues. I had drawn the first few strips the previous Spring and they were slated to appear in The Daily Targum, but I held off for some reason.











There are at least three 'sunday-sized' comics from this semester that aren't online yet, either.






This comic was drawn for a Review house ad. It came with a caption saying, "Get your juvenile humor published with school monies. Submit your work to the Rutgers Review."

Fall 2003 -- Rutgers Review

Crown Ethers are Cool

It's always a bad sign when the New York Times cites Carlos Mencia on a gender issue

Am I the only person who thinks this piece on sexy halloween costumes was just an excuse to include sexy photos of costume ads in the Times Style section? And to base this conclusion on how weak the article's analysis is? I mean who talks about "double standards" anymore? It's like Jesse Spano ghost-wrote this.

To be real for a minute, though: Where in the hell is my sexy canister of compressed, pharmacuetical-grade carbon dioxide costume? Not in the Party City circular that came in the mail today!? WTF-ity F!

"That Laura Kipnis!"

One of the reasons I continue to read Salon -- years past the point when I conisdered the hamfisted, partisan comic This Modern World to be insightful -- is because I like following the intellectual life of one of its founders, Laura Miller. It's not often that someone's choice of material to review and perspectives on the material appeals to me this much. The only recent one that comes to mind is Ed Gonzalez at Slant Magazine.

However, unlike Ed Gonzalez whose reviews just make me want to read more of his reviews, Laura Miller's really capable of letting the material she's reviewing either shine or hang itself as the case may be. Her review of Laura Kipnis' The Female Thing today is a good example of the former:

In wrestling with Dworkin's writings equating heterosexual intercourse with subjugation -- a more challenging task -- Kipnis is equally astute. "Dworkin didn't read the culture wrong: it's entirely true that all the idioms for penetration -- 'getting fucked,' 'screwed over' -- are about humiliation and exploitation. Which does make it hard to see how anyone can avoid a certain duality about the experience, even when it's pleasurable, as it often is! Dworkin is the great case study in the ambivalence of femininity: after all, she's hardly indifferent about penetration." As Kipnis notes earlier, Dworkin's key work, "Intercourse," hinged around her "wonderfully inflamed" indictment of the practice. "But," Kipnis goes on, "can there really be this much aversion without some corner of desire? The opposite of desire isn't aversion, it's indifference."

So, I absolutely have to read this book now, despite the fact that the cover design will make it hugely embarrassing to hold in public. See:


It's more than just the fig leaf; it's the color. [Link to Salon review]

Make your own font

because it's easy now. [Link]

Amen

"[The Jesus and Mary Chain's]Psychocandy remains a perfect record for states of feeling so bratty, depressed, or disgusted that you actually start to enjoy it. Also, like with most heroin rock’n’roll bands, there’s an earnest, romantic belief in something beautiful and unattainable in the midst of it, which might be drug-related for them but doesn’t have to be for you."

[Nitsuh Abebe, Pitchfork review, August 04, 2006]