Writing

Here are some stories I wrote for the monthly literary and arts magazine Independence Boulevard ...

One night in Lima

I had heard stories of friends of friends who were married to mail-order brides or grooms. Some of them married solely for tax reasons. They didn't live with each other and didn't even speak the same language. Some were gay and married to a spouse of the opposite sex.

I thought this would make a fascinating story. I was curious as to what kind of people had mail-order brides, why they did it and how they did it. I also wanted to know why the women became mail-order brides.

To find out how it was done, I looked up an international dating service on the Internet and ordered some catalogues.

Believe it or not, comics are

one of the last bastions of morality

When I was a pre-adolescent boy living on the west side of Charlotte, coming down with a cold or the flu wasn't an entirely bad thing. Not only did I get to skip school, but I also got served meals in bed, I got to watch TV all day, and most importantly -- my ever lovin' dad brought me stacks of comic books from the local supermarket!

I would spend all day reading these exciting tales of adventure and modern-day chivalry. I pondered every word and studied every brush stroke in every action-packed panel until I knew each comic inside and out.

In search of spirituality and goodness

Buddhism teaches that the way to nirvana is reached by the Noble Eightfold Path which includes right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. It doesn't sound too difficult, does it? But what is "right," and who decides what it is?

The Christian Bible give us another code to live by in the Ten Commandments. Their universal truth is illustrated by the fact that they are accepted by most major religions.

I thought I had a pretty good grasp of what it meant to be a "good" person until a recent girlfriend informed me that I was spiritually lacking and I needed to work on my character, my virtues and my sense of commitment.

Looking for an artist named Ray

Everybody knows about Ray. His familiar and almost comforting presence has graced the Charlotte landscape for many months. Maybe years. Who knows? Nobody knows when he first began appearing with his straining, over-burdened shopping cart on the sidewalks of Charlotte's busiest streets. Everybody knows of Ray, but nobody seems to really know him.

The (apparently) homeless artist has become an obsession for many of this city's commuters. They take comfort in seeing him day after day, week after week, month after month. They wonder who he is. How he arrived at this lot in life. How he finds the strength and courage to walk such great distances in the blazing heat and the biting cold. But nobody knows this artist named Ray.

30 minutes with Harlan Ellison

Famed writer and media critic Harlan Ellison will be the guest of honor at the Heroes Convention, which runs June 18-20 at the Charlotte Convention Center. Throughout his 40-year career Ellison has won numerous awards for his novels, short stories, essays and newspaper columns. His most famous works include two books of TV essays "The Class Teat" and "The Other Class Teat," the short story collections "I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream" and "The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World," the movie "A Boy and His Dog, " and contributions to the television shows "The Outer Limits," "The Twilight Zone" and "Babylon 5."

He recently adapted "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" into a CD-ROM computer game. Last year he won an award for promoting freedom of speech in the comic book industry. An avid comic book reader and frequent contributor, Ellison is slated to write a Superman story this year in collaboration with Peter Davld. This comic will be part of a limited series placing DC heroes in the "Real World."

The following interview was printed in my own publication Tangents ...

Mad gets madder

In issue #490 of the Comic Shop News, Mad editor Nick Meglin is quoted as saying the magazine "never pushed the envelope as much as people gave us credit for. It looked like, and sounded like, we were a lot braver than we were."

A new, improved Mad, to be launched in April, promises to feature more political and social commentary and piss off more readers. We like it already.

Lewd was fortunate enough to speak to Meglin and his co-editor John Ficarra. The conversation was as outrageous as you would expect from the masters of satiric take-offs and sardonic putdowns. And it was very informative.