Tom Neely

I discovered this guy (Columbus style) approximately 7 minutes ago. I kinda wish I wasn't moving to Japan in a week so I could order his book, get his book, and brood over his book for a while.

It's called The Blot. His website says the story centers around an everyman modeled after E.C. Segar's [Popeye] characters and Sartre's Roquentin, "who is plagued by the very ink he is made of, and lives in a metaphorical, existential surreality with no beginning or end." It seems t'be one of those wonderful stories that decides writing in genre should be at best a seldom-chosen conscious decision, and at worst an misinformed bad habit, like bestiality.

I want it. Mommy I want it so bad.

Check his art out on the website to get a good idea of the quote above. It is a whole lot like an alternate reality where Segar's best buddies were Kafka and Dali and they kept trying to one-up the other. That's not to say that Neely is a mix of Dali, Segar, and Kafka. He has his artistic influences--who doesn't--but he's absolutely his own joe. Hope for me that Japan has an English import of the book laying around somewhere. Tom Neely is my new Guy To Consider.

Incidentally and suddenly I realize that Neely's coolness and interestingness is somehow related to Kevin Huizenga's coolness and interestingness. I'll need to look more into that...after I read The Blot.