An Anthology
Edited by
Cayetano Garza Jr.
Dedicated to Rick and Deborah Geary and the two special girls in my life: Gwen and Beatrix. Special thanks to The Center for Cartoon Studies students, faculty and alumni for all the inspiration, encouragement and friendship. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to events or persons, living and dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright
©
2008 by Cayetano Garza Jr.
All contributions contained in this book are used with permission and are the copyrighted and trademarked property of the individual creators.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced (except for review purposes) without written consent of the respective creator or creators.
Published by Magic Inkwell Press www.magicinkwell.com
First Edition - May 2008
secretsandliesanthology.wordpress.com contact the editor: inkwellimp@gmail.com Design by Cayetano Garza Jr. Back cover image Copyright
©
2008 by Rick Geary
Printing: Anything Printed, Woodstock, VT www.anythingprinted.net Bindery: Marus Printing, Hartland, VT www.barleywinegraphics.com/marus/
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Table of Contents Introduction
by
Alter Man
Joe Lambert & Jeff Lok............................................................................... 6
by
Cayetano Garza Jr........................................................................................ 4
A Tragedy in Orbit
by
Kicking It Old School The Librarian
by
The Nutcracker
Rick Geary................................................................................. 17 by
Box Brown. ...........................................................................25
Shaenon K. Garrity & Chuck Whelon............................................ 27 by
Pineapple Passion
Betsey Swardlick. ................................................................................39 Radical Warren.............................................................................. 54
by
The Secrets of Animal Intelligence
by
Marek Bennett. ..................................57
Puff Pain
by
Jose Luis Olivares. .............................................................................................58
Self Help
by
Colleen Frakes. ................................................................................................... 60
No Pets Allowed
Bryan Stone......................................................................................63
by
One Secret With Many Lies The Boys’ Dorm
by
What a Whopper Cupcake Fate
by
by
Lucy Knisley...................................................................................... 71
by
Dan Archer...................................................................................... 77
Colin Tedford...........................................................................................92
The Snow Beast in Springtime Earth Day
by
Corey Eno Ruffin..............................................67
by
Caitlin Plovnick............................................93
Dan Barlow & Charles Schneeflock Snow.............................................98
Pyreye: Escape from Knobby Islands
by
Untold Mysteries of (Popular) Science Secrets & Lies
by
Paul H. Way...............................103 by
Tymothi Godek....................109
Dan Hernandez.................................................................................... 116
I’m Not Really Allergic To Chocolate
by
Dave Roman.............................120
How I Lost My Girlfriend to Animal Crossing Monsters and Girls: Amelia excerpt
by
Mutie
by
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Matt King............ 121
Denis St. John................................ 127
Secrets and Lies, Windows and Wounds Sunday With Dave
by
by
SR Bissette.......................... 135
Penina Gal..................................................................................148
AP Furtado...................................................................................................................154
Coverup
by
Cayetano Garza Jr............................................................................................. 165
Secret Identity
by
Dennis Pacheco.................................................................................... 169
Introduction The title of this book is in some ways a misnomer.
When I first envisioned doing an anthology, the name presented itself to me in a very powerful way.
Maybe not as powerfully as the Vast Active Living Intelligence System most certainly
beamed its message into the tortured consciousness of the writer Philip K. Dick, but almost. Like a gnostic revelation from some kind of demiurge I realized every story was one of two things: a secret and/or a lie.
All fiction is lies. Every work of fiction is a dissembling of reality. A work of imagination, while entertaining, usually has no ultimate causality or significance on the “real world�. Usually.
The best fiction will oftentimes tell us a secret. Some stories will literally transport us into the experience of another human being. Surreptitiously. Voyeuristically. The best secrets have the potential to be fatally alluring in the hands of an expert storyteller. A good story often brings us closer to understanding the human condition through the eyes of people we may never meet and most certainly will never be.
This anthology contains the work of seasoned veterans of comic’s print industry, faculty, alumi, current and upcoming students from the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction Vermont, acclaimed web cartoonists and a couple hobbyist/enthusiasts.
Their work speaks to
us in an array of human emotion and experience. Some are complete fabrications, some give us insight into the reality of modern corporatized slavery, and some speak intimately to the reader about gained (and often universally shared) personal experience.
It is our hope that you enjoy our secrets and lies as much as we enjoyed presenting them to you, the reader, here in this anthology.
Cayetano Garza Jr. May 31, 2008
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“If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.� - Kahlil Gibran
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Whop·per Pronunciation: \hwä-p r, wä-\ e
Function: noun Etymology: whop Date: circa 1712 1 : something unusually large or otherwise extreme of its kind 2 : an extravagant or monstrous lie [Merriam-Webster Dictionary]
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Š Dan Archer, May 2008. Visit www.archcomix.com for more info & comics. 91
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“It is only in lies, wholeheartedly and bravely told, that human nature attains, through words and speech, the forbearance, the nobility, the romance, the idealism, that it falls so short of in fact and in deeds. � - Clare Boothe Luce
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“The history of our race, and each individual’s experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.” - Samuel Clemens
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CONTRIBUTORS Dan Archer
is from England, a Cambridge grad, who quickly swapped his mortarboard for the
drawing board and has worked for Atlantic and Penguin publishers, The Bookseller, The Other Side Magazine as well as coming runner-up in The Times Young Cartoonist of the Year Award.
www.archburger.blogspot.com Dan Barlow is a writer group. www.treesandhills.org Marek Bennett
in Vermont and one of the founding members of the Trees and Hills
draws “Mimi’s Doughnuts” and teaches comics, music, Spanish, and science in
New Hampshire, where he woke up in the middle of the night thinking (for some reason) that this page would be perfect for the “Secrets and Lies” anthology.
Stephen R. Bissette
www.marekbennett.com
(SWAMP THING, TYRANT, TABOO, ‘1963’, etc.) loves Marge, teaches
at the Center for Cartoon Studies, co-authored THE PRINCE OF STORIES: THE MANY WORLDS OF NEIL GAIMAN (coming November 2008 from St. Martin’s Press) and is still drawing comics for his own damned pleasure.
Box Brown
www.srbissette.com
writes with embarrassing sincerity and a childlike charm.
thoughtful... one of a generation of promising new voices in comics.
Colleen Frakes
is a Xeric award winning Center for Cartoon Studies grad who makes comics,
works in a library, and contemplates her own mortality.
AP Furtado
His work is honest and
www.boxbrown.com
tragicrelief.blogspot.com
is the creative guru behind the webcomics ELF `n TROLL, `TWEEN and numerous
others. He has been spotlighted in two books about webcomics and has had several comics featured on the ModernTales website, in Heavy Metal Magazine, and numerous independent publishers over the past 16 years.
Penina Gal
www.webcomicsnation.com/apfurtado/
is a recent graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies.
www.stripygreentomato.net
Shaenon K. Garrity
is a manga editor by day and webcartoonist by night.
Cayetano Garza Jr. so at www.magicinkwell.com.
has been posting comics on the internet since 1996 and continues to do
Rick Geary
www.shaenon.com
lives in the town of Carrizozo, New Mexico, where he continues his series of graphic
novels that chronicle famous murder cases.
Tymothi Godek
www.rickgeary.com
lives in Ohio with his wife and two children and dreams of a day when he can
pay someone to write biographical blurbs for him. Like a publicist or something.
www.yellowlight.scratchspace.net Dan Hernandez Matt King
is an amazing webcartoonist.
www.dreadfuldays.net
is a 20 year-old painting major at Arcadia University in suburban Philadelphia.
Lucy Knisley
spends her youth happily bent over a desk, scribbling comics in the hopes that
she will not look back and regret it.
Joe Lambert
www.stoppayingattention.com
is a recent inductee to the Best American Comics anthology, attended the School
of Visual Arts, The Art Institute of Colorado and just graduated from The Center for Cartoon Studies.
www.submarinesubmarine.com
Jeff Lok
is working on an 8 part story called, Pockmarked Apocalypse, and trying to save
money to move to Portland, Maine.
Jose Luis Olivares
jefflok.livejournal.com
has spent 2 years teaching English in a Japanese small town and will soon
relocate to an even smaller town to attend CCS.
Dennis Pacheco
www.joseluisolivares.com
studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
White River Junction, Vermont, which really isn’t so bad.
Caitlin Plovnick Dave Roman
He lives and works in
pigeonholepress.net
lives in Baltimore and mutters to herself a lot.
creepyloser.blogspot.com
draws a webcomic called Astronaut Elementary, and has collaborated on several
books including Jax Epoch, Teen Boat, and Agnes Quill.
Corey Eno Ruffin
www.yaytime.com
lives and works in Grand Rapids, Michigan as a private music instructor and
caricaturist. He hosts The Super Happy Funtime Burlesque show, leads the massive End of Times Orchestra, and is a noise and free jazz saxophonist for many groups in the area.
www.myspace.com/endtimesorchestra Denis St. John is a graduate class act. denisstjohn.blogspot.com
of the 2008 class of The Center for Cartoon Studies and a real
Charles Schneeflock Snow
is a cartoonist and graphic designer living in Brighton, MA who
enjoys all the finer things in life -- good food, good beer, and pudgy women.
Bryan Stone
www.sordidcityblues.com
was once a comic character who was locked in an epic battle with a creature
known at “the baby with adult legs”.
Betsey Swardlick Colin Tedford
www.poisondartonline.com
is kind of a big liar, maybe.
comme-un-buddha.livejournal.com
is an organizer of northern New England’s Trees & Hills Comics Group and
author of several minicomics and a newspaper strip (Spinning World, in the monthly Brattleboro Commons).
www.colintedford.com
Radical Warren Paul H. Way
has never saved a puppy, but he’s never killed one either.
www.flamejob.net
went to high school with Cat Garza and went on to make spicy adult comics for
Antarctic Press and Radio Comix as well as art for various RPG companies.
Chuck Whelon
wexal.deviantart.com
is the creator, artist and co-writer of Pewfell. He was born and raised near the
Basingstoke roundabout in England but now lives in San Francisco, CA with his wife and son.
www.pewfell.com
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