HEJIRA

Another year in the bucket. Around here, things are cuspy. I mean, they're on the cusp of change. It's not always fun or exciting. It's that period when the old way has passed its time but the new way hasn't yet started. Limbo. Waiting, wondering.

In my case I'm talking about my future on this planet. As an artist, and as a person. The big news is I'm in the process of slowly backing away from the Spit and a Half distro.

When I restarted Spit and a Half, in 2009 or so, it was with the hope I could grow it into a part-time job... something to do a few days a week to bring in some extra income and lift the financial burden off trying to survive as an artist alone (which is tough, everybody knows). Then there was a point when things kept growing where I thought, "Wow. This is really filling a need in the comics community… this is a real business." It became a full-time job (but it didn't really pay like a full-time job). And then it became a six-and-a-half days a week job that paid like a full-time job. (Thank you!)

Now if you're working a six-and-a-half days a week job, packing comics in boxes, answering the endless parade of emails, texts, Facebook messages, Instagram messages, twitter messages, dealing with problems, headaches, setbacks, mistakes, first of all, one thing is clear -- you sure as hell aren't gonna be drawing your own comics. Second -- every tiny lapse compounds upon itself. Wait, you have a doctor's appointment? The pile of work grows higher. You have to take your dog to the vet? Higher. You're just so depressed and tired you can't get out of bed? Higher.

It was a case of bad timing. If only this had happened when I was 25... When I had a community around me (ie in the same town as me) to help out, hell, to hire... And when I had energy and nerve and youthful idealism. But I'm fifty years old now and I have none of those things.

So now I'm fucking up. Maybe not super bad, but the writing's on the wall. I'm hundreds of books behind on updating the website. I've got 1000 titles scattered throughout our house (and a storage unit!), spilling everywhere and messing with the Feng Shui. I'm misplacing people's books... which one of a dozen stacks of boxes are those twelve missing minicomics in? I DON'T KNOW.

Like Cometbus said, "I wish there was something I could quit." So I just kept getting deeper and deeper behind, and feeling worse and worse. And then I was listening to Joni Mitchell's Hejira album. I've listened to it many times and never wondered about the title. Turns out hejira is an Arabic word meaning "a journey, especially when undertaken to escape from a dangerous or undesirable situation." (Good ol' Merriam-Webster.) And it clicked. I need my hejira. My tactical retreat.

Like all of us I'm sure, I grow more and more alienated from the modern world with each new day. I'm broken down by the constant cycle of bad news, horror, stupidity, greed, anger. In the pre-Distro days, if I was overwhelmed like that, I'd be able to retreat for a while, hide for a bit, regroup. Draw, think, walk in the woods, heal. But with the Distro that's an impossibility. There's always another email, always another order. PLEASE don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly humbled by and grateful for the support the Distro has gotten from the community. It's an honor to serve you all! But the time has come for me to pass on this mantle to the next generation. It's just not a job one old dude can do on his own anymore.

As a survival instinct, I've started drawing more (from life), and playing music again... and in those acts I've begun to touch parts of my spirit that have been neglected for a long time. It feels like the start of a rebirth. I'm fifty, and I hate to talk about it, but men in my family don't live very long. Early sixties maybe. My Dad made it to 64 by a few weeks. I have a lot of work still to do in this life... personal work. Comics to draw, letters to write, birds to feed. So I'm beginning to break down the distro... culling old titles, returning books to publishers... in an effort to restore some balance. Knowing me, it will be a long slow process, but over the last few months I've begun taking the first steps.

More soon.

I love you all! Thank you,
John P.

PS: Thanks everyone for the well wishes I've received in response to this blogpost. To clarify, I'll (likely) continue to run the distro going forward, but it will be at a drastically reduced level, with a small, highly specific and rotating selection of books. Something that I really can take care of easily on a one or two day per week schedule.

KING-CAT 78 AVAILABLE NOW!!!

Hey everyone, King-Cat 78 is at the printer! Subscriber/Patreon copies will be going out ASAP. If you would otherwise like to (pre)order just one copy of this issue, the best way is to PayPal the money to me directly, as follows:

USA: $6.50
CANADA: $7.20 USD
REST OF WORLD: $8.75 USD

Payable via PayPal to: kingcat_paypal AT Hotmail DOT com

If you want to order KC 78 along with other books, please visit www.spitandahalf.com.

Thank you!
John P.

- - - 

King-Cat 78 features lots of funny animal stories like “A Story About Ninny,” “Lady Tuff ‘n’ Tender,” and “Nighttime Encounter with the Void”; tons of Nature Notes featuring Monarch Butterfly Lifecycle and “Shrews Thru History”; an extensive letters section with notes from T.E. Bak, Megan Kelso, and more; plus poetry, Top 40, a Zen Story, and the Usual Gang of Schtuff. 40 digest pages in eye-catching black and white. (Spit and a Half)

(Click images to enlarge)

FROM LONE MOUNTAIN Available Now!

Hey everyone, my latest KCat collection from D+Q is out now!

FROM LONE MOUNTAIN compiles issues 62-68 of King-Cat (2003-2007), along with a selection of previously unpublished strips and detailed commentary. It features such classic stories as “Trombones No. 1,” “Great Western Sky,” The Sound of the Birds,” “Like a Pigeon,” “Iowa City,” “Las Hojas/Football Weather,” “Freeman Kame,” and the first batch of Diogenes comics. Every page of the original zines is reproduced in order including front and back covers, letters columns, Snornose pages, and Top 40’s. Also includes the standalone zines 3 Poems About Fog and The Ones That Everybody Knows. 308 pages, 6″ x 9″, two color cover, black and white interiors.

You can purchase it from your favorite bookseller, Amazon, D+Q, or even directly from me at Spit and a Half. I'll also of course have copies with me at my upcoming festival appearances.

D+Q's Tom Devlin writes about FLM here and Charles Hatfield has an extensive review up at TCJ.

Thank you! And don't forget I'll be on the road a bit reading from the book. Full tour dates can be found here.

LOVE - John P.

FROM LONE MOUNTAIN Tour Dates

Hi all, I'm old and tired and will only be doing a small tour in support of my new D+Q book, From Lone Mountain (available March 20!). Please see below for dates. I would love to see you if you're able to come out and say hi!

LOVE, John P.

(Click to enlarge!)

2017/2018 YEAR IN P/REVIEW

2017 was a hell of a year, and we all know it. On the personal side I spent much of it dealing with family health issues, which was hard too. I was always an idealist, but never an optimist. I don't know what this new year will bring, but let's hope somehow it's better than the last one.

Comics-wise, it was busy for me. In the spring I published King-Cat 77 and Jenny Zervakis' Complete Strange Growths book in quick succession. Then in the fall I put out a new edition of Pascal Girard's sweet and funny Apartment Number Three. Additionally, the fine folks at Uncivilized Books published my South Beloit Journal. These can all be purchased online at the Spit and a Half distro site.

Speaking of the distro, it continues to grow not only in size, but in the time it requires of me. I'll turn 50 this year and at some point I will need to refocus my attention on my own comics. But the distro is also such a big part of who I am, and how I want to function in this world. It's tough to balance.

Balance may be my key word of 2018. Things are out of hand -- in the world, in my head -- and I'm looking to restore some steadiness. On my Patreon page I wrote recently about the three things that have never let me down in this life: Zines, Nature, and Zen. As the world outside rumbles off its axis, I'm finding myself in retreat towards these grounding forces in my life. I also have the feeling that I'm running out of time. Fifty is young in most terms, but not for Porcellinos. I'm hoping I have fifteen more years. Anything beyond that will be gravy. If I'm looking at the limits of life in the suddenly foreseeable future, I need to make some serious decisions about what that life is going to entail. I feel like I'm on the cusp of change again.

One of the changes I plan to make is to limit my time spent on social media. In many ways social media was made for me as an artist. I love to share, to communicate, and especially in the form of small tidbits and little asides. But the rise of anti-rationality, argumentativeness, and snark on social media is depressing to me. I'll still be online on Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram, etc etc, but in a less interactive way. If I can swing it. Addictions are hard to kick.

Meanwhile, this blog has languished somewhat. I hope to come back to it again this year and begin posting more things here rather than on other more corporate platforms. Look for my "Fave Comics of 2016" (!) list shortly, and then my 2017 List soon after.

I have King-Cat 78 in its wrapping-up phase, and hope to publish it in February. After that, the next two issues are already conceived and I should be able to get a lot of work done on them quickly, with at least one of them also being published in 2018. And my next D+Q book, From Lone Mountain, will be published in March, collecting King-Cats no. 62-68, plus bonus material.

So, we'll see. Thanks for all your support this last year, and all these years. It means the world to me.

Talk soon,
John P.

SOUTH BELOIT JOURNAL (2017)

HEY FOLKS!

It's out! -- You can order my "new" comic SOUTH BELOIT JOURNAL now, at the Spit and a Half site:

http://www.spitandahalf.com/…/south-beloit-journal-by-john…/

If you're a Patreon supporter at $5+ per month you'll be receiving a copy via mail in several weeks, along with the Spit and a Half edition of Pascal Girard's APARTMENT NUMBER THREE. If you'd like to sign up for my Patreon, you can do so here: www.patreon.com/johnporcellino

Thanks!

John P.

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"Over the winter of 2010-2011 I found myself at the lowest point of my life: Twice divorced, heartbroken, mentally insane, and living in poverty and isolation in a cold, grey cinderblock apartment in a small, gritty town in Northern Illinois… South Beloit.

One of my projects at the time was illustrating a book about suicide, The Next Day, for the Canadian publisher Pop Sandbox. As I trimmed the pages to size, I found myself with ninety-one 2” x 6” scraps of Bristol board. They looked perfect for a comic strip, so I began drawing upon them one little diary comic per day. I tried not to censor myself (though sometimes I still did), but to just let the ink spill without preconception or prejudice. South Beloit Journal collects these strips."

40 pages, 6.5″ x 8″, two color covers, black and white interiors. (Uncivilized Books)

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(Apartment Number Three, Pascal Girard's lovely, funny comic from 2011, will be back in print soon!)

SPX and BEYOND

Hi everyone,

I won't be able to make it down to SPX this year in person, but Spit and a Half will be staking out a corner of the Kilgore Books table (I 8-9) where Jenny Zervakis will be selling copies of her acclaimed* COMPLETE STRANGE GROWTHS collection, and there'll be recent issues of King-Cat for sale, including the new one, #77. Please drop by and check it out. Jenny would be happy to sign your book for you!

Since last year's debacle I've told myself I will only do one "long distance" show per year from here on out, and this year that show is CXC in Columbus, to be held Sept. 30 - Oct. 1. I'll be tabling with good ol' Zak Sally at that show.

Then a few weeks later I'll be at the Saint Louis Small Press Expo on October 14, followed by my annual final show of the year, Milwaukee Zine Fest (Date TBA).

See you there!
John P.

*"Book of the Year!" -- Frank Santoro, Comics Workbook
"Book of the Year!" --  Ron Regé, Jr., Author of The Cartoon Utopia

KING-CAT #77 AVAILABLE NOW!

Hey everyone,

I just got the boxes from the printer, and King-Cat #77 is now available for purchase!

It's 40 digest pages loaded with dogs, cats, possums, mountain lions, moths, frogs, and toads, in stories including Night of the Living Possums, Bee/Bike Story, Big Cats in Illinois (and Wisconsin) Exist!, Caterpillar Story, Fluttering Moth, plus an adaptation of Edgar Lee Masters' poem "Willie Metcalf," and more! (40 digest pages, black and white throughout)

To order a single issue of King-Cat #77, costs (including shipping/handling) are as follows:

USA: $6.50
CANADA: $7.20 USD
REST OF WORLD: $8.75 USD

Via PayPal to kingcat_paypal AT hotmail DOT com

If you're in the US you can also send cash/check/mo payable to:

"John Porcellino"
PO Box 142
South Beloit, IL 61080

If you would like to order KC 77 along with other items, please use the convenient online shopping cart at SPIT AND A HALF. 

Thank you!
John P.

OLD AND RARE KING-CATS (STRANGE GROWTHS FUNDRAISER #2)

Hi Everyone, I'm still in the process of collecting funds to cover the publication of Spit and a Half's first book form publication: The Complete Strange Growths, 1991-1997, by Jenny Zervakis. The AFFIRM print sale raised around $600, and I'll be conducting a few more fundraisers in the weeks to come.

Below, I'm offering for sale a number of Highly Collectable™ and Potentially Lucrative®* OLD KING-CATS from my office stash.

These are in very limited numbers, so if you are interested, please write to me first at johnp_kingcat AT hotmail DOT com to confirm availability.

Thank you for your support!
John P.

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ABOUT THE COMPLETE STRANGE GROWTHS

Jenny Zervakis is one of the great unsung creators of 1990's DIY comics. Her zine Strange Growths was gentle and sincere at a time when most alt-comics were loud and sarcastic. They were poetic and allusive, delving into the heart of the human experience, and they were one of my biggest influences as a cartoonist.

In 1997, as the Spit and a Half distro grew, I had plans to begin publishing a series of nice but simple book collections of my favorite underground cartoonists, and Jenny was at the top of that short list. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, I fell seriously ill and had to spend the next 10 or 12 years focusing on my health issues. So this publishing venture was delayed... for twenty years!

The Complete Strange Growths, 1991-1997 will be approximately 240 pages, and collect the entirety of Strange Growths numbers1-13, plus an assortment of rare comics from anthologies, and a new interview with Jenny conducted by Robert Clough. It should debut this June at CAKE in Chicago.

---

I'm selling the following old issues of King-Cat to raise funds for publication.

(Add $5 shipping per order in the US) 

 International Customers: I'll figure the cheapest way to get the books to your location and let you know the cost. Please include your mailing address when writing.

These books are in good shape, but may have a few dings, dents and corner folds. Best copies go to the earliest purchasers! Many issues contain oddities that have never been collected, like letters pages, Snornose pages, ads, photos, and other ephemera. ("Uncensored" pages are those which I edited for the book collections, usually to remove potentially litigable content.)

KING-CAT #27

The Second Racky Raccoon Issue

June 1991

The funniest King-Cat ever features Racky Raccoon eating a radioactive sour grape gumball and growing to enormous size. My tribute to the Jack Kirby monster comics of the early 1960's. Contains six uncollected pages. 16 page digest. SOLD OUT!

KING-CAT #48

Nuts and Bolts

May 1995

Contains "Nuts and Bolts," "Barr Lake Story," "Hello Death/Goodbye New Wave," and many more. Includes four uncensored pages. 20 digest pages. SOLD OUT!

KING-CAT #53

Perfect Example Volume II

February 1998

The second half of the story later collected as Perfect Example, features "The Fourth of July" and "Celebrated Summer," and includes two uncollected/uncensored pages. 44 digest pages. ELEVEN SEVEN COPIES AVAILABLE! $15.00

KING-CAT #55

The Owl

June 1999

Contains "Prick Test," "Spring Signs" One and Two, "Eyeball Lesson," "Ryokan's Moon," "The Owl" (collected in Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man TPB), and much more. One uncensored page. 28 page digest. SOLD OUT!

KING-CAT #56

Punt No Tell

December 1999

Contains the book length "Punt No Tell," plus "Busy Bee," and Letters to the Editor. 28 page digest, includes extended uncensored sequence. SOLD OUT!

KING-CAT #57

Psalm

August 2000

Includes "Psalm," "Spiritual Light," "Spotlight on Pill Bugs," and much more. 32 digest pages, two uncensored/uncollected pages. FOUR TWO COPIES AVAILABLE. $25

KING-CAT #61

Shoppin' with Ma

September 2002

Includes "Shoppin' with Ma" parts One and Two, "Bird Story," "First Hot Night," and more, including the rare, easily lost The Kukoc Cat Named Maisie mini-zine. 24 digest pages, pus 24 page mini. FIVE THREE COPIES AVAILABLE. $35

KING-CAT #62

The Sound of the Birds

August 2003

Includes "The Sound of the Birds," "Long Day," "Fabyan Street Bridge," and more. 32 digest pages. SOLD OUT!

KING-CAT # 68

Cloud Mountain

October 1997

Includes "Cloud Mountain" parts One and Two, "7 Weeks of Snow," "Anthill," Breathe," multiple Diogenes Stories, Warm Light," and more. 36 digest pages. To be collected in From Lone Mountain, Fall 2017. ONLY THREE TWO AVAILABLE. $15

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! John P.

*Not all King-Cats go up in value. Some go down. WAY down.

AFFIRM (STRANGE GROWTHS FUNDRAISER #1)

Dear Everyone,

Back in 2005 I did a nice letterpress print with Alvin Buenaventura. A few of these went out into the world, but for the most part the project was lost to time. With Alvin's passing last year I got in contact with his family to see about the fate of some of his Pigeon Press publications and pick them up for the Spit and a Half distro (Sir Alfred #3 by Tim Hensley, Worst Behaviour by Simon Hanselmann, Facility Integrity by Nick Maandag, etc). At the time it was also confirmed that the family had located a stash of my 2005 prints.

They generously donated these to me, and now I'd like to offer them to King-Cat fans as part of a fundraising drive to help with the publication of the Jenny Zervakis Strange Growths collection this summer.

Jenny Zervakis is one of the great unsung creators of 1990's DIY comics. Her zine Strange Growths was gentle and sincere at a time when most alt-comics were loud and sarcastic. They were poetic and allusive, delving into the heart of the human experience and they were one of my biggest influences as a cartoonist.

In 1997 as the original distro grew, I had plans to begin publishing a series of nice but simple book collections of some of my favorite underground cartoonists, and Jenny was at the top of that short list. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter I fell seriously ill and spent the next 10 or 12 years focusing on my health issues, and this publishing venture had to be delayed. For twenty years!

The Complete Strange Growths 1990-1997 will be approximately 224 pages, and collect the entirety of Strange Growths 1-13, plus bonus comics and a new interview with Jenny conducted by Robert Clough. The book will debut at CAKE in Chicago this June.

In the meantime we're beginning to raise funds for publication. If you buy one of these Buenaventura prints, proceeds will go directly to the Strange Growths fund. A bit further down the line I'll be offering a preorder book sale, which will include some premiums from Jenny (color prints, drawings etc).

Supplies of the print are very limited, so please email me at johnp_kingcat AT hotmail DOT com before sending money. Thank you!

John P.

AFFIRM letterpress print by John Porcellino and Buenaventura Press, 2005

Edition of 100 plus artist's proofs
Approx. 9 inches x 8 inches

SOLD OUT! THANKS EVERYONE!

Please write to confirm availability before sending payment!

COST, INCLUDING SHIPPING:
USA: $35.00
CANADA: $42.00 USD
REST OF WORLD: $46.00 USD

Payable via PayPal to kingcat_paypal AT hotmail DOT com

KING-CAT 76 IS AVAILABLE!

Hey Folks,

The moment we have all possibly been waiting for is upon us: King-Cat #76 is shipping NOW! This new issue features A Trip to the Confluence, Dreaming, Old People in Restaurants, Sports Radio, Fall Signs, Winter Signs, Radishes, Birds, and 9 pages of fascinating Letters to the Editor; plus more. A Weird One — (But Not Bad). (32 digest pages, black and white throughout.)

To order a single issue of King-Cat #76, costs (including shipping/handling) are as follows:

USA: $6.50
CANADA: $7.20 USD
REST OF WORLD: $8.75 USD

Via PayPal to kingcat_paypal AT hotmail DOT com

If you're in the US you can also send cash/check/mo payable to:

"John Porcellino"
PO Box 142
South Beloit, IL 61080

If you would like to order KC 76 along with other items, please use the convenient online shopping cart at SPIT AND A HALF. 

Thank you!
John P.

CAKE PATTER

So, last weekend was CAKE, the beloved and well-appreciated Chicago Alt-Comics festival. In a last minute push I managed to overcome my inertia and got a small print run of the new King-Cat printed for the show. (The main run, which goes out to stores and subscribers etc, will be coming soon.) 

If you read my previous post, you know that I've been approaching if not reaching Maximum Burnout­® as far as the convention circuit is concerned. But CAKE is my hometown show, and I think the best alt-comics show in the country right now. It's well attended, well-organized, and has an extremely high quality level. It feels like an old-tyme comics show, where the focus is back on creative individuality and risk taking, versus Adventure Time wannabee clones and trendhopping, intentional mediocrity. Almost every table at CAKE is primo, with some of the best and most interesting cartoonists of our time in attendance.

 The view from the Spit and a Half table, Saturday.

 

The Hon. Zak R. Sally, my next door neighbor and best bud.

 

British writer Dean Simons and Kilgore Books impresario, Dan Stafford.

 

Sgt. Huizenga of the Lake County Sheriff's Police.

 

Mardou interviews Zak for Comics Workbook.

 

My other neighbors were Keiler and Scott Roberts and their daughter Xia, who drew a picture of a groundhog and a beaver dancing for me. 

So anyhow, the show was great. And then. Somehow I made it through the entire day Sunday, from 11-6, at one of the biggest LGBTQ Centers in Chicago, without ever hearing about the shooting in Orlando. As I was loading out that evening, I noticed all the security in bullet proof vests everywhere, and I asked what was going on. It was then that I found out what had happened.

Walking out then onto Halsted Street, the historic heart of Chicago's LGBTQ community, I was stunned into speechlessness and heartbreak. The people moving down the street, rainbow flags draped over their shoulders, it all seemed like an eerie, terrible dream.

Let me just say out loud that I treasure my many gay, lesbian, bi, trans and otherwise queer friends. I can't imagine-- if I felt as stunned, scared, and furious as I did-- how you all must feel. For whatever it's worth, my love is here with you, along with the love of all your millions of supporters.

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