Friday, February 19, 2016

Latest sketchbook

I finished another sketchbook this morning! I keep these nice little pocket-sized sketchbooks on my desk and devote a couple of minutes to it each day. I allow just a minute or two per page, which is a nice, freeing exercise.

Someday soon I'll get back to finished drawings, but in the meantime here are a few favorite pages from this most recent sketchbook:










Wednesday, February 3, 2016

The Funny-Book Maker (a poem from the archives)


BAD ENDING # 10: THE FUNNY-BOOK MAKER

By John R. Platt


The comic-book artist
Got lost in his work
Black lines
Inked on white paper
Over and over and over

Two pages of art a day
Then three
Then five
Then ten
He no longer slept

He called his editor:
"Send more scripts!"

He neglected his health
His friends stopped calling
His wife left him
He didn't care
Only the stories mattered

Then, one day,
He ran out of ink
"No time to get supplies,"
He thought,
And reached for his Xacto knife

The found him two weeks later
Drained and dry
Sad and alone
But surrounded
By the best work of his career

It never saw print.



(One of a series of "Bad Endings" poems I have written over the years. This was originally published in January 2006 in BARE BONE 8, Raw Dog Screaming Press. Copyright 2006, 2016 John R. Platt)