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My story Duke Alvarez: American Mummy Outlaw is available to read now on Hazlitt. I’m excited to have the story up online and was equally as excited to see the striking accompanying artwork by illustrator and cartoonist Anuj Shrestha.

DUKE ALVAREZ: AMERICAN MUMMY OUTLAW is about the confusing and often untraceable lines of history, the outwardly expanding impact of a life (or a life-cut-short), and our unshakeable obsession with fame and notoriety.

The story was inspired by Sylvester and Elmer McCurdy, two real-life American mummies, which were carted around across the country as sideshow attractions and given made-up histories and names. I also read through the early Lee/Ditko run of Spider-Man as inspiration for some of the story’s comic book elements.

This story took a long time to see the light of day—I remember writing down the first few paragraphs early in the morning before anyone else was up at my partner’s family home, while we were visiting for the holidays in 2022. It bounced around a lot.

It’s difficult placing longer stories and I was about ready to set it aside, when Haley Cullingham at Hazlitt accepted it. Thanks, Haley! I’d also especially like to thank Tonia Addison for editing it, curating the perfect artwork, and graciously putting up with my pestering about formatting. I also wanted to give a shoutout to Maria Cichosz and Tony Chao (see image below) who edited and illustrated an earlier iteration of this piece, respectively.

Go check out their work!

My story ‘YOURSELF FULFILLING PROPHECY’ is available now in the latest issue of Broken Pencil with excellent artwork by Lina Wu.

The story is based on a long-running joke amongst my friends after a classified ad was posted as a prank on my friend Paul’s behalf.

It fascinated me how even though the ad was so clearly fake, he still got hundreds of genuine messages and phone calls. After a bit of research, I learned that there’s no licensing or paperwork for becoming a psychic—you basically just have to say you are one. The story is about a person who does just that.

I wrote ‘YOURSELF FULFILLING PROPHECY’ because I knew it would make my friends laugh to see “Magic Paul” in print. That’s why I was so thrilled when Broken Pencil allowed me to design a free t-shirt giveaway to go along with the issue.

The joy I get from knowing that people are out walking around with “Magic” Paul’s face on their shirt will last a very long time.

And I hope you’ll pickup a copy here.

I made a video to accompany my story, ‘LONELY & DISGUSTING THINGS,’ which originally appeared in subTerrain #81.

I drew pictures obsessively as a kid, but quit around age 10 or 11, so it’s been nice picking up on an old hobby.

I only had two pens and a pencil in the apartment (while self-isolating) and the only non-lined paper I had was recipe cards, so I drew out everything on those.

It’s been fun and challenging, and I hope you enjoy it!

 

It was the fulfilment of a dream, seeing Pacific Meats & Frozen Foods, Inc. feature in the fall issue of Geist. Read it now in Geist 98!

And for those afraid of paper cuts: Check out ‘Pacific Meats & Frozen Foods, Inc.’ here.