Gave away a “Cheesesteak.” A friend at the café wanted me to meet a master wood craftsman (and repairer of musical instruments), who, he said, was from Philadelphia. The craftsman turned out to be from Far Rockaway, but he had lived in Philly for 10 or 20 years, some at 48th & Baltimore, which is near where I grew up, so I gave it to him anyway.
Then I shamed an ex-bookstore clerk/current graphite artist into buying an “Outlaws, Rebels…” We had been discussing Crumb and Wilson, both of whose work he admires, and I said, “Everything I’ve been telling you is in my book. You ought to read that.”
In other news…
1.) None on “Messiahs…”
2.) The envisioned documentary film on Dan O’Neill and the Air Pirates, about whom I and my book are source material, has reached the gofundme stage. I have done my part by requesting contributions from (a) 50 selected friends and acquaintances; (b) 30-plus people in my high school graduation class; and © a bunch of guys I played pick-up basketball with. So far, four or five people from group (a) said they’d contribute; one woman in group (b) said she “got” my request and one fellow, with mild dementia, thought the email came was from our alumni class representative and thanked her for her years of service; and one fellow in group © said he’d never been a fan of the counterculture and was less of one now.
3.) My article on Victor Cayro, which I wrote last year, has appeared in the latest issue of the print “Comics Journal.” It’s a good article, but since the issue costs about $20, I can’t say I expect anyone I know to read it. (I wrote more about this experience and my reaction thereto in my last blog, which I FB-linked and to which I refer the curious.)
4.) Some instructive, recently culled statistics: (a) in these days of self-publishing, only 20% of all books sell more than 100 copies and only 6% sell a thousand; (b) it is exceedingly rare for a serious literary graphic novel (or art book) to sell more than two or three thousand copies.
A hellova way to make a living.
So many Bob Levins on the Internet; I'm the Bob Levin who writes.