Even John Doesn't Know What It Is

Here I am looking quite confused at something that Devin has put in my way. Confusion is central in Devin's work, and this glob of lines and shading and squiggles that might be Death moving a chair or might be a maze that confused itself into surrender is certainly a significant object of confusion.

The Firsts of the Psycho Revolution

This one was in a letter that Greg Carr sent me when I was living in Madison, Wisconsin and he and Devin were trying to convince me to move to Minneapolis. JAM was my Beat Brother nickname, as DVS was Devin's. Here I am beating my chest in a fairly realistic drawing for Devin but where I beat my chest the drawing turns into Devin's straight lines and maze patterns. It was a call for me to join the revolution in Minneapolis, to shake off the realistic lines around me and turn into something more abstract. Maybe, I think, I don't know exactly. Anyway, a couple months later I had moved to Minneapolis, so the drawing and the letters worked.

The Bud Man

Drinking and Devin. Devin and drinking. Devin did a lot of drinking when I knew him. Anybody around him did some drinking when they were around him. Drinking made things funny. Drinking made you see through the strangeness of everything. You could drink too much, and that made things kind of uncomfortable. Uncomfortable like eyes popping out and brains turning into lines. Alcohol could turn you into a Picasso version of yourself.

I can't remember exactly the circumstances behind this one. Devin put my name at the bottom like it's kind of a plaque. Does that mean that he meant me to be the Bud Man? After all, there weren't too many choices back then. Or was it some kind of dedication? I don't remember. But I do like this person, drinking through his bird mouth and directly into his brain, or through a second mouth, and how his body turns into a maze. 

John Find Himself Lost in Outer Space

Devin Sexson cast his comics of the 80's with his friends and enemies. The enemies were mostly various flavors of Ronald Reagans. I'm thrilled that I made a few appearances in his cartoons, hopefully cast as a friend. He got my baggy pants, unruly hair and glasses down pat. I still feel this way some days.