Letter to John Pt. VII

Part seven of a letter Devin sent me in 1986.

I Was Here Pt. 2

Here is the second page in Devin's letter to me, an adventure in color and words and images in several parts.

If you don't give me all your money, I'm going to set off this nuclear device

There was a lot of anxiety about nuclear war and nuclear winter and the possibility that someone, maybe Ronald Reagan, was going to hold us all hostage with the US nuclear arsenal back in the 1980's, when Devin drew this cartoon. Devin's terrorist here might have a legitimate nuclear device, or it might be a part that he stole from a car wash. It doesn't seem to be much of a threat, but the background images, nameless shapes of nations, garbage cans, a strange large ventilation device, all see fairly threatening. But the person in the comic with hands in his pockets, still doesn't seem all that frightened. He's already see it all. Or maybe he's reaching his hands in his pockets to pull out that money.

It's Weird

Here's another comic about art. In it, Devin's artist alter-ego character, a recurring character in his cartoons, is getting some feedback on his latest artist creation from an audience of critics who are actually much stranger than they really think they are. The audience may be even crazier than the crazy art that the crazy artist has created, which is definitely a dilemma that artists who flirt with the weird, like Devin did, must alway face: what if your conservative audience of critics is really stranger than the strange art that you are trying to make to blow their minds?

The 'Vert meets someone who is weirder than he is

Here's another 'Vert comic from Devin in honor of Bob Dylan's 75th birthday. Who knows what Bob Dylan might think of The 'Vert and the other strange creatures of Devin's brain, but Devin was a huge Bob Dylan fan. I remember spending hours listening to Dylan with Devin and being so amazed at that guy's creativity, and hoping to channel some of the strangeness of albums like "Blonde on Blonde," which Devin told me was his favorite, in our own strange drawings.

Every time Marvin cut it down it would grow back again

Devin's world was a place full of strange things over which you really had no control. I can appreciate that the thing is trying to grow on a very inhospitable driveway and probably preventing Marvin from taking his car out on that joyride.

Jesus Just Finds it Impossible to Comprehend This Thing

Jesus might have been having trouble comprehending this thing, but Devin Sexson could comprehend it enough to actually draw it. Devin could comprehend things that were incomprehensible, or that weren't even actual things that you could comprehend. His sense of humor and his sense of the world was based on the comprehensibility of such mystery. Even the most sublime and spiritual parts of life could be a little silly, and Devin could see that, and could draw it. And the mystery he drew, the mystery that baffled Jesus and every other spiritual master, turns out to be just waves, spots, crosses, eyes and flowers. It's all in how they are put together.
And of course what we all find incomprehensible is why Devin isn't around this planet for his 51st birthday. Happy Birthday, Devin!