Welcome, to the inaugural blog post. I am Sweetwater. My journal comics are hella-sweet. I pick three moments out of my week where I was an asshole, and render them for you, my new devoted audience. You need to tell people about this Web-comic site – this is real life here people! It’s kinda like that reality TV that the kids are into. . .but, like, a comic.

If people don’t like your recommendation of this site, tell them they were adopted.

There are haters of all kinds. As you will see in the posts to come, I am a hater quite often myself. But, I hate other haters. Let’s make them set their cups of Haterade™ down and take a long, cool sip of my journal comic goodness instead.

Let’s drink my creative fluid together.

Also, I think my journal comics would make an excellent, moderately-successful indie graphic novel and/or motion picture. If you’re reading this, and you own a publishing company and/or film company, let’s talk money baby. We need to do some biznaz. Let’s do that biznaz today.

Holla.

Aloha.  I’m a fucking jerk, and for some reason, these people love it.  I haven’t had my site up for very long, and already these people have stepped up and done me a solid in some way.

Sweetwater would like to thank the following people:

Blake Patrick: He’s my roommate, and my hommie. He tells people about my Web comic site and that makes him cool. He gets more of the asshole that anyone probably, and that’s not a gay joke.

Okay, it is. He’s a sodomite, get it.

Chris Berinato: One of the biggest supporters of my knuckleheaded foolishness.  He checks my Web comic every day despite the fact that his wife thinks it’s total filth, and the work of a degenerate. He gambles his marriage for a thrice-weekly fix of Sweetwater. You should be willing to do so as well.

Zach Powers (The Man With the Name You Want To Touch, But Mustn’t Touch): Zach wrote the “about” section of this Web site.  He regularly absolves me of any guilt that I feel as a result of the shitty things I say or do. Essentially, he’s a high priest of the Church of the Asshole – able to pardon me with a wave of his hand. Zach also brings me six packs while I silk screen mini-comic covers.

Zach’s a three-time Emmy winner, a saxophonist, an obsurdist fiction writer, and probably thinks you’re stupid. Find his shiznit here.

Trisha Albano: I see the building manager of Norris Hall checking my comics every day. 

Melisa Santora: Melisa is tied with Trisha Albano for being my #1 reader.  Mel has always loved me despite the fuck-ass things I do. She is also one of the shortest women on Earth – so much so that the picture above is actual size.

Dallas Dedmon: Has the unfortunate pleasure of being the butt of most of my jokes. I stay friends with her despite the crazy-lady hat.  That makes us even.  She also makes her homegirls read my comic. Hey, here’s an idea: make your homegirls read my Web comic too. Send a link to someone right now.

Tonyefa Oyake: A fellow soldier in the self-publishing trenches.  If you’re in Atlanta, keep an eye out for his comics. This dude is the most stubborn man alive, but on the upside, he can make a mean salad. Like me, he enjoys stealing music from the Internet. He is also a good guy to have around if you want to beat the shit out of a druggie in an alley that’s fucking with your truck.

The Illustrious, Kevin Burkhalter:  Kevin is a graduate student at SCAD, and is one of the my co-hosts on the SEQALAB podcast.  He’s also the dude that first turned me on to the whole journal comic thang. Listen, if you’re a creator, don’t ever get torked out about learning from someone younger than you. Check out his work here. 

The Deaf Guy, Tyler Niccum: Tyler is a bigger asshole than I am, but he’s a hell of a sequential artist. Find his stuff here.

Glenn Stoll: My hyper-active hommie from south Florida. Growing up, I got my ass kicked repeatedly as a result of smart-ass shit this dude would say to the wrong people. Glenn would mouth the fuck off, and then be ghost while my dumb ass was getting pounded on the asphalt, or in the back of some movie theater.

Needless to say, I learned a lot about shit-disturbing and not giving a flying fuck from this guy.

Thanks for turnin’ your stoner friends on to the site too.

The Young and Talented, Pranas T. Naujokiatis: A senior in the SCAD sequential art department and fellow journal comic creator. Check out his comic, INKDICK here.

Rashad Doucet: I’m just happy that Rashad can sit still long enough to check out my comics. Rashad’s also our news guy on the SEQALAB podcast.

Jarrett Williams: Another graduate student at SCAD, and another one of my co-hosts on the SEQALAB podcast. Jarrett Williams is a comic machine. This dude can draw more pages in an hour than you could in a day.  His speed is a for-real inspiration to me. Find the prequel Web comic to his kid-friendly series of Lunar Boy graphic novels here.

My Bossman, D-Dunk: David Duncan is my bossman, serves as the chair of SCAD’s sequential art department, and is the Grand Arbiter of All Things Indie. The fact that he digs this site, and the mini I made, gives me funny-book street cred. SPX here I come!

His wife bakes excellent brownies and finger snacks.

My Other Bossman, J-Lowe: John Lowe controls my future and well-being. I will not fuck with this man. He has not fired me, likes my asshole comics and my suit jackets. That’s three big wins in Ol’ Sweetwater’s book.

His wife makes excellent Japanese fried noodle snacky things.

Ricardo Midence: I’m surprised Ol’ Rick’s able to pull away from his swath of bitches long enough to read my Web comic.  Thanks for reading, and thanks for leaving a few females for the rest of us you suavemente, Fabio mu’fucker.

Shazzbaa: Shazzbaa has been kind enough to post some comments. She’s got a pretty kick-ass journal comic site too. Check it out here.

Stacy Jennings: Stacy gave me the mad hook-up for some free color copies for the inside page of my Sweetwater mini comic. Fuck yeah!  She can also drink me under the table. 

Steve Howard:  This uncle fucker is FIRST person I’d turn to if I needed help burying a dead hooker. ‘Nuff said.

David Locher: A fellow cartoonist who’s been supportive of my Web endeavors since way back in the day. Check out David’s stuff here. He’s the first person I’d turn to if I needed to run someone over with a bus. 

Kate Kasenow:  Kate was the butt of most of my assholery out in San Diego, and didn’t slap me. Check out her artist blog.

Mark Geary: I know this man is reading my comics while he’s housesitting.

Now, if you’re reading this and haven’t done anything for Sweetwater, get busy for daddy. 

Check out this drawing submitted by ol’ Tyle Niccum! I think he did a pretty good job capturing our likenesses, and I dig the hell out of the crazy-ass monkeys in the background.

I say “fuck yeah!” to friends and wild monkey shit.

Hey everyone. I want you to trust Sweetwater. I want you to check out this post over at Inkdick – the daily journal comic of Pranas Naujokaitis. I want y’all to read both his comic and his journal entry. This is one of the most important and relevant journal comic/blog posts I’ve seen posted on any site.  

Readers will get some insight into some of the hard choices that have to be made when you’re keepin’ it real. 

I’m proud of you Pranas.

Eepybird’s Sticky Note Experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

Hey folks, my homie Pranas got royally fucked the other day. Here’s what happened:

But fear not! You can help! Find out how by clicking here.

Hey folks – Pranas has all the scrilla he needs for a new computadors! No more need to throw money at him, but I’d like to thank anyone from this site that hooked him up!  I may be a totla prickwad, but the comic community as a hole is pretty damn supportive of our own.

As Nat Landry would say, “That’s what’s up!”

Check this out: My comics are definitely proof that you don’t need to draw particularly good, or spend a fuck ton of time drawing in order for your comics to still be total 100% kick ass!

Another cartoonist proving this point is Yusaku Hanakuma with his work Tokyo Zombie. The Japanese even have a term for our kinda work, heta-uma, which when translated word-for-word means “bad, but good.”

This story is about two factory workers, Mitsuo and Fujio, who love nothing more than practicing their sweet-ass jujutsu moves during their breaks. When a corporate asshat from the “main office” tells them how gay their proper holds look, they bash his head in and drag his corpse up Dark Fuji, a local mountain of garbage where people seek to lose all their troubles.

Things go to shit though when Dark Fuji’s buried corpses begin to rise as flesh-hungry zombies. Plenty of town folk get bitten and infected with the zombie hiv, including the older Mitsuo, prompting him to urge his homie Fujio to keep training and attain that black belt rank.

And then the plot leaps five years into the future, where a walled-off city seeks to maintain polite society in the middle of the zombie hellscape, complete with the wealthy lording over slaves and holding gladiatorial human/zombie fights for their personal pleasure.

Guess who’s a skilled fighter in the pit?

All this, and the zombies have to wear animal masks when the wrestle. This stuff is funny as shit and I even make a guest appearance! So, that’s what’s up – heta-uma represent!

In Japan, they turned it into a movie! Here’s a sweet taste:

I want this like nobody’s business.  

If you’re a Floridian (as I know many of my readers are), an ex-Floridian like Ol’ Sweetwater, or if you have family in Florida, help your nation and get down with the Sarah Silverman and the Great Schlep.

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.