This is a graphic novel I'm currently working on.  It will be published some time in 2002 by Top Shelf. 

It grew out of a short story I drew for an Fantagraphics/Eros anthology book called Dirty Stories, which was edited by Eric Reynolds and included 'sex' strips by cartoonists like Carol Swain, Paul Pope, Matt Madden, Jessica Abel, James Kochalka and many more. 

My story takes place soon after the death of an elderly cartoonist called Ruben, who was born in Cornucopia but emigrated to Italy just after the end of WW2.   In his will Ruben has left everything in his studio to an institute - except for one locked cabinet and its contents.  This he leaves to his biographer: Hicksville's Daniel Hicks. 

When Daniel and an archivist from the institute open the cabinet they find hundreds of pages of artwork which Ruben had drawn over his 60-year career, but kept hidden from everyone - including Daniel.  These are his 'dirty comics' - pornographic strips ranging from simple Tijuana Bibles to long erotic love poems.  As Daniel and Sonja (the archivist) slowly go through this hidden body of work, their interest in each other also grows...

DIRTY COMICS will serve equally as a gentle love story, as an exploration of issues around pornography, relationships and desire and - not least - as erotic comics in its own right.  Or that's the idea anyway.   Here are a few samples from the original 6-page strip, to give you a hint of what you're in for.

(click on a thumbnail to view a full page)

(and click here to find out about my story for Dirty Stories vol.2)