The most successful artistic project I’ve been part of in my entire life (by far) started off as two friends taking the piss.
You can read the backstory and the original comic here:
Then, the comic became a real short film starring both Mimi-Siku from Disney’s Jungle 2 Jungle and the very same gatdamn actor that I used as a visual reference for the comic:
Now, the thing is on the road playing at legitimate film festivals, and, apparently, doing great!
Here’s an update from the director/writer of the original comic/friend I took the piss with in the first place, Thom Newell:
FULL MOON GLORY HOLE has arrived. Our World Premiere occurred at FRIGHTFEST a few days ago. Myself, Courtney, and our featured musician Joshua Powell were all in attendance. London is a beautiful city filled with rich historical sites, beautiful architecture, and pubs galore. We watched many movies together over our four days at the fest, and I can say with confidence that FMGH was one of the best of the lot! I’ve attached a few photos of our adventures below.
In other good news, I’m happy to announce our next screening! We will be playing on September 14th, at 6:30 PM as part of the LOVE/SICK shorts block at the Sydney Underground Film Festival in Australia! Here’s the link. This marks our Australian debut, and hopefully the beginning of more screenings to come. If anyone wants to attend, please let me know and I’ll put you in touch with the festival.
As always, thank you for being a part of our team and for making our little film possible.
Obviously, I am still stunned by all of this, and can’t quite put into words the feeling of seeing some bullshit you imagined in your brain literally become a real thing.
Anyway, I’m very proud of my buddy Thom and will continue to pass along updates with a “howbout that?” when I get them.
In other news.
I’ve written a couple of things, but they were shit, so I deleted them.
Honestly, just deleting the thing is becoming kind of a go-to move in my summer of building boundaries between myself and the internet.
Instead, I’ve been keeping busy attending sporting events, mowing the lawn, training for a Tough Mudder (15k!!!), running the Tough Mudder, recovering from the Tough Mudder, making fudge, setting myself on fire, making fudge again, spilling ice cream on myself on the Mackinac Ferry, going to the zoo, helping Ladyhawkey recover from foot surgery, going to the Boone County Fair (which is remarkably unchanged and still a really nice piece of Americana even after 30-some years), making fudge again, going to something called “Smut and Eggs” at a local bar called Bennett’s Country Club, which is not a country club, and furthermore I am unaware of a country club that serves a modestly-priced breakfast while playing 90s porn on every screen on a Saturday morning (yes really), trying out a fedora, rejecting said fedora, eating an amazing sandwich despite having GERD, being tempted to douse a community garden I volunteered to take care of but that no longer sparks joy with Agent Orange, visiting the doctor a dozen times with nonspecific symptoms only to be told “you need to calm down, chief” and then finally, my annual tradition of riding my bike for an hour to drink obscene amounts of German beer in the hot sun while listening to a folksy musician named Robert J play live music at a place called the Essen Haus, which, after decades as a historic slice of downtown Madison heaven is soon to close forever and be replaced by ugly apartments (which are desperately needed, but I am nonetheless inconsolable about the loss of the Haus).
Here are some photos from those misadventures:
And oh yes, instead of blowing hot air around the internet about the youths and their dumb ideas, I’ve been drawing.
I hope to share more soon, but drawing takes a long time.
Subscribe to RONIN DIGITAL EXPRESS and you will see more most likely probably pretty soon-ish.
Have a great rest of your summer, and be good.