When you have absolute power in a country, you get to do a lot of things that most other people don’t. For example, you get to have a lot of medals on your jacket.

Just a few of the awards presented to Turkmenbashy: Hero of Turkmenistan (six times), Medal for Labor Heroism, Order of Friendship of Peoples, Medal for Love of the Fatherland, The Award for International Understanding, Order Galkynysh, Silk Road Prize for Outstanding Achievement, Order Bitaraplyk, Gold Medal for the International Informatization Academy, Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to the World Strengthening and Understanding among Nations, First Class Order of the Russian Orthodox Church of Saint Duke Daniel of Moscow, Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise First Class Order, Medal of the Turkmen-Turkish Frienship Society, Order of Saint Mesrop Mashtots…

… and so many many more (and none of these are fictional).

It’s good to be the king, or at least the President for life.

Check out Joe and Azat for more about Turkmenistan and what it’s like living in a place with a president like this. And check out this review from Publishers Weekly. Check out my blog, too.

I don’t really do caricatures of people, so I was a little nervous about drawing Turkmenbashy in Joe and Azat. I suppose that Turkmenistan being the out of the way country that it is I could probably draw just about anything and most people in the U.S. wouldn’t question it, but I knew that at least some people who had been to Turkmenistan were going to see it and I didn’t want them saying, “You totally botched the bashy.”

So I kept things simple and I think it turned out all right. I also always liked Ted Rall’s drawings of Bush which weren’t the most accurate, but definitely gave you a clear impression of what Ted thought of him. So my Turkmenbashy is just a little bit cross eyed even though he wasn’t in real life.

I was an English teacher and Turkmenistan and before every class I heard the sacred oath chanted by students. Starting from the very lowest grades they new it by heart. It was kind of like the pledge of allegiance, only…

Turkmenistan,

My beloved motherland,

My beloved homeland,

You are always with me

In my thoughts and in my heart.

For the slightest evil against you

Let my hand be lost.

For the slightest slander about you

Let my tongue be lost.

At the moment of my betrayal

To my motherland,

To her sacred banner,

To Saparmurat Turkmenbashy the Great

Let my breath stop.

… it’s a little bit more grim than the pledge of allegiance.

Check out Joe and Azat for more about Turkmenistan.

And check out these photos of the pit of hell (one of Turkmenistan’s most bizarre tourist attractions) by John Bradley.

The Rukhnama is a truly amazing book. This is the quasi-political-spiritual-self-help-how-to-win-friends-and-dominate-people book written by Turkmenbashy (the former president for life of Turkmenistan). It was in all the schools in Turkmenistan while I was there. It was used in every classroom (I even saw it used in a math class). It was on sale in nearly every store. A copy was launched into space to orbit the earth, eternally protecting us. Turkmenbashy claimed that if you read it three times you would go to heaven. Words from the Rukhnama were even written on the inside of a mosque outside the city of Ashgabat (the inside of mosques generally being reserved for the Koran).

So it was natural when it came time to do the cover of my book I would look to the Rukhnama for inspiration. Pink and green all the way!

And you can also check out this review of Joe and Azat from the Comics Bulletin (I don’t think it’s been posted here yet). And check out my blog. And check out the arm on Matthias Schlitte!

If you wanted to buy anything in Turkmenistan you had to go to the bazaar on Sunday. It was always jam jam jammed packed and you’d have to push your way through the crowd. Which is kind of like SPX, only instead of carpets, car parts and livestock people are looking through piles of comics. SPX also lacks the bartering that takes place in a Turkmen bazaar, though I think it would be awesome if that happened a little bit more. It would be great if slamming your fist, raising your voice and storming off in a mock rage only to return a few moments later were an integral part of buying a mini-comic. At least I think it would cool.

Anyway, SPX was great. I sold a bunch of books, sold and traded a bunch of minis and sold all the prints of comics from my blog that I’d brought along (I really should have brought more of those)(oh well, I’ll know for next time).

But I think the best thing about SPX was that I finally had copies of Joe and Azat and instead of talking about it I could actually put it in people’s hands.

Well, it’s finally here. I should be getting copies of my book this week and hauling them down to D.C. this weekend. I’m excited. It feels a little like Christmas. Someday this week I’m going to come home from work and there is going to be a big box of my books waiting for me. Better than Christmas even.

If you’re in the D.C. area you should come by SPX and stop by the NBM booth. Ted Rall will be there. Greg Houston will be there. It’ll be awesome. I’m getting some mini-comics to bring along made up today.

See you then!

I’m going to try and make some sense, though I’ve had a hard time explaining this in the past.

I think of drawing comics as playing a game. It’s sort of like Scrabble. You have these pieces and they’re worth a certain amount of points, and you want to get as much out of those pieces as possible. You also need to match up your awesome word with what’s already on the board. Only with comics all this stuff is in the my head and the rules are really flexible.

The panels I like the most are the panels where this gamesmanship is most evident. This panel is an example. Narratively, two separate panels side by side one showing children playing video games, one showing soldiers playing video games would have worked just fine. But with these panels the boys and the soldiers’ bodies become one, the children morphing into the soldiers. 

And in the reality of Turkmenistan these boys playing the video games will soon be soldiers as service in the army is mandatory.

Does anybody see that when they read the comic? Do they even notice this morphing or do their eyes just move right across the page reading the text, seeing the faces of the boys and the combat boots of the soldiers and moving on? I don’t know, but I still enjoy playing the game and it’s a lot more interesting than two standard panels side by side.

Joe and Azat is coming soon. SPX will be the grand unveiling.

But you can check out my blog right now.

Some of the characters in Joe and Azat are based on real people, but Azat’s older brother Merdan (the one in control of the motorcycle) really came out of nowhere. He showed up in one of the early versions of the story as a rather unimportant background character, but he quickly asserted himself. He became one of the most fun characters to write because he was so hotheaded and reckless. His temper is always ready to explode. He drinks too much and when he drinks he gets violent and claims he’s the Turkmen Chuck Norris. A great character to throw into any scene.

Joe and Azat is coming soon. I should be getting my copies sometime the week before SPX, and if you’re in the D.C. area you should check me and the book out.

I was in Northampton, MA, this weekend at this little club/bar called The Basement where they play an awesome mix of music. Seventies funk, girl groups, Studio One reggae, doo wop, Del Shannon, great stuff. One of the songs they played while I was there was Popcorn by Hot Butter, which almost immediately brought me back to Turkmenistan. Only the Popcorn that I heard in Turkmenistan was not the Hot Butter version, but the Crazy Frog version and I must have heard it a million times. I would wake up every morning during the three months of training to my neighbor blasting it while he washed his car (yes, he washed his car every day).

There was also Gasolina by Daddy Yankee.

Axel F also by Crazy Frog.

And Hips Don’t Lie by Shakira which was always always always played in the discos.

If there were soundtracks for comic books these songs would be all over Joe and Azat. The book’s coming out soon, just a few days before SPX down in Bethesda. I’ll be there with it, if you’re in the area stop by and say hello and check out the new book. I’ll also probably have some mini-comics with me, too. 

If you can’t make it to SPX check out my blog.

It’s close. The book is about to come out. It’s really close. I don’t know the exact date, but Terry tells me it will be out before SPX at the end of next month (which I will be at as well). So it’s coming. I kind of feel like I’ve been talking about this book forever. Soon, soon you will be able to see the entire thing. Soon.

This weekend I went to a little get together/fundraiser for the Turkmenistan Youth and Civic Values Foundation. It was a lot of fun. I met a lot of cool people, many that had been to Turkmenistan with the Peace Corps and are still doing development work in Turkmenistan. They offer scholarships and grants for community development. It’s a great group. Check out there site.

While there I also met a Turkmen girl who has spent the summer in Martha’s Vineyard working as an ice cream scooper. She read two chapters from my book and I must admit I was a little nervous. She was the first person from Turkmenistan to read it, which felt like a lot of pressure. I’ll say all sorts of bad things about America, but when someone from another country says something I tend to get a little touchy. “I grew up here, I know what I’m talking about. You, you’re just passing through and don’t know anything.” So I was nervous that there might be a little bit of that from her. But she liked it and thought it was funny. I’m relieved.

I probably shouldn’t have been worried. The book’s awesome. When it comes out you’ll see.

Meanwhile, check out my blog and check out the Turkmenistan Youth and Civic Values site.