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The PBF and Maxim

As some of you know, I used to write a comic strip in college. Sometime during my junior year I was invited to a party thrown by another comic strip artist (I think I can accurately qualify him as an 'artist' as opposed to myself) and at this party I met a bunch of other comic writers from the same paper. One in particular was Nick Gurewitch and his five co-writers. They wrote an extremely clever and hilarious strip called The Perry Bible Fellowship. Now, when we first met at this party, they had had maybe three strips appear in the paper so far; it was a very new strip. Mine had been running for about a year, if I remember correctly. It was a very surreal moment - our meeting - because I'm not sure I'd ever met any people who were bigger fans of my strip than these six guys. "Gushing" isn't the right word, but its the first word that comes to mind. They knew every one of my strips by heart, found them all hysterical and told me about it for a long time that night.

So fast forward a few months...

and the PBF (as they took to calling their strip) became one of the most popular comic strips in the paper. It also became my favorite. It really was the best, most original comic strip I think I have ever read, save for maybe Calvin and Hobbes. At some point Nick dropped the rest of his crew and started writing the PBF on his own. He was clearly the brains of the operation as the strip didn't miss a beat with this consolidation. I admired Nick for his ability to consistently write an original comic strip and for making it funny for every reason I couldn't.

Since school we've kept in touch. Emails here and there. He's got a book deal for his archive of strips while continuing to write new ones. He's had some published in a few small publications, I believe. (You can get a shit ton of information and details, as well as an archive of all of his strips, on his website.)

The point of this whole story is that last week I received my new issue of Maxim magazine. I threw it in the bathroom and told it to wait there until I had to go. Well, two enchiladas (and the cheese, rice and beans with it), I was ready to take a look at it. When I saw Nicks name above one of his earlier strips, I shit. Luckily, that's what I was there to do anyway. But I was amazed, ecstatic and excited for him. How unbelieveable! Maxim magazine? That's ridiculous. So of course I sent him an email congratulating him and telling him how excited I was for him and all the usual compliments. He replied and in his reply, among other things, this kid, he says to me, he says, "Thanks for all the encouragement, man. I blow my friends minds when I tell them I've heard from you." This mutual admiration we have for each other is fun. I just wish I could hold my end up a little.

From what he tells me, his strip will be running monthly in the magazine for the foreseeable future, so check it out. Also, keep your eyes open for a Perry Bible Fellowship book soon to come from Dark Horse Comics.