JERSEY SHORE – In the age of corporate media and artificially generated images, the best way to find real art is supporting real artists.
A dozen such artists and writers descended upon the Groovy Graveyard collectibles store in Asbury Park recently, setting up tables to sell their wares and meet future fans.
Fine artists, horror novelists, and even horror picture book artists (Yes, that’s a thing) sold a great variety of strange and beautiful work. One of them is the story of Cow by Lacey’s Steve Vincent, telling the tale of a Frankenstein monster made of beef who hangs out with his creator, a punk named Billy.
Vincent used to sell his “Spaztic Colon” series 30 years ago, and this is where Cow got its start. After a long hiatus he’s picked up the pen again, but the art world isn’t as it once was.
“Everything is digital. Someone would rather take a picture of something than have the experience of doing it,” he said.
Independent art stems from independent thought. The best way to learn new information, hear a new joke, or even unlock a new nightmare is to take a look at something that hasn’t been sanitized for mass market appeal.
For example, there’s Vincent’s “Twas,” which tells the story of the Consumer Product Safety Commission pulling over Santa’s sleigh and destroying all the toys because they were deemed “unsafe” by the bureaucracy. Santa’s reaction is poetic and very, very dark.
That book is clearly not for kids. Most of the stuff being sold at the show in Asbury wasn’t. “Twas” was originally printed back in 2012, and his “Cow B.C.” comic collected all his stories from his Cow character from 1995-1999.
“It was fun revisiting the characters because they’ve been gone for so long,” he said.
What have the characters been doing during their 20 years off? Well, that’s the plot of 2024’s “The Book Of Cow,” which fills in the blanks on what the stars – Cow and Billy – have been up to for the last two decades. The answer is as bizarre as you would expect.
You see, one thing that a lot of the writers and artists at the show had in common was age. They were all people had been doing this – in various capacities – for decades. Some took a break. Family, jobs and other responsibilities got in the way, but the creative mind does what the creative mind wants to do. And they all found themselves back at booths selling new stories.
“It’s all about having fun. I have a job,” Vincent said, so it’s never been about the money. “I have stuff in my brain that I can’t get out.”
A link to the stuff in his brain can be found here: a.co/d/4TDLZJd.
