WCU Panel Discussion

Posted on March 14, 2013 by bre bro

Southern Culture on These Kids

L to R: Randy Molton, Brent Brown, Chris Cooper, David Cohen. (Photo courtesy of Rebecca MacNeice)

On March 14, 2013, I was part of a panel of local cartoonists invited to Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, to discuss our work as local cartoonists, as it pertained to “Southern Stereotypes in The World of Cartoons” as part of the Universitiy’s “Comic Stripped” exhibit taking place in the Southern Heritage Museum.

Many famous Southern or Appalachian-themed comic strips were displayed in the gallery: Snuffy Smith (with and without Barney Google), Dough Marlette’s “Kudzu”, Li’l Abner, even the more recent animated TV show, “King of the Hill.”

Of course, the creators of those well-known displays are either no longer alive, or too famous to show up for this panel, so the school very graciously reached out to local-grown talent to share their experience of creating comics/cartoons in the South, for the South, and presumably, about the South.

WCU cartoonist panel. L to R: Randy Molton, Brent Brown, Chris Cooper, David Cohen. (Thanks to Rebecca MacNeice for the photo.)

As a weekly cartoonst for the Asheville alt-weekly paper, “The Mountain Xpress” for the last six years or so, I was invited to share my cartoons that depicted such themes. Also on the panel were my fellow Mountain Xpress colleague Randy Molton, former Mountain Xpress cartoonist, and current political cartoonist for the daily paper of record in Asheville, the Citizen-Times, David Cohen; and resident WCU Political Science professor, Chris Cooper.

Brent Brown contemplates exhibit of Southern-themed comic strips at WCU.

It was apparent that the organizers of the exhibit and the panel had gone to great lengths to create a beautiful display of the genre and that genuine enthusiasm and care had gone into making the artwork displays expressive, lively and interesting.

Detail of exhibit of Southern-themed comic strips at WCU.

Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC

I was proud to have my own work put on display in the lobby outside the lecture hall as well, even if it was not in the same iconic class as the well-known comics in the gallery.

Brent Brown with exhibit of enlarged Southern/Appalachian themed comics he has done.

Sadly, aside from me, my fellow panelists, the accommodating and friendly folk from WCU who invited us, and the significant others we brought with us, there may have been about three other people who actually showed up to the discussion.

For those few, we had a lively and sometimes humorous discussion throughout the designated time period in the mostly empty hall. Randy and David gave thoughtful and considered answers in response to questions while I rambled on like a grumpy stand-up comic until time had run out.

I can’t pretend the seemingly apathetic turnout to what I would have considered a must-see event in my youth (REAL cartoonists talking and big displays of COMICs??) was not a bit of a letdown, and can’t help feeling like it was a depressing barometer of the interest in comics in general or my work in particular. It also evoked sympathy on my part for the work the organizers had put into it. Their fulsome enthusiasm contrasted with such apathetic snubbing by the students/public of the event to such a degree that I felt worse for them, than for me.

Maybe comic strips are becoming a relic of a bygone era. I mean, at nearly 50, I am still the youngest of the cartoonists present (you can’t tell by looking, but it’s true), so maybe if it’s not anime or manga, people of a younger generation aren’t interested. Also, print media may not have the allure for a demographic raised on electronic screens and unlimited visual content from limitless sources that it once held for me when the only time you could glimpse a color cartoon was in a Sunday paper or a Saturday morning television block. Comics and cartoons were a rare treat in those days, so they seemed to mean more. With cable networks devoted to them and web comics galore, they are as prevalent, and as overlooked as a kudzu vine.

Local area cartoonists: Randy Molton, Brent Brown and David Coehn at panel discussion and exhibit of Southern-themed comic strips at WCU.

Still, I appreciate their efforts, and enjoyed the time we spent there, even if no one else in the vicinity really seemed interested at all. It was nice to be part of group recognized for what they do, even if no one recognized it happened.

Addemdumb

Afterwards, Paul Clark, a writer for Carolina Public Press did a phone interview with me on the subject. This well-crafted piece debuted on April 9, 2013 to yet another round of intense apathy from the online reading public.

2012 Mountain Xpress Halloween Art

Posted on October 31, 2012 by bre bro

The local alt-weekly paper in Asheville, NC that I draw a weekly cartoon for asked me to draw a humorous Halloween and Election cover for the issue that would fall on the week of both those events.

I gave them some roughs and thumbnails and sketches for some classic monsters (Dracula, Mummy, Invisible Man, Frankenstein’s monster, wolf man, etc.) and, on a different tack, maybe a jack-o-lantern and a ballot box?

We ended up doing some of them voting in different, yet appropriate ways:

The invisible man is voting, of course, absentee ballot and a ghost voting reinforces the often-cited claim that dead people are voting in our elections, incurring the wrath of an angry, 17th century voter fraud mob. Dracula and his vampire fangs prefer punch ballots and Frankenstein’s creature doesn’t know his own strength when even using a tombstone touch screen ballot.

2012 Halloween cover for Mountain Xpress by Brent Brown

They liked the Republican elephant Frankenstein monster and the Democratic donkey Dracula, so I ended up drawing both of those for inside illustrations:

Finally, the weekly cartoon I also have to draw was a Halloween-Election theme too:

Rails to (Snow) Trails

Posted on January 12, 2011 by bre bro

Less than a mile from my house are the now-unused Norfolk-Southern railroad tracks that run for a while alongside the French Broad river as it makes its way through tiny Horse Shoe, NC. There has been some discussion in Henderson County about turning the abandoned and rusting away tracks into a useful all-purpose trail for runners, walkers, hikers, cyclists, etc to promote exercise and non-vehicle based travel to ease traffic congestion as the Rails To Trails program has done elsewhere. Of course, being this county is heavily populated by elderly retirees, sedentary obese people and proudly conservative residents who roll their eyes at any promotion of “fitness” or “environmental” as some kind of hippie, leftist, tree-hugger nonsense that people with common sense have no need for, the idea was not met with a groundswell of public support. The communist-like land sharing aspects of landowners next the current right of way of the tracks having to put up with endless parades of strangers engaging in this frivolity next to their property rubbed a lot the wrong way as well. Therefore, instead of waiting for the implementation of such a pipe dream as a county-wide greenway that would actually take people places they wanted or needed to go (or, horrors, an actual bike path) to spring up in such a setting, I set out to use the tracks myself for such purposes in the here and now.

For at least last year, I’ve been making a weekly run to the “downtown” Horse Shoe business district, under the premise of getting a new Mountain Xpress paper (that comes out each Wednesday) but really it’s just a way to ensure I make at least one attempt at exercise a week. Having a set appointment to do it really seems to work, and unfortunately, in many months it is the only exercise I get until the next Wednesday.

This works great when the weather is nice, but when it rains, I’m not so keen on doing it. When it is freezing cold and there is still 8 inches of snow on the ground, I am even less so. Still, I’ve kept it up, even if I had to layer myself like a wedding lasagna cake and brave through the even-less-shoulder-than usual-(which is none) road conditions to get to the tracks, which are not plowed either and therefore a whole new challenge. This time I took my camera with me and captured most of the trip there on the tracks and the trip back on the road. It would be nice to have an actual path, but it probably would not be passable in the winter either.

Crossing the French Broad River

Bottom lands by river.

I get on the tracks here, where they cross Banner Farm Road.

This and another dog, struggle against their chains to try and kill me each time I run past.

closer view

Cool, old crumbling structure next to tracks.

Me, next to it.

Past the dogs, coming up on the crossing with highway 64 west

Usually, I have to wait for traffic, but not long.

Across the road, two trestles, one over a creek, the shorter one later, crosses just a rut.

The smaller trestle on train tracks

crossing the snowy trestle (usually, I run, but I didn't want a blurry photo)

rear of Horse Shoe strip mall

Where the tracks cross an entrance road.

I leave the tracks at Hunter's Glen housing development entrance, near the post office.

Horse Shoe Post Office

Mailed letter I brought with me.

No new Mountain Xpress delivery today, guess I ran all the way up here for nuthin'!

Parking lot of Horse Shoe "grocery" (actually a convenience store/gas station/Subway)

Back towards home on 64 through the downtown traffic rush.

Old Horse Shoe Hardware store, turned into restaurant/furniture store/Tea Party meeting hall.

Going past new Horse Shoe Hardware store and Brigg's Garden Center.

Past the Horse Shoe Guns and Ammo store and Cummings Methodist Church (across the street, not the same place.)

Past the tracks I took earlier and abandoned landscaping business building by river.

Over the French Broad again.

If I see my shadow does that mean two more weeks of winter?

New post!

Posted on June 17, 2010 by bre bro

Hey, look! I can still add posts to this thing!

Click on the photo (or this type!) to see a new Action Figure Comic strip!

Metal Men!

Yeah, that’s it.

I discovered Henderson County’s Greenway!

Posted on November 4, 2009 by bre bro

Map of Greenway paths

So, I was not expecting to spend a long time waiting for an oil change when I drove my Hyundai Elantra GT into Hunter Chevrolet/Hyundai/Subaru on November 4, 2009, but apparently you now have to call for an appointment if you don’t want to wait (contrary to what I have been told in the past when I called for an appointment and they told me I don’t need one for just an oil change, hmmm..) After waiting in a long line just to get into the service check-in bay, I was told I would be in for a looong wait, but decided to go ahead and use my free oil change coupon I’ve been holding onto since May, even though I did not bring a bicycle to while away the time with, as I usually would.

Hunter Chevrolet/Hyundai on Asheville Hwy. in Hendersonville, NC

The line to get in was at least 4 cars out the door, but gone when I got back.

I sat in the waiting room and read the only section of the paper I could find, the Local news. I read an article about the newest leg of Henderson County’s Greenway being Grand Opened/Dedicated on November 14th. Now it stretches from Jackson Park all the way to Patton Park. The article said future hopes would be to get it all the way down to Berkely Mills. That was not far from where I was sitting, dreading the time doing nothing and I decided to take a walk.

I headed up the huge embankment from Hunter, across a church parking lot and down another bank to the disused railroad tracks that I don’t think the Norfolk-Soutern train even runs on any more with all the plants closing. I crossed Berkley Road and followed the tracks that run parallel with it for a while until I saw Patton Park right next to the tracks.

Crossing road on RR tracks next to Berkely Mills/Kimberly-Clark.

Crossing Berkely Road on RR tracks next to Berkely Mills/Kimberly-Clark.

Running down the railroad tracks by Berkely Mills/Kimberly-Clark plant.

Junction where track splits off to go to Kimberly-Clark plant.

Creek running under tracks with buildings on yon hill.

Well-worn path from railroad tracks around end of chain link fence to Patton Park.

I got off the RR tracks, and went around the chain link fence to follow the walking trails that oldsters and mommies pushing babies were making full use of. I found the offshoot of what I assumed to be the start of the connecting Greenway path from the walking path and headed down it. The new section starts right as you cross the railroad tracks and then cross North Main Street and you come to where the path deviates from it’s parallel course with the RR tracks and a wooden boardwalk begins beside the paved pathway.

I followed the paved path because the boardwalk said it was closed for construction and had a KEEP OUT sign on it. I went a ways and then turned a sharp corner and saw the end of the boardwalk with did NOT have a keep out sign on that end, hmmm. Then the path followed alongside the creek/river which I assumed was Mud Creek or the Oklawaha, hence the name of the Greenway as The Oklawaha Greenway.

Greenway path shoots off from walking path that circles Patton Park on Hwy. 25/Asheville Hwy.

Path crosses railroad tracks, then crosses road (N. Main Street)

Greenway path starts back here on other side of road. (N. Main Steet)

I took the boardwalk that runs sort of parallel to the paved greeway path, but cuts off the corner somewhat.

Boardwalk has offshoot pier that goes out to viewing point.

End of the boardwalk opens out onto paved path.

Divided lanes make biking easier. Saw one cyclist the whole time. Two other walkers. No joggers.

A few trees have signs marking their type along the greenway.

The Oklawaha river runs by the greenway (Also known as Mud Creek.)

Lots of standing water from recent rains.

More Trees.

Nice bridge crossing when getting near 7th Avenue.

I noticed a few signs marking trees of different varieties and even one that pointed out the “Poison Ivy” vines growing on one tree. As I approached the public housing known as Green Meadows, I finally ran into some other people. A guy walking with an iPod going and then what appeared to be a group of haggard vagrants mingling around the Seventh Avenue entrance. I didn’t have to wonder how to avoid their gaze long though, as a city parks dept. truck pulled right into the path for some reason just as I got there. I crossed the Seventh Avenue bridge and road and started on the way to the Jackson Park path I already knew well from riding my bike on at other times.

Greenway stops at Seventh Avenue and goes on bridge across river and then crosses to other side of street.

Sign showing Greeway map on Seventh Avenue entrance/crossing.

Greenway path picks up here to go to Jackson Park.

Heading towards where path goes beneath the busy HWY. 64/Four Seasons BLVD/MLK Blvd overpass.

Other side of Four Seasons BLVD. overpass, heading towards Jackson Park.

This marshy area is next to a creek that sometimes overflows and covers the path.

I stepped off the path to take some photos but sunk deep into the water and muck hidden under the tall weeds. Great, I was planning on running back and now I will have to do so with a squishy left sock and shoe. Finally reaching Jackson Park’s entrance, I crossed the road into the park and went to where the dog walkers were parking next to the nature trail. Sitting on a bench, I wrung out my sock and sat it in the sun a bit. I visited the Parks and Rec offices to use their rest room and they looked at me like I may actually be one of those homeless guys I was looking at the same way earlier. That’s what I get for going out in public without my winter beard properly grown in yet. There’s something about grey stubble that just screams vagrant! for some reason.

Almost to where Greenway enters Jackson Park.

Greenway path crosses the entrance road to Jackson Park here.

Parking area at Jackson Park. Some still flooded from recent rains.

Nature trail that veers off from Jackson Park path and loops back around to it.

Jackson Park part of path.

This is where I came to a stop.

Start of the Greenway path in Jackson Park.

View of Jackson Park from Parks and Rec office on hill.

Sitting down to wring water out of my sock after stepping off the path and getting it soaked.

Okay, time to go back now.

Starting back on my jog back to Hunter, I was able to run the whole way since I already took all the photos on the walking trip down. I was fortunate to have my cell phone camera with me, as the scenes were really quite beautiful in many places, but unfortunate in that it is a really crappy camera and did not take very good photos. As I was about two-thirds of the way back (this time I took the boardwalk, since it made the trip shorter and I could truthfully say there was no KEEP OUT sign when I got on at the other end, in case anyone asks, which no one did), I got a call on the cell phone that my car was ready, but they can’t find me. So I hurried even more. I think I spent about two hours total. I would hated to have been sitting in that waiting room all that time. This is supposedly a 1.1 mile addition to the greenway at present, but I don’t know how much extra it is to Hunter Chevrolet. If they get it to go all the way to Berkley Mills, it might make waiting for your car service a more enjoyable experience.

ADDENDUM: A week later, the Greenway was officially opened. Here are the photos from the Times News.

Headed back to Hunter on Greenway.

Took the path, not the boardwalk. The board walk is faster though.

: Map of Greenway paths

: Hunter Chevrolet/Hyundai on Asheville Hwy. in Hendersonville, NC

: The line to get in was at least 4 cars out the door, but gone when I got back.

: Crossing road on RR tracks next to Berkely Mills/Kimberly-Clark.

: Running down the railroad tracks by Berkely Mills/Kimberly-Clark plant.

: Junction where track splits off to go to Kimberly-Clark plant.

: Creek running under tracks with buildings on yon hill.

: Well-worn path from railroad tracks around end of chain link fence to Patton Park.

: Greenway path shoots off from walking path that circles Patton Park on Hwy. 25/Asheville Hwy.

: Path crosses railroad tracks, then crosses road (N. Main Street?)

: Greenway path starts back here on other side of road. (N. Main Steet?)

: I took the boardwalk that runs sort of parallel to the paved greeway path, but cuts off the corner somewhat.

: Boardwalk has offshoot pier that goes out to viewing point.

: End of the boardwalk opens out onto paved path.

: Divided lanes make biking easier. Saw one cyclist the whole time. Two other walkers. No joggers.

: A few trees have signs marking their type along the greenway.

: The Oklawaha river runs by the greenway (Also known as Mud Creek.)

: Lots of standing water from recent rains.

: More Trees.

: Nice bridge crossing when getting near 7th Avenue.

: Greenway stops at Seventh Avenue and goes on bridge across river and then crosses to other side of street.

: Sign showing Greeway map on Seventh Avenue entrance/crossing.

: Greenway path picks up here to go to Jackson Park.

: Heading towards where path goes beneath the busy HWY. 64/Four Seasons BLVD/MLK Blvd overpass.

: Other side of Four Seasons BLVD. overpass, heading towards Jackson Park.

: This marshy area is next to a creek that sometimes overflows and covers the path.

: Almost to where Greenway enters Jackson Park.

: Greenway path crosses the entrance road to Jackson Park here.

: Parking area at Jackson Park. Some still flooded from recent rains.

: Nature trail that veers off from Jackson Park path and loops back around to it.

: Jackson Park part of path.

: This is where I came to a stop.

: Start of the Greenway path in Jackson Park.

: View of Jackson Park from Parks and Rec office on hill.

: Sitting down to wring water out of my sock after stepping off the path and getting it soaked.

: Okay, time to go back now.

: Headed back to Hunter on Greenway.

: Took the path, not the boardwalk. The board walk is faster though.

Cartoons update

Posted on November 3, 2009 by bre bro

New cartoons since last entry:

November 4th, 2009 cartoon Click to Enlarge

October 21, 2009 cartoon Click to Enlarge

October 7th, 2009 cartoon Click to Enlarge

September 23rd, 2009 cartoon Click to Enlarge

September 9th, 2009 cartoon Click to Enlarge

August 26th, 2009 cartoon Click to Enlarge

MX has been diligent about putting them online of late, so I have neglected posting them here, but here’s a big batch of them if you don’t want to look on my site for them.