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The Layer Method
Our top Secret time-saving technique for creating and merging balloons and tails in Illustrator.
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Thursday, September 2, 2010
And I Thought Writing About Comics Was Weird
Pornhounds by Sharon Lintz
Since I’m the type to seek a moment or two of quiet during crowded engagements like the Small Press Expo, two years ago I found myself on a barstool at Flanagan’s Irish Pub several blocks south of the Holiday Inn Select. That year the “Taste of Bethesda” was taking place almost directly behind the SPX site and the usual spots were packed with people. At Flanagan’s, college football games of no significance flickered on the silent television screen and the bartender washed glasses in the corner. I was alone in the bar with my slowly settling Guinness and a messenger bag bulging with comics and books.
After ten or fifteen minutes of silently flipping through my books, another guy walked in and sat at the bar; he sat about two or three seats to my left, and ordered his own beer. And since I was seeking that quiet moment, I did what I always do; I ignored him and continued flipping through comics and enjoying my beer. But then the guy started talking in my direction. He asked me if I was at the comic thing and we started talking.
Turns out the guy was at the Expo not only as a comic fan, but also to check things out for his wife, who was looking at publishing her own book about working in the adult film industry. We chatted about comics and writing about comics and I gave him my email in case his wife ever followed through with her project.
Flash forward two years and that project has been realized. A few weeks ago, Sharon Lintz sent out a copy of PORNHOUNDS #1 and it’s a very good comics debut. PORNHOUNDS tells the story of, from Lintz’s perspective, several hounds she met while working as writer for an weekly adult paper. Her account is fair and surprisingly affectionate. She doesn’t look down on these guys; a couple of them creeped her out sure, but she writes about the good as well as the bad. The whole book is really kind of riveting. Each ex-coworker gets his own chapter with Lintz filling in the details, never blinking or swerving, regardless of the subject matter.
Sharon Lintz writes the book, but she uses different artists for each chapter. The artists include Mark McMurray, Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg, Sophie Crumb, Matthew Shultz, and Robin Bougie. Mark McMurray starts things off by illustrating how Lintz found herself writing about porn. As an aspiring writer, she answered an ad on a whim and then found herself jumping when told, “Sharon, I need 300 words on Sindi Coxx, stat.” Lintz calls her pornhounds, “a ragtag group of newspaper professionals – hardworking guys who knew the business.” And boy, did they know the business.
Ed Piskor draws Pornhound #1, Lenny the editor. Lenny is a kind-hearted guy pushing sixty, but still hanging on to his ponytail and lax attitudes about drugs in the workplace. Piskor’s art is a good fit for this introduction to sleaze, (you know what I mean, Ed). Just like McMurray’s clean line works best for the intro that focuses on Lintz landing the job. Piskor’s good at drawing sordid.
Matthew Shultz draws a very convincing longhaired party guy Donny the Dirtball (Pornhound #2), so convincing that I think I went to high school with that dude. Donny takes Lintz under his wing and explains terms like DP and that women get paid extra to work with Ron Jeremy. Fascinating! (I’m not kidding.) Robin Bougie is tasked with illustrating a pornhound who is able to tell exactly which starlet it is just by seeing a close up of her, ahem… orifice. Jim Rugg does a fantastic job of illustrating the section on the mysterious Aaron, Pornhound #4. It almost looks like Rugg’s channeling Chester Brown in this story, and with Lintz’s descriptions the character of Aaron almost seems larger than life.
Sophie Crumb rounds out the gang with a one-page strip and then Mark McMurray takes over again for the epilogue. The book is interesting and often very funny, but the epilogue is probably the best part. As fascinating as the actual Pornhounds are, it’s Lintz’s decision to work in porn and her thoughts on it that really stand out. She’s open-minded and excited to be able to get paid for her writing. Her honesty is refreshing throughout. After her gig at the adult weekly, she put together a string of boring jobs that she hated; copy editing for cell phone ads, writing for a two-bit cable network, waitressing, bartending, nothing that challenged or excited her. There are samples of her enthusiastic writing sprinkled throughout PORNHOUNDS, and as Lintz writes, “I’d rather write about tits, ass, and fucking than say…project management training.”
PORNHOUNDS was released this summer. It’s 32 pages for $5. Lintz has a website. Please visit it for all your Pornhounds queries and page samples.
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