{"id":17132,"date":"2024-11-05T11:39:22","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T16:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=17132"},"modified":"2024-11-05T11:39:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T16:39:23","slug":"episode-611-eric-drooker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-611-eric-drooker","title":{"rendered":"Episode 611 – Eric Drooker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 611:
\nEric Drooker<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_611_-_Eric_Drooker.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“With my earlier books, I wanted to challenge myself to see how much of a story I could tell, how involved of a novel could I write without resorting to any words. I found that you could go pretty far.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>With his new graphic novel, NAKED CITY<\/a> (Dark Horse Books), artist\/activist Eric Drooker<\/a> finishes the New York trilogy begun in Flood!<\/a> and Blood Song<\/a>. We talk about how Naked City<\/em> started with the image of a beleaguered squeegee-man and wound up a love letter to New York and especially Tompkins Square Park, the challenges of using word\/thought balloons and captions after making wordless comics for so long, and the importance of staying handmade in the digital era. We get into his upbringing in Stuy Town and the Lower East Side\/Loisaida, why we were recording in an apartment above the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space<\/a>, how New York changed during his life, why he semi sorta escaped from the city, what it’s like being a quality-of-life criminal, and the time he made his start with stencil-graffiti only to get over-tagged by Basquiat. We also discuss his political awakening, the Tompkins Square Park riot and police militarization, his ambivalence about street art going into the gallery, the surveillance panopticon, the importance of on-the-ground activism (MOAR STREET POSTERS<\/a>), and more. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read NAKED CITY<\/a>!<\/p>\n

“I liked to print money on my Epson printer, but after 6 months I noticed I was poorer than ever. Didn’t have any money in my pocket because I realized the goddamned cartridges are so expensive that I was actually losing money printing my own hundred-dollar bills.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n