I’ll be at the Hickory Comic Con today at the METRO Center. I’ll be doing a live painting demo of something and I’ll be in a super mood because I like doing shows.

I have mixed feelings about Hickory, and if you grew up there you would too.

On one hand, I love a lot of people that I know there. I grew up with a pretty tight crew of weirdos. Towns like Hickory tend to have this. Little packs of underground people, into heavy music, into art ( and probably into comics ).

On the other hand - Hickory feels like the suburbs ate a crackhouse and pooped out a preppy cocaine-addicted religious fanatic that loves sports and cheating on their spouse in the woods. Shout out Hickory people - you know what I’m saying. Applebees. Meth. Church.

I hung out in the Hardees parking when I was in high school with my best friends - the bass player and the drummer. We smoked pot and listened to dirty metal and noisy punk. Maybe we threw up sometimes. Maybe we dreamed about going on tour. Maybe we ate fried chicken.

We laughed a lot. It really wasn’t so bad.

Now that I’m a grown up ( LOL ), I don’t mind going because I can remember the friends I love and sometimes they come to the show and we can hug and tell each other how old we are now. And then once I’m done I can pack up the car and head out of there.

Ok, time to pack the car.

It’s cold outside, but we’ll be fine.

Come hang out if you’re around.