Bzzt | Next-Door Neighbor

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posted Sunday, April 19th, 2009 leave a comment or trackback
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30 Responses

4.19.09—10:43 pm Bob Fingerman
Love the Cronenbergian final panel. Good stuff!
4.19.09—10:48 pm natsch
Great work Dean! “Human question marks” - nice!
4.20.09—7:50 am Tim Hamilton
Love that robot neighbor! The human question marks are nice touch as Natsch already pointed out.

Glad your neighbors are “normal” lately.
4.20.09—8:03 am George O'Connor
Well, I’ll join the chorus proclaiming the genius of your “human question marks”, but I’ll distinguish myself by drawing attention to the particular bit about their one hoof. Damn good writing, son.
4.20.09—8:14 am Rick Parker
Dino—the way you’ve balanced your very realistic memories of Alphabet City (as perceived through your own five senses) against the fecund inner-workings of your imagination and skillfully managed to put it all down on paper for us to enjoy, continues to satisfy… and gather new advocates to the artform.
4.20.09—9:22 am Precious Little
Dean! Stunning. I particularly like the tall, perfect neighbor.
4.20.09—11:41 am kat
that neighbor… damn!
good work, dean:)
4.20.09—12:05 pm valerie
more excellent work, dean. absolutely great stuff. i love (and am terrified of) the walls in particular. just gorgeous and grotesque all at once.
4.20.09—12:47 pm Nick Bertozzi
Erotic!
4.20.09—2:38 pm K. Thor Jensen
Holy fuck, man, this is awesome.
4.20.09—4:19 pm Walrus Comix
Love ya, Dino!
4.20.09—5:23 pm Liz B.
Ha, I lived right by there around that same time (though I was in high school)! That neighborhood was a lot weirder then. And cheaper.
4.20.09—6:03 pm Randy Gentile
Love it, Dino! Reminds me of when I used to live in Astoria by that huge ConEd building…. it sounded like a UFO was landing every night.
4.20.09—9:22 pm jennifer hayden
Seemingly drug-induced. Seemingly. Vivid and real.
4.21.09—12:03 am Kev
I love the varying intensity - in pencil! This is my favorite type of art you do (b/w) and it really catches the whole “urban feel”, almost like a blueprint gone wrong.

Fantastic work, Dean.
4.21.09—8:47 am Steve Fuentes
Very cool! I like the neighbor, sort of Silver Surfer-ish.
4.21.09—4:27 pm Shawn Kittelsen
Gorgeous pencils! You were either living next to Klaatu or a golem.

Love those last words, too. “Threatening to break… my mind.” Mwahahaha.
4.22.09—11:42 am Jen Ferguson
Before Alphabet City became a real estate developer’s wet dream it was as depicted here; gritty, emphatic, unapologetic. The gray-scale in particular and the thick clefts of shadow provoke more than just a twinge of anxiety. Each page has a nice off-balance feel and angled views that make it seem a post-earthquake dystopia at twilight. The Picasso-esque addicts on page 2 are a nice touch. But the biggest reward is at the end; a homeowner’s nightmare and the final tipping point for our paranoid, nerve-addled narrator: bulging sweating drywall, alive and menacing. Congratulations- you’ve managed to make the mid-1990’s in NYC noteworthy.
4.22.09—12:39 pm Dean Haspiel
Thx everyone for your kind thoughts and cheer. It means a lot to me.
4.23.09—11:04 am Stan Yan
Beautiful work! What is that… pencils on watercolor paper?
4.23.09—2:19 pm Dean Haspiel
Thx, Stan. BINGO. Pencils on watercolor.
4.23.09—3:25 pm Karen Green
Oh, lovely! The writing is as beautiful as the art–I love your description of the sweat on your metallic neighbor.

You’ve also managed to quell all my nostalgia for the pre-gentrified Alphabet City.
4.23.09—6:53 pm zoe
Dean, the first I’ve seen of your wonderful drawings paired with your writing–excellent, yet dark, troubled. I want to see you again in the light. Visit Tom and me in the Catskills. We’ll feed you well and set you to your pen by the stream. xx
4.23.09—8:24 pm Sue Craig
Anxiety, dread, fear so well crafted. The writing is both visceral and smart and so beautifully paired with your grim, graphic yet engaging drawings. Thank you!
4.26.09—12:12 pm Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources - Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment » What Are You Reading?
[...] week’s installment of the biweekly Next-Door Neighbors series features Bzzt by the NDN series editor, Dean Haspiel. While I enjoyed Dean’s tale of his former mid-1990s [...]
4.29.09—1:09 pm josh
Dude! So good. I love this “new” look—even when its matched with my most hated nemesis, computer lettering. Here, it works. I visited that apartment many times, but you were kind enough to not call attention to the David Lynchian living conditions. I’m glad you eventually escaped to the safe confines of Carroll Gardens (provided you don’t solicit rough sex via Craigslist). Great vignette!
6.14.10—2:14 pm Fibromyalgia Treatment
So was the neighbor really a robot or was he just letting his big imagination run even further away from him?
4.9.11—5:45 pm Motion Massage
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5.9.11—12:44 pm Ralph Cupping
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