Next-Door Neighbor

Party: Next-Door Neighbor Wrap; Rushkoff’s Life, Inc. Launch

Jeff Newelt — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:01:36 +0000

Team-ups are a time-honored tradition in comics. So its apropos that we celebrate the wrap of NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR, SMITH’s true-life webcomic anthology edited by Dean Haspiel, with not only a proper party, but a team-up of our own. Media theorist/author/longtime friend, Doug Rushkoff, has just launched his new book, LIFE INC: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back, and we can’t think of a better project to join forces with. That’s why SMITH, along with WFMU and ARTHUR Magazine, is toasting the wrap of NDN and launch of LIFE INC with a party on Thursday, June 18, at Sutra Lounge in NYC at 9pm. Facebook invite here you come!

Doug’s book reveals how we’ve been corporatized to the point that we don’t realize that our “money” isn’t actually the only form of currency, that we can create value for each other numerous ways, person-to-person, with numerous forms of “complementary currency” (e.g. doing things for each other and our communities). At SMITH, we like to consider the personal stories told by our community as our currency, buying your attention, as collective value is created by sharing wisdom, knowledge, laughs and tragedies in carefully crafted stories, comics and even Six-Word Memoirs. Doug’s book celebrates, from an unexpected angle, human connection and value creation, unmediated by a brand or corporation, and from this point of view, shows how our economic shithouse may just be a blessing in disguise. For a preview, watch this video of Doug digging into his idea below.

It so happens Doug’s wife Barbara Rushkoff wrote one of the most popular NDN stories, “Glenna Evans,” which makes our mashup soiree that much more …mashable. Join us 6/18, first at Bluestockings Bookstore where Doug will be discussing LIFE INC, and then for the party at Sutra Lounge, where you can meet and chill with Rushkoff, Haspiel and many NDN creators. The legendary Cedric IM Brooks amd some of his pals from the Skatalites who will be vibin’ us with jazzier Nyabinghish versions of the tunes they tour the world with, just for this occasion. Again, here’s the invite on our BFF, Facebook.

Life Inc. The Movie from Douglas Rushkoff on Vimeo.

Introducing…Tara Seibel and a New Neighbor Story

Jeff Newelt — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:05:38 +0000

We’re pleased as a Pekar to present the perfectly imperfect, precisely imprecise, jazzily rendered work of newcomer-to-comics Tara Seibel. Harvey Pekar (of American Splendor fame) recommended Tara, a new frequent collaborator (including on an upcoming SMITH comics project) and fellow a Clevelander. She’s got a decidedly different approach to comics, equal parts designer to draftsman. “She’s doing this without preconceptions of what comics should be and doin’ things with color that I’m really diggin,” says Pekar of his protege. And we flipped too from her pastel yet powerful piece. After 28 installments, we wrap up Next-Door Neighbor with the equivalent of a graphic intermezzo. “Vestibule” is touching, with no horrible landlords, no dickheads, no nasties. Instead what we have is a romance. The magic of meeting someone, the sweet story of her first encounter with Aaron who she, well…here’s a spoiler for ya: its a happy ending; too bad.

The Vestibule

Tara Seibel — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:16:15 +0000

Eisner Nomination for Next-Door Neighbor’s “Vs.”

Jeff Newelt — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:19:18 +0000

SMITH Magazine congratulates Joe Infurnari and Alexis Sottile on their Eisner nomination (think Academy Awards for comics) for Best Digital Comic for “Vs.,” their virtuoso contribution to Next-Door Neighbor, SMITH’s truelife webcomic anthology, edited by Dean Haspiel. “Vs.” is the tale of Joe’s nightmarish neighborly encounters, one after another after another after another. Told as an autobiographical monologue written in verse, juxtaposed with rabid remembrances, dizzyingly visualized like a sickedelic melange of EC horror comics, The Twilight Zone, and Universal’s Monster Movies meets Cronenberg and Lynch, “Vs.” has got to be seen to be believed (and you can believe it, because it all happened). This is Joe’s second Eisner nomination, the first nod for his 2008, The Process. This year, Joe faced tough competition—including from himself. He could have just as easily been honored as an Eisner nominee for “The Transmigration of Ultra-Lad”, his innovative post-modern retro superhero strip serialized on ACT-I-VATE. If you’re a comics industry professional, i.e. a creator, editor, publisher, or retailer, and/or if you adore “Vs.” and Joe and Alexis as much as we do, please vote for the comic on the Eisner site.

My Home Birth: A Graphic Graphic Memoir by Christen Clifford & David Heatley

Larry Smith — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:27:50 +0000

We’re thrilled to direct Next-Door Neighbor lovers to another SMITH story told in comic form, this one about another near-universal topic: birth. Christen Clifford, whose words have appeared on SMITH before, as well as on stage and in many other publications, met cartoonist David Heatley on the playground, as creative New York parents are wont to do. Now Heatley, author of the graphic novel, My Brain is Hanging Upside Down, brings to vivid life Clifford’s story of her homebirth. SMITH is pleased to present My Home Birth by Christen Clifford & David Heatley.

Introducing: “Night of the Black Chrysanthemum by Michele Carlo & Rick Parker

Larry Smith — Wed, 06 May 2009 06:01:27 +0000

The 28th installment of Next-Door Neighbor, SMITH Magazine’s true-life webcomic anthology, is a very special one: it’s written by a reader. Brooklyn native Michele Carlo’s story, “Night of the Black Chrysanthemum” was the winner of our “What’s Your Neighbor Story?” contest. Last fall, storytelling legend Harvey Pekar (an NDN contributor himself) chose Carlo’s intense and funny tale of her family’s voodoo feud in the Bronx as the top reader story. “My family had been the first Latin family to move into our apartment building,” Carlo writes. “So when two other Latin families finally moved in on either side of us, we thought we’d have allies. We were wrong.” Paired with veteran artist Rick Parker, Carlo’s story unleashes a raw, delicious energy that could only be set in New York in 1979. For more on the amazing Michele Carlo, a Brooklyn native a storyteller about town, visit her site.

Night of the Black Chrysanthemum

Michele Carlo & Rick Parker — Mon, 04 May 2009 03:00:18 +0000

Haspiel’s “Bzzt” and Buzz from Publishers Weekly

Larry Smith — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:33:09 +0000

We’re proud to present the 27th installment of Next-Door Neighbor, SMITH’s all-true tale of the people next door, created by some of our favorite writers and artists. “Bzzt” comes from NDN’s very own editor, Dean Haspiel. Haspiel takes us back to his days living in Alphabet City, right by a Con-Ed plant, and next to a neighbor who he was convinced was a “robot sent from the future with a secret mission to insulate the walls of Lower East Side tenements with human guts and brain.” Commenting on the comic, a reader named Jen Ferguson writes, “Each page has a nice off-balance feel and angled views that make it seem a post-earthquake dystopia at twilight.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

For 26 more stories, including George O’Connor’s, “Don’t Call Me Ishmael,” a tale of O’Connor’s obsessive hunt for an elusive mouse, check out the NDN archives. Publishers Weekly offered high praise of “Don’t Call Me Ishmael,” calling it “reminiscent of Moby Dick….as the title implies” (scroll to the bottom of the above link for the item). And check out the doc shop RADAR’s mini-documentary on the making of Next-Door Neighbor. It’s just three minutes and pure genius.

Bzzt

Dean Haspiel — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:00:48 +0000

Don’t Call Me Ishmael

George O'Connor — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:30:15 +0000