As you may or may not know by now the Stumblebum Crew is switching things up a little bit this month, rotating features each week. I’m excited; it’s gonna be fun doing something a little different every week this month, and a nice break from The Bum’s Rush. This week I have the privilege (and daunting task) of filling in on one of my favorite features here on our humble little corner of cyberspace - Dave Sherrill’s Sucker Punch Spotlight. And I figured the best choice to interview was none other than the man himself…

Dave Sherrill

Dave, as you may already know, is a man of many, many talents. He’s also one of my best friends and a constant source of inspiration for me. It was because of his constant prodding and encouragement that I finally began my own comic strip earlier this year, Der Wundervolle Bean.

Dave is continuously studying, learning, always trying to improve himself and hoping that sooner or later he’ll be able to turn his love into his main source of income. I completely relate to that and I admire his tenacity. Anyway, enough with the kiss ass, let’s get on with the interview!

STUMBLEBUM STUDIOS - I know you've been drawing for years but in 2005 you broke out in a big way, starting your Cultural Void webcomic and getting a lot of attention for it. What's the experience been like and what have you learned since your first strip?

DAVE SHERRILL - There's a lot of people reading Cultural Void, but it's still a tiny, tiny webcomic. Something Positive has something like 300,000 readers. PVP, Nothing Nice To Say and Joe and Monkey  also have a crazy large readership. I'd like to get some of that. Doing the comics has been really awesome. I haven't had any direct negative feedback yet. The best thing I have done was going to the comic convention and meeting other webcartoonist outside of my online cliques. It really stoked the fire of creating and maintaining a good website. That was a HUGE learning experience. Talking with other cartoonists is the most important things anyone can do, much better than the Red Cross.

SS - Besides writing and drawing Cultural Void you're a regular contributor on this website, you're in a band, 100 Damned Guns, playing a mandolin, a guitar, singing and writing songs and you're even working on a couple comic books with yours truly. Heck, you've even written some pretty awesome short stories. What are you, some sort of genetically enhanced, beer-fueled superman?

DS - The weird thing is if I am not working on a project I start to panic that I am wasting my time, if I am working on something, I panic that it's no good. I probably just drink too much coffee, which would explain why I go to the bathroom so much.

SS - You drive a beat-up old truck that's caught fire twice. Can't you just, like… I don't know, leave it at a junkyard or something? Or are you afraid it will follow you home?

DS - The truck is a love / hate relationship with me. I have a lot of money into it already so I'd hate to drive it to a junkyard, but I would like to be driving along, smell something burning and not panic that it's my vehicle. Doesn't really matter though, we can't afford a new car for me until Melissa is out of school. When she gets out of school I am going to drive that thing off a cliff. I didn't mean that, I love my truck.

SS - What's the percentage of real life versus made up jokes in your comics? If it's mostly real how do you manage to keep Mel from leaving you?

DS - I'd say 50/50. Something funny will happen and I will change it up to make a good three panel, sometimes it's all true (like the one where my weiner is hanging out of my pant leg as I speak at Harvard). Melissa has a great sense of humor about the comics. She is my best friend. We are as much Fred and Barney as we are Fred and Wilma.

SS - Like I mentioned earlier 2005 was a big year for you. What have you got planned for 2006 that will make you even more of a force to be reckoned with?

DS - Dude, seriously 2006 is my year. I bought a new website, www.culturalvoid.net and I'm going to start doing comics everyday of the week. Also I am going to print a book of the old CV's for Staple in March. I've also got an idea for a graphic novel that seems badass right now. I'm also going to concentrate on one thing a month to improve my comics. January is learning Photoshop. February is lettering. March is perspective. April is backgrounds… you get the idea. The whole idea this year is to start making money from my comics. Enough that Melissa doesn't have to work while she's in school. I was going to do the comics anyways. If I think there is a chance of making some bread off of them, I may work harder on them. I get really motivated by potential, which makes me worry that I may lose interest when it plateaus. Plateau is a weird word, it looks French.

SS - You know that one story? The one where you were so sick you puked and crapped your pants at the same time? To date how many times have you told that story in public? And how long before we get to see a comic version of that same sad but hilarious tale?

DS - Hahaha… I've told that story a LOT, cause it always gets a laugh. I was going to do a comic called Coughing Up Blood. It was all true stories of me hurting myself in stupid ways. That was the finale, but after a while I started thinking that no one would really be interested in it. Maybe I should still do it. The whole story is that I was insanely sick last year around Christmas. I got a shower and dressed up to go to see old doc sawbones. On the way out of the house I threw up on the living room floor so hard I shit my own pants. I had been sick and throwing up for so long all I could do is go outside and sit on the front porch and cry about it. I think we've all been there.

SS - What's it like being a black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?

DS - I am a bad mother… shut my mouth!

SS - I can dig it.

Check out Dave Sherrill’s Cultural Void at http://www.culturalvoid.net/ (as if you didn’t already know)

As usual you can send me hate mail at thesuperleezard@yahoo.com

Read more stupid crap I write at www.livejournal.com/users/superleezard

Check out my (semi) daily comic, Der Wundervolle Bean, at www.livejournal.com/users/der_magic_bean

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