In 2006, Remi Treuer and I played in a game of Mortal Coil with Judd Karlman, Brennan Taylor (the designer), Paul Tevis, and Steve Dempsey. In it, we played a band called Flaming Taft, circa 1972 as the punk scene in “New Amsterdam” was really getting rolling. My character, Fucking Jim (known as The Fucking Bassist), was the bassist, but he was really an electronic experimental musician at heart. In fact, all of the characters were really born to do something else than their part in the band. Well, everyone except the drummer, who kept the band together (you see what we did there?). Fucking Jim was equal parts Graham Lewis, Brian Eno, Conrad Schnitzler, John Cage and George Antheil. So when Remi told me he was going to use him as the basis for a character in his new webcomic about musicians, I was kind of excited. I told him if he had any questions about the character, I could tell him what the dude would do.
But then he end-ran that. The end result, Yoni, is much more me than Fucking Jim. Which is good. Fucking Jim was fucking Judd’s character because he liked the sound her heating pipes made at night, and that’s not the kind of behavior I really endorse.
Remi’s comic is called Too Fat to Be a Rockstar. It has excellent characters and I like the way they evolve. I like the way that the things they care about change and how they change in response. And I love Remi’s faces.