gritz n gravy publisher's note

THE THREE EPIPHANIES

EPIPHANY: a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence

I HAVE HAD SEVERAL EPIPHANIES IN MY LIFE. BUT ONLY THREE ARE IN CONTEXT TO THE BIRTH OF THIS MAGAZINE

FIRST EPIPHANY…

It was two o'clock in the morning, and I was absolutely face deep in some woman's huge butt. I couldn't help but think of how it reminded me of the phrase, "caught between a rock and a hard place.” That in my less immediate life, I've been lucky; Here I was a successful freelance artist for more than ten years, with oogobs of money, life long comrades, and I had jobs coming out of my ears. And on the other hand maybe too lucky...I had taken on one assignment too many. My friends...some were working; some had gotten a few jobs, and some still waiting for their big break. And then like a thunderous clap, her cheeks slapped my ears and it came to me...let’s make a studio.

We formed a studio called Maximum Overtime. Completing works for Marvel, DC, and Comico. We did that for a few years, but due to personal matters on everybody's end, we found ourselves redirected and on separate paths pursuing particular goals. I believe I have great ideas, but I lack the ability to follow through, I have yet to acquire the managerial tactics, or what my brother would terms as, "The righteous foot in the ass." Whether it was fear, whether I was lazy, or whether I was preoccupied, it’s water under the bridge. Now we're no longer together. Something was wrong with the core. It went well but it wasn't quite right.

SECOND EPIPHANY....

I was working for Marvel Comics and I was awaiting the birth of my second son. Knowing that this was going to take time from my work, I needed to work smarter not harder, so I switched jobs from Marvel Comics to Penthouse Comix. He was my publisher, my chief editor, and a friend of mine in my valiant comic days, A wacky guy, named George Caragone.

One day I was walking with George. We had just left some insipid movie, the title of which I will not mention for fear of offending a former employer, but in any case the movie sucked big dog. Knowing full well my answer, George asked me how I liked the movie. And knowing His response... I said it sucked big dog, and he immediately agreed with me. Then he asked me how I liked the girls in the movie, and I answered, "I only liked the thick one.” He quickly replied, "You always say that! You always say you like them brown and round, and yet here you are working for me." So I told him, "Because you pay me $3,200 dollars a week to draw them for you." And he said, "Yeah that's true, but still if that was really your thing you'd find some way to draw them if you wanted to.” At that very instance, swear to fucking God… right there as we turned the corner was a news stand. And I saw something that changed my life forever. Staring at me three feet from my face was a magazine called, “BIG BUTT.” I got a job from them that very next week. But they didn’t pay for shit. All the same, I found it utterly satisfying.

The lesson that had dawned on me while I was working at Penthouse was the value of free expression. Let me make this perfectly clear. This is not about drawing sex. But it is about drawing anything that comes to mind. It's about artistic freedom. It’s about having the right to draw anything. I have been drawing kid's comic books for so long that I automatically constructed the editorial boundaries that belong to adolescent entertainment.

Our best work comes from us doing exactly what we want to do, when we create what comes from our true selves. That was the second epiphany.

THE THIRD EPIPHANY…

I was working professionally in a minimum capacity, so for personal reasons, I took work as a guard. I had the midnight to eight o’clock shift. This allowed me time to finish my personal art project, and that brought me great joy. But still I found myself frustrated. I never returned back to the comic world whether the door of opportunity stayed open or closed was irrelevant, I never went back. After doing my rounds, I had four hours or more of uninterrupted time and so I drew comics, illustrations, and I wrote stories. I did anything that came to mind, and I found it quite fulfilling. I was making up my mind trying to figure out how to publish this stuff.

Most of it was too adult for public comics, and for a short while, I was thinking about reuniting with adult publication. Whenever I took it to one of the adult publications they absolutely welcomed it, they completely loved it, they even agreed to my price. But one way or another I never sent it in or I never sent in the rest of it. Somehow, it was never published. Whatever the reason, it always had to do with me. It never had to do with them, and something was always holding me back.

Then on a rare night off, I went out with Mark Hyman and Derek Mathews, the original Maximum Overtimers, and founding Mayhem Alumni. We took ourselves to a strip joint, and truthfully I was bored to tears. I just couldn’t see myself shelling out my baby’s milk money for a cheap lap dance, and besides….these dancers were very untalented. We were all but ready to leave until… a pole dancer named “Deja vu” stepped up on the stage. She was rhythmic….and sensual….but most important …she had a really big butt. She was super shapely. With a waist size fourteen and hips size forty two.

Her legs were Clydesdale shapely with mountainous calves. She was as dark as an Oreo cookie without the overly sweetened white center. And after performing a really great number of dance moves, she ended it with a resounding display of muscular buttocks contractions, causing the effect of her butt cheeks clapping and separating together. My eyes remained cemented to this wonderment before them, and as I found myself placing a Can of “Similac” betwixt guarder and thigh, all the while thinking….they were big, they were brown, they were beautiful, they….they…Hey! We’re supposed to be getting paid for what we do! The only way to get paid for what we do, is to do it together. But how do we do it? I got the guys together to ask them that question. And the answer was “Gritz and Gravy.” We must come together in order to create success. That was my third epiphany.

Why am I telling you this? I didn’t tell it to you to shock you. I didn’t tell it to you to make a point about big butt women; I’m telling you how it happened. I’m telling you that inspiration is divine, no matter what or where its source. Needless to say, we finished the magazine. This is the sum of our love and our efforts. We hope you’ll enjoy it….which leads to an epiphany outside the story….

“Show them and they’ll buy It.” now you can just imagine how I came to that one.

Conclusion: the part that brings something to a close.