My name is Mitch Clem. I draw comics about punk rock and my life and stuff. mitchclem.com
We made some cool screen-printed Nothing Nice to Say slipmats! Protect your records in style!
Little piece of history here, folks. Some of you who have read the, like, two interviews I’ve ever done may recall hearing that Nothing Nice to Say was actually inspired by a flyer I did for a house show I booked once a million years ago. That I’d drawn these two random characters making a stupid joke, and something in my brain clicked, A HA!, and the idea to do an ongoing series of gag strips about punk rock came to me, and I used the characters from the flyer as the main characters.
WELL. I wrote a My Stupid Life comic about this very subject for the upcoming new punk comix anthology zine I’m putting together called AS YOU WERE on this very subject, so I asked my friend Pat (who saves shit and who I knew would probably still have a copy somewhere) if he had it, and he did, and he scanned it and send it to me.
AND HERE IT IS! The very first drawing of Blake and Fletcher EVER. Blake’s shirt, by the way, in this drawing, is a work shirt with a name patch that says “Moe” in reference to the song “Hipster Boyfriend” by Sicko (“He has a gas station jacket that says his name is Moe and he hangs out at all the punk punk punk punk punk rock shows”). I think the patch appears in a couple very early NN2S strips, but was dropped quickly.
As for AS YOU WERE, I’m actually just waiting to hear back from a couple printers with some rates and then we’re ready to get it printed up and shipped out to that disgusting hovel you call a home!
But, just to tease it a little in advance, the series is going to be an anthology of never-before-seen comics written by cartoonists with a foot in the punk scene, each issue focusing on a centralized theme. The first issue is all about house shows. It’s fucking incredible, I’ve read it!
Besides myself there’s new comics in it by Andra Passen, Anthony Sorge (Crust Dog), Ashley Rowe Palafox (Barefoot and in the Kitchen), Ben Snakepit (Snakepit), Bill Pinkel (Frowning Bill), Brad Dwyer (Record Heat), Brian Connolly (Nothing Mattress), Emilja Frances (Ship of Fools), Josh PM Frees, Kim Funk (Shady Hawkins, The Homewreckers), Liz Prince (Will You Still Love Me if I Wet the Bed, Alone Forever), Liz Suburbia (Sacred Heart, Hey Suburbia!), Ramsey Everydaypants (Year One, Everyday Pants), Rick V, plus GORGEOUS cover art by Steve Larder.
We’re about to take over the whole goddamn world! More info to come, but expect this by the end of the year!
What Would Henry Rollins Do?
