josheiserike.com - Josh’s Comics & Writings Online

I’ve got my Playstation 2 back. It’s been about two years. I gave it to my friend Ben for safe keeping. I wanted fewer distractions while I worked on making comics. The Playstation 2 (PS2) is one hell of a video game system — and one hell of a distraction.

I’m not much of a gamer to begin with. I’m bad at them, don’t have too much time to invest and still kind of bummed about the lack of high-profile graphic adventure games (and am still waiting on Monkey Island 5). But, last week I had to take care of an attention-needy cat in D.C. for honeymooning friends. They had a giant television and a PS2. I got my games back. I will never know what it’s like to relapse on heroin, but when that blue opening screen flashed on the television it was like seeing an old friend again.  Read the rest of this entry �

As regular readers of my column know, Ben Folds is my all-time favorite recording artist. As I wrote in a recent column:

“I’ve seen him 15 times in six states and the District, twice with ‘The Five,’ twice with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. I’ve got three pressings of “Whatever and Ever Amen” (original, Japanese and reissue), three rarely-worn T-shirts, a vinyl of “The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messener” and just about every single, B-side, EP or compilation.”

I jumped at the opportunity to interview Folds, who heads out tonight to tour in support of his crazy-fun new album “Way To Normal.” We chatted for about 20 minutes on the phone, pretty standard for a closely-managed rock star phone interview. Obviously I could’ve gone on for at least another 20 minutes. I didn’t even touch on the big news, the recent one-off Ben Folds Five reunion in Chapel Hill, N.C. (why bother? Everyone else is asking about that, let’s go for something different). When the publicist politely interrupted our conversation and told me I had time for one more question I decided against asking the super-fan question (“Any chance we’ll ever see those last Ben Folds Five songs?”) and went for something a bit more interesting (I think… judge for yourself, below). Read the rest of this entry �

The Dresden Dolls adhere to a pretty simple formula: Amanda Palmer on piano and vocals, Brian Viglione behind the drums. Occasionally they’ll add a guitar to the mix, but that’s pretty rare. It’s a simple, raw sound with aggressive vocals, intensely personal lyrics and drums that can carry an entire orchestra if they had to.

“Who Killed Amanda Palmer” brings in that orchestra. Read the rest of this entry �

Last week Warner Bros. announced it would rerelease “The Dark Knight” in January. The announcement was made under the premise of giving the film more time on IMAX screens (it’s unclear at this point if it’ll be in the traditional theaters, too).

The underlying message, as an “insider” told Hollywood Reporter: “It’s just a matter of bringing it back as a reminder for people.”

Do the math: January rerelease. Half a billion in domestic ticket sales. This isn’t about breaking “Titanic’s” box office record (it won’t). This is about a statue—at least one, maybe more. Warner Bros. is hoping that “The Dark Knight” can bring home Oscar gold. Read the rest of this entry �

Mike Rhode runs a pretty great blog– www.comicsdc.blogspot.com– that’s all about the local comics scene here in Our Nation’s Capitol. He was kind enough to give Assholes a mention, so why don’t you go check out his blog?

And, if you’ve found your way here from his blog, the basic idea of this site is it’s got all my comics and writings in a somewhat organized fashion. I’d suggest starting with Assholes, but if you’re super bored at work (and none of your friends are on gchat), feel free to enjoy my dumb pop-culture columns which I write for work, or my old college strip “Liberal Crap.”

I’m going to try and get on a regular basis uploading Assholes pages. I’ll shoot for at least every Sunday, maybe more?

Through page 5 is uploaded in the section. Check it out.

What you won’t see:

What you will:

Falling in love for the first time: 

I’d somehow convinced my father to drive me to Best Buy. I don’t remember if it was my intention to buy a new album, or if I was simply browsing on that spring weekend in 1997.

Either way, I picked up Ben Folds Five’s just-released second album “Whatever and Ever Amen.” It was the first album I purchased without hearing a single note from the band in question. “Whatever and Ever Amen” released months before the once-ubiquitous single “Brick” hit the airwaves. This was years before every band had a Web site (I don’t even think my family had Internet at this point). I bought the album based on a write-up I’d read in Rolling Stone and a lyrical nod in a Counting Crows song. Read the rest of this entry �

but only if you have advance copies of the new Ben Folds and Amanda Palmer discs waiting on your desk, like I did :)

Also, I’ve got a shitton of copies of Assholes #2– $3 for 24 pages of vagina jokes, a dating column and one grammatical error. I’ll upload more pages shortly, but in the meantime, if you want such vulgarity in hard copy, shoot me an e-mail.

Hooray!

A few months ago I dissected the leading presidential candidate’s favorite movies. I relied on the inherent goofiness of candidates using facebook to tell me everything I needed to know about their taste and, most importantly, which one I’d want to watch a movie with. Read the rest of this entry �