Hi, Jim Terry here.

Why do I forget that being an artist is hard? I’ll get into these incredibly self-defeating modes where I just don’t understand why nothing seems to work, a frustrated and dark mood that won’t dissipate and I’ll wonder “how the hell did it come to this?”. I’ve been in that cloud lately, stressing about bread and how will rent be made and will my new book ever get out of the printers, will I be able to afford the cost when the times comes and… so on. I work part time in a bookstore and today I about incinerated the stockroom with impotent rage. What am I doing working in a dive like this? I have important work to do; don’t they understand that???

I neglect the fact that it’s a part time gig, it’s not my destiny. And as far as gigs go it ain’t bad - I dig most of the people I work with and there’s nothing like being surrounded by books all day. Okay, I can live without seeing a new James Patterson novel every 72 hours, but you get the drift. Our store is home to Dostoyevsky and Hemingway as well, after all. The knowledge of the centuries, stacked against the wall waiting to be opened and experienced.

I had a great dinner tonight with my friend Chris Kildorf. I think that’s how you spell his name. Anyway, he’s a carpenter by trade and an artist at heart. I mean, this fella’s underestimated constantly by his burly physical demeanor and he rarely betrays his keen understanding of “the arts” but it’s there. I read his graphic novel, xeroxed and stapled and left in pencil stage, and it knocked me out. He set me straight tonight, reminded me that drawing on my days off is not a duty, it’s a luxury not everyone can afford. My wife is supportive, and though we live beyond our means she’s never doubted me despite all my underhanded, strange efforts to get her to do so. We get by and we go without and though it’s not always comfortable there’s comfort in it.

I truly think a decision needs to be made, a commitment. I’m lucky to have a good support team. Hope to see you this weekend at the Free Comic Book Day. I don’t think I’ll have Lie Down Low #4 by then, but I should be wearing my Tom Waits hat.

May 3, 2008 - “The Comic Vault”, Montrose & Ashland, 1-4pm.

See you there.

Yup, I guess I’ll be signing WoundedButDangerous comics this coming Free Comic Book Day, which lands on May 3. I’ll be at The Comic Vault on the NW corner of Ashland and Montrose, most likely around noon. Matt Sardo, who owns the joint, is one of the nicest fellas around and I met him last year during this and became a fan not only of him but of his store.I’m unsure as to who else will be there this year, but last time ’round Charles Klein of “Bleakest” fame was there, as well as Tom Stillwell, writer of “Honor Brigade” and also a helluva nice guy. The Chicago comic scene isn’t dead, it just smells funny. If you’re interested you can google this thing and find out more specific details.

These things are always a little goofy for me, sitting behind a desk and signing books - and believe me, it’s not like I do many of them - but when I do there’s always this ridiculous struggle with, “who am I to sit here?” So drop by and tell me who you are, since I’ll probably find you more interesting.

Hope to see you there,

Jim

Well, here we are. Welcome to the new woundedbutdangerous.com. This website was put up ages ago by my ol’ buddy Adam Oliver, but it’s just the way things go that people move along separate paths and the next thing you realize you never see someone anymore. Adam did a fantastic job, giving me the opportunity to put a lot of my work on the “web”, but I remain something of a luddite and before you know it the site was dusty and neglected - completely the fault of myself.

See, I’m the type of Kafka-wannabe that sits in a room by himself and works for hours on something, then puts it in a pile - completely expecting it to distribute, display and sell itself. Astonished when the art doesn’t float away and into the expectant hands of people who want to give me copious amounts of bread for it, I get depressed and wonder why nobody knows who I am or what I do and why I get no work. This is the endless cycle, and I’ve languished in obscurity for many years because of it. Not <em>relative </em>obscurity, mind you, just straight up OBSCURITY. Scratch that, there are a few people who know who I am, but they either live with me, gave birth to me or are owed money by me. Not exactly the kind of connections I need to make a living doing creative shite.

So let me introduce myself to you, the accidental tourist who for some reason wandered onto this mess of words. I’m Jim Terry, an artist here in Chicago, and this is my website. I have finally given up a fraction of my male-pride-ego and put the welfare of said site in the capable hands of my wife, who does this sort of jazz for a living. She’s a helluva woman, and my hats off to her for putting up with the sort of narcissistic self-defeat I’m famous for long enough to put this thing together. I can’t tell you how long I’ve agonized over what to include, what to call things, should I pretend I’m important enough to sell my books? Who in their right mind would want to purchase art from me? Why do I need this website, nobody will look at it… blah blah… at which point she says, So you don’t want me to do it? Then I say, What? Of course I do! I must succeed in this world, somehow! This is the key!

Ah, the patience of Job, she has.

So please take a minute or two, or however long I can hold your attention, and check out the hard work that’s gone into this baby. I’m going to be putting up a weekly “blog”, as I’m as long-winded as I am egocentric. There’ll be a “movie of the week” blog, and other than that it’ll just be a release valve for the poisonous steam that builds up in my noggin during the course of a week. Tune in, become a “Bandage Head” and join the Wounded But Dangerous family. The books will be for sale, and I plan on writing about the many things that I find inspiring, amazing, disgusting or baffling. This is just the start - Lie Down Low is completed, I’ll be posting art from the new books I’m working on as well as fresh work (hopefully updated weekly - let’s start ambitious and work our way down) and soon enough we’ll have WoundedButDangerous merchandise that will sit in the office collecting dust! Happy times!

Seriously, thanks for checking in and listening to the first of what may be the most infamously dull “blogs” in the history of the “web” for people to “read” and “talk about” or even “ignore”. I’ll be back.

Jim Terry