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I Never Saw It Coming

what is sparrow's fall?

...somewhere between the city of the poor and the city of the not-so-poor, a long ways from heaven but not quite in hell, is a neighborhood where the people are mad and the animals are sane, where armadillos are on the wrestling circuit and dogs go to art school. If you see god, or aliens, or if you go to group with a neurotic otter, you live there. Only one question: did he fall, or was he pushed?


who makes it?

parrish baker, kansas city comic artist since at least 1995, was born as the old sepia-tone world was finally fading away, four days before nixon narrowly won a first term in the white house. parrish grew up in the countryside of missouri, not quite in the plains but neither quite in the ozarks. the summers are hot there, and the winters cold, and there is often a great deal of wind. eventually he received an adequate education--primary, secondary, and college, and even bothered to get a master's degree in a useless topic. he walked out of the halls of academe into the heart of a recession. moving to kansas city, he luckily found a temporary job that lasted twelve years before he decided that it had become permanent, and decided to move on to other endeavors. somewhere along there he began drawing mini-comics . . . or something like drawing . . . judge for yourself . . .

he still lives in kansas city, drawing his ridiculous indy comics like there was no tomorrow. of course--if you watch the news . . .


just what is it about comics in kansas city?

The year was 1996. Or 1997. Your call.

1995 . . . 1996 . . . 1997 . . . 1998 . . . a golden age for comic book art in Kansas City. 40 Oz. Comics was alive and well, and, most importantly, here, Jim Mahfood’s Grrlscouts and Cosmic Toast were in wide circulation, and Thereyago! Studios was about to produce the first (and last) issue of Meanwhile... and other folk were busy drafting out comics and cartoons left and right.

Like all Periclean ages, it was probably better in memory than in reality, and like all such ages, it did not spring out overnight and from nowhere, but drew, god knows, its strength largely from the illustration department of the Kansas City Art Institute. People who could draw and people who had something to say walked and breathed amongst us, and we were willing to listen.

Amongst those paying close attention was a youngish scrawler who, encouraged, authored the dreadful comic book Calyx, after sitting in the Broadway Cafe for the better part of a year pretending to teach himself drawing. This little science-fictional horror fading instantly from collective memory, he looked for something else to create.

Why did he do it at all? Obviously he was talent-free, that much at least could be said. He felt, nonetheless, that he wanted to say something, and in those days saying something seemed possible, mandatory even. An emotional catastrophe had taken the ability to write from him; the inability to draw would have seemed to conspire keep him in his place. He ignored reality, however, persisting in making wretched things that are safely contained, like industrial waste, in sketchbooks to this day.

If he’d had half a brain, he would have despaired.

But he didn’t. Chance encounters with no less than two possums birthed the characters of Possum and Hot-Dog onto paper; a failed attempt to sell the idea to the Pitch cemented a thick distaste for that paper that survives to this day. However, the Possum flourished, and, by a metamorphosis whose details have been lost to memory, a little cartoon called Sparrow’s Fall was born.

Little of Kansas City’s comics heyday remains: an unfortunate exception is Sparrow’s Fall. It has endured, continuously published, since November 1996. The author of this long spiel of angst, irritation, and occasional perverse humor can’t understand why. More to the point, he can’t understand why other people do not try to hide his dreck with work of their own.

It is becoming urgently necessary that people do it. Our culture is becoming suffocated with one great universal Voice, the AOL-TimeWarner-Disney/ABC/CBS giant that neither is interested in, nor wishes to hear, what we have to say. Comics, believe it or not, are an important part of the resistance. They and zines (which also seem dead, evidently a victim of the internet,) occupy a corner of visual and textual media the entertainment giants simply cannot fill or block. We must have a voice, we must draw, we must write. If not to drown out AOL altogether--then at least to distract attention from that dreadful Sparrow’s Fall.

The author is gloomy. Where are the Mike Huddlestons, Jim Mahfoods, Daniel Spottswoods, and Scot Stolfuses of tomorrow? And why aren’t there more women here in Kansas City doing comics?

Well . . . maybe one is looking at this right now. If you are--put it down right now, and start drawing.

(note: this includes a few, sometimes distant, outliers; i had to draw the line at including sonny liew, because last i knew he was in singapore. there are also links to some institutions not necessarily comics-related themselves, which loom large nonetheless in the comics community here.)

aaron williams
aimsatellite
alonzo washington
ande parks
anime society of kansas city
anna marie cool
anthony oropeza
AR
arie dee monroe
b. clay moore
baeg tobar
bill hook
bob ellis
bonnie leigh
brian mckinley
the broadway café
the broadway group
bruce jones
bryan timmins
byron dunn
ca_jas
charlie podrebarac
chris garrett
chris jackson
chris rich-mckelvey
chuck irons
comixclub
comixboard
comixperience
the crave café
dale martin
daniel tyler gooden
dan jacobson
daniel spottswood
darryl woods
dave bryant
david daneman
dennis hopeless
dove mchargue
duane cunningham
dustin dade
dustin hoffman
ed bickford
edward kann
elizabeth jacobson
eve englezos
frank mangiaracina
greg gildersleeve
greg smallwood
heavy water . . . ||| . . . nuevo
hector casanova
icecreamlandia
jai nitz
jake angell
james harmon
jason arnett
jason foster
jason preu
jeff blascyk
jeffrey vasquez
janell vasquez
jeremy haun
jeremy mcconnell
jeremy mohler
joe wilper
joel pfannenstiel
john fortman
john schuler
john parker
jon hook
josh cotter
joshua moutray
josh ziegler
justin arredando
kansas city comix scene
kansas city comics creators network blog
kelley seda
kelly sue deconnick
kerry callen
kevin gritzke
kyle strahm
lee judge
lee leslie
lonal duncan
mark stinson
matt cashel
matt fraction
matt hawkins
michael buckley
michael herring
michael perry
michelle kelley
mid-missouri comics collective
mike huddleston
mike springet
mike sullivan
mike worley
mo-kan comics conspiracy
parrish baker
planet comicon
ram and mason
rehab 25 press
richard corben
rick stasi
the roasterie café
rob schamberger's empire
rudy garcia
ryan middaugh
scott ziolko
sean murphy
scott hassler
scott stewart
scribe
seth wolfshorndl
shane thayer
shaun gray
shawn geabhart
stephanie m. iser-ramsey
steve bushman
steve lightle
steven sanders
tom bumgardner
travis fox
wendy griswold
william binderup

a note to myself
another blog is possible
a voyage to arcturus
beastly sum
blog kc
de coucy park
doug's digs
epiphomatic machinations
greg beck
happy in bag
heresies and blasphemies
kansas city development
kansas city soil
kc bloggers
me, my life, + infrastructure
mimezine
m. toast
oz mcguire
patchcord
pomegranate pretty
posthuman blues
psychic space hog
ray barker
reecie
reflections on life
riotgeek
stainless steel rat droppings
tkcgirl
the stranger
there stands the glass
three o'clock in the morning
tony's kansas city
travis swicegood

a. david lewis
a softer world
comicreaders.com
comics lifestyles
comics.212.net
the comics reporter
comic weblogs updates
comixpress
dave's long box
dilbert blog
dimestoreproductions
drawn
dream weaver press
flog!: the fantagraphics blog
ferretpress
40 oz comics
hey, bartender!
johnny bacardi
lulu
make comics forever
mike russell
mini-comics.com
montreal comics jam
museum of comic and cartoon art
near mint heroes
ninth art
oubapo-america
phoebe gloeckner
postmodern barney
red ink like blood
salgood sam
sequence
sequentialtart
tom the dog
winterizer
wooster collective

6 different ways
43 folders
75 degrees south
astrobiology magazine
avian flu
clever chimp
knack
lileks
living with liver cancer
marginal revolution
oil is for sissies
plains feeder
rudy rucker
southtown council
speed of thought
starbucks delocator
susie gharemani
symbolic order
team murder
thanks for not being a zombie
the storm track
wee wonderfuls
whatever

andrea flamini
artstew
barry anderson
ben hawkins
ben radatz
birdies
brett reif
byron c. cohen gallery
cameron calder
cortney andrews
david ford
elijah gibson
eric von robertson
fahrenheit gallery
grand arts
green door gallery
hugh merrill
hammerpress
james woodfill
jim leedy
john raux
kansas city art institute
kansas city infozine
kayce davis
kansas city artists coalition
kemper museum of contemporary art
kittyspit
leedy-voulkos art center
linda lighton
mara gibson
mike baker
mk12
nelson-atkins museum of art
opie gallery
paragraph gallery
peregrine honig
prospero's books
rachel stuart-haas
reading reptile
rebecca dolan
susan white
telephone booth gallery
thoughtpeach
wednesday kirwan
your face

Action Sports - 5243 NE Antioch Rd (816) 455-6319
A to Z Comics - 1300 SW Us Highway 40 (816) 224-0505
Astrokitty Comics - 7th & New Hampshire, Lawrence, KS (785) 856-8607
B-Bop - 3490 Main (816) 753-2267
B-Bop South - 5336 West 95th Street (913) 383-3200
Broken Lotus - 1412 NW Vivion Road (816) 587-2007
Clint's Books Comics & Games - 3943 Main St (816) 561-2848
Collective Cache - 10150 W 119th (913) 338-2273
Comic Cavern - 5404 NW 64th St (816) 746-4569
Elite Comics - 11828 Quivira Rd (913) 345-9910
Lawless Times Comics & Magazines - 3117 Troost (816) 931-2400
Mo Iikai Anime - 40 Highway and Noland Road (816) 478-2020
Monty's Book Swap - 9302 E. 40 Highway (816) 737-1427
Omega 7 Comics - 1925 N 83rd Terrace (913) 321-6764
Pop Culture Comix - 9337 W 87th Terrace (913) 341-0040
Pulp Fiction Comics & Games - 9337 W 87th Terrace (913) 341-0040
The Battlezone - 6608 Blue Ridge Blvd (816) 358-0870
The Battlezone - 11752 Blue Ridge Blvd (913) 492-6363
Vintage Stock - 9200 Metcalf Avenue (913) 648-8999
Vintage Stock - 8416 W 135th St (913) 681-1999
Wonderland - 1605 Westport Road (816) 931-0065

miniatures! 8-96, juried invitational show at broadway café, kansas city.

reversion/counterrevolution 11-01, solo show at a copy shop, kansas city.

mail-art show 11-01, at the telegraph gallery.

heavy petting 10-02, juried show at the lemp, st. louis

sequence 05-03, juried show, at the panacea, kansas city.

solo show at broadway café 05-03, kansas city.

Spank Fanzine #25, 09/98

sometime in this period i think i was written up in the topeka zine, mimezine, circa 1998.

mention in an article on zines in review magazine, as well as a visual reference in portion of the cover drawn by peregrine honig, 07/99

You know what's next when there's nothing planned at the Crossroads gallery galas, Kansas City Star, 10/08/99

appearance on local cable access, in late 1999 or so: "Gallery Guide” for Kansas City Round a Bout.: interviewed by holly swangstu

The Best of Kansas City: 2000--Best Local Zine, Pitch, 1/26/00

The Inscrutable Mr. Baker, Kansas City Star, 4/8/01

Homegrown: Parrish Michael Baker, Kansas City Magazine, 09/01

Superfast In Action: SPARROW'S FALL, by matt fraction, Warren Ellis Forum 12/16/01

From the Calendar section of the Pitch, by gina kauffman, 12/26/01

Action Heroes, Pitch 4/24/03

capsule reviews of no other fish in the sea, the girl in the window, and five string serenade, by lunar circuitry, 06/01/03

another brief mention from mimezine, 7/31/03.

SPX-Parrish Baker, 10/03, comicreaders.com

appearance in an account of the 2003 kansas city comicon, on scott stewart's comic art site

capsule review of possum trot, by Jason Arnett, "I Make Believe #19," 01/01/04

mention on comicbookresources.com, by J. Torres / B. Clay Moore 03/25/04

ultimately uncaptioned appearance in community faces, 02-17-05

words - and - pictures (comic creator's network newsletter 04.24.2005)

totally undeserved praise from fire and knives, the magazine for people who eat, 10-2005

article in the pitch about the broadway group, 11.16.05

reference from kansas city public library's local history collection, 2005

the kansas city comix scene's comic story of the day 01.14.06

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Published On: Feb 09, 2006 10:27 PM