I took Dean to this month's installment of Dr. Sketchy's and he really had a blast. If you don't know, Dr. Sketchy's is a cabaret life-drawing class. It was started by a lady named Molly Crabapple in Brooklyn circa 2005 as an answer to the tedium of art school figure drawing. The point is to get the most beautiful and interesting burlesque dancers, circus performers, and all around freaks available and dress them up in fantastic (and sexy!) costumes so that a group of slavering artists can draw them in an attempt to hone their craft...and win some awesome prizes! Since it's inception, Dr. Sketchy's has expanded to cities such as Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and even our modest little burg, Nashville.

The people who run Dr. Sketchy's here in Nashville are some friends of mine, Miss Lolly Pop and her husband, Larry the Panty Boy. You might describe them as the Nashville Burlesque Power Couple. There's nothing awesome going down in this city that they don't have their hands in. They've been kind enough to include my fiance and I in a great deal of that awesomeness and I am eternally grateful. They're good friends.

So yeah, my friend Dean is sort of this crazy positive energy hurricane. He blew through my life at the beginning of the year and he's been nothing but an amazing friend and a vastly positive influence since. It's Dean that's got me believing this comic book thing may be more than just a pipe dream. He's got this sort of unstoppable mojo, you see. If Dean goes anywhere, you can be certain he's going to make new friends and something good is going to come out of it. And he's a real "spread the wealth" sort of guy. I believe in Dean Trippe, because Dean Trippe believes in me.

I'll stop the cyber makeout and try and get back to the point. So Dean (who has done work for Oni, Image, and is about to be the next big thing at DC) went to his first Dr. Sketchy's and loved it. Between his mojo and my mojo (they work in similar ways, sort of like Batman and Nightwing) we managed to meet two new artists whose work shows a lot of promise. And hey, we may have even found jobs. Not cool comic jobs, real world jobs. But still, this unemployed boy needs some folding money. Beer doesn't buy itself you know.

Dean decided pretty early that he'd be back for all subsequent Dr. Sketchy's events, which will make him the second comic book professional to frequent the event. I bet you didn't know that Nashville, TN was the new hotbed of comic book talent, did you? Give it some time and I'll be the third rising star to come out of Music City.

Take that Tim McGraw. You ain't the only one around here with talent.