Please excuse the shameless self-promotion, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t plug the latest piece of sensational artwork by When Falls the Coliseum‘s own Ricky Sprague, which graces the cover of an online comic book by yours truly.

An excerpt, wherein the protagonist, ennobling Smart Growth advocate pdX-Man, confronts his arch nemesis, Ed Peckerwood, libertarian candidate for congress:

pdX-Man winced. He and Peckerwood had been arch enemies since an emergency symposium a few years before entitled Inner City America – All That Plight & Shit. In a workshop contemplating why local African Americans don’t use mass transit as much as Portland whites do, pdX-Man took the ennobling position that bike ownership among Portland minorities should be compulsory and mandated by law. In response, Peckerwood pinched a loaf on pdX-Man’s PowerPoint presentation. The ensuing chaos ended with Tasers and pepper spray…a cacophonous medley of broken limbs.

While pdX-Man was an advocate of human-powered transport, paternalistic intervention and traffic-calmed neighborhoods, Peckerwood was a blustery carnival barker who promoted uncapped personal “autonomy,” fetishistic “liberty” and the so-called “free” market. In short, Peckerwood was the face of Gresham, a wicked hamlet outside Portland that couldn’t rightly be called a suburb. More accurately, as pdX-Man once said:

“Gresham is a landing platform for pollinating, red-necked cockroaches. Its teeming and barbarous middle class requires taming, taxation and most of all – governance.”

Slowly, pdX-Man circled his old foe, trying to ascertain what ideological desire phase Peckerwood had worked himself into now.

“Ah Peckerwood. Masquerading as a libertarian now, yes? Well, I suppose hucksters like yourself have to incorporate the latest mouth-breather trends to stay relevant.”

Peckerwood roared with fearsome laughter. Then, as if to prove his newfound libertarian cred, he took out a replica of the Patriot Act, rolled it into a bleezy, and inhaled. Ripplets of smoky Alaskan Thunderfuck filled the air of downtown. After a brief moment of conflicting emotions and philosophical paralysis, the crowd of social justice aficionados and hard-left sportswear enthusiasts shouted in unison:

“FUCK YEAH!!!!!”

This bizarre development floored pdX-Man. The good, trim people of Portland, Oregon were cheering for a rapacious, “free-market” rube? What madness.

The whole thing is available here.

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