This is from 1993 or 1994. It’s the first chapter of one of my many unfinished stories. The structure of story was to give a series of glimpses at one day in the life of a trio of people living in (of course) a post apocalyptic world. There were to be 24 chapters of four pages each detailing whatever the characters are doing at the beginning of an hour. Yes, one of the chapter is just four pages of people sleeping. I’d intended to fill 96 pages of a sketchbook with the story so I lined out page borders on 96 pages. The page borders can be seen on some of the sketches that will follow in the next few weeks.

All the main characters are in this chapter – Dave, the long haired guy; the Jade Buddha, who is sleeping; and Sister D, the woman wearing sunglasses at night. The two drunks appear a few more times throughout the story.

The title of the story, Bugfuck Palace, was inspired by a place I stayed while traveling with the Potter and the Ranger back in 1993. We’d stopped at Alpha Farm to visit with an old high school friend of mine and the Ranger’s who was living on the Farm at that time. The three of us stayed in an old mobile home trailer on the property. The trailer had screens over the windows that generally had a population of red and black beetles crawling on them. Beetle’s that were often busy mating.

The germ of the story itself is probably in that week as well, what with the three of us all staying on a farm in the middle of nowhere, same as the characters in the story. No zombies, flesh art sculptures or wandering mechanical leviathans at Alpha Farm fortunately. In real life the Potter spent a good part of visit in a state of recovery. Allergies I think. She also got a bee sting that got large and hard. I tried my hand at weeding and bean picking. I was better at digging out tree stumps. I helped make cheese and cooked a meal or two. I don’t see myself living in a commune anytime in the near future but back in ’93 it was an attractive idea. Fun for a week anyway.