Mike Dawson & Chris Radtke
by Chad Boudreau

Mike Dawson & Chris Radtke

Ignatz nominated cartoonist Mike Dawson is the publisher of the riotously funny comic book GABAGOOL! and also the melancholic and moody book CABARET. He lives in New York with his fiancé.

Chris Radtke has never met Mike Dawson in person. They met in a chat room for overweight cat owners. That is overweight cats, not overweight owners. Along with GABAGOOL!, Radtke has authored many comics over the years; titles of which do not include KUNG FOOL, THE CUTE PIGGY, FROGGY AND BUNNY THREESOME and the award winning MAKE ROOM FOR MONDAY.

CR: How did you get involved in creating comics and how long have you been doing them?

MIKE: I have been actively self-publishing comics since high school. I am not sure why I've kept it up so long. I think I have something to prove, but I am not sure what.

CHRIS: Mike asked me to make a comic with him in 2001. We came up with Gabagool! It's funny. You should read it if you haven't.

CR: How did you get involved with SPX?

MIKE: Evan Dorkin came and spoke to my college's cartoon club and "turned me on" to alternative comics. This was maybe in 1996 or '97. Soon after that I went out to APE in San Jose. Soon after that I discovered SPX and started going there instead. It's much closer and convenient. My first year there I made 13 dollars. After that I had something to prove. Last year I made a few hundred dollars, and I showed them all…

CHRIS: Mike said it would be a good place to whore ourselves and sell Gabagool! The comic was a hit last year and we sold out of three hundred comics. We had a great time; I made a lot of friends and partied like an indy comics nerd! I laughed my ass off the whole weekend. Comics are fucking awesome.

CR: SPX 2003 focused on the topic of travel: Tell us about your comic.

CHRIS: Every guy who goes on vacation hopes he's going to get some. That pretty much sums it up.

MIKE: On the surface "Dirty Banana" is a comic romp in which a loud-mouthed male vacationer is duped by a wily local out of his wallet. It's all in good fun. But on another level it points out the differences in these two people's lives - she has to resort to lewd and unsavory practices for survival, while he is able to write off the loss of his wallet and go order himself another drink. It's a very clever narrative, and it has a lot to say. And also it has a blowjob.

CR: The back cover of SPX 2003 asks, "Is it the destination or the getting there?" What's your opinion on that and why?

CHRIS: It's totally the destination. I always hated that saying. Getting there is such a pain in the ass...the fucking airports and backseats. Subways suck, too.

MIKE: It depends. If it's a road trip I like the "getting there" part. Lot's of talking and not getting to listen to any of the music that I brought because nobody likes it (or me). If it's a plane then it's the destination because it better be some totally kick-ass place for me to agree to fly anywhere. I usually miss the "getting there" part of that though; I'm so drugged up on Xanax. If we're talking metaphorically, like about life, then I say every day is a small destination, and every night is a journey. A journey into the realm of dreams…

CR: What's the craziest thing that ever happened to you on a trip?

CHRIS: I was young. It was 1984, I remember that because the Olympics were going on and everybody seemed to be excited about that at the hotel. It was in Bermuda; maybe there was a Bermudian doing something Olympic. I don't know. My parents and I were staying in some posh resort and one evening mom and dad took me to the hotel's lounge for some live music. It must have been family night; my folks wouldn't have ever taken me to the bar as a pre-teen. They aren't bar people. When we arrived I noticed the group that was playing that night was Brown Sugar. The very same Brown Sugar that Rerun managed on The Gong Show episode of the 70s sitcom, What's Happenin'!!!

I watched a lot of TV and What's Happenin' was one of my favorite shows. It was years into syndication by 1984 and I watched it everyday. I knew every episode--from the early days with the Doobies to the later episodes with Snake and Little Earl. It is a great show. God, I still love it. You may or may not remember, but there was an episode, which was a Gong Show crossover kind of thing. Raj, Dwayne and Rerun had some bullshit scheme to get on the Gong Show. Maybe Rerun was going to dance? That's it, it was something more like that, but I forget, but something got the boys all fighting and bickering but Raj or Rerun or somebody managed this group of young singers who were also going to be on the Gong Show. Two brothers and a sister; they were teenagers, maybe a little younger than Dee, and they called themselves and sang this song Brown Sugar. It was really bouncy and catchy and they sang that song throughout the whole episode. Every time they got any face time, Brown Sugar broke into the song.

I always remembered that episode because every time I'd see it I'd have that damn song in my head for days after. I get like that. A song will get in my head and it will go into the Tourette's section of my brain where I uncontrollably sing that little verse or two over and over and over again. It happens with TV commercials, too. It's awful when it's a clip from a commercial for a Broadway show and I'm singing a verse from Man of La Mancha all day. It's so uncool to be belting out Broadway show tune verses.

It totally was Brown Sugar there singing in that Bermuda hotel that night. They looked old. This was a fistful of years after their big prime time television debut, but it was unmistakably them. They sang in the same style as the show. They even sang that fucking song. Afterwards, when we were leaving and the show was over I noticed the sister lingering around all smiles and sweaty after singing her heart out. I told her that I recognized them from What's Happenin'. She lit up like the sky. She called her brothers over and they all talked too fast with their thick Bermudian accents for me to get it all, but they were so happy. My parents had no idea what was going on and why suddenly their son was so down with Brown Sugar. I imagine it must have been so strange for them. I remember trying to explain it all but they didn't get it at all.

MIKE: One time I went on vacation to Colorado for 5 weeks and forgot to bring shoes other than retarded looking boots.

CR: Where else has your work appeared?

CHRIS: This is my first publication. I am officially a published comics creator now.

MIKE: Chris said: "This is my first publication", but I am quick to point out that work of ours has also appeared on moderntales.com in the Longplay section just this past summer. Also I used to have strips published in my college paper, but that's not really so prestigious.

CR: What are you currently working on?

CHRIS: We have the next four issues of Gabagool! scripted. Mike's got plenty to draw.

MIKE: Gabagool! #5 is almost done, and once that's wrapped I'm going to move on to Gabagool! #6 and then #7. I am also working on a comic book that I wanna give out as a favor for my wedding in November. Depending on how cute it is I might print it again elsewhere.

CR: What was your earliest exposure to comics?

CHRIS: My uncle owned a candy store in the Bronx. My cousin Lenny got every Marvel and DC comic that came out each week for years and years. He's got the best collection; all 60s and 70s stuff. The candy store was across the street from their house, so every time we were visiting, I would go over to the candy store and raid the rack. It was cool having an uncle who owned a candy store…whenever something came out that was big, I always got a hook up; comics, candy, Star Wars cards were big. I remember scoring a whole box of Garbage Pail Kids one time from the store. I think that was right before my uncle sold it. Cousin Lenny got me into comics.

MIKE: The Bayeux Tapestry. And Beano. And Transformers the comic book.

CR: What inspires you to work in comics?

MIKE: I really love it. I think about it all day long while I'm at my day job. If I don't get to draw enough I become an awful crank and I'm annoying to be around. I'm annoying to be around anyway, because I am always thinking about comics.

CHRIS: The money and the blowjobs.

CR: Who are some of the most exciting and talented creators working in comics today?

CHRIS: Bendis is king. Sam Hiti is a great artist; I'm looking forward to his upcoming Xeric funded book. Jonathan Bennett's Esoteric Tales is a cool, expertly illustrated comic. You should read that. I also love to read Danny Fingeroth's WRITE NOW! Danny Fingeroth's WRITE NOW! is better than Entertainment Weekly. There is also this kid, I forget his name, but he's at every convention I go to. He does a mini comic called Flame Broiled. The kid has a total hard-on for Pekar and his comic is about how this kid is stalking Harvey Pekar. This kid is going to make a name for himself, but I can't remember it right now.

MIKE: I loved Urban Hipster #2 from Alternative comics. I love Dave Cooper's drawings. I really like Joe Matt. I had a fan letter printed in issue #11, so there's proof.