I BROUGHT THE GUTTER (2010)
art/writing by Sean Dietrich
Colosseum Publishing
190 pgs full color paperback
ISBN: 0982840713
$29.99
'I Brought the Gutter' is a journey not unlike Alice's down the rabbit hole, except it's more like sticking your head down the hole that is a garbage disposal and breaking the switch off in the 'on' position, while guzzling whiskey and screaming out your desire for fishnets and fried chicken. It's a raw, personal and powerful look into the art and times of Sean Dietrich, who, over the last 10 years, has performed live painting at over 800 events. From the seediest night clubs to large scale festivals, Dietrich allows you a glimpse into his world of bars, booze, pin up girls, and frustration with the art scene in America. It is truly a tale of one of the most famous artists you've never heard of-an underground artist who has forged an intelligent art scene for a tiny little beach town with over inflated egos and a fear of books.
BUBBLES FROM ATLANTIS (2010)
art: Richard A. Webster illustrations: Sean Dietrich
Colosseum Publishing
250 pgs hardcover
ISBN: 0982840705
$25.99
Bubbles from Atlantis is a violent scream for help and a firsthand account of life in New Orleans during the first year after Hurricane Katrina. It is a mixture of memoir-style hallucinations and straightforward journalism, a full-throated proclamation of survival and a funeral dirge, the bleeding soundtrack of the post-apocalyptic city. One month after the storm, the author, a local journalist, returns to New Orleans, to a militarized, childless town overrun by a rogue police force and populated by dead-eyed survivors, swarms of new-breed insects and the confused, wailing souls of the departed. It is a city tortured by a lingering evil that infects the nurseries and nursing homes alike, tormenting the drunks and saints and wannabe sinners. As time creeps forward, drawing closer to the one-year anniversary of the storm, New Orleans falls under the spell of racist elves, murder-happy babies strapped with AK-47s, and tender dreams of mass suicide. Bubbles from Atlantis chronicles the author's struggle to make sense of the tragedy swirling around him as he becomes increasingly unhinged, addicted, psychotic and, eventually, paranoid enough to construct a private tomb out of beer bottles and rage. This is the real story of what it meant to live in New Orleans after Mother Nature made love with the Devil. "I ain't saying there's no hope but hope better wear a flak jacket." "New Orleans is a bum and an angel, a devil and a wastrel, a genius, monster, moron and master. It is pearl-white mansions and crack houses in flames. It is song and dance and slashing knives and gats. Dark wisdom, enlightenment, cool-night brass bands and scorching summer crawfish boils. I caught a firefly with my mouth the other day. My name is Jack-O-Lantern and I sit on the front stoop smiling for the parentless children hopscotching on broken-glass sidewalks. I am the ruin and undying hope of the last-gasp offspring of our crumbling memories."
MESS (2007)
art/writing by Sean Dietrich
cover colors by Mike Garcia
lettering by Coleen Allen
Rorschach Entertainment
32pgs b/w paperback
$2.99
Vincent is a dumpster baby born of a mentally challenged woman and a pill popping orderly. Besides this and the fact that he's physically deformed with 4 foot long arms and 1 foot long legs, he's the best bar piano player/tv commercial jingle singer out there. After 25 years of playing piano at the same bar her leaves for home on what he thinks is a typical night. Shots ring out, that land Vincent in the hospital, and so does the realization that he's never had his own audience to hear his songs. The bar he plays at hides him behind a curtain because of his deformities. His only comfort lies within the whiskey bottle and conversations with a beautiful waitress who gives him the shoulder to lean on. With the help of the detective that found him in the trash so many years ago, he sets out to fake his own death in order to achieve success.
Past Reviews:
4 out of 5 stars! You have not seen anything like this before.“
- Richard Vasseur, JazmaOnline.com
“Although hardly a happy sunshine funfest, this is probably the most upbeat of Dietrich’s challenging oeuvre. Definitely worth picking up, if only to read one of the best comic creators you’ve never heard of."
- Andrea Speed, ComiXtreme.com
“3 Out of 4 Stars! Sean Dietrich may be an artist you’ve never heard of that you should hear of... it takes but
a glance to realize that Dietrich’s art amazes.“
- Ray Sidman, CBG #1642
“Mess is a charming fable mired in…well…mire. It’s Chicken Soup for the Soul couched in human filth and moral squalor.“
- Dave Baxtor , BrokenFrontier.com
Past Reviews:
4 out of 5 stars! You have not seen anything like this before.“
- Richard Vasseur, JazmaOnline.com
“Although hardly a happy sunshine funfest, this is probably the most upbeat of Dietrich’s challenging oeuvre. Definitely worth picking up, if only to read one of the best comic creators you’ve never heard of."
- Andrea Speed, ComiXtreme.com
“3 Out of 4 Stars! Sean Dietrich may be an artist you’ve never heard of that you should hear of... it takes but
a glance to realize that Dietrich’s art amazes.“
- Ray Sidman, CBG #1642
“Mess is a charming fable mired in…well…mire. It’s Chicken Soup for the Soul couched in human filth and moral squalor.“
- Dave Baxtor , BrokenFrontier.com
FERVOR (2005)
art/writing by Sean Dietrich
cover colors by Mike Garcia
letters by Jay La Valley
Rorschach Entertainment
24 pgs b/w paperback
$2.99
When a 500 pound girl's daydreams of being thin turn obsessive, she uses real life atrocities against over confident business men for fuel; imagining herself as a thin, attractive, coke addicted call girl who picks up those same people and murders them in their beds.
From the Creator, Sean Dietrich, that brought you Industriacide and Mess
Reviews:
"...the true star here is Dietrich’s edgy, hyperactive art; he does a terrific job of selling the nasty reality of each moment in this woman’s life, and you believe in it as you pore through each page."
- By Marc Nathon (Movie Poop Shoot)
"The art contains an intriguing mix of elegant beauty and misshapen horror that reminded me of a Tool video if directed by Tim Burton...Simply put, if there is a book on the market that is as visually compelling in a twisted sense, I have yet to see it." - By Kert McAfee (Broken Frontier)
"It’s dark, eerie, and grotesque when it needs to be. You really do feel like you’re immersed in another world entirely, a dark and revealing one."
From the Creator, Sean Dietrich, that brought you Industriacide and Mess
Reviews:
"...the true star here is Dietrich’s edgy, hyperactive art; he does a terrific job of selling the nasty reality of each moment in this woman’s life, and you believe in it as you pore through each page."
- By Marc Nathon (Movie Poop Shoot)
"The art contains an intriguing mix of elegant beauty and misshapen horror that reminded me of a Tool video if directed by Tim Burton...Simply put, if there is a book on the market that is as visually compelling in a twisted sense, I have yet to see it." - By Kert McAfee (Broken Frontier)
"It’s dark, eerie, and grotesque when it needs to be. You really do feel like you’re immersed in another world entirely, a dark and revealing one."
INDUSTRIACIDE (2004)
art/writing by Sean Dietrich
letters by Jay La Valley
Rorschach Entertainment
120 pgs black/white graphic novel
$10
Through the eyes of three main children and a hallucinated teddy bear, 'industriacide' focuses mainly on three points: Schmaltz trying to put his life back together after escaping from an experimental hospital, Jake, Schmaltz's clone who is drug obsessed and constantly at odds with his hallucinated teddy bear, Ernie, and Natalie, the girl who inherits a huge factory with a torturous past. As the story progresses, each child must face his own personal fears about the unknown future, as well as whatever the outside world can throw at them. All this leading up to a boot to the face conclusion in which Natalie shows the city just what she can produce up in her factory--a lesson for the consumer gluttony that has a stranglehold on modern society.
