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Epic from an inkwell

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Staff

Kevin Dixon, who has been cartooning since childhood, will debut a fourth edition of Gilgamesh in New York City on June 6. Photo by Valarie Schwartz.By Valarie Schwartz

Chapel Hill became a mainstay for Kevin Dixon long before he moved to the area in 1983 at age 18, though he was not born here.
His mother, artist Beverly Dixon, was raised in Chapel Hill. She met Kent Dixon at UNC and they married then moved to Baltimore, where he studied medicine at Johns Hopkins (until discovering that he couldn’t stand the sight of blood) and Kevin was born. They moved to Iowa City, Iowa, where Kent began teaching creative writing, and two years after Kevin, his brother, Laird, was born.

Kevin and Laird grew up in a home where imagination and creativity were put to constant use.

“I was always drawing,” Kevin said. He thinks he was about 8 years old the first time he saw a 1930s vintage “Adventures of Tintin” comic book at the Little Professor Bookshop in University Square, and he became forever hooked on comics. The (politically incorrect) Belgian-created books featured a pint-sized reporter who explored the world, providing a mystery that would be humorously solved.

“I had my own version that was named ‘Zinc,’” Dixon said recently in his Chatham County home.

When he wasn’t inking “Zinc,” he and Laird would make up their own dramas.

“Laird and I had huge battle scenes with armies fighting. We’d draw and make up stories, providing sound effects.” Those sputtering, whistling, fighting sounds that only boys can make. “You knew you were really into one when it was covered in spit from all our noises.”

After years of living with his father in California and Ohio following his parent’s divorce, Kevin moved to Chapel Hill to be close to his mom and also attend UNC. He additionally did other Chapel Hill things, like odd jobs (working in copy shops), playing in bands and “doing my art.” He played guitar in the much-loved Zen Frisbee, with Dex Romwebber in the New Romans (a band that was started to pay for a friend’s dental bills) and, most recently, Bringerer. He also plays keyboards and bass.

Among the contrived wars, spit and rock and roll, a little love must come. In 2000, Kevin met Brenda Wichmann on a soccer field.

“I had been in a longstanding pick-up soccer game at Frank Porter Graham every Sunday for at least 10 years. We called ourselves the Hangover League,” Dixon said.

One Sunday, Wichmann was there and Dixon thought, she’s cute and she knows how to play. Then, “I had the ball. She executed a legal shoulder charge at me … and I was smitten.” They were married at Topsail Beach in 2005 during the same weekend as Hurricane Katrina.

All the while, Dixon has put his wit, ink and creativity to use originating comic books, including “Mkele Mbembe,” “Origitals,” “And Then There Was Rock,” “Mickey Death” (a series in collaboration with Eric Knisley) and the “Gilgamesh” series, which will debut its fourth volume at the MoCCA (Museum of Cartoons and Comics Art) Festival in New York City on June 6 and 7.

Kevin said his father regularly suggests topics for their possible collaboration, none of which interested him until mention of the oldest story known to man — which Kent used to read to Kevin when he was a boy. The first edition, which is based on a translation from the first tablet, creatively twisted by Kent and Kevin and illustrated by Kevin, was published in 2006.

Apparently, the hardest part of the process for Kevin is finding ways to keep the costs down — after all, these are comic books.

“I paid a dime or so — less than a quarter as a kid,” he said. He has to sell them via Facebook or the back of his car to keep them available for $8 each. Most stores demand 50 percent of sale price, which leaves his profit near what he paid for his “Popeye,” “Crazy Cat” and “Pogo” comics back in the day.

He still works the odd jobs (house painting, yard work) to make ends meet, and sells oil paintings and sculpture molds.
“Each year, I’m making a little more, almost justifying the time spent doing it,” he said.

Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com

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