J.T. Dockery's Spud Crazy

Jackson County's very own J.T. Dockery will unveil his new Spud Crazy graphic novel (based on a story by Nick Tosches) tonight at Lexington's Institute 193!

From Institute 193's blog:

J.T. Dockery is one of those rare artists that seems to exist both within the work he creates and alongside the rest of us in the “real world.” Women, booze, cigarettes, and shady characters spill onto the page and seep back into real life–drawn, stacked and stashed into portfolios or passed on the street. No one is safe.

Spud Crazy, originally published as a script in The Nick Tosches Reader, has been re-imagined by Dockery as an excerpted graphic novel. Wielding his penchant for fragmented plots, bizarre themes and mash-ups, Dockery has composed, directed and illustrated Tosches’ original script into a visual film complete with soundtrack and frame-by-frame action. The resulting package is some new hybridized publication: part comic book, part musical score, part academic essay, part artist-edition and all SPUD.

The exhibition runs from 6pm to 9pm and will feature a live performance by the Spud Imperials.

DJ Dockery's Dreadful Discs

Our ally J.T. Dockery (artist, musician, Transylvania Gentleman), will be making a rare public appearance at a swank Fayette County drinking lounge called Lower 48.

Lower 48 is located in the Steampunk-approved crumbling 19th century building reclaimed as snooty-hipster hangout Victorian Square, 401 W Main Street in Lexington, and Colonel Dockery will be pickin' up beers and puttin' down platters on Wednesday, September 23, "from approximately 10pm until nobody wants to hear any more Tennessee Ernie Ford songs".

If I know Dockery, he'll also be layin' down the finest in lowest garage, exotica, rockabilly, punk, glam, doo-wop, dixieland and desperate rock and roll. Swing, twang, sturm und drang.

Weird Artists: J. Todd Dockery

J. Todd Dockery is a rural artist from Gray Hawk, KY, best known for his intensely crosshatched pen and ink drawings and comics. His work has shown at the Kentucky Museum of Arts + Design, the Deatrick Gallery in Louisville, and the Walker Gallery in England. His sketchily surreal creations recall the obsessive and wiggly line work
of underground greats like Basil Wolverton, Joe Coleman, and Robert Crumb.


Born and raised in the woods of Jackson County, Dockery remains rooted to his native soil, straying sometimes to outlying areas like Lexington, Morehead and Conway but never far from the ground zero that is his ancestral home. He's one of the most genuine Southern-eccentric personalities Kentucky has to offer.

Although beset with sometimes-agonizing arthritis, Dockery manages to ignore the pain without the use of major pain relievers - and not only continues the intensive work on his drawings but also plays drums in a number of local garage-punk bands, most notably The Smacks!, Mickey and the Wild Bunch, Kitty Twister and her Hot Dogs and Cheeseburger and Fries, a street-busking duo with yours truly on guitar and he on drums, percussion, kazoo and harmonica.