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This Little Pig Farmer Cried Wee Wee Wee [1]
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Date: 2023-01-14
Books and comic strip
These days I am often asked to speak at high schools and I love it. I also find it ironic since I hated school with a passion and possibly hold the record for most time spent in the principal’s office. But it also means I can bring something to the presentations that most speakers cannot. That is, if a dirt-poor, pig farming hellion from Sand Mountain, Alabama can achieve a few things in life, anyone can.
Until my senior year in high school, my dad had me convinced I was below normal in every way and would never amount to much. When I earned a spot on the math team and won two first-place trophies in math tournaments against much larger high schools, I realized I could at least count better than most. I had not even planned on going to college, but suddenly it was expected.
I cruised through higher math classes and even tutored math to help afford tuition, books, food, and rent. I began performing standup comedy in college as another way to make money and turned it into a profession headlining in comedy clubs all across the country. I was even on HBO once. It then dawned on me that perhaps I was pretty good at something besides numbers.
Having always been an avid reader as a kid, I eventually realized I had a knack for writing as well. I wrote my first novel in my mid-forties and haven’t looked back. I now have a NYC literary agent and just published my true-crime memoir about my fabulous childhood (Sarcasm) titled With the Devil’s Help.
Art was another passion. So, in my mid-twenties, during an extended hospital visit after a gruesome motorcycle accident, I combined my two passions of comedy and art and developed my first comic strip. It was a one-panel strip titled Warp (Think The Far Side.) and ran in a dozen newspapers for several years.
Nine years ago, I began a new comic strip about a pit bull titled Brad’s Pit, which now has over 100K fans. It is even more popular in South America where it is called Pancho el Pit Bull. (They didn’t get the play on words of Brad’s Pit.) I signed a six-book deal with Editorial Planeta, the largest publisher of Spanish books, and the first book was just released in November.
In April, a movie company will begin the process of turning the cartoon into an animated movie. That includes acquiring the funding, hiring a script writer from Argentina, and hiring musicians and voice actors. The hope is that it will land with Disney+, but I’ll be happy if it lands anywhere.
Last month, I was the grand marshal in my hometown Christmas parade. After the parade, I was awarded the key to the city. At that moment, I wished I had a time machine and could go back and talk to that pig farmer who hated school and felt like such an outsider and tell him all about it. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t believe me.
Until then, I’ll keep speaking to current students and hopefully giving them inspiration for their own futures. I love doing that because, like this article, it gives me a chance to talk about my favorite subject—me.
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