Welcome to The Permanent Damage Art Show / Comix Show Weekend
Writer, Artist & Impresario Keenan Marshall Keller Lights up L.A. with Two Outstanding Comix Events, April 4th & 6th
If you are in Los Angeles this weekend, you’re in for a treat! Two superb comic art events are in store. I am participating in both these events, displaying art and hawking my graphic novels.
The action commences Friday evening April 4th with the first “Permanent Damage” art show at the Trophy Room Gallery (4134 Verdugo Rd, Los Angeles 90065) running from 5:00 - 9:00 PM. Twenty (or so) graphic swashbucklers on display!
On Sunday, it’s the Permanent Damage Comix show, Noon - 5:00 PM at the Permanent Records Roadhouse, 1906 Cypress Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90065.
Above: Typical Bughouse Page, representative of art I’ll bring to the Permanent Damage Show
The weekend features an eclectic mix of cartoonists including Simon Hanselmann, Tom Neely, Jas Hice, Kevin Scalzo, Josh Pettinger, Seosie and Harry Nordlinger among others. While this roster of creatives is all over the map of comic art (an understatement!), they all share a mastery of the medium and a strong personal vision, from the transgressive to the sublime.
Permanent Damage is curated and staged by comics impresario Keenan Marshall Keller, with an assist from his frequent collaborator, Tom Neely. This is the 7th Edition of their cutting-edge Permanent Damage comix show, staged mostly in L.A. with editions in San Francsico and Portland also to their credit.
Keller himself is a prolific comics maker, buzzing out brilliant off-kilter zines and self-published works, as well as releases from major publishers. For 2025, he reprises his fantastic “Apesploitation” series The Humans with Uncivilized Books. Yes, it’s a hilarious, shocking and VERY fully realized combo of Planet of the Apes and the merry mayhem of the exploitation films of the 60s. Just TOO GOOD!
The art is handled deftly by Neely, a man akin to a Rembrandt of comics, a true master of craft & storytelling. This new “Humans” series is entitle The Jungle - it is available now for preorder.
One of my fave series from Keenan Marshall Keller is Scumbag for Hire. He writes and draws this series, in a sort of expert shorthand for the comics form. The drawings are realized with a full command of the language of comics, but are deceptively simple, almost “cute.” The Scumbag in question is a Sam Spade type detective, stumbling through a series of unending Chinese boxes. Is he looking for love? Dodging his shattering existential angst and low self esteem? Looking for that elusive perfect taco truck? The joke(s) are carried to the Nth degree with a simple, brilliant device: Our protagonist is always seen from the back of his head. WTF!? Suffice to say, it sets up an ongoing pull that delivers you through the story.
For the cover of Scumbag for Hire #9, Keenan created an homage to a splash page from one of my Dog Boy Comics. I freely admit, I was tickled by that… when I got it, I was trying to figure out why it looked kinda familiar?
D’OH! Then I read a note about the homage in the lower left corner… thank you sir! You can keep up with Keenan’s works at his Instagram page.
OKAY I am out of gas, hot air and the rest. Thanks for stopping by! As always, you can email me if you like, and don’t forget you can drop by stevelafler.com if you’d like to order some of my graphic novels.
P.S. I’d be remiss is I didn’t acknowledge the ongoing Constitutional Crises created by Trump and Musk and their henchmen & women, self-serving people lacking in compassion and empathy.
Their actions this season are a disgrace to say the least, illegal, and with regards to ending medical funding and aid, cruel and deadly. It is time to make common cause to protect or Constitutional rights and democracy itself. I am encouraged by the work of Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, to name a few.
It is incumbent on all human beings to work together for the common good. It is that simple. Love, not hate. Sharing, not greed.