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Sof' sell >> Bossa novas and backalley bums: Archer Prewitt's two worlds by RUPERT BOTTENBERG It's tough trying to reconcile the themes in Archer Prewitt's work. As a musician, the Chicago-based artist can be heard on some of the most elegant and refined moments of the post-rock scene. As a cartoonist, despite his clean linework and bright colours, he seems fixated on the nastier aspects of urban living.
"I think Sam was antsy to record some music he was working on," explains Prewitt, "and without [Sea and Cake drummer] John McEntire being around--he was on an extended Tortoise tour--Sam started talking to these other musicians. Jazz musicians, primarily. Sam and I have a good working relationship, and our guitar styles are so similar that I was asked to join, too. "It's sorta like a Sea and Cake record, but kind of a departure, too. Softer, jazzier, more bossa nova. I mean, I hear them do a lot of songs that are like that, but they get a little more rocked up than they should be. So I think it's a nice departure from the Sea and Cake format." A departure for Prekop, déjà vu for Prewitt, once of lounge outfit the Coctails. I use the term "lounge" loosely, seeing as how the Coctails were not only about a decade ahead of the martini mudslide of two or three years back, they were also a lot sharper than all that. You can hear that sensibility in this recent Prekop disc as well. Call it "intelligent lounge." You know, like, uh... intelligent drum & bass. Yeah, that's it. Not in Kansas anymore Art school had brought Kentucky native Prewitt to Kansas City, and the Coctails carried him off to Chicago. It was there that the former printmaking student caught four-colour funnybook fever. "I was exhibiting in a gallery in Chicago, and the owner invited me to do something for this comic show which had Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Terry LaBan, the biggest Chicago cartoonists. He said he didn't want me to hang anything on the walls, because I hadn't made a name for myself in the cartoon world, but that I could do something. And maybe hand out wine at the same time. "The thing that I thought would be the most fun to do was a comic book, to give out at the opening. I just like the idea of multiple, affordable art, and I had done a comic in art school. So I decided to do another one for this show. I was sketching and coming up with little characters on paper for a few days, and the first one that made me laugh and sorta clicked was this Sof' Boy." These days Prewitt has graduated to the (kind of) big league. Published by Montreal-based Drawn & Quarterly, alongside Julie Doucet and Chester Brown, Prewitt's character is on his merry way to becoming a household name. Somewhat ironic, that. "I've always been irritated by contractions in advertising text, things like Stay Sof' 'Fro or Sof' 'n' Fresh. It always stuck in my craw. I thought the name Sof' Boy was funny, and kind of a comment on that." Filthy, friendly vermin
"It helps me deal with my immediate neighbourhood," says Prewitt, "and Chicago in general. It's nice to come home and escape into those images, sometimes. That alley you see in the comic is the alley right outside the window I draw in front of. There's these bums lying face down there, you don't know if they're dead or alive. I called the police once, because I thought this guy was dead. I even went out and checked him, he wasn't breathing as far as I could tell. They were kicking him and telling him to get up. I felt awful. I thought he was dead and here he was getting harassed." As busy as he is with the musical side of things, Prewitt is slow in evolving Sof' Boy past his current short and self-contained episodes. "I'd likethe character to develop naturally. I'm pretty specific about how I want it absorbed. I like the little 'day in the life of Sof' Boy' scenarios, but it already has become more complex from the first to second issue, and definitely from the minicomics to the D&Q stuff. So anything's bound to happen." The Sam Prekop Band play Jailhouse Rock on Friday, April 2, 9pm, $8. Papa M and Mean Red Spiders open. Sof' Boy can be found at finer comix boo-teeks around town
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Prewitt's cheerful, doughy little homunculus is also a comment on, or rather a flipflopping of, the physical and spiritual ugliness of big city life. Sof' Boy's best pals are the assorted vermin around his cardboard box abode, rats and pigeons and such. The target of constant abuse from local thugs and ne'er-do-wells, and the victim of more hit-and-run drivers that Wile E. Coyote, the unsinkable little bonhomme always seems to find the silver lining to the dark clouds around him.