During the opening scene in Issue 5 of Action Geek, which could be described as a comic book/personal manifesto/'zine/collection of weird articles about pieces of pop culture, a green-skinned alien who places his head down on a bar after drinking too much. In the same frame, the alien's called a boozehound and gets shut off by an employee, who happens to be a robot.
The story, titled "Tales from the Spacebar", is set in a strange world. A place where obscure characters from Star Wars are served drinks by a bartender who looks remarkably like Isaac Washington from "The Love Boat". Turning the page, you find Godzilla sitting on top of a building in a blue cushy chair. Godzilla is angry. The big lizard scolds all the "stupid Americans" who think that Godzilla has spent the last decade being dormant. The issue ends with a three-page personal history of how the author of the comic, Worcester resident Doug Chapel, recently got into Speed Racer. The article includes pictures of Speed Racer action figures and a brief description of the ins and outs of the cult cartoon.
"The more I combine photos with the cartoon and make it as loud as possible, people realize it's not just something that's thrown together. But that can be bad, too, because sometimes people might think it's a sign of deeper illness," he says and then laughs at his own joke.
Enter the mind of 32-year old Chapel and find comic book characters, Japanese toys and cartoons, strong opinions about the state of culture in Worcester, and a love of the Pet Shop Boys.
He started mass-producing his own stuff at 19. It began with with a 'zine called Spun Magazine that ran from 1989 to 1996. At first, there was an issue every week or two, but things slowed down after it became too time-consuming and expensive. (The production costs eventually hit $250 for one issue.) Altogether he published an impressive 101 issues.
His work then turned to drawing comic books for a few years, before starting the Action Geek project back in 2000. He puts out one Action Geek comic book about every two months. He admits that it's a tough pace to keep up. "You got the eight-to-nine-hour day at work [Chapel's a graphic designer by trade, currently working at a graphic design agency in Westboro] I've been forcing myself to go to the gym every day. Then you go home and somehow eat, do chores, feed them," he says, referring to his four cats, "And then eventually, you fall asleep."
Turning to Worcester, Chapel describes the city as "just big enough." When he used to do flyers for Wormtown.org, people would tell him that they recognized his work. "I like that aspect of it," he says. "It's kind of a good thing in a small fish bowl."
Chapel then goes into his love/hate relationship with the people, places and things inside the city. He says that every time a "scene" or idea begins to build, it falls apart before it can really blossom. He doesn't want to get into specific examples, but he's happy working alone because it prevents his projects from stalling out or getting stuck from too much in-fighting. Chapel is also a bit of a control-freak.
As discouraging as Worcester can be, the Chapel's drive is also pushed by the city. He describes it this way: "It's kind of like when you get all dolled up to go out on Friday night. You know you're way too loud for Worcester, but you still have to go out 'cause that's the way you want to look. You want to go out," he says.
And Chapel's Friday nights are definitely Action Geek material. In the comic, there are scenes of him hanging out with his friends at Vincent's or sitting around drawing at a table at Ralph's Chadwick Square Diner.
Pages from Action Geek used in the article
As mentioned, he is beginning to use photographs in his comic. As many photos are shots of Worcester, the comic gives off a real hometown flavor. Part of that flavor also includes the city's ever-present doctrine of what's cool and what's not. Chapel tries to fight against the sometimes-present conformist attitude by wearing his transparent plastic shirt [He meant jacket.] out on a weekend night or by drawing a comic with some social critiques.
For instance, in Issue 10 of the comic, Chapel makes fun of the pseudo-punk rock scene that exists in Worcester, and the time lots of kids waste posting messages in chat rooms. One of the characters, a young girl, sighs in exaltation to a punk rocker that spends all his spare time on the computer, "You look so authentic punk rock 1977 but you're computer literate, too." The story also features photos of different locales in the city, like the Lucky Dog Music Hall, as backdrops.
The Action Geek comic story lines and illustrations may be full of non-sequitors and silliness. But the comics always have a unity to them, even if it's difficult to describe how it all works. "I have stuff I want to say. I have little stupid stories involving toy characters or stereotypes I want to exploit or issues I want to exploit. This is the only way I know how to do it without having to censor myself," he says trying to explain his work. "But if I dumb it down, then why am I doing this?"
The next issue of Action Geek, Issue 12, should be available by June and the only place to pick one up is at That's Entertainment pn Park Avenue [Worcester]. If you can't wait or want to check out Chapel's stuff, go to www.dsquared.org.
Worcester Magazine, April 18, 2002
View the cover of WoMag in which this article came from