Street Code
Street Code is © Dean Haspiel
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Jack, a native New York bruiser, is fed up with living in the dregs of a drug-addled Alphabet City where his neighbors are insane shut-ins and his bicycle is always getting stolen. So, Jack escapes from Manhattan to Brooklyn to make a fresh start in Carroll Gardens only to face a new strain of street logic where most everything he stumbles upon is not as it seems. Jack steeps in the hazing of eons old rituals as a polarized community begrudgingly changes hands between tribes. With STREET CODE, Dean Haspiel returns to his semi-autobiographical roots and explores the emotional truths between prime and primate.
Makes you realize how infinitesimally insignificant some of our conflicts are in the grand scheme of things. Like the other vignettes, this one goes straight to the point- truly enjoyable.
Dino,
the latest story is amazing, not only in the simplicity and down to earth quality of the story, but also your storytelling is top notch (not that I'm telling you something new, anyway). The scene of the bike-door slam and subsequent fall is a great example of what a great storyteller can do.
Another great Auto bio. The bike/ door crash itself was very effective on the screen. You make those 9-11 day seem like yesterday. Which is to say, good writing on your part, bad memories for us in NYC.
wow...
Effing-Aye. You moved me.
Dean,
This was a heart rending tale. Touching, deeply personal, and tragic. STREET CODE's best vignette yet.
-Bob
Heartbreaking final panel, indeed. I remember trying desperately to give blood for survivors, and then watching day after day go by with none found. The memory is still shocking to me.
Dean, the last screen is a killer. I'm humbled and awed. Sadness and gravitas that elevates the character above feelings of helplessness and revenge. It's tight, and great.
This couldn't be any different from my experience getting doored. Save for the bike damage and physical wounds, my door-er couldn't have been more apologetic and helpful! She even bought me a new wheel and paid for bike overhaul. I think she was trying to avoid a later lawsuit - her husband owned the NYSC franchise, I found out!
It's a really good piece, Dean. Poignant and yet still ugly enough to set one's (or at least my) blood a-boil.
Beautifully told and drawn, I do love the B & W. I've been waiting to see how this would resolve and as much as I'd have liked to see the idiot get some beats I'm glad it didn't go that way. I should have known to expect the unexpected, this strip isn't exactly about wish fulfilment.
Man, you're on a roll and putting out a lot of work lately and all of it looks great, I don't know how you manage to do it!
You have our permission to draw one more panel of you beating the **** out of that prick.
Dean, thanks for adding the link:
http://man-size.livejournal.com/355401.html
It really enhances Street Code. Cheers.
I Love It! Keep em coming
Due to my recent string of bike related accidents, this episode is extra poignant. I felt every bruise.
Those two silent screens are beautiful and proves that you are a master storyteller. Son sons, Brooklyn has not been easy on you, has it?
Now that I've read where this is going I feel bad for chuckling a little...context is everything. Don't know how this going to play out but it's not looking good.
Almost identical thing happened to my mother's partner, he didn't get hit that bad by the door but he had a bit of a verbal go at the person that did it and the driver and his buddy beat the crap out of him. Very nasty, and there was a racial element to the whole thing too, my mum's partner is black, originally from Nigeria and I don't think these guys weren't too keen on black people. The whole incident affected him for quite a while, physically and mentally.
You would hope that somebody might have more perspective on things, especially in your story and incident taking place in the aftermath of such a terrible event. Jerks abound though.
Look forward to seeing how this resolves, the tension is palpable.
awww man! People in cars can be such douchebags. I got doored once by a cab parked DEAD CENTER in a one way, one lane street so I had no way of knowing which side the passenger was getting out. Of course, I picked the wrong side to pass and BAM! ****ing doored. The passenger? Oh she just gawked at me, didn't bother to ask if I was okay, even as I began throwing a stream of obscenities at her, she didn't say a word. I asked if she was just gonna stand there and stare at me, and that's what she did. Luckily my bike was fine so I rode off and had only a huge disgusting bruise on my thigh for my troubles.
Oh and I'm loving Street Code, btw. Pretty much just as much as I thought I would when I first heard what it was about.
Reading the latest installment, especially on the exact anniversary of the event itself, kind of made my blood boil. If there's any justice in the world (and there isn't) that ******** who doored you has perished of some horrible disease. One that took a full seven painful years to erode him.
ahhhh this is so people it's not even funny. but it is funny, and enjoyable. but it still pisses me off, hahaha. excellent job at capturing the human condition, dean
Hey Gang--
Good to know recent STREET CODE installments are capturing new readers. Thx, people.
Bobby T -- Seven years later and it's bizarre how fresh that 9/11 wound is. I re-post the comic I did about my experience that day every year and here's a link: http://man-size.livejournal.com/355401.html
Faz -- memoir is hard to fictionalize and, even though STREET CODE is semi-autobio proper, I'm not interested in naval gazing. Enough internal posturing occurs despite my best efforts to keep the story moving. I hope that time and life experience allows a 41-year old, ink-slinging chump like me to weed out the namby-pamby stuff while allowing the room to flex emotion.
Josh -- thx, buddy
Ooof! As usual, your art sublimely captures the emotion, energy, and ultimately, PAIN, of that moment. A fitting thing to read on 9/11's 7th anniversary
Strong work Dean, love the B&W, and that DOORED panel...ouch, man. Just ouch. Well, ouch and a bit of a chuckle, I confess.
Listened to your interview on the Word Balloon site, very much enjoyed it, you mentioned you wanted to do something semi-autobiographical and not focus on the internal aspects of that kind of thing quite so much and I think that's a good approach and it's working out very well.
Wasn't initially a fan, but the last 2 updates have been great. Keep up the good work.
Hehehe, doored. Ah, good comedy there. But seriously, drivers, is there a biker in YOUR blindspot?
homestar'd!
i definitely didn't see the "doored" part coming, and in such a creative way. verrrrr' clever work, good sir
Dean, I'm really enjoying your series. Looking forward to more updates.
Damn it, Dean. That was like a bunch to the nuts. It's amazing to me how close to the surface my feelings on that day are. I hardly ever think about it anymore, but with one mention it all comes flooding back, still raw and fresh.
Seems pp22 was a surefire hit. Thx, party people.
RiverHelix -- sorry to learn that NBC Sticks are universal. Duh, I should've known. "Street cred" is as important as learning street codes. No doubt.
Steve Ellis -- my next story, a 3-parter titled "Doored," will surely date STREET CODE. A bunch of these stories happened to me a decade ago. Look for it tomorrow.
it's a gas gas gas
I lived in this neighborhood.. This is what it was like ten years ago for me. Really fun read....
Perfect ending for the Korean Twins.
LOL- NBC stick... In college, me and my roommate (from Newark) had a 'HNIC' stick (a broke-off ax handle) mounted on our wall just in case any drunken Mass-hole wanted to start something.
*****
I'm on for the Steet Code ride m'man. When I moved to Washington Heights from Va., I remember feeling like a stranger in a strange land. Fortunately enough I brought up my 130lb Rottweiler which instantly built up my street cred with the local tigeres...but soon enough I wished I had a coupla cats after the Mickeys would grab my dog's keebles, stick their middle fingers up at him and dart into some hole behind my sink. Ahhh New York:)
page twenty-two is in fact great. Nice read. Wis there was more.
Love page 22 Dean, and all-n-all this is an awesome story.
Thx, Tim. The title of that fridge story in OT was "The Ice Man."
Best ending to one of your stories since the refrigerator repair story (I forget the title) you did in "opposable thumbs. I can see what a great idea this strip is now that I read it all in one sitting.
Seth -- I doubt racism and/or fear of difference will ever go away. It's genetically innate. Still, it's surprising to face such old guard stylings in NYC.
Pete -- I keep a 6-inch TBS [Timony Bros. Stick] in my back pocket at all times for "just in case."
Ron -- "Old School" is a series of segue's and I'm glad the pace worked out. Thanks for the cheer, chief.
Josh -- You should talk, mister! Your webcomic, A.D. - New Orleans After the Deluge, is much more provocative and cringe inducing.
Dannaquinn -- *gleee*
Bryy -- I hope that's a GOOD thing!?!
Paul/pboi -- like water off a ducks back my comix making skills be. Thx for the high-five.
Dougan -- glad it worked well. Telling a story is one thing but showing it is a whole other can of worms.
RKB -- Jack ain't no loser. He's going through a transitional phase and there are bumps in the road. For STREET CODE - Season One, I elected to focus on Jack and his environment. We won't learn what he does for work or why he always has a bandage somewhere on his face [likely from a fist-fight or accident]. Instead, we get the inside track on what it's like to roam down the road you never took before and how that starts to make an impact.
Zegas -- thx for the reach-around, homeboy. I think Zuda aims to put these bad-assed puppies into print. If they don't, we can stay up late nights together and xerox/fold/staple a bunch of the stories into mini-comix form for next years SPX, APE, and MoCCA. Dig? ALSO -- good point about clicking directly to a story. I'll alert the Zuda Police.
That page 22 is classic ;)
FINALLY! A comic I can realate to! It's like your drawing table is firmly planted inside my soul. I hope ZUDA wises up and decides to print this collection of hard nosed, urban landscapery. I want to file it on my bookshelf next to "Strangers Than Paradise".
Also, is there a way to go directly to "Old School", or do I have to click page after page from the beginning? This will get impossible once the individual stories mount up after a while.
oh yeah I bumped you up a star to 4.
I like the tie-ins (cats, girlfriend gone) from one comic to the next. Also the way the awful george story played out never seeing his face, the ed gin ref. good stuff. The new story also along the lines of being controversial pushing the edge for Zuda, and expanding on the character of jack. You seemed to have set him up with a bit of the born loser twist at the end of his stories, nice enough but I would like to see Jack 'win' every once and awhile. The NBC story reminded me of a town not that far from where I live with a sign that shows up again and again that says "don't let the sun go down on your ass" same meaning implied. I'm liking the development so far, so you get a fav from me.
I was wondering if the NBC story was going to make its way into STREET CODE. This is great stuff! I really like the ending, too!
Hi Dean,
I just love the rythym of these stories, the off kilter way they end, the conversational manner. You make it look so effortless Dean!
Cheers for a great strip,
Paul Peart-Smith
The world is just so... it's got it's own culture.
Curiously, in today's news:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080815/ap_on_re_us/truck_nooses
There's only one thing I can say about this comic - I love it! I can't wait to see more. Thanks for an amazing comic.
Nice stuff.
But, dude, if the commentators had problems with your portrayal of the dead and dismembered cats last chapter, I cannot wait to see what they'll have to say about NBC sticks! You're gonna be rode out of Zuda on a rail! ;->
This series has such a great pace - every screen has such a nice cadence that you don't even realize you just read the whole thing, front to back.
Funny ending. Loved the expression on Jack's face at the bottom of page 21. Next time I'm in Brooklyn, I'm definitely keeping my eyes open for NBC sticks. Putting sticks in trees to ward off undesireables stikes me as a very primitive and superstitious thing to do.
Dino - This week's edition is a great follow-up to Awful George. The first part of the story is soooo Brooklyn. I remember you once told me about the NBC sticks so it's really interesting to see it illustrated and play out so closely to your earlier telling. It's one of those sad but true things that one wishes weren't still going on, and in Carroll Gardens, no less!
As to the second part, I was just waiting to see if "Jack" was going to score with one (or both!) of the twins, but instead it went to that tragicomic place that life sometimes brings us to. Very funny. If only I had twin Korean neighbor girls when I got dumped and moved into a new place years ago....though if I did, I'm sure a similar thing would have happened.
I'm enjoying Street Code a LOT!