Shit House Poet
Shit House Poet is the creation of writer and comic book artist Sandy Jimenez. Featured in World War 3 Illustrated consistently throughout the 1990s, these stories chronicle the lives of a nameless narrator and his friends in New York city.
Storylines and themes
The stories range from the Geo-political, to the intensely personal in scope. The very first episode debuted in issue #14 of World War 3 Illustrated, a special issue of comic book stories devoted to the first Iraq war in 1991. The episodes are marked by a "testimonial" style, and are always narrated in first person as if they were actual recollections of events. In 2010 Shit House Poet will mark its 20th year of publication in World War 3 Illustrated.Art & Style
The Shit House Poet stories are distinguished by their visual influences: late 1970s graffiti and street art aesthetics, particularly the aerosol murals on New York City's subway trains in the period. Exclusively in black and white since its 1991 debut, the comic strip utilizes graffiti-inspired splash pages for its episode titles and covers as well as “graf-style” lettering.The stories take place across the life of a nameless Hispanic/Latino-American narrator in the South Bronx. The narratives stretch across the lives of the individual characters and throughout different time periods. Some stories take place in their early childhood, some take place contemporaneously and still others move in and out of time