"Belch" Out Loud at the Table: New Series Adds a New "Dimension" to Internet Comics

Conservative ex-journalist's self-published web-distributed comic book celebrates first year in production. The author and artist talks about his writing career, reminisces about the past, and outlines plans for year two.

Armorel, AR (PRWEB) May 19, 2006 -- Jonathan M. Sweet announces that his self-published series The Belch Dimension Comics celebrated its first birthday this April, with the release of the long-awaited issue #13.

"It's a momentous milestone," says Sweet. "It's a dream over a decade in the making. It graduated from a few doodles in the margins of a notebook to a full-color monthly [comic book. I'm very proud of my baby."

The 24-page full-color magazine features stories set in a small town based on the Southern community where Sweet grew up. The series follows a group of crimefighting high-schoolers called the Treehouse Warriors. Many of the stories show the team battling the world-domination schemes of their arch enemy Snakeman, a snake-faced archmage often derisively nicknamed "Hiss Hole".

Sweet, who writes and draws the comic himself, describes Belch Dimension as a "callback to the days of [Bob Clampett and [Tex Avery, with an urban flavor."

The Missouri Bootheel native once wrote briefly for The Arkansas State University Herald. His real dream was to be a cartoonist; however, he was terminated from his post after only six months on staff. He was accused of plagiarism after a copy editor claimed he stole an idea for a piece he turned in on TV parental guidelines system from a Saturday Night Live episode. Sweet had never seen the sketch cited in the charges and denied everything, but was still fired.

"The TV ratings cost me everything," says Sweet. "Because of them I lost my job, my friends all turned against me, and I was ultimately forced to leave school."

Sweet began writing short stories professionally after graduating ASU in 1998. His first book Almasheol (XLibris, 2002), is a rough and ragged combination autobiography and anthology. It contains half a dozen pieces written between 1999 and 2002. In a section at the end of the book Sweet addresses the charge against him and the subsequent year-long dispute afterwards, calling the editorial board responsible for his dismissal a "kangaroo court" and continues to deny any culpability. "To this day I still don't believe [the sketch exists," he writes.

A novel, Postcards of the Hanging, followed a year later.

Sweet launched his website www.freewebs.com/welcometolemora/, in 2004. Llike his books, it serves as a soapbox for his rabid right-wing views, espousing opinions on everything from the writing craft to virulent denounciations of his former bosses and of his greatest bugaboo: TV ratings. He says they are "evil, useless and should be destroyed". Sweet further insists "they have done more to destroy lives, cost jobs, and rob Americans of their freedom than any other law to come down the pike in a decade". He calls, among his other reform plans, for the immediate repeal of the bill that introduced them in Congress. Privately he has called them "little monstrosities" and referred to his accuser as a "mentally and morally warped little man, waving about his magic phantom sketch".

Sweet publishes several chapbooks exclusively through Smoking Cat Productions: North County Road 857, Virago, and La Corneta del Juicio.

Belch Dimension first debuted on April 15, 2005.

Past issues of The Belch Dimension have addressed such pressing issues as drugs, militant Islam, sensitivity to those with disabilities, and racism.

The latest issue, #13, includes a special pinup called "The Ten Tenents of Liberalism", which is the first actual printed version of what host Rush Limbaugh has often called the liberals' "playbook".

"After spending nearly ten years of my life engaging in long and frustrating constant disputes with liberals, I consider myself well-versed in how the enemy thinks. If you can call that 'thinking,'" says Sweet.

"How it works is very simple. Any conservative who happens to find himself embroiled in an argument with a left-wing thing can simply look at his copy of the list and identify by number the attack they use from their admittedly limited arsenal. There are few variations; this playbook dates from my journalism days in 199. It has not changed in ten years, and was likely old and outdated even then."

Sweet promises "big things" for Belch Dimension's second year.

"We'll have better artwork, more complex plots, new villains, and some real character development. We plan on fleshing out several characters, both major and minor, and lending them more depth and full backstories."

The comic is available exclusively at the Smoking Cat webstore as both a hard copy and an e-book.

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