Frequently Unasked Questions

Some things you probably didn’t want to know.

About Dionysus in Wisconsin:

Q. Does Dionysus in Wisconsin end on a cliffhanger? 

A. No. There’s an overarching plot between four books in the series, but no cliffhangers book to book.

Q. How many books will there be? Will they all focus on Sam/Ulysses? 

A. Right now I think there will be nine, and four are solo Sam/Ulysses books (they appear as side characters or co-narrators in the rest).

Q. Where can I get it? 

A. You can order it from Amazon here. From Bookshop.org here. From assorted other sites here. Or if you take the ISBN (9798988394402) to your local bookstore, they should be able to order it. Or email me and I can ship a signed one–$17 inc. shipping for the US.

Q. Any trigger warnings I should be aware of? 

A. There’s some reference to child neglect that happens prior to the book beginning. There’s some violence. There’s graphic sex. Those are probably the big ones.

Q. Was it nominated for any awards?

A. Kind of you to ask. It was shortlisted for the 2024 Lammy in Gay Romance!

About Old Time Religion:

Q. Do I need to have read book 1?

A. Look, I’m kind of notorious for reading series out of order, so you could jump in if you don’t mind feeling at sea. Otherwise, yeah, I recommend reading Dionysus in Wisconsin first.

All the sites you can buy it are here. Or take the ISBN (979-8988394419) to your favorite bookstore and order a copy. Or drop me an email and I’ll ship you a signed copy ($17 inc. shipping if you’re in the US).

Q. Is this the last book in the series?

A. No.

Q. Who’s Livia?

A. Ulysses’s ex-girlfriend. She’s mentioned in passing in DIW (in chapter 4).

Q. When book three?

A. Uh…October 2024, probably.

About the comic:

Q. When did the comic begin?

A. The first comic was dated 29 March 2007, but was actually posted a few weeks later than that (I don’t know the exact date offhand).  I was working with a friend who was going to be my webmaster and we delayed posting for a while in order to build up some material.

Q. Do you draw the comic by hand?  Why don’t you use some complicated computer software so it looks good?

A. I enjoy drawing by hand.  Also I believe nothing can help the art at this point.

Q. Who are the characters in the comic?

A. In Em oi! #1-50 (the Viet Nam era), the main characters are Em and Ly.  From 51-181, the main characters are Em, Daniel (my brother), and Claire (his fiance, now wife). From #181-now, the main characters have been Em, and Bryan (my boyfriend, now husband), with occasional guest appearances by Michel Foucault, among others.

The people portrayed haven’t died or anything since I stopped drawing them.  They just moved away from where I happened to be.  Since most of the comic is focused on my life, if you’re not in my immediate vicinity, you’re not likely to make it in.  Sometimes I have conversations with these people that later make it into the comic, but since drawing computers/people talking on the phone isn’t very interesting, that doesn’t happen much.

Q. Your art has really changed since 2007.

A. That’s not really a question.  But yes, yes it has.  My hair has also changed considerably (reflected in the comic).  Ok, here’s one other thing that has changed:

Originally the comic was entirely in black and white (“reality”) with color being used only for fantasy scenes.  So for example, the above represents a flight of fancy Em has, so it is in color.  Nowadays I typically color everything (time permitting, anyway) and leave the reader to decide if Em really had a conversation with Foucault or not.

Q. What’s this “Em oi/ơi” nonsense?

A. In Vietnamese, “oi” (really, “ơi”, but I don’t have Vietnamese installed on this computer right now), is a calling particle.  When you see someone across the market (Chợ), you might want to call them over and say hello. To get their attention, if they were a man who was slightly older than you, you’d call “anh ơi.” If they were slightly younger than you, regardless of gender, you might call, “em ơi!”

I think you see the pun.

Q. Do you wear glasses in real life?

A. Yes. I gave up wearing contacts in about 2017.