Data Sheet: Johnny Bacardi

NAME: David Allen Jones, actually, if you must know

BIRTHPLACE: Glasgow, Kentucky, United States of America.

AMBITIONS: To drink cup after cup of this here grog. To string sentences together in an intelligent fashion. To draw something I don't hate when I'm done. To retire and drink, play golf and paint all day. Perhaps even at the same time.

TURN-ONS: Comics, music, movies, sports, TV, books, good booze, good cigars, a loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou.

TURNOFFS: Narrow-mindedness. Excessively religious people, you know the kind, the ones that ooze it and get it all over you if you're not careful. Stress. Poison gas. I really hate that.

GREAT COMICS: The Spirit by Will Eisner and Various Assistants, specifically the period from the mid to late 1940's and early 50's. Lee & Ditko's Spider-Man, Lee & Kirby's Fantastic Four, Love & Rockets, WE3, Starstruck, Andy Helfer & Kyle Baker's Shadow, The Archie Goodwin-edited Warren magazines. Name your favorite EC comic here. Calvin & Hobbes, Times Squared, Flex Mentallo...and the list goes on and on and on. Perhaps I'll even write about some of them someday.

FAMILY LIFE: Wonderful wife, two grown kids (boy and girl), two grandchildren (yep), two dogs, one cat. Lots of birds that mooch off me in my back yard via four (!) feeders.

FAVORITE FOOD: Chinese, Mexican, Italian. Hard to be more specific- I like to eat.

WHAT I LIKE IN COMICS: Things which challenge and inspire the mind and the eye, and a sense that the creator is at least half as engaged with his or her creation as he or she would like for me to be.

WHAT I DISLIKE IN COMICS: Cynicism, especially that of the unearned variety; Uninspired, cookie-cutter artists trained only to draw like someone who is perceived as "successful"; silverfish. I really hate seeing silverfish in my comics.

FAVORITE CREATORS: Mike Kaluta, Mike Mignola, Howard Chaykin, Jaime Hernandez, Alex Toth, Richard Sala, Don McGregor, Archie Goodwin (god rest his soul), Sean Phillips, Doug Mahnke, P. Craig Russell, Jill Thompson, Bill Everett, Jerry Grandenetti, et cetera, et cetera...

FAVORITE MUSICIANS: Beatles together and solo, Nilsson, T.Rex, the Beach Boys, Mott the Hoople, Ian Hunter, Bowie, Nick Drake, Zappa, Monkees, Mike Nesmith, ELO, The Move, Roy Wood, the Stones, Kinks, Lloyd Cole, Bob Dylan, Kate Bush, Neil Young, Jellyfish, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Eels, Cibo Matto, R.E.M., the Replacements, Paul Westerberg, Masters of Reality, Prince, Flaming Lips, Parliament/Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, XTC, Tim Buckley, Todd Rundgren, Faces, pre 1976 Rod Stewart, pre 1977 Elton John, Mick Ronson, King Crimson, Strawbs, Roger McGuinn, John Prine, Roxy Music, Jethro Tull, Sandy Denny, Maria Muldaur, Wendy Waldman, 10cc, Godley+Creme, Sparklehorse, Steve Earle, Wilco, the Jayhawks, Ron Sexsmith, et cetera, et cetera...well, you asked!

IDEAL EVENING: Two hot babes, a bottle of rum, fine cigars, and a hot tub. In reality, I'm fine with a cold drink, something good on the TV, my laptop next to me to Twitter if it tickles my fancy, and a stack of comics to perhaps peruse if the mood strikes. And two hot babes to read them to me.