Jim and I had been friends for several years. I went out of my way to promote Jim and his work during this time. I got him published in Neo magazine, where I was art director, and reprinted his Pistil Prose interview on my website in 1995 (?). I also conducted a great interview with him on Seattle’s FUCC pirate radio.

Fast forward to 1998. Jim’s behavior had become increasingly erratic over the past year, but I always gave him the benefit of the doubt.

He called me from New York, wanting to borrow money for a plane ticket to Seattle. I was somehow convinced to let him come stay over. He showed up and promptly announced that he was “going to kick drugs.”

Needless to say, in the next two days he called 911 from my apartment after trashing the place during some sort of weird drug withdrawal and then crawled into the hallway to be hauled off to Harborview, leav(ing) soiled panties on my floor. No joke. He also gave a kaleidoscope of pills, two big jars full, to a friend of mine who obviously had a drug problem. Pretty sinister... and many of the pills were color-coded with markers. Bizarre. I found out later that they were both in fact using hard drugs. Jim calls and emails now and again, but I of course refuse to have anything to do with him. He only paid me $50 toward the plane ticket. Jim is the inspiration for the “Dr. Pill” character in my film Doomed Planet. Rob Thielke of the locally famous “Vern Folk Insurance” TV spots plays Dr. Pill.

Alex R. Mayer (alex@galaxaco.com)