User:Will Dockery




 * Date of birth: May 7, 1958
 * Location of birth: LaGrange, Georgia, United States
 * Nationality: American
 * Interests: various, including
 * Writing - poetry, criticism, song lyrics, comic scripts for minicomics
 * Composing music - melodies for lyrics, later adapted and arranged by collaborating musicians, former lead singer with the Shadowville All-Stars, using characters, situations and landmarks from the Shadowville mythos, an alternate universe version of the town and people of Columbus, Georgia and surrounding areas, dating back to the mid-1990s.
 * Art - Drawing comic strips for minicomics abstract painting
 * Usenet - rec.arts.poems, alt.arts.poetry.comments, alt.pagan, alt.religion.wicca and other related groups
 * Wikipedia contibutions: Royston Ellis, Minicomic Co-Ops, David Blue, List of minicomics creators, a few others

Will Dockery is an American poet, minicomic artist and singer-songwriter.

Early Years
"A little known story of when my father & mother met, it was at a BBQ shack outside La Grange, Georgia called Hansen's BBQ. True story." -Will Dockery on Sean Rox Trio & BBQ

The son of, a World War II and Korean War veteran, later a Howard bus and taxicab driver, and Mildred Ethel Whitley, William Abraham Dockery was born in LaGrange, Georgia on May 7, 1958, where he would visit frequently during childhood, being the home of his maternal grandparents. He lived in Columbus, Georgia, forty miles south of LaGrange, and both areas meld into the alternate universe of Shadowville in his various works of art.

He started playing music in 1961, when he got his first guitar. This early phase in music was cut short, though, when he smashed the guitar over his father's head, who was napping. He remembers he was emulating a scene he'd seen on an episode of the television series Bonanza or another of the westerns popular in that era. Hank Williams was an early hero, especially after watching Your Cheatin' Heart, the 1964 film of Hank Williams' life story with George Hamilton playing Williams.

He attended Waverly Terrace Elementary school, where he won first prize in kindergarden in a school-wide competition for a crayon drawing of a witch, obviously influenced by his early exposure to comic books and film noir, which everything on television resembled in the pre-color era of the 1960s.

The next year, in May of 1965, his family moved to the east side of Columbus, where he attended Edgewood Elementary school. There, he wrote his first poetry, influenced by reading Edgar Allen Poe and combining that with ideas influenced by popular music such as The Beatles. Also during this time he created hundreds of hand made, unpublished minicomics, which included over 500 issues of the adventure serial Uncle Jim, Uncle Jim Comics and Stories had a spinoff comic strip called Tonight Show Starring Uncle Jim, which filled many episodes in which guest hosts filled in for Uncle Jim in a parody of Johnny Carson's television series of the time. In May of 1970 Dockery made his return to music, performing a cover of the Tiny Tim song Tiptoe Through the Tulips.

Discography

 * Bag of Groceries (1982) material written and recorded with Jim Pontius and P.D. Wilson.
 * Shadowville All-Stars(2006-07) material written with Dennis Beck and Brian Mallard, including God's Toybox, Dream Tears'' and others.
 * Dockery-Conley (1998-2008) material written with Henry F. Conley, including Ozone Stigmata, Fadeaway Encounter and others.
 * Shadowville Speedway ep A five song sampler compact disc released June 11 2008, 1.) Shadowville Speedway 2.) Twilight Girl 3.) Fadeaway Encounter 4.) Ragpicker Joe 5.) Surgeon General. All songs written by Will Dockery and Henry Conley.
 * Shark Pact Manifesto/Swamp Street Exile written by Will Dockery words and Rusty Wood music. Released July 3, 2011.

Minicomics


Will Dockery entry in the Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999 Excerpt from the Introduction of the Who's Who:"The Who's Who of American Comic Books is a database designed to document the careers of people who have contributed to or supported the publication of original material in U.S. comic books in the years 1928-99. It is not a checklist, but rather a resume of a person's creative career. Each resume covers not only a person's comics career, but as much information as could be located about his/her other creative and professional work in advertising, prose, TV, animation, syndication, and other sister fields and professions. The scope of the Who's Who includes anyone known to have contributed directly to or supported the field of original U.S. comic books..."


 * Uncle Jim's Comics and Stories (1969-1970) unpublished minicomic.
 * Various unpublished comic strips including Splut, Virtue Peak, Vulture's Beak, The Assemblers and Tonight Show Starring Uncle Jim (1967-1970)
 * Terror Time (1970-1974) unpublished horror anthology minicomic.
 * Le Glass Dildo (1978) mixture of minicomic and poetry.
 * The Torchbearers (1979-1980)
 * Shaman Newspaper (1984-1996) minicomic anthology
 * Demon House Theatre (1985-1988)
 * River Mutants (1985-1988)

Poetry Chapbooks
felt, 50c postpaid. Minicomic, eight pages. William Dockery, P.O. Box xxxx, Phenix City, Alabama 36868. On the back cover of this tome is written the words, "Second Printing." I was going to joke that with Dockery, this means my copy is not only the second printing but the second copy. However, this damn thing is actually very well written. Maybe he did actually print more than one copy in the first printing, and sold out! felt begins poorly, but picks up at the top of page four. Then things really get going at the bottom of page four, and the lines roll on through thunderous poetic crescendoes right to the end. There are amazing images here; Tatumville park, the memory of Tracy, the father who's "a grey cat," even a lake of disappearing paths. I highly recommend this chapbook on two counts, as a stunning book of poems and as a sample of the best the comics small press has to offer. -Andrew Roller, January 7 1996 in alt.zines To The Magic Store]] -1993
 * Red Zeros -Summer 1983
 * Topaz Cube -Summer 1984
 * Blood Skeleton -Summer 1984
 * Green Ringlets -1989
 * felt -1990 alt.zines review from January 7 1996
 * [[Criticism of Will Dockery|
 * April Bullets -1995
 * Secret Madrigals -1997
 * Hard Return -1998
 * Opera Positions -1998
 * Sea Weed Fox -1999
 * White Irony -2000
 * Exile In 1995 -2017

Video appearances
Dockery was a part of documentary film-maker Truman Bentley, Jr.'s multi-part video cassette observation of the poets, artists and oddballs of Columbus, Georgia from the years 1996-2000. These have not been transferred to DVD and are at present out-of-print. Various peformances of Will Dockery are available on YouTube, including


 * Ozone Stigmata, written with Henry Conley.
 * Truck Stop Woman, written with Henry Conley.
 * Last Dream Today, written with Brian Mallard.
 * The Ride/Combat Zone, written with Dennis
 * Shark Pact Manifesto, written with Rusty Wood
 * Truck Stop Woman produced by Artemis Records

Television
Will Dockery hosted a television program "Kaleidoscope" for 12 episodes for East Alabama TV channel 7. An Access channel for Cable TV of East Alabama from August to December of 2012. He interviewed artists from the Chattahoochee Valley area in the Phenix City, Alabama/Columbus, Georgia area.

Will was a 3 time guest on the show, "Minstrels on the Block" with Brian Mallard. A biographical show featuring musical artists from the Chattahoochee Valley area in Phenix City, Alabama and Columbus, Georigia area. The show was produced by East Alabama TV channel 7 on Cable TV of East Alabama.

Known Associates
- Jim Pontius - George Sulzbach - Tito Wals - pd wilson - Gene Woolfolk, Jr. - Henry F. Conley - Wes Sprunger - George Buck (Drummer) - Brian Fowler - Dan Barfield - Rusty Wood - Brian Mallard - Jack Snipe (guitarist) - Patricia Suddeth

Hangouts
- Majestic Diner (Atlanta, Georgia) - Ken's Tavern (Atlanta, Georgia) - Dinglewood Pharmacy (Columbus, Georgia) - The Alley behind Rhino's on Broad (Columbus, Georgia) - SoHo Bar and Grill (Columbus, Georgia) - Del Ranch (Smiths Station, Alabama) - Uptown Columbus

Later Years
Will Dockery currently resides in western central Georgia, pursuing his lifelong passions for art, music, poetry and performance art, recently appearing with Henry Conley and Gene Woolfolk at Pat's Place in Americus, Georgia June 14, 2008.

A new collection of songs written with Henry F. Conley, Shadowville Speedway Blues was released on compact disc on April 18, 2009.

Will Dockery has been working since 2011 writing songs with Brian Mallard, Jack Snipe, and Rusty Wood.