Fragile Press

Smith says the cover helped illustrate the hope he found in bleak circumstances.

For 10 years, Smith has been delivering pizza to pay the bills while pursuing his dream of becoming a syndicated cartoonist. Some of his work has been published in student papers and alternative weeklies, but he was still waiting for his big break.

That came last year, when Smith received a grant from the Xeric Foundation. The charitable organization founded by Peter Laird, the Ninja Turtles' co-creator, has doled out more than $1.8 million to help writers and artists publish their own comics.

"To put it into context, I just had an operation for cancer [on his face], and was feeling pretty bleak about the world, and lo and behold, I get the grant," Smith said. "I think you can see that in the cover."

Inside the slim volume ($4.95, Fragile Press) are 30-odd cartoons, with "odd" being the operative word. They range in length from one panel to 36. Most deal with delivering pizza, and some don't even have a punch line. Their documentation of mundane, everyday life reminded me of Harvey Pekar, but some brought to mind R. Crumb and Matt Groening's Life in Hell.

"Hopefully, I can keep the momentum going and make pizza delivering a distant memory," Smith said.

Dan wants a pizza, really bad. E-mail him at dkoller@quickdfw.com.

Jeremy Smith will sign copies of Ropeburn from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Public Trust Gallery. 2919-C Commerce St. in Deep Ellum. 214-760-7170. trustthepublic.com.