Author: Keith Pille

  • Reality is the New Fantasy

    Spending hours essentially motionless, neck-deep in art supplies, trying to draw a believable rendition of Halifax, Nova Scotia, with an ear half-cocked to The Young and the Restless wafting in from the living room—this is when Ryan Kelly tends to get a moment of clarity. “You have to make yourself a little nutty to draw…

  • Drat!

    The Fantastic Four has always been a comic lover’s comic. Although Spider-Man is more widely known, Reed Richards and his family are often considered the soul of Marvel Comics—it was, after all, the Fantastic Four’s explosive popularity in the early sixties that vaulted the company from also-ran to market leader. Although it’s been a long…

  • Cover Letters I'd Like to Send

    Jann WennerPublisher, Rolling Stone Dear Mr. Wenner, My name is Keith Pille. I am here to rescue you. Your magazine has become an atrocious ball of doo-doo, and I believe that nothing short of a top-to-bottom overhaul can restore it to its former glory. Please let me know a good time for me to show…

  • Go Loudly into the Night

    After playing guitar by himself for twenty-odd years, Tom O’Connor found himself in a rut. “I’m tired of knowing three chords,” he said, grinning. “And I wanted to play with other people. I’ve been playing to my plants and my furniture and my kids; my kids stopped listening to me, and I thought, ‘You know,…

  • Portrait of the Artist as a Non-Artist

    American Guitar Stallions, by Keith PilleReviewed by Keith Pille I come to bury American Guitar Stallions, not to praise it. Which is good, because burial, not praise, is what this stinking sack of crap merits. Deep burial. In a fortified and lead-sealed vault. American Guitar Stallions is easily among the worst novels of the new…