Will Dockery

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

Early Years
The son of, a World War II and Korean War veteran, later a Howard bus and taxicab driver, and Mildred 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 Also during this time he created hundreds of hand made, unpublished minicomics, which included over 500 issues of the adventure serial Uncle Jim, Uncle Jim Comics and Stories had a spinoff comic strip called Tonight Show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.

Minicomics

 * 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

 * Red Zeros -Summer 1983
 * Topaz Cube -Summer 1984
 * Blood Skeleton -Summer 1984
 * Green Ringlets -1989
 * felt -1990 alt.zines review from January 7 1996

"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
 * April Bullets -1995
 * Secret Madrigals -1997
 * Hard Return -1998
 * Opera Positions -1998
 * Sea Weed Fox -1999
 * White Irony -2000

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 Beck.

Known Associates
- Jim Pontius - George Sulzbach - Tito Wals - pd wilson - Gene Woolfolk, Jr. - Henry F. Conley - Wes Sprunger - George Buck - Brian Fowler - Dan Barfield

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)

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.