Oprah does it. She’s on the cover of every one of the magazines in her publishing empire. So why in the hell can’t we grace our own little sliver of cyberspace?
Holly Lang of Pine Magazine, a dear friend, contributor and ally of Dry Ink, sat down with founders Tom Cheshire and William (Billy) Inman just days before the one year anniversary.

Holly Lang: For the record, who are you and what’s your responsibility with Dry Ink?

Tom Cheshire: I am Tom Cheshire. I am partners with Mr. Inman on Dry Ink. I am in charge of getting the word out about us. I also contribute articles and interviews.

HL: And you Mr. Inman?

William Inman: I’m Billy Inman and with Tom I’m the guy who asks people to write and take pictures for nothing more than the promise of fame. I also write and take pictures.

HL: Wait, are you Billy or William? Your byline reads William?

WI: Jeez, you said you were going to throw me softball questions?

HL: Well? Which is it?

WI: I’m William in print. Billy in real life. William at my real job.

TC: You’re confusing me.

HL: Ok, well, are you two the entire operation?

WI: No, we have a web ninja, Clay Simmons, who is actually much more important to this thing than either of us. He built the site, and then built a content management system for us. Can you imagine? He lives in Santa Cruz and surfs and rides bicycles very seriously. An incredible talent and I can’t believe he deals with us. We’ve actually had many talented people contribute their work to this endeavor: writers like Pete Jones, Scott Cheshire, Laura Martin, Chad Radford, Michael Wall and yourself – all geniuses and well-published. And photographers like Jim Hunnicutt, Matthew Martin and Lee Tesche - phenomenal artists.

HL: How did this all begin?

TC: I met Inman here and Lloyd Benjamin at an insurance seminar. I said, “This is whack, I’m outta here.” And they followed. They were both total zeros at the time. I took them under my wing and now look at them. If Lloyd were here, you could admire him, too. He’s really come a long way.
We spent the night on monkey bars drinking Night Train and we each spoke about our ideas, and this is what was born.

HL: Is this true?

WI: Yes.

HL: Is Lloyd still involved?

WI: Lloyd is our sage. He designed our logo.

TC: He tells us everything we do wrong.

WI: Yea, and he lets me use his wireless when my neighbor’s router fucks up, which is pretty often.

HL: You have your one year anniversary party coming up, how will you celebrate?

TC: I will celebrate it (FRIDAY, APRIL 20 at 10 P.M.) with friends and business associates at the Morris Lounge, the BADDEST bar in Atlanta with DJ Kenny Boo on the one’s and two’s. I will drink 40’s of Budweiser and I will sing and dance and preach the great word of Dry Ink. I will do this ’til the sun comes up.

WI: Yea, and the Morris Lounge – located at 2284 Oakview in Kirkwood – is a cash only bar, by the way. Everyone is invited.

HL: Tell me about how you came up with the name?

TC: We originally wanted a print issue, and the name is a reference to the great beat writers. We eventually realized that we had no money to print, so we would be an online mag. So really, it doesn’t make much sense now. But we like it, that’s all.

WI: We picked it from a short list, which included Sweater Weather, Fluffy Puppy and others.

HL: You’ve been at this for a year now, what is your greatest accomplishment?

TC: That is it, that we’ve been at it for a year and didn’t quit. I am a notorious quitter. I quit the second grade. I am also proud that we have smart writers and friends.

HL: Ok, so what are some things you have on the horizon?

WI: Well, we’ve got a few really awesome projects in the works. One we can’t talk about until the date is set, but it’s a video project involving a handful of Atlanta’s best bands. And fire. Also, Lee Tesche, I mentioned him earlier, is in the midst of reproducing some of our catalog along with his amazing hand-drawn, pen and ink renderings of our photography for a street issue. That’s all I can say about that because it’s going to be visually mind-blowing.
We’re also sponsoring a show June 9 with the All Night Drug Prowling Wolves, Gentlemen Jesse and His Men and a great band from Little Rock called Tel Aviv. This coincides with the release of the Towncraft documentary, which we will screen before the show – you can read about it on our site, just click on articles; the story is called “A Little Rock Doc.” It’s an interview with the director of the film by Pete Jones. That’s all happening at the Star Bar here in Atlanta.

HL: How does it feel to have made absolutely no money yet?

WI: Well, it fucking sucks to be perfectly honest.

TC: It feels great, I run bar tabs all over town.

HL: Tom, how did you come up with the idea for the “Drinks With” series? And in which one did you drink the most?

TC: I just thought it would be great to interview musicians and artists and drink heavily with them and just record the conversation verbatim. I thought we should call the magazine “Drinks With” for a minute. I drank the most in the first ever “Drinks With” with my boy Brent Hinds from Mastodon. That one is in our archive. It was very exciting. We knew we were on to something good. It started in the afternoon and went ’til the next morning. I lost my car.

HL: Where do you see Dry Ink one year from now?

TC: I see us sitting on a Dry Ink book, a Dry Ink documentary and hopefully get a little bit of money coming in. We will continue to put out good stories and make the reader happy.

WI: I’m with that.

Holly Lang is a freelance writer living in Atlanta. She is the founding editor of Pine Magazine, which is available online at www.pine-magazine.com