"Being inside a woman for nine months was a big influence on me," proclaims the rock 'n' roll art-rioter trading as JMM - and we're sure he knows what he's getting at. Conceived at a drive-in (or so he tells us) in East Tupelo, Mississippi, JMM remembers his first attempts at the comic book form with crystal clarity.

"The thing that gave me the most guilt was a humor mag created when I was quite young called National Funny Cartoons and Sexy Jokes," he cackles maniacally. "This was the follow-up to my first underground effort that I had actually buried in the dirt - it's good to get this off my chest in a porno mag. I created SUPERSEXXX at about that time, about a man-hater who gets her powers from semen."

With his imagination doubling as a battlefield for good and evil, JMM immersed himself in the solid-gone world of comic books, the drive-in and vintage rock 'n' roll. He was in the perfect place - Memphis, which for him is "Ground Zero for (American) Pop Culture."

Such an escapist lifestyle is great as long as you can get by on a diet of popcorn and retina-frazzling, sleepless nights in front of TV and cinema screens. But the trick is to make all that stuff earn you enough of a crust to be able to maintain that lifestyle. To that end, JMM set about forging a career as an artist.

"I decided what I loved and I decided what I hated," the loner artist divulges. "Then I deconstructed the two and built walls around the concepts."

That's all resulted in a body of work that's a kaleidoscopic explosion of retro imagery. But why does the past inspire him more than the present?

"The past has an excuse for not having it's shit together - it's locked in time and ripe for the taking," the maestro explains, "The past is lit darkly and lacks documentation, so you can make it up. Besides, the present is all figured out and the future looks bleak."

JMM's artwork combats all forms of bleakness, not least by it's constant use of the female form. There's an honest-to-goodness does of sex appeal in everything he does. Of course, the man knows exactly what attributes his ideal babe would have: "Square jaw, tight pants, punk rock, made-up, bone-breaker, gun-owner," he grins wickedly.

The comic book world alone isn't big enough to contain JMM's riotous fantasies. Nosirree, these days you're more likely to find the dude seating over the script for a deranged film, or behind the lens directing one. And those films are, naturally, chock-full of chicks. His reason for making the leap from comics to the movies is honest and direct: "Naked women agreed to repeat things I wrote!"

At least as crazy as his graphic art, if not more so, JMM's cinematic art really does have to be seen to be believed. The director of dementia's outlines of some prime examples will clue you in as to why...

"DAMSELVIS, DAUGHTER OF HELVIS" (1994): The daughter of the last incarnation of rock 'n' roll takes his message to the streets on her chopper. She meets Rebelvis, Psychedelvis, and Elvicious. TEENAGE TUPELO (1995) is a semi-auto-bio-sexploitation-comedy-drama featuring the live birth of the director! THE SORE LOSERS (1997): Hot rod juvenile delinquents from outer space come to Memphis to kill hippies. SUPERSTARLET A.D. (2000): Girl gangs at the end of the world hunt cavemen with machine guns while searching for ancient stag films. Apocalypse Meow! Shot on 16mm in 16 days with 16 starlets for 16 thousand dollars!"

Finally, with what epitaph would such an outrageously out-there dude like to be honored once he's shuffled off this mortal coil?

"JMM worshipped a culture that is forgotten in the hope that he would be remembered..."