ERFY SWIGGS (also known as "Astro") describes himself as an "impish rebel" who has rejected mainstream culture as much as it has rejected him.  He first brought his pen to paper at a very early age, winning the "Writer of the Month" Award in high school for a story about a disappearing bus.  Even as he tutored and rang at a register, he was a man of his own will...writing extended journal entries and scripts on cash-register receipts. Feeling the rise of corporate tyranny, he soon threw himself into his own projects -- both film and publishing -- and often funded his efforts with nothing more than the coins he'd saved in a giant crayon (bank). He has been known to hang promotional posters on subway cars at 3 AM, and then to watch plaintively as they were torn down before him.  He loves to invent nonsense words which capture hidden essences, and merges with these essences in the fortress of the Night.  His mental walls are outfitted in ever-changing shades of folly-grinding velvet, and he likes to dine with Truth in the Courts of Salamander Kings.  He collects abandoned pencils and dolls and other discarded things, and considers seagulls to be among his best friends.