John Eberly singing “Under the Stares” as part of The Excuses’ Stay Tuned Tour.
Born in El Paso, Texas, John Eberly entered the Wichita scene in the mid-1980’s as the singer/songwriter for legendary metal-punk rock band The Mumbles. Being an extraordinarily active artist in those years, Eberly gained an international reputation as an underground cartoonist, also producing scads of zines and Xerox publications under the umbrella of Mumbles Publications (see “John E.” profile in Comics Journal # 96). He has exhibited his drawings, paintings and collages in solo and group shows around the world.
Besides The Mumbles, Eberly performed and recorded solo and with many other groups and artists including Doc Wor Mirran (w/Jello Biafra), The Cutthroats, The Beef Twinkies, The Angry Fuzz, The Eberly Farmers, and The Eberly Brothers, a fake preacher/gospel duo along with artist Joel Sanderson (see Demolition Kitchen). In 1989 he played saxophone with The Embarrassment, and later formed the band 626 with Bill Goffrier (The Embarrassment, Big Dipper, Saucer) and former Blivets drummer and current member of Local Band and The Deciders, Britt Rosencutter.
Moving to the Hutchinson area in the early 1990’s to raise a family and teach Art History at the local community college, John E. remains active in the arts and humanities, working as director for both the Reno County Cultural Commission, and the Hutchinson Art Center. 2004 also saw the publication of John’s non-fiction work on the “hidden” history of alchemy entitled AL-KIMIA (see Amazon.com) through Sophia Perennis publications in Ghent New York, alongside the release of his acclaimed CD “Imagination”.
In the past few years he has been editing dozens of published articles he originally wrote for Caduceus, Abignus, Ariadne’s Web, Sufi Journal, and Esoterica among other scholarly journals for publication as a collection. Presently, his “day job” is Film Coordinator for Hutchinson’s beautifully restored art deco Historic Fox Theatre, the state movie palace of Kansas, and sound and light crewman for live shows at the Fox, and Hutchinson’s Memorial Hall. In his “spare” time, John facilitates a group studying and practicing non-dual spiritual states of awareness at metaphysical bookstore The Dancing Grouse.