The Legend of DARK Z
Legend has it that Dark Z entered this dimension somewhere in the 20th Century. He was born to Thomas Jerome Newton, and his wife Peggy. Dark Z's birth name was Thomas Jerome Newton junior. It is thought to be that Thomas senior was the leader of an underground numbers running and drug syndicate known as The Newton Ring. When Dark Z was only three years of age, his parents were killed in what police believed to be a drug deal gone very wrong. Thomas senior was shot in the head execution style, and Peggy was given a lethal dose of narcotics while little Thomas lay fast asleep in his bed in the next room. Reading about these ghastly events in the newspapers, a married couple touring with a small east coast traveling circus felt profound sympathy for the young Thomas, and decided to try to adopt him. The couple were circus midgets performing with the Circus de' Surreal and had a modest but steady income, and felt that they could give the boy a decent upbringing. They were eventually granted the adoption when no next of kin came forward to claim the toddler. Stinky and Pastel Hues finally had the baby they could never conceive naturally. They showered him with love and encouragement everyone needs and deserves, especially at such a young and impressionable age. Thomas' name was changed to Zero. Young Zero's upbringing was both fantastic and dream-like as one may guess growing up the son of two circus midgets. It wasn't long before he was taller than his parents and realized how different he was compared to other kids his age. As he grew into his early teens he had a strong interest in drawing, and the trampoline, and was being apprenticed as a trampoline performer. However, a bad left knee injury he acquired during practice made it impossible for him to perform on the trampoline, and rendered him unfit for the profession. Young Zero's fate looked dark and grim. But, one fateful day, a pinhead peforming with the circus was killed when two elephants ran amuck, and trampled him to death. In the pinhead's will, he left young Zero his old acoustic guitar. Life for Zero would never be the same again. He practiced every day and even started to write his own original musical compositions. Stinky and Pastel knew he found his niche, and were very proud of him. The rest as they say, is yet to come. He joined a series of unsuccessful bands, before landing a job writing commercial jingle radio spots for an advertising agency. At this time he also supplemented his income drawing a comic strip called Mr. Nobody. However, this time in his life proved to be musically and creatively unfulfilling for the Dark one, and he embarked once again on a career in rock and roll. But another cloud was to hover over him. Both Stinky and Pastel died of cancer ten months apart and devastated Zero. Consequently, because of his morose and moody psychological make up after the loss of his tiny parents, he acquired the nickname Dark Z. Thus, Dark Z, as we know him today, was born. He moved overseas for a time, performing his original rock songs live, and became a huge success in the European countries. Unfortunately, no recordings were made of these electric shows. In the early to mid 1970's he moved back to the States and continued a modestly successful musical career recording and performing his cool songs. He thrives creatively and writes music and records to this day, though he
no longer performs live. "I'm done with live performing", he has stated.
Dark Z 's last official CD release is "A Myriad of Strangers".
UPDATE: Dark Z was found dead of a drug overdose on August 16, 2007.
(C) Copyright, 2008 DARK Z PRODUCTIONS
Story compiled by Albert Stillwell |
