Generated by All in One SEO v4.9.10, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site.

# Backwood Folk

The Ozark Comic

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [NEWS AND BLOG](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/news/)
- [Up from the Depths](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2026/06/12/up-from-the-depths/) - Up From The Depths Hello friends! Been awol from the blog. Life happening in the background as it were. You probably know some variation of the score. But comics have also been happening. Backwood Folk #3 is getting real close! Think it’s gunna be a good one. It features a Bigfoot Expedition descending on Po’Dunk
- [WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2026/04/02/who-what-where-when/) - WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN Dustin Staggs over at the Arkansas Democrat Gazette just put out a nice little story on the next issue of The Arkansas International literary magazine. Issue 18 will include a lot of Arkansas authors and poets, including a little seen 1957 short by the late great Charles Portis, author of True
- [Website Updates and Modern America at Home](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2026/02/13/website-updates-and-modern-america-at-home/) - Website Updates and Modern America at Home Hello friends! Just opening this post with some admin business for this February Friday the 13th. Progress has been good on Backwood Folk Issue 3! It’s still a ways out, as it has a lot of moving pieces, but it’s gunna be a doozy. It’s an issue all
- [And Now? Webcomics!](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2026/01/20/and-now-webcomics/) - And Now? Webcomics! Way back when some fifteen or so years back, Backwood Folk had its inception as a webcomic. Only felt right that the new iteration at least have some kind of webcomic component. So now I’m very happy to announce THESE GHOST TOWNS ARE FULL! Short stories across a haunted Ozarks. We’ve started
- [Social Media Extinction Events](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2026/01/14/social-media-extinction-events/) - Social Media Extinction Events A few weeks back I was scrolling on facebook in lieu of being human. My reward for this was an even less human piece of coding trying to entice me to the exciting world of Meta AI. In its story tabs it started showing me preview images it could compose of
- [Looking Back(wood) at 2025](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/12/23/looking-backwood-at-2025/) - Looking Back(wood) at 2025 It was one of those years where the good days didn’t come naturally. You couldn’t expect a nice afternoon to sneak up on you as a pleasant surprise. No, you really had to get your hands dirty and make any good times yourself. Those good results were not guaranteed or even
- [Ozark Jubilee Live And Local Author Open House](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/11/14/ozark-jubilee-live-and-local-author-open-house/) - The Ozark Jubilee Live Hey friends! The History Museum on the Square of Springfield, Missouri is organizing a tribute show and fundraised based around the Ozark Jubilee television program. This was a nationally broadcast variety show hosted by Red Foreman and based out of Springfield. It was a country music program that hosted a lot
- [Passing Time as Measured By a Regional Con](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/11/07/requiem-for-a-regional-con/) - Passing Time as Measured By a Regional Con April 2017, I would receive an e-mail inviting me to be a guest at a comic convention. This was the first time that had ever happened to me. I wasn’t new per say, the original Backwood Folk and Eve of the Ozarks were already under my belt,
- [Events and General About Town-ness](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/10/28/events-and-general-about-town-ness/) - Events and General About Town-ness October is almost done! I’ve had a pretty packed one given the track and trade of being a ghost story guy. So this is just one of those compilation posts of where to find me! WE ALWAYS LIE TO STRANGERS: WE ALWAYS LIE ABOUT BIGFOOT First off- we wrapped up
- [WALTS: We Always Lie About Bigfoot. A Podcast Miniseries.](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/10/05/walts-we-always-lie-about-bigfoot-a-podcast-miniseries/) - WALTS: WE ALWAYS LIE ABOUT BIGFOOT. A Podcast Miniseries As you may know, I’m a cohost on a podcast about the Ozarks called WE ALWAYS LIE TO STRANGERS (after the Vance Randolph book) It’s about Ozarks history, folklore, culture and the like. And for October I am taking the reigns and writing and hosting a
- [See You At Spa-Con](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/09/14/see-you-at-spa-con/) - See You At Spa-Con! Next weekend, I’ll be back at Hot Springs for another Spa-Con! I’ll be there with a big new stack of Backwood Folk issue twos along with a load of other books and wares. On the Sunday of the event you can even catch me doing another panel/live drawing demonstration on Arkansas
- [BACKWOOD FOLK #2 OUT NOW!](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/09/02/backwood-folk-2-out-now/) - BACKWOOD FOLK #2 OUT NOW After long last and a wild year, issue two is here! Thank you all for your patience, I hope it’s rewarded with this installment. I know it was rewarding to make. This issue we explore Po’Dunk from the vantage of Lilian Vaughan. It’s maybe my favorite comic so far. Available,
- [Wake the Encylopedia Salesman from his Long Slumber](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/06/09/wake-the-encylopedia-salesman-from-his-long-slumber/) - Wake the Encylopedia Salesman from his Long Slumber Some point late last month I was made aware that my career trajectory was more expansive than I thought. First google decided I was important enough to get a little profile card when you google me. And I see why, as I was the head of media
- [Where We're At And Where We're Going](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/05/30/where-were-at-and-where-were-going/) - Where We're At and Where We're Going Backwood Folk ISSUE TWO: Dry County Spirits coming soon! The here and hereafter intersect at the Po’Dunk Farmer’s Market when Lilian learns her dairy products are less desired than her ability to commune with the dead. Benedict has car trouble, and Cub learns where goats go when they die.
- [Be Still My Variety Show Heart](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/05/14/be-stilly-my-variety-show-heart/) - Be Still My Variety Show Heart First and foremost, I believe in tangents. I can never deny a new side-road just adjacent to the well-beaten track. It’s also inherently funny to put a guy who tells stories in pictures on a stage to tell stories without them, and I can’t resist a good bit. So
- [Talking Events Beget Talking Events](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/04/17/talking-events-beget-talking-events/) - Talking Events Beget Talking Events Hey friends! First off, looks like I’m going on tour! I’ll be opening a night of live music, portraits, record pop-ups, and more with some folktale inspired stories! If you are in Fayetteville, Springfield, or Tulsa you should drop on by and see the Freshgrass Revue Tour. If you are
- [Weddins and Other Events](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/03/29/weddins-and-other-events/) - WEDDINS AND OTHER EVENTS If you caught a little sense of radio silence from the website it was not your imagination. I was off getting married deep in the woods of the Ozarks with as many of my friends and family as we could arrange. The business of weddings is often stressful and definitely busy,
- [The Self Education of Hazel T. Cat](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/02/21/the-self-education-of-hazel-t-cat/) - The Self Education of Hazel T. Cat There are four cats in our house between my fiance and myself. This was not entirely on purpose. Any owner of multiple cats understands. There’s a sort of accumulation that sneaks up on you. Though our orange cat, a particularly orange cat in the annals of cat behavior,
- [The Future of America As Seen in Some Dungeon in Norrath](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/02/15/the-future-of-america-as-seen-in-some-dungeon-in-norrath/) - Hey friends! As threatened, I’ve decided to keep blogging. Probably an insane point in American current events to start doing that, but maybe a more necessary time to keep record of my thoughts than any of the End of Histories I was told I was growing up in. Ultimately, this felt like a better use
- [Website Overhaul and Backwood Folk 2025](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2025/02/03/website-overhaul-and-backwood-folk-2025/) - WEBSITE OVERHAUL AND BACKWOOD FOLK IN 2025 Howdy friends and readers, weird times. Get sick of saying that, bet everyone gets sick of hearing it too. Afraid as always it’s a longer haul than anyone cares for. I’ll probably be blaring the Dead Flag Blues on repeat like I have the last year and change.
- [Welcome (BACK) To Po'Dunk](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2024/08/11/welcome-back-to-podunk/) - Welcome (BACK) to Po'Dunk Hello friends! And welcome to the brand new Backwood Folk website! This is a hub for all of news and background info on my new comic series.A little introduction. Hello, I’m Gustav. I’ve been making comics and webcomics for the last fifteen years or so in the Arkansas Ozarks. Way back
- [SPA-CON 2025's POSTER REVEALED](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2024/12/06/spa-con-2025s-poster-revealed/) - SPA-CON 2025's POSTER REVEALED Hey friends! Spa-Con just released the new poster for 2025’s convention. Happy to announce I’m back in the saddle doing the art for it! I’m really stoked how this one came out. Spa-Con 2025 will be September 19-21 next year. I’ll almost certainly be there, and hope to see you there
- [One Hell of a Night](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2024/12/06/one-hell-of-a-night/) - ONE HELL OF A NIGHT I can’t express how grateful I am to all of y’all for showing up at Pearl’s Books on December 4th for our little night of ghosts stories and folk music. I’ve mused about it before (but never on this blog, so get ready for a rerun) but a lot of
- [New Ozarks Ghosts at Pearl's Books](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2024/11/12/new-ozarks-ghosts-at-pearls-books/) - Hey friends, weird week.Anyways, I’ll be at Pearl’s Books on the Fayetteville Square this December 4th to read some ghost stories I’ve written. Along side me will be Christopher Felton of Southern Terminus Recording to perform some folk songs (with some special guests) These are gunna be my stab at contemporary folk tales. Aka right
- [Halloween on Little Rock Public Radio](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2024/10/31/halloween-on-little-rock-publ/) - HALLOWEEN ON LITTLE ROCK PUBLIC RADIO Hello friends! Happy Halloween! I recently recorded a lovely little interview with Nathan Treece of Little Rock Public Radio for their Halloween programming. We go through a few of our regional monsters and cryptids, including some of the lesser known fellas. I also say some potentially controversial things about
- [The First Annual Halloween Haint Sale](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2024/10/30/the-first-annual-halloween-haint-sale/) - Hello friends! Nothing too big to report *yet* A lot’s coming in as we get closer to the Holidays, but for today just an announcement of the first Halloween Haint Sale! The digital edition of Backwood Folk is now available for just $1 from October 30-November 3. A proper introductory price for an introductory issue.
- [Look Ma, I'm on TV](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2024/10/07/look-ma-im-on-tv/) - As promised! Here is my appearance on Later with Jason Suel! We recorded this early September, and the funniest time stamp of that would be my hair. Have a system that somewhat developed on accident where I don’t cut my hair until I finish a project. And well my haircut was scheduled later that week.
- [The First Month!](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2024/10/04/the-first-month/) - THE FIRST MONTH This has certainly been the most wild month I’ve had in years. I don’t have too many comic updates just some pictures, links, and requisite tangents. Spa-Con Infinity was a blast this year. I’ve been attending Hot Springs’ Con since 2017 (spare a covid year or two)and always have had a blast.
- [UPCOMING EVENTS AND OTHER BITS AND BOBS](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2024/09/19/upcoming-events-and-other-bits-and-bobs/) - UPCOMING EVENTS AND OTHER BITS AND BOBS Hello friends! Just a quick drop in to give some updates on upcoming events I’ll be attending! First up! I’ll be attending Spa-Con in Hot Springs, Arkansas this weekend, September 20-22. One of my favorite events to work, and this year I did a the poster
- [BACKWOOD FOLK #1 OUT NOW](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/2024/09/11/backwood-folk-1-out-now/) - BACKWOOD FOLK #1 AVAILABLE NOW Hey friends! Backwood Folk’s first issue is now fully out in the world. It’s currently available in THE GIFT SHOP in both a big 9.6 x 9.6 handsome print volume and a much more budget conscious downloadable pdf. I’m really proud of this one and put really everything into it.

## Pages

- [Home](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/) - A DIRT ROAD FANTASY SET IN THE ARKANSAS OZARKS BACKWOOD FOLK IS A CONTINUING COMIC SERIES FOLLOWING THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF THE RESIDENTS-BOTH LIVING AND DECEASED- OF THE UNINCORPORATED COMMUNITY OF PO’DUNK, ARKANSAS. ISSUE ONE: WAKE UP MOCKINGBIRD, STAY AWHILE Benedict Carpenter has returned to his home in the Ozarks after twelve years in
- [Ol' Dead Doe Sits A Spell](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/deaddoe/) - For more stories like these check out the comic series, BACKWOOD FOLK BUY THE FIRST ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL Or learn more about PO'DUNK and the world of BACKWOOD FOLK
- [Author](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/about-the-author/) - About the Author Gustav Carlson is an illustrator and comic creator based out of the Arkansas Ozarks. Over the years, Gustav has honed his craft specifically to draw weird little aliens, strange ghosts, and monsters in the woods. Sometimes when he is very lucky, he gets to draw something with all three. Gustav’s work has
- [Catfish Hands](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/catfish/) - For more stories like these check out the comic series, BACKWOOD FOLK BUY THE FIRST ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL Or learn more about PO'DUNK and the world of BACKWOOD FOLK
- [Chipper Howell Finds His Pitch](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/chipper/) - For more stories like these check out the comic series, BACKWOOD FOLK BUY THE FIRST ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL Or learn more about PO'DUNK and the world of BACKWOOD FOLK
- [These Ghost Towns Are Full!](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/ghosttowns/) - "the reliable narrator has a story to tell you"
- [Pink Eye Research Center](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/perc/) - THE PINK EYE RESEARCH CENTER (PERC) In 1961, two scouts from Camp Hoof were caught in a flood on the Buffalo River outside of Po’Dunk, Arkansas. Their canoe was lodged against a tree and the waters rapidly rose around them. It seemed like certain doom until they were pulled ashore by a large creature with
- [Backwood Folk #2 Preview](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/backwood-folk-2-preview/) - the story continues in BACKWOOD FOLK ISSUE TWO:DRY COUNTY SPIRITS Lilian Vaughan is drowning. When it isn’t being a single mother to Cub it’s running a fully operational dairy farm all by herself. When it isn’t either of those it’s dealing with Po’Dunk’s Dead. And this Sunday morning, the here and hereafter intersect at the
- [Toby Had Honey to Spare](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/honey/) - For more stories like these check out the comic series, BACKWOOD FOLK BUY THE FIRST ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL Or learn more about PO'DUNK and the world of BACKWOOD FOLK
- [Backwood Folk #1 Preview: JAYBIRDS](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/backwood-folk-1-preview-jaybirds/) - the story continues in BACKWOOD FOLK ISSUE ONE:WAKE UP MOCKINGBIRD, STAY AWHILE Benedict Carpenter has returned to his home in the Ozarks after twelve years in The City. The small town of Po’Dunk, Arkansas is very much the one he remembered. Down to the ghost stories that he told himself were just a youthful fiction.
- [Po'Dunk](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/podunkaccess/) - WELCOME TO PO'DUNK, ARKANSAS Po’Dunk can hardly be labeled as a town. In fact, our longest lived members of this community can’t put a finger on the population. Ask a local and you’ll find answers ranging from a dozen to a hundred. Po’Dunk is just like that, a place of half truths and partial fictions.
- [The Night of the Pink Eye Film Series](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/elementor-1872/) - THE NIGHT OF THE PINK EYE FILM SERIES The Po’Dunk Pink Eye roared into the public consciousness when Bob Corn’s NIGHT OF THE PINK EYE entered theaters in 1973. It was fast tracked in the wake of the box office success of the Pink Eye’s southern cousin in Boggy Creek.The first film in the series,
- [Po'Dunk People](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/the-locals/) - Po'Dunk People Benedict Carpenter Lilian Vaughan Bertrum Strom Cub Vaughan DiDi Reyes Skip Solomon Capella Leeds Odysseus Leeds Quincy Leeds Herbert Lackey Art Harvey Claude Yoder Pastor Horn Chester Lowery Lawrence Trout Grandma Hewlett Agnes Hoot
- [The Po'Dunk Library and Post Office](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/library/) - THE PO'DUNK LIBRARY The Po’Dunk Library has taken numerous forms over the years. It initially started as a simple and largely amateurish operation run by an English teacher named Phyllis Reign in the early eighties. Offering books out of her house, she founded the first de facto library of Po’Dunk. Over the years the library
- [Po'Dunk Community Center](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/community/) - THE PO'DUNK COMMUNITY CENTER The Community Center of Po’Dunk, Arkansas was initially built in 1936 as a WPA project to give the then functional Po’Dunk school house a proper gymnasium. It was an optimistic construction as it was erected just as Po’Dunk’s population would enter freefall. Within just a few years the school wouldn’t even
- [Lost Comfort General Store](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/loco/) - THE LOST COMFORT GENERAL STORE AND CABIN RENTAL The Lost Comfort General Store and Cabin Rental is a famed Po’Dunk business and has served the community and its visitors for over three decades. It was founded in 1987 by an enterprising back to lander named Tabitha Strom. It stayed in her hands until her passing
- [Blog](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/news-2/) - Up from the Depths June 12, 2026 No Comments Up From The Depths Hello friends! Been awol from the blog. Life happening in the background as it were. You probably know some variation of Read More » WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN April 2, 2026 No Comments WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN Dustin Staggs over at the
- [Booger Bestiary](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/things/) - The Booger Bestiary There are a great many texts on the ghosts, hauntings, and other sinister things that call the Ozarks home, but few are as elusive as Winslow Court’s Booger Bestiary. This long out of print tome provides a catalog of the Ozarks’ most notorious haints, but also makes room for many of the

## Categories

- [Uncategorized](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/category/uncategorized/)
- [News](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/category/news/)
- [Journal](https://www.backwoodfolk.com/category/journal/)