Crashing Out in the Alphabets

New York City animator Kevin Nelson likes to drink cheap booze, have sex, and wander the seedy streets of the East Village. He also likes power. It's the latter that eventually brings him down...

Crashing out in the Alphabets opens with a glimpse of life in New York through Kevin's increasingly sick eyes. He meets Lucy Brown, a crack whore; their bond is booze, drugs, and vicious sex. When she dies of a cocaine overdose, Kevin is crushed.

Lucy's death sends Kevin into a tailspin. He walks the streets with her ashes in a plastic baggie, he tries to fish in the filthy East River, he does a stint in the drunk tank. Through it all, though, he manages to keep his standards high at Cartoon City, the animation company where he works.

But slowly he tires of his bosses and their control. He wants to rule the show at Cartoon City, he wants to make his own short film, and he wants nothing to stand in his way. Booze-addled, he begins killing his way to the top. His first boss takes a bullet in the head during an afternoon jog. The replacement is done in by horse tranquilizers in her coffee.

Kevin is reaching his goals, but his mind is fraying. And just when he needs what's left of his sanity to pull off his murderous jag, two new characters enter his life: Sarah, a red-headed beauty he thinks is his salvation, and Bill, a co-worker with reasons to bring Kevin down. With both in tow and a 40 oz. of malt liquor in hand, Kevin careens toward his destruction...