BALTIMORE cycles through art scenes like a cultural laundromat. The late 70s and early 80s were one of its peaks, when punk, fine art, film, poetry, theater, cartooning and a lot of indigenous Bawlmer sleaze all converged and tumbled through the wash, spin, and wear it wrinkled program together. Thankfully, the Dork Brothers, Michael Gentile and John Ellsberry, were there to keep feeding slugs to the cultural machinery, helping to both create and document, through their comics and films, a unique period in the corruption of the city’s arty youth.
—john strausbaugh
new york times contributer and author of black like you

THE DORK BROTHERS, by John Ellsberry and Michael Gentile are full o fthe best-worst drawing and writing, the smartest-stupidest jokes, and the greatest-most horrible punchlines I've ever had the pleasure of seeing ... It's like your sixteen year old brother and his buddy making a comic book that you laugh at in spite of your expensive education. Ellsberry and Gentile are just about my favorite cartoonists in the history of the world. Except for this one other guy by the name of Matt Groening (pronounced (Groanin').
—lynda barry, cartoonist and writer, printed matter


GENTILE AND ELLSBERRY created their first official production under the Dork Brothers moniker the 1980’s animated short “Brain One,” which the pair shot in a single day. The three-minute short depicts primitive cartoon cutouts of the duo during an evening that ends—where else for Baltimore art-school buddies?—at the Mount Royal Tavern. Then came a second animated short, 1981’s “Fish Story,” which while still crude by today’s digital standards, represents a quantum leap in production values—complete with animated limbs, special effects, and even a narrative.
—eric allen hatch baltimore city paper