Playing jazz trumpet for Salt Lake City band The Brobecks on tour years ago, David Chisholm discovered that the extended road trip has a curious, cumulative effect on the mind.

Gas station beef jerky becomes a delicacy. Sleeping on floors becomes routine. Staring out the car window induces bizarre daydreams, and sometimes daylight nightmares.

Or at least it did for Chisholm, an artist as well as musician. "Driving past a house in 100-degree weather, you start to think that a serial killer could do away with everyone who lives in that house without anyone knowing about it for months," he said. "You lose your mind out there. Being on tour with a band is its own manic state of 'everything all the time.' "

Settled back into home life with his studies in jazz composition at the University of Utah, his wife, Hannah, and his job as a hospital operator at University Hospital, Chis -holm gathered that dissipated energy and craziness into a nine-volume graphic novel titled Let's Go to Utah! It's not about Mormons, has no political or environmental message, and doesn't proclaim any moral or allegorical message.

Playing on the Utah label for irony as well as a homage, Chisholm crafted a road odyssey, its characters drawn in part or whole by real-life Salt Lakers, many of whom are local musicians. It's perhaps best read as a roller-coaster ode to the search for love amid the world's madness, as Chisholm, 28, has drawn himself and his wife into the book.

Beginning at an In-N-Out Burger in Los Angeles, the book finds Chisholm's character, "Davey," hitching a ride from the long-haired, demon-eyed Leif. A man of dry humor and volatile temper with a baseball bat in the back seat of his fast car, Leif sees Davey through situation after situation, their conversations gradually binding the two in threads of strange wisdom.

Starting work in October 2007, Chisholm finished work on the last volume this April. Using his own money, which largely has been recouped by sales, Chisholm recently published all nine volumes under one cover selling for $20.

"I wanted it to be dusty and gritty in a sun-blasted sort of way -- almost a white-trash noir tale," Chisholm said. "I also liked the ridiculous title. There's no other state you could use for a title like that and have it sound right."

Not formerly trained as an artist, Chisolm claims comic illustrator Paul Pope as his inspiration and states the sole purpose of the project was to have fun. "I'd no intention of it being popular at all," he said. "I just love telling stories."

Sales have been good, said Greg Gage, owner of Salt Lake City's Black Cat Comics, who, in the interest of disclosure, notes that Chisholm included one of his illustrations in the appendix. "There are a lot of people who bought the individual issues who also bought it twice in collected form because they found it so well-written and engrossing."

As well as sales, the debut has received notice and reviews in the graphic novel world. Critic Brian Cronin, in the online review ComicBookResources.com, praised Chisholm's storytelling above his drawing abilities "This is almost certainly a matter of experience -- bad storytelling is far more troublesome of a problem than uneven execution."

Insiders will be intrigued by Chisholm's central character, Leif, inspired by Leif Myrberg, who worked for years at the old Salt City CD store, on 900 East and 900 South, and now works at a Utah State Liquor location he prefers undisclosed.

Myrberg loves Chisholm's book, but is torn by its violent depictions of Leif's behavior. "Some people have looked at me a little differently after reading the book," he said. "I like to think I'm a pretty nice guy, but it's true I can turn nasty when my buttons are pushed."