Vacuosity at the Speed of Thought

Did a little celebrating yesterday, in case you didn't notice.
Amazing how I work and work yet never seem much closer to being finished. The speed of thought is much faster than my pencil or my ass (especially my ass. I think my ass is one of the few inert objects in the universe). I continue to have new ideas while the current ideas still remain unfinished on the draft board. I need to hire very cheap but very driven labor.
It seems I've a bit of the PT Barnum in me, along with everything else. I get these great ideas on how to promote comics. One could say it's dangerously close to being manipulative marketing techniques. I like to think I am making comics fun again.
More and more I move closer and closer to the idea of the "Art Book", the comic as high end object of value, either through their quality and quantity of material or through their rarity as hand made objects. However, I also have the love of what I call "slashdotpop" comics. Tiny bite sized morsels of pop culture. Small and portable, they slip into the pocket or the book bag, they pass from hand to hand, they cost $1 or less, or are even free, and offer the same ephemeral whiz bang as gum or candy.
Of course, the borders of the Fandom Empire runs in both directions. Our center is everywhere and our circumference is everywhere.
I would think that such a mini comic would be easy to crank out. Small in size, modest in form, low in cost...but, alas, no.
But fear not! I am calling upon the lost magics of my fellow Mages James West, Stuart Sparks, and Rob "The Luddite" Crabtree. Together we have spells and charms that can shape the very nature of reality itself!
There will be a mini! There will be mini's like you wouldn't believe!!
And I just now decided to call them, officially, Slashdotpop! comics.
I think you're going to like this.

Summer Time

My last 3D class was today. Great class. I deliberately gave myself the afternoon off. I'm also more than pleased with the layouts for Xrox #2.
Oh, "What's Xrox?" you ask?
Xrox is a fantasy comic...That sounds positively blue, doesn't it? It's a Post-Gygaxian, quasi-Morrocockian, semi-Jungian action tale of magic and adventure. It's appearing in Random Order Comics and Games published by good friend James West. Check him out. He does good things. Very good things.
This latest installment of what's become a perennial epic will be laid out by me, using my newly discovered powers of Visual Arts!!! James will then draw the pages, in his small way, then old friend Stuart Sparks will ink them with his own particular mad skills. You should check Stuart out. He's truly a mad man. He may look calm to you, but it's in the eyes.
This is the first time I've done the layouts on one of my stories that came out quite clever. Quite clever indeed. You'll just have to wait until the next Random Order Comics and Games comes out. Go over to James' site and bug him. He needs a push every now and then. But be nice to him, he's having a baby.
July 1st is very close. Very, very close. I can smell it. Oh, boy! Does it smell-you can't smell that? It's so-And with it comes the deadline to get The Millenials #1 to the press. Have no fear! I know what you're thinking, and you can stop it! Yes you! I saw that look in your eye! The cover is nearly finished. And looks great! Very cool. You're going to love this, really. I acquired an editor on this project. First time with one of those. It's a whole new element of complexity and sophistication. I'm moving up.
In the meantime, go read Xrox #1 in Random Order Comics and Games. I'm sure James has some laying around. Throw money at him. He'll do whatever you want. He's so cheap.

So what's wrong with superheroes, anyway?

I find myself asking this question over and over again. In fact, much of my own work is a sort of apologetics for the genre. On some days I think there's no defense of them. They are silly concepts hung on two dimensional characters representing dated, and even right wing, ideals. They seem fine as light entertainment, and well suited to entertain children, until you consider the harm they might do.
My sculpture professor just cautioned the class to be wary of nostalgia. Nostalgia doesn't change us, doesn't transform us. Any experience that's going to have an impact on us must involve risk, either on the part of the artist or the audience or both. Most of our affection for superheros is based on nostalgia. Most of the comic publishing industry is designed to cultivate and capitalize on that nostalgia.
Given that, why do I feel the need to create superheroes, and the need to prove their validity as a genre? The obvious answer is the symbolic content. I truly believe that the superhero is a mythic figure, in the same way that Achilles, Beowulf, or Gilgamesh are mythic figures. We are dealing with larger than life characters doing larger than life deeds, risking death for an ideal. I believe the human psyche needs these kinds of stories, as examples, as teaching tools, as a process of self examination.
But mostly I think they are cool. Superheroes are neat! They are incarnations of the imagination itself. You can do anything in a superhero story and make it seem plausible. Once you posit that someone can fly or run faster than a bullet, all bets are off. You just suspended verisimilitude somewhere in the stratosphere.
It at this point in the process that a line is crossed and things become interesting. I often find myself wondering if I am talking about the same thing every one else is when they say "superhero". Do they include Donnie Darko, Flex Mentallo, Shade the Changing Man, Promethea, Grendel, The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, or King Fu Hustle in their estimation of the genre?
Really, the thing that make "superheroes" so cool is the amazing feats, the fantastic way they can warp reality. They enter our dreams and imagination and make the fantastic manifest. And they are in truth the geeks we are (Peter Parker, Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne-come on, he's a book loving tech nerd, Reed Richards) and the romantic leads we wish we were (Tony Stark, Hal Jordan, Bruce Wayne).
Should we abandon the superhero for the richer, greener pastures? Sure. We should.
But we're not going to.

What time is it?

Apparently, Jagged Little Pill by Alannis Morrisette was released ten years ago. I thought you should know.
People say I harp on too much about time. They attribute it to my obsession (read:neurosis) about my age. That's partially true. I doubt that time frames would have the same significance if not for my unique perspective. However, let's forget about age for a moment and just look at culture.
When someone says "The 80's" or "The 50's", think about what that brings to mind, all the fads, fashions, political and cultural shifts that spring to mind. Each decade is an era, an epoch, that rises and falls, brackets neatly by a year beginning in zero and one ending in nine. Generations of people are lumped together and defined by decades.
A decade, friends and lovers, is ten years. That means whatever paradigmical shift or sense of scale that the phrase "a decade" brings to mind, if any, just happened. Beginning with Jagged Little Pill and ending last Thursday.

Anticlimaxing

Here I am. Building the blog. Muttering crazy magic into a vast, hollow, dark room without an echo to mark their passing. Much like throwing a fish into space.
Why am I here? I publish comics. Or rather, I will. It's an incredibly tedious process, but I've enough social grace to spare you the details. I've got a press date of July 1st, and that's just to get the material to the printer. I think you can expect to see a book by August.
What's the book about? Um...well, it's a commentary on our technologically dependant, media saturated, celebrity obssessed culture in the form of a post modern mythology expressed as a four color adventure. Basically.
I'd like to say more, but I'd rather people read it and make up their own mind.
I've got more projects in the work. See "Fish in space" comment above.
Watch this space for updates.