Friday, February 07, 2014

Making up for lost time,or cursed to over-think things

   Don't get me wrong I love where comics are going.The ease of digital production gets better and better.I can literally do the work of three pioneers while sitting on my ass eating potato salad in real time,and for that I am grateful.
   What saddens me is the slow die off of the art supplies and inevitably artists that used them.For example and to just name a few the hunt 102 quills. They defined so many amazing artists,their shit now. I bought a box and they take a full day of beating before i can get anything good out of them,that's the equivalent of about 1/3 bottle of rapidograph ink.
    If you know what it costs then you know I can't afford to not make it count.And having to bitch about it makes me sound old,old!Don't get me going about paper quality,or sable brushes or my old ass will be here till supper!suffice it to say I'm a sucker for the smell, the feel, the screams, and shrieks as that ink bottle slips it's tape plummeting across 20 hours of work.so yeah not all bad.
   It's like being in jail. You spend every waking moment with strangers,you get to know the ones that work well for you in a bad situation. You distance yourself from the ones that aren't worth a wet shit.
   When your time is up those ones that got you through,you get sentimental.you take down numbers and parting leaves you low. That's me trying to let go of the old and embrace the new,but 20 years of dipping a quill and cleaning a Rapidogragh (wow I am getting old) have left me waxing sentimental.Both for the tools and for the artists that use them.
   You see I get horribly attached to someone that devotes their life to a craft,when Charles Schultz died it is still a more vivid memory for me than 9/11. I mean there I was rubbing one out couldn't have been more than a couple weeks after my birthday,(hey if candid isn't your bag i can make you a lite version and post it on vanilla blogger for you)
    I must have been about 16 cause I had a girlfriend at the time,not within love making distance of course...anyway names withheld I had received art supplies for my birthday and drawn these anatomically perfect girls doing unpublishable things(well for the CCA crowd anyway),being left handed and 16 I don't have to spell it out.Anyway the picture was ruined,art supplies traumatized and I made my way out of my room and found that days paper.
    on the front proclaimed the loss of the peanuts creator. My world stopped and I cried ,no more peanuts,ever...but that was what made peanuts so amazing when it was done it was gone,noone stood up and filled the peanuts strip with derivative shit. All those characters passed away with him like a pharaoh of old, his disciples went with him to the long rest buried into the afterlife.With them his successes and failures what made those characters so amazing,pain, loss regret,heartache..something no one else could know but him,that's integrity and as I realized the sheer power of it i wept.(orgasm didn't even prepare me for that)
    And so the other day there I was looking at (and eventually buying) the latest issue of batman. wondered if when Finger and Kane had passed If batman had died too? who was this fake, this impostor trying to be the fearless dark knight?And right there my heart sank...granted I read the comic and have sense ordered as many back issues as my space and budget allows.(because i want to believe that's him) Still the thought lingers in my head who?If I where to meet this Bruce Wayne sit in, would I feel his pain when he told me the loss of his parents,would I look into his eyes and feel for him or would I go a big rubbery one and storm out knowing he had deceived me and all of Gotham.I realize the bat is a franchise and a very successful one and the talent on zero year is exceptional,but for me it's just that, good writing and artwork,I don't fear for Wayne's safety,if he dies he resurrects just like on his numerous video game and movie franchises,

   Wayne is ripped limb from limb his parts scattered to the ends of the earth and pow next week fresh, new out of the box crime fighting bachelor.His whole existence based on a lie, a clever business savy artist omitted from his boss,batman dies,or perhaps even further back when a writer favored a certain dime novel too much when fleshing out a new idea,batman dies.
   Was batman even his real fake name?It had no soul it was a demon born of it's own incestuous churning, that's the batman I wanna meet,the monster that has no more value for human life than the other throws of rich basketball player trading well to do people I can't relate to,but at least then I could!
   This madman who cares not for wealth this child in a killing machines body hell bent of murdering the motherfuckers responsible for taking from him the one thing he valued most,family..that I can relate to.
    That cold thing is my Bruce Wayne and once the demon had sated his lust for carnal agony inspiring revenge his body would catch up to him,his form would whither and weaken Alfred would wheel him with feeding tubes into his bed and say,"you've done it son, you got them after almost a hundred years of time traveling, reliving again and again your horrors you finally got your sweet revenge",then like the father he never knew Alfred would kiss his aging cheek and he would cry,feeling joy at a lifetime of failed attempts to have finally succeeded in taking revenge.An empty life spent restless and alone only a butler and a fortune left behind,and as the life left his crumbling husk wind would blow the ash out the window to find peace with his parents at long last,and that would be the last of Bruce Wayne he would die and join his creators..with dignity and integrity.
   BBBBut that dont make no green now do it kiddies nonono we gots ta keep dis mafugga goin!dude brings down box office like crazy yo!!!!(i'd be lieing if i said i wasn't waiting to see the unveiling of this deeper glimpse into his past though,aint story tellin great?!)

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

   I just realized I have an obligation to people that may be reading this or looking at my artwork to keep it updated regularly. After all I am grateful to anyone that enjoys what I make be it written or illustrated. And what better way to show that gratitude than making a steady flow of it available?
   In street terms you poor bastards are already hooked to boot and I'd be a fool to let you meander to another dealer, that's just bad business. So in 2014 I promise to be the best dealer of illustrated smack I can and fill your curiosity vein to near overdose levels, but this thing don't run itself, no it's up to you the reader to let your dealer know what it is your craving!
    By Christ if you don't tell me what kinda fix your in the mood for and steer this wagon I'm liable to just draw un-publishable smut all day and then only I win! If I'm tied into some project with real deadlines then everyone wins! So for the love of smut everywhere feel free to drop me a line, a script that needs illustrated, or just a portrait  you want to give your sweet someone on valentines day.
   Because despite my rough edges I do enjoy the opportunity to exude the strengths of my craft ,unless your my no paying co workers!, you guys can stay strung out till you pay your bills!