Roy Lichtenstein Vs. The Beyonder!

This image and character are copyright Marvel Comics and it serves them right. Art by Al Milgrom, Steve Leialoha, and Christie Scheele, words by Jim Shooter.

Like it or not, appropriation seems like the dominant modality in the arts these days. I kinda hate it. I'm fine with the idea of people using my material but if I'm gonna art, I wanna art my way.

That said, I'm in school. My last assignment for my printmaking class was to produce an image that critiques, whether positively or negatively, another artist. Look, if I really admire someone I'm not going to be able to do their thing. That's why I admire them, right?

So I was pissing and moaning to mi amigo Pablo last night and he said, "What about the guy who does that Micheal Jackson shit? Or that horrible dude who does comic book panels?"

I will admit I'd considered Jeff Koons. I've got an image in my mind of his Ciccolina portrait laid over a picture of his stainless steel bunny, their eyes superimposed.

But Lichtenstein. Fuck, I hate him. Well, hate isn't the right word. But it makes me angry to think that a no-talent jerkoff like that has such a prominent position in art history. It makes no fucking sense.

I'll acknowledge that it takes a good deal of technical skill to do what he did. But anyone who can do detail painting on custom vans has that much technical skill. Fuck a bunch of technical skill. The man's work is utterly dead and soulless. When I went online to research his shit, I went in with a negative opinion and I came out thinking that I had no idea of how bad he really was.

So when I went to look at the copy of Secret Wars II number three that I keep in the glove box of the car (that, along with a collection of twelve hundred anecdotes, keeps me from going nuts when waiting for the missus) I was amazed to find a panel that seemed to be making fun of my opinion of Mr. Lichtenstein. I had to run with it.

What's funny is that the production of this piece wound up being a real pain in the ass. A lot more work than you'd imagine. Just scan it in and add some colors and...

And try and make the blacks black and the whites white when you're scanning in a comic book that's more than twenty years old, with the old-school shitty printing they had back then. Take out all the benday dots and then build them all over again in Illustrator. It wasn't hard but it was sure as shit laborious.

My, my, my. Tomorrow I get back to the Tyrannosaur/Edmontosaur piece.

Damnit.

A Brief Plaintive Bleat

A somewhat more casual approach to paleoart...

Well, the struggle goes on. I'd just as soon go into full-blown collapse mode but I'm staring down the barrel of the end of the semester and I need to get something done for both classes. Here's what I'm doing for Digital Drawing.

The goal is to use this as a basis for a print visually modeled on Japanese brocade prints -- all the ink rendering will be replaced by flat shapes and depth will be indicated by using color and blur.

The Anomalocaris is still in the works but it's pretty clear that I'll need to spend some time staring at fossil photographs and making sketches and as I said, I'm looking at deadlines.

Now I have to go take care of some Swill business.

Damnit.

Thoughts On Plot 5: Inspirado -- A Few Thoughts On Getting Ideas

Lunchbox had a good idea here and it made me think that it might be worthwhile talking about techniques for getting ideas. This isn't going to be an organized essay, more a bit of a ramble.

Let's start off by making the problem smaller. Just make up the title. Can't think of one? Try leafing through one of those encyclopedic movie guides and see which titles jump out at you, then study them and ask why. Pay attention to the rhythm of the word combinations, the percussion of hard consonants. Then start throwing together random words in the same pattern.

Then keep doing this until you come up with something you like. If you're lucky you'll have a knack for it and won't have to go through all of that rigamarole. Either way, start listening for phrases that sound as though they might make a good title. Maybe you run across them on the label or maybe they just drift through your mind -- but unless you're looking for them you won't spot them.

Then once you've got a title ask yourself what it tells you about the story. One story of mine started as the title Hate Her, Hate Her, Tribulator! Not only did I dig the schoolyard rhyme as B-movie vibe of it but it also gave me a solid start on the story itself. It asked three questions -- who is giving the command, who is the 'her' in question, and who or what is a Tribulator? And bam, there was enough to start me writing.

Earlier on in these essays I mentioned using stories from mythology and folklore. Add everything else to that list. Songs, Shakespeare, movies, everything. Just make sure you use them as seeds, that what comes out is something unique. Otherwise what's the point?

Let me be more specific -- look for shapes and forms and principles, not specifics. You see Othello and the character Iago sticks in your mind. You read The Lord of the Rings and Grima Wormtongue reminds you of Iago and you think to yourself, "Hmm, maybe I could use an evil councillor somewhere." The name and nature and deeds of the character in question will be original but the seed they grew from is an old one.

I think the essense of what I've been saying is that the process of getting ideas is a two-stage game. Find something that catches your interest and then ask yourself questions about it.

What catches your interest? What draws your eye? What irritates you? That's a key one -- you'll get more and better stories out of the things that displease you than the things that do (unless you are one of the rare gifted few that can write pleasingly of happy times -- but I'm going to claim that I heard they're all miserable fucks). What angers, saddens, frightens you?

Anything in the news that got to you? Any spam? Did you see something that made you laugh or cringe? Get in the habit of noticing why you notice things.

Then ask yourself questions. What would my character do in that situation? What kind of person would own that sofa? Who makes a living doing that all day? Why would someone do that?

If you keep this up you'll start to notice that some ideas will stick together and eventually, with luck, they bond into a story. And that's probably everything productive I've got to say on the subject of plotting. Like I said, I ain't that good at it but I do have a few tools that let me get by.

Thoughts On Plot 4: Uncovering Character And Setting

There's an argument as to whether our natures are due to nature or nurture -- to our genetic inheritance or our environment. The argument, like many of these old standards, is bullshit. Our natures are due to our genes expressing themselves in the context of our environment -- you can't divide the influences. They're holographic.

So with that thought in mind, here's a new definition of plot to chew on -- plot is the result of a character expressing itself in the context of its setting and circumstances.

When I first ran across this notion it made perfect sense to me. My response was to develop a character, make up the setting, figure out some circumstances which would bring the character into conflict, and then let things work out.

This isn't a bad way to start a story.

Here are some thoughts on creating the character. The most important question you need to answer about your character is what do they want? Hell, it's the only important question. You don't need to answer it right at the beginning -- but you do need to keep it in mind. Without a driving need (or some facet of their person that drives others -- see below) a character isn't going to be all that useful to you.

A mistake that I've made and that I've seen over and over again is that of making a passive observer the main character. This almost never ends well. The character sulks in his room and ponders and no matter how well-written it is, it's as dull as dogshit.

The only really effective way out of this one that I've seen is to take that passive observer and give him a kick in the butt. Force him out of his safe place. Get him into trouble. This worked in The Phantom Tollbooth. It worked in A Confederacy of Dunces. It works in just about all of M.R. James's ghost stories.

The reason it works is that it removes the character's passivity. Like it or not, your character cannot be passive.

Unless, of course, their presence in some way stimulates another character -- Bartleby the Scrivener is a good example of this. Being There is another good example of a passive character around whom conflicts swirl. Only use passivity when it stimulates conflict.

Just remember, no trouble, no story. Ain't no way to delay that trouble coming every day.

Okay, a few thoughts on character creation. A lot of people place a great deal of importance on backstory, on knowing how their character grew up, what their favorite soda is, etc, etc. If this works for you, great. There have been times when this approach has served me well.

But I've found that an intuitional approach is the best for me. If I can see the character, if I can hear their voice, if I know how they'll react to a situation, then I'm good. By allowing them some privacy from me, I'm also allowing them to surprise me. The only reason working out backstory has ever been useful to me has been that it can bring you closer to that kind of grip on a character -- it's meaningless in itself. At least that's how it works for me. Look for the character, listen to the character, let the character explain themselves to you. Act as though the characters are real and you're just observing them.

Of course one of the reasons that works out for me is that I'm a character in most of what I've written. What can I say, I make a good pulp character. By putting myself directly into the viewpoint position it's easier for me to interact with my marginally-more imaginary characters. I do this and then they do that and then I do this. I'm going to study acting at some point and I'm certain it will give me some useful techniques for this kind of projection.

Now the first question you need to ask about the setting is, how does it affect the characters? And again, it's the only really important question. If the setting doesn't help to drive or ground the story, then it's no good. In a story with action/adventure elements you want an environment that provides a variety of physical challenges for your character. In a character-driven story you want settings that both establish and reflect the inner life of your characters. Don't any setting without having a clear purpose in mind.

But here's the trick. You don't need to start out with that purpose. Just as you don't need to know what your character's drive is. As long as you know these things by the time you're through writing you're in good shape. Malleability is the key here -- be willing to change things, even big, central things, about your characters and setting as you work. I'm not arguing against outlines as long as you don't let them get in the way of an organic creative process.

In fact it's not bad to dump the idea of creativity all together -- much of the time when I work creatively I do so with the unconscious assumption that I'm not making things up, I'm uncovering stories and pictures and songs that were there in the first place. For me, the creative act is exploratory rather than seminal.

Pre-planning -- outlining, character backstory, etc. -- is not so much a matter of framing a house as it is a matter of prospecting, taking core samples, observing the terrain.

My paleontology fixation is revealing itself there. It's like finding a little patch of bone here and another one here and then when you start digging you find that they're part of the same skeleton. Maybe you find a beautifully preserved section of jaw that isn't part of the skeleton you're trying to uncover. Don't fit it in, set it aside and save it.

You might find the rest of it some day.

Hey, Kids! Free Novel!

This was one of the images that developed into the cover for the first issue of Swill. It's assembled entirely out of inkblots. Gonna do a series of these as prints and I'm gonna call them Rorschach Dreams.

So I'm looking for a few brave readers. I've been turning it over in my mind and I've decided that it would be a good idea for me to try and get the opinions of a few fresh readers before I launch into the next revision of the book. I'm not going to be doing a serious, major rewrite -- but I need a fresh set of eyes to make sure that things are entertaining, understandable, consistent, etc, etc.

If you'd be interested let me know and I'll send you a copy of the manuscript. Of course if dozens and dozens of people express an interest I won't be able to send out copies to everyone -- but the first five people who are willing to at least try and read the book will get a bound hardcopy.

Here's how it starts out.

Far overhead millions of souls swarm in incandescent clouds that drift and cast a light that shifts and wanders, one moment so bright that I feel the heat of it, the next so dark I can’t see my fingers on the fretboard of my bass. Their voices, massed and distant, form a hum that throbs and makes my bones itch. The sound is faint but penetrating; I can hear it through the music in my headphones, hear it all through me.

Beyond the clouds the sky is a dead black membrane stretched tight as a ripe boil. I can feel it as though it’s part of my own body, taut and heavy and delicate. Every so often a ripple runs through it and nausea twists my belly as a painful sweat breaks out on my forehead.

The van, a bronze Econoline, is parked deep in the canyons. A few souls have drifted away from the clouds and found us. They drift around the van in slow loops, occasionally swirling close, drawn by the music. For safety’s sake Lulu has us plugged directly into the laptop, bass and guitar with no amplification at all, so it isn’t the sound of the music that’s pulled them – it’s the music itself, the act of playing. They hear it transmitted through our souls, the souls of the living.

We’ve set up where we can’t be seen from a distance, where whatever sound we make won’t carry. My work boots are planted in ground made of tiny bones that crunch like gravel underfoot. Around us are great skulls both human and animal, ranging from waist-high domes nosing up from the surface like sprouting mushrooms to foothills and then mountains rising until they frame canyons with cliffs that sweep up for thousands of feet.

This is the Limbus and these are the Bonelands and we came here to rock.

If anyone's interested, let me know. This offer will run through December; I intend to begin the rewrite in February.

To receive a copy of this novel, go to my profile to find my email contact information. Send me a request for a copy and your preferred file format (.doc, .rtf, PDF) and I'll shoot it off to you; I'll send hard copies to the first five people who request them.

For more information on the novel, go here.

Pull Up Your Socks, Oafboy

This is the official logo for the Dizzy Toilet Devils. Intentionally.

So I've been out of commission for the last little while. It's been a combination of back and crazy -- the two do so like to link their moist little paws and walk side by side.

I haven't been answering my emails, I haven't attended classes, I haven't posted here, I haven't done any writing or art. It hasn't been the kind of thing where I'm nipping little bits of flesh off of myself and terrifying strangers; rather, I've been blank. Absent. Without volition or will of any kind. The kind of thing where I can spend hours absentmindedly pacing back and forth between the television set and the refrigerator, carefully and deliberately failing to make up my mind as to any course of action.

Part of it has to do with the season (you'll hear me blaming the seasons for my mental condition on a regular basis -- I have a different crazy for every part of the year). Part of it has to do with hitting a stage of completion on two major projects within a few days of each other. Part of it has to do with a failure to take proper care of myself.

But it's been too damned long and I need to pull myself out of the slough of despond. I'm gonna start by putting up a couple of posts here, then answer my emails, then get to work on the Swill material, then get the Anomalocaris drawing back in the game.

One step at a time, oafboy. One step at a time.

The Horror! The Horror!

Well, after spending the early morning with the missus I decided to turn my attentions to preparing for the next print day. First I made a folder for the files I was going to bring in, then I started to drag and drop. And I was only able to find a couple of the Bonelands pieces that hadn't been colored and printed. I went through all the files; I had only the three above prints unfinished.

So I went mad. I worked until they were all done. Not an impossible task given how far along they already were but still. And now I'm almost done. All I have to do is print the last batch of these and the show's ready. Then I print the big canvas piece and I'm set.

Mostly.

Anyway, I'm kind of amazed that this is happening within a few days of the novel's finish. I'm starting to feel as though I've got my shit together for the first time in my life.

Let's see if it goes anywhere...

More plot tomorrow.