May 24, 2007
Haven't figured out a way to visually/verbally combine the Mickey and the gnovel yet but I'm wrestling with it. For now I'll turn this space into autobio space and just see what happens. If you've just walked in you need to go backwards to catch up with what's been going on.
May 20, 2007
EUREKA PROBLEM AND SOLUTION
A thought
came to me in Bristol, maybe in the hotel room, maybe at
the comics convention:
the Burial
of Mickey Mouse and the gnovel are
not two separate projects.
This felt like a revelation,
a Eureka moment.
Yesss! I will put
those separate ways of thinking/drawing/writing
into one big bowl, add generous
amounts of time, blood, sweat,
obsession, imagination, spontaneity
and concentration, mix thoroughly
and come up with Something Completely
Different And Amazingly Wondrous.This
thought was the kind you can't
argue with. You know it's right
because it's so obvious. What
you don't know is how the hell
you'll get over there from
over here. It's a vision
of something in the future but...and
this is the infernally buzzing
fly in the delightful ointment...it
will only exist in the future
if you yourself put it there.
Blindingly obvious innit? Yes
but. If distraction happens
to be your middle name and getting
off the track is your speciality,
the Eureka quickly turns into
full scale panic-alert and inner
wrestling match.
It's too much, you
can't do it.
Shut up, I will
do it.
You'll lose the
good stuff you've got if
you try to mix it all.
I'll find a way,
it'll come to me.
It'll take ages.
You won't be able to stick to
it.
Bugger off, I will
stick to it. I want to do it.
It'll be a mishmash.
It'll be great.
And on and on. So
I'm wondering:
how to trick myself
into NOT seeing a divison where
currently I see a division?
I've put physical
and verbal barriers between me
and me, haven't I?
Over here is Augustine's
space, over there is Natalie's
space.
It's right up there
as a header for God's sake:
I am an alter
ego and this is my blog. The
ego who tries to alter me is
Natalie.
Cute concept but is it
helpful?
Probably not.
Therefore?
Well. H'm.
What if I were to
cut a hole into this page, a
connecting door?
May 31, 2007
NATHAN'S DREAM
I don't know if this belongs in the autobiography or not but it's so intriguing I had to illustrate it. This is the dream that Nathan Horowitz had about me a few days ago. We've never met in real life but have been blogging friends for a while. He's a very good writer and obviously a psychic dreamer: how could he have known that I can hold my breath for eight months at a time?
The
whole dream, as written by Nathan:
I was working for
you on your video autobiography. You had a studio directly
underneath the Port Authority train station in New York
City. Improbably, it was well-lit, with high ceilings
and skylights. You had some young apprentices, while
I was a freelancer who had come from outside.
I interviewed you in one room, then following
your plan, we held our breath and went into another room
which you had filled entirely with water. It looked just
like an ordinary room, just filled with water. With a
video camera recording us, we sat in chairs and mimed
conversing with each other; you would dub in dialogue
later.
When I swam up near the skylight to take a
breath from the airspace there, I met two of your regular
employees, a man and a woman, just arriving from Port
Authority. The woman told me admiringly that you were
able to hold your breath for up to eight months at a
time.
May 17, 2007
BRIEF BRISTOL COMICS REPORT
Sales were good, people were great, weather was lousy, future looks promising, and hope - like new ideas - springs eternal. This was my half of the table:
My table partner and buddy in Bristol was the many-sided American cartoonist/animator Eric Knisley who currently lives in the UK. Here he is, skeptically observing a robot as it fiddles with its lethal weapon. At Eric's elbow are his subversive Mickey Death T-shirts, not suitable for robots. You however can and should buy Eric's T-shirts and comics from the above links.
At the table on our right was Roger Langridge who was drawing non-stop, producing amazing cartoons on demand for patiently waiting customers, smooth pristine black lines flowing from his pen with never a moment's hesitation.
I, for whom hesitation is almost a matter of principle (if you don't like it I have others) looked on in awe. Below are some of the sketches I did while watching people milling about. I'm always wondering: should I draw with line only or add shading too? Do I stop now or keep going? Do I want to draw what I see or make it up? Abstract or figurative? 2-D or 3-D? Pen or pencil or brush? Colour or black & white? Words or no words? Frames or no frames? Choices, choices! The story of my life.
The prestigious, world-famous, brilliant and really really sympathique cartoonist, Hunt Emerson came by to say hello, bought a copy of The God Interviews and said he liked it. What more can I say?
May 10, 2007
WE'RE OFF TO THE BRISTOL INTERNATIONAL COMICS EXPO
Tomorrow, for the weekend. Networking and selling ourselves - well the God Interviews anyway. Full report later. Next week there'll definitely be a new episode of the autobio, she says.
Meanwhile here's something from our sketchbook, drawn at another comics event recently.
May 8, 2007
May 3 , 2007
SO THAT'S HOW THE MLUTTER GOT SO FAT
May 1 , 2007
I'm trying out this new format of just one post per page and storing the preceding one in a new section of the archive. I was hoping to post every day to get to grips with this de-mluttering task but have been too busy and/or disorganised to do so. But keep checking because the story is not finished.
In a post on March 13 about the Jonathan Cape graphic novel event in Bath, I mentioned that I met Simone Lia , who was on the panel talking about her book Fluffy. We have kept in touch and went to an exhibition together last week. I was struck once again by the way that this artist/author and the characters she created in that book appear to be one. If you haven't yet discovered this very original and touching graphic novel, you're missing a unique experience.