Some From The Comic Book

Excerpts from Don't Forget Where The Sun Sets, the new album - and accompanying comic book they were kind enough to commission from me - from Das Vibenbass. Listen to the music and see the art at DasVibenbass.com.

FORGOTTEN BUT NOT LOST

Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Last week my bike was stolen by an imaginary thief. Like something out of Memento, I 'forgot' which particular rack I had latched my bike to and somberly took the bus home, no doubt in my mind that it was gone. Forever.

But the bike hadn't moved at all. In my mind, it had traveled to a distant, shadowy Seattle neighborhood and was promptly sold on Craigslist (for which $50 would be pushing it ~ really pushing it). In my mind, it was already in another state. I grieved and moved on.

When, weeks later, a friend called me to say she had seen my bike locked outside a bookstore I frequent, I still wasn't ready for the truth: my first thought was that the thief happened to visit the same used bookstore I did. Then, after a moment, things came into rapid focus.

Certainty is simply certainty and has no innate bearing on the actual state of affairs. A mind fixated victim to certainty will have its bike stolen by imaginary thieves, its ailments caused by imaginary spirits, and its life inhibited by imaginary barriers. Skepticism is not, like many say, a door that locks out beauty; it's more of a net that captures foolishness and holds it accountable.

Some From The Book

Recent sketches:



Yesterday the neighbors were clearly, although beyond the grasp of reason, smashing in a window with a large knife, and for those peeking over the fence the scene looked and sounded more or less like this.

YES / NO

The health care debate is madness. Joe Wilson's (R-S.C.) outburst at last night's joint session is indicative of the fever-dream this debate is for many of reform's opponents. Wilson's shout, 'You lie!' was irrational and wholly reactionary, a posture assumed from ten consecutive months of consumed feartalk.

With fear replacing reason, just about every visible curve transforms to a sharp, threatening edge. Skepticism transforms into paranoia. And those so riled, like Wilson, feel a desperate sense of duty in the face of their terror. One can imagine that his colleagues + news providers passively set him up for this moment ~ that Obama is lying, he cannot be trusted, he is vexing the public with charisma, that it is terrible, that it spells doom, and every word he utters into a microphone brings national collapse ~ Obama's ultimate agenda ~ closer and closer to hand.

I hesitate to call this imagination. But one could easily compare Wilson's fears about health reform to Orwell's fears about the all-powerful State. I'm biased here, though. I would describe Orwell's dream, though it could be called paranoid, as much more rational than Wilson's terror ~ I imagine he came to many of his severe conclusions independently, from calm observation, whereas Wilson was stirred into a frenzy that seemed to him the only option outside surrender.

Which isn't really an option.

Just try to click it.

[ Note: Yes is also unclickable. }

DUSK LATTITUDES

Thinking about Swamp Thing.

W.H.Y.S.

Thinking about tattoos.

EYES, PT.2

From Luke Dixon's portfolio.

Says Luke: "I leave the eyes to clear to take away some personality from the image - opens it up for more interpretation..."

Hmm. Confession: most of my cartoons feature eyeless characters. I began drawing this way after becoming frustrated with poorly drawn eyes on otherwise well-drawn characters. And internally, the initial reaction was positive ~ the characters no longer looked so clearly amateur (although they did take on a zombie-esque quality) and I saved good time + energy overall. However, while it theoretically helped my cartoons, it did nothing for my ability to draw eyes.

While I do sympathize with Dixon's defense, it's not satisfying. 'Opening up' something for 'interpretation' is too often euphemism for laziness on the part of the artist, who is well aware that the eyes carry much of a character's emotion and an awkwardly drawn gaze can and will drag a cartoon into purgatorial mediocrity. Leave eyes blank, however, and the reader will approximately place the eyes where they ought to be. The drawing meanwhile gains a quasi-intellectual, haunting quality ~ albeit cheaply earned ~ and the artist takes credit for what many might call edginess.

It seems like guilty artists should ditch the practice, and all admiration for those who employ it. But, not so fast...like a musician seeking to become a one-man band, where it might be beneficial to use a drum machine while mastering the guitar, an artist mastering other elements could justify empty eyes. Not to say I've mastered every area but eyes (legs come to mind) or that eyelessness isn't a glaring shortcut, but at the moment I truly do not mind, and like how it looks on my cartoons and the comics of others. Though certainly I do imagine that as I become a stronger artist that eye detail will evolve into and within all my artwork, for the time being I enjoy Luke Dixon and the Empty Gaze.