wiles and hours whiled ~

[lookingland]

it's update day, so of course i am posting, but look: there's more!

like, for instance, it's been a revelatory week so far. unsubtle things in the cosmos have redirected my brain in interesting ways: bachsoprano's comments on some pages i sent have reminded me to stop trying to be a linear story-teller (my brain just doesn't work on a nicely aristotelean model), utter_scoundrel's recent post about a sherlock holmes book reminded me of my passion for ephemera, and a conversation about cannibalism at work reminded me that i have a rather prurient interest in the grotesque (in the most faulknerian sort of ways).

i am always telling others to be fearless, but looking back at all the online variations of Reconstruction that have floated around for the last four years, i am amazed at how utterly tame they are. it's like i've been writing the disney rated-G version of my own work. pretty bizarre for a series with a pathologically violent protagonist and a central theme of sexual psychosis.

i reinvented Reconstruction as a webcomic because i was having a hard time finding a balance between illustration and narrative ~ i thought that was the problem and that making a choice one way or the other would solve it and i could move forward. but it didn't and i realize now that 1.) what i have always wanted was a hybrid ~ something narrative with storyboards, for example), and that 2.) the only time this stuff has ever worked has been in an impressionistic style (i won't say non-linear because impressionism can be linear).

so that's a lot of seemingly random potatoes flung all over the grill, but i think it's getting me somewhere, oddly enough. a plan is forming (murky, but a plan nevertheless). yes, the plan calls for much slashing and burning of "things that don't work". yes, the plan means overhaul once again. but i'm going to keep this one close and quiet for the moment. we'll all just pretend for now that it's status quo.


meanwhile, this is a detail from my favorite picture at the moment. you can see the full deal in all of its glory right here.

i know it's not an earth-shattering picture (frankly i have no idea what it is even of, actually), but i love the color palette. and look at the dog!

: D

Comments

[bachsoprano.livejournal.com]

Aw, lovely dog, and it must have been something to be a gentleman of leisure...and, look at those buttons on those boots!

I think I've recommended this book to you before, but in case I haven't...you might want to take a peek at _The Birth House_ by Ami McKay. Not only is it impressionistic (I like that term much better than non-linear...) but she treated the story like a scrapbook. The story includes newspaper clippings and invitations and other bibs and bobs of a way of telling the story. It's really effective and might give you some ideas of what else is possible. I have an extra copy, if you would like to give it a home :)

[almond-tiger.livejournal.com]

I always enjoy the photos you post in your journal.

[faynudibranch.livejournal.com]

Chemist! We know where that leads...