LookingLand

it's finally happened. i have completely lost control of my desk. last night i sat down to work on Reconstruction and couldn't comfortably angle the clipboard in a way that made painting easy. of course, instead of clearing the desk, i just forced myself to make do. because God forbid i disturb the tower of i don't know what. and that's the worst part of it. i'm not even entirely sure what's in those piles at this point. a lot of photocopies, i think, and notes, and scanned microfilm. last night i was trying to baste together reconstructed pages of the Evening Star from 1865. and of course i did the scans wrong, so i am missing two lines in the middle of the pages (argh!). fortunately i still have the microfilm reel, so i can write in the missing lines tonight or tomorrow (but i am such an idiot).

i'm glad i went to the trouble of ordering this newspaper for a couple of reasons: it's the local paper for crying outloud! what was i thinking for blowing it off originally? and also, it's given me a few interesting new tidbits to work with (one description of sam arnold's father crying in the courtroom was rather heartbreaking).

i was really tempted to include a bunch of random local news things in my outline, but restrained myself (fascinating as they were), given that the monstrousness of this project is already too much for even me to handle at this point.


the good news is that this desk will be completely wiped clean this weekend. i've got the summer projects moving in (for the Here there Be Monsters press) and so everything is getting put on hold until late July. well, by "everything", i really mean In Pursuance of Said Conspiracy, which means i can get most of this stuff off my desk until then. this is not the way i wanted to do it, but life has a way of dictating the priorities. i have to write Issue No. 5 of Eleison in the coming week (yikes). thankfully i have a story in mind. just have to commit it to paper now.

in painting: Reconstruction shouldn't suffer for the schedule change (i hope). i'm a little bit behind, but the style change is gradually making it easier. i also have something more like a draft to work from (instead of winging it like i was doing for several pages there ~ shouldn't have done that, but oh well, it's all a learning process).

new projects: ooo exciting ~ my brother and i are going to launch a webcomic of some sort in late June/July hopefully. i want to title it The Orchard, but that sounds so prosaic given the subject matter. this will be an online exclusive about Death, War, and Bacon (for those of you who aren't familiar with my obsession with war and breakfast, please see Grantcakes). it will star Death, a soldier, and a pig (right?), and will likely be a meditation on themes familiar in my work for those who know it (fidelity, honor, and estrangement chief among them). stay tuned for more details!

in reading: book updates later. this post is already long and jumbled!

i've been threatening it for a while, but last night i actually started to do it: i'm pitching all my old files. i've already dispatched nearly a thousand (that's 1,000!) files and though it doesn't seem to have made a dent in the computer folder problem, that's a thousand less documents i have to futz with on my hard drive.

in writing: curious about s. weir mitchell's The Summer of St. Martin, i rooted out a copy of the text from internet archives (here it is if you're curious ~ they have all of his books online). the flip books are very cool there, by the way (they have tons of nifty stuff, including Poppet's memoir). the text is also digitized (not terribly well), but i dumped the words from St. Martin into a .doc file just to see how long the story is (word-wise, page-wise, etc.). it's really a very wee thing: just over 3k and about 10 pages (the design of the book it's printed in translates it into 30 pages!).

i thought this was really interesting. there was something very satisfying about its brevity in a book form ~ turning the pages, feeling like i was getting a whole meal when really it's just an hors d'oeuvre.

i've never been much of a short story writer (i've published a couple, but it's never appealed to me as a form). i much prefer the epic ~ but small epics! cram an epic into 150 pages and i am ecstatic. it's not impossible ~ some writers do it amazingly well. a while back, i agreed (after polling) to concentrate of "a lot of little books". this has become my mantra. and mitchell certainly raises the bar on just how short they can be! i am challenged, and by that challenge, emboldened.

: D

in other news:

my brother sent me a picture of our booth at ComicCon (looked fab!) and i have updated the Order page for the Here There Be Monsters press. yay!

pretty snazzy, eh?

: D

or, rather, a few words ~ briefly, for the 50bookchallenge:

no. 35 ~ Valedictory Oration, presented before the Senior Class of Linonia Society, June 17, 1857 by william e. doster. hey, it's bound, it was published, i'm calling it a book. i read this last night before bed and though there were a number of phrases throughout that struck me, this one stood out the most:

To the poet of our times and nation then, I would say, strike at the national heart, cultivate the love of the Supernatural, the Beautiful, the Antique, the Sublime, the Holy, and the True, and above all, engraft the spirit of your song on the massive proportions of an over-practical republic.

who'd've thunk i'd find a kindred spirit in Mr. Poppet.

and here i wrote a long ramble about ambition and politics and capitalism and a dozen other things Poppet touches on in this address (in which his youth and passion tell wonderfully), but i've decided not to post any of that. his exhortation sufficiently covers it.

19 days. i am writing, but much too slowly. i need to finish Jack and Eleison (soon soon!) and then i will be able to dedicate myself to this more fully. dunno if i will finish it by the 7th, but i'm still gonna try.

~ * ~

to all of you who left such positive, affirming thoughts about the literary manager i wrote about the other day, thank you!

picture of the day: it's a beautiful morning here and all seems all right in the world. hope the cool breeze lasts. happy day, all!

for the 50bookchallenge:

no. 36 ~ The Story of a Bad Boy by thomas bailey aldrich. i loved this book. it's hard to explain why, it's just got all the qualities of 19th century writing that i really admire: naivete, floridness, and a complete disregard for political correctness or concern over the delicate sensiblities of the audience for which it is intended. when Binny Wallace gets killed (yeah, i know, i'm spoiling it, but tell me honestly, who on my list would ever actually read this thing?) it was such an immense shock. partly because you expect in a children's book that things will turn out all right, and partly because it's just so matter-of-fact. a good reminder of how much death was a part of the lives of people who lived in that era. anyway, a good read with some hilarious lines which i will no doubt share later.

NaNo count for the day: 1,778. grand total for the first 5 days: 13,825. i expect i'll make another sizable dent in it on monday and tuesday. so i'm still ahead and still in good shape thus far.


: D

lastly, in painting: i've spent most of today thinking about drawing and working on pages for the next issue of Eleison.

i've also taken to drawing on manila folders. i made this doodle, painted it in gouache (rather thinned to a more watercolor temperament), and then scanned it. aside from adjusting the contrast to make the black ink stand out and filling in the background, i didn't tamper with it. it's not bad for a sloppy run. dunno that it passes muster just yet. i still see dylan meconis's work and think: if i could just commit suicide without actually killing myself, i'm sure i would do it.



random image of lewis and amy (circa 1880s, i figger)
~ i found it amusing that he appears to be fending her off.
not sure that's what i had intended, but it works,
given the character.
anyway, there you have it and there it is. i don't hate the style or the physical thing itself (it's actually a lot cooler in person than the scan relates) ~ and all of that is the good news. i'm starting to play (very tentatively) with cross-hatching to try to harken that old etching style. i'm thinking of going heavier on the inks, but still am daunted. the nice thing about manila envelopes is that if they're just recycled old folders, you don't feel bad about "wasting" them while you practice. let's see how long i stick with it this time.

: o p

tomorrow: dentist. 7 a.m. ugh. oh ~ and i think i broke a spring in my ankle. my heel is numb and if i stretch my foot to a certain distance i get an excruciating pain. otherwise i can walk on it just fine. silly thing.

p.s. did you all: remember, remember, the 5th of november ~ ? mebbe i'll watch that tonight instead of going to see The Prestige. i just dunna feel like gettin' dressed t'day.

my brother commissioned an artist in south america to sculpt a figurine of Decimus Quintilius, the nemesis of of our hero Waabooz in Eleison.

This is the model for the final product, which is now being cast. We're hoping to have it available at Comic Con in July.

: D

we interrupt this bout of non-posting to share some incredible news!

the reviews are coming in for our serial Eleison and the first one is outrageously amazing!

Broken Frontier's reviewer Dave Baxter says:

Eleison (which means "mercy" in Greek), is an astonishing first book by a talented new duo. They’ve been lurking around the internet and comic con borders since late 2003, and it’s high time they were given a greater exposure to comicdom at large. Their gorgeously wrought, inspired story of a French-Native American penitent with uniquely western occult powers waging battle with a centurion-demon Hell-fiend with a small, rabbit-headed kid weighing him down…well…it’s by far the most unique composite of dark fantasy elements I’ve come across in a western comic book in years and years and years. Add to this a boatload of honest talent and I’m looking at the brother-sister creative team-up of the decade (though I suppose that may not be saying as much as I want it to).

the emphasis is his own! click the link to read the whole deal!

this is very exciting!

if you don't know about Eleison, you can check it out (and order it!) from the press website here.



tap-dancing on the roof ~

: D

my brother is working on issue no. 2 of Eleison <~ and sent me some flonsters for my viewing pleasure (and to post to the site).

flonsters is a made-up word ~ i have no idea if these critters have a real name other than "demon hoardes".

( cut in case it gives you the willies )

~ we're hoping to have this issue on the racks by december 1st ~ weather permitting. we seem to be straggling a little behind at the moment.

: o p

Eleison issue no. 1

it ain't over until the thing is running smoothly off the press, but today i finished all the pre-press work (i hope) and perhaps by tuesday next week it'll be in production. i've really learned a lot in the process and i feel pretty good about what's going out ~ have all the usual misgivings about: what the heck am i doing and how am i going to explain that rabbit-headed child anyway???

if you have no idea what i'm talking about, i made a holder page for the press here ~> Here there be Monsters. there's not much info there (yet) ~ maybe now that the book is relatively under control, i can beef up the web page.

i'm really very tired.

my friends, i'm sorry i have not been commenting much on your entries as of late. after this weekend, once i know all is well with the files i sent, i am hoping to have a little more breathing space.

it's insane, but i still want to do this full time.

: D

1. write about an era well outside of the one you live.

2. set it in a place you've never even visited.

3. include as a focus a culture you know nothing about.

4. work in a medium in which you've no competency.

~ * ~

friday i drastically rewrote Season Two of Reconstruction. next week i need to rewrite it again.

~ * ~

i should get the last pieces of Eleison fairly soon. i have a meeting with the printer tomorrow. i told my brother he must send a rabbit-baby. he still doesn't "get" the whole rabbit thing.

come to think of it ~ i'm not sure i do either ~ hahahahaha.

~ * ~

i've got to do some costume designs.

[/end random journal rambling]

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