Archive for September, 2009
13 items.
I kind of view that final panel as a big goodbye wave to anybody who might have had lingering doubts about whether they wanted to read my comics. I like it, though. It’s always fascinating to me the things people do and say during sex, and all the things in the sexual panels of these stories are things that have actually been said to me.
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OK, so my computer decided to completely die on me last week, and that’s complicated scanning and posting and all that stuff. For the moment, I’m using a friend’s computer, and trying to keep stuff coming. As far as this page goes, hm, I think I’ll let it speak for itself.
Five of the guys on this page were drawn from photographs of guys that I’ve actually messed around with (Though not drawn in scenarios that actually occurred.) Who doesn’t wish they were me?
The title of this comic comes from a comment a friend of mine made to me a while ago. I woke up one Saturday remembering vaguely that I’d spent the previous evening in some clubs and had more than a bit to drink. That Sunday, I got a text from the friend in question that read, “Sober yet?” Apparently, I’d been pretty wasted.
“Was I that fucked up?” I asked.
“Lol. You were a hot mess.”
“What’s that mean? ‘Hot mess?’ ” Being gay I know that it shocks people, but I don’t read a lot of Perez Hilton or devote too much attention to the lesbian exploits of Lindsay Lohan, so I’d never come across the phrase.
“It means that you would’ve been hot, but you were a really fucking mess,” I was informed.
I felt like the description summed up a lot about the last couple of years of my life.
I’ve been trying to get this story together because I decided at some point that I wanted to call the first eventual trade paperback collection of my comics Hot Mess for that reason, and I’ve been trying to get together material to submit for a grant that has an October submission deadline. Trying to figure out how to explain my comics and what some of my goals for them include has forced me to organize them in my thoughts a bit more than I had. I’ve already mentioned on here bits and pieces of information about it, as in, “Oh, this drawing is for,” whatever issue, and so on, but now, if anybody’s curious, I feel ready to lay out a bit of the master plan, and maybe some of my past posts will have a little bit more context.
This title piece, Hot Mess, is intended for inclusion in an issue that I want to call Tales of… SELF INDULGENCE! and that will hopefully indulge a little bit of my interest in old EC and other horror comics. I have a couple of other pieces already started at different stages for this. My first two single issues, give or take, will probably fill out the back matter of Hot Mess, and I’m starting to refer to them, collectively, as Odds and Beginnings. The story Roll With It that I posted on here a while ago, along with some other bits and pieces that I’ve posted at different times, are meant to be included in, “It’s Like Heaven” , which is named with a quote from an Allen Ginsberg poem and meant to comprise some of my musings about my recent romantic misadventures. Then there’s, “Thought Dreams”, which some of you might recognize as being named with a Bob Dylan lyric. I’ll say more about what this one will include later on. There’s also, “Marchin’ To the City”, which is named with another Dylan lyric. That one is meant to include a partial origin of Rickets the Robot, and is something that I’ve given a lot of thought to. All together, these issues with some additions and rearrangement will hopefully comprise a sort of autobiography of part of my life, and will be Hot Mess.
And another sketchbook page. I plan to start page one of a new multi-page storyline on Friday, so stay tuned for that. As for this drawing, I did it kind of quickly in Golden Gate Park, I think out near Hippie Hill, with Kristin very kindly enduring sunlight in her eyes because we were losing day fast and there were limited ways that she could sit which would allow me to see her well. The one she did of me was later on at a bar in Castro, I think The Mix, ’cause she’s an awesome friend and doesn’t mind always going to gay bars with me. Not that she doesn’t get plenty of women coming after her when we do. Considering that it’s the Castro, it’s actually pretty impressive how many women there are interested in her. Kristin’s just got like that. Yep. Even though you might not know it from this picture, because it’s not a very flattering one. This style of drawing I’ve been trying to develop probably looks more flattering on guys than on girls, since I like to draw all the details and shapes and shadows in people’s faces, and pretty girls aren’t supposed to have that, I guess. Kristin claimed she liked the picture, though, and she said the same thing the last time I drew her, too:
although maybe she was just being polite. Most people have said they’ve liked it when I’ve drawn them, but then again I’ve also got some reactions decidedly in the other end of the spectrum, so I guess people don’t always feel the need to be polite. Then yet again, most of the ones with the really unexcited reactions were guys with ego issues and with whom I had somewhat complicated relationships that might have biased their taste in those instances, but I could go on about those stories in a whole other post some time.
A pair of sketchbook drawings for the moment, first this one of me done by my friend Kristin on her last visit up here, and then following it the one I did of her. I wanted to post the drawing I did of here, but it seemed a little strange without this one, since they were kind of a pair. We did a jam comic together at one point, and maybe I’ll get around to posting that eventually.
I’ve been waiting for a long time to draw this.
Did anybody out there really think that Capitalist Pig was dead? I’m kind of hoping so. I like the idea of being able to build dramatic tension with these little strips.
At this point, I’d mention very gently that, with a religious fundamentalist character, a robot character, a Capitalism-obsessed character, and an artist that happens to be myself involved in a drama involving xenobohobia, Pandemic panic, and drug trafficking, I might be trying to say something about something more than just a few cartoon animals. Of course I wouldn’t venture to say what exactly I”ve been trying to say, how successfully it’s been said, or anything like that, because none of that’s my place. I just want to kind of nod in that direction in case some people are wondering if they’re right to be reading all of this at a particular level.
If we don’t fully exploit the victims of our violence for financial gain, the terrorists win.
