There’s not much to report about today in blog land. But I did think I should check in with you, dear readers. Because I promised posts on Mondays and Thursdays. I suppose I have something to say about projects.
I caught up with a friend of mine yesterday. He’s been buried under a lot of work but finally caught a moment to hang. I got to talking stories with him. I explained my present creative situation, which he encouraged. And slowly but surely, he drew out a couple projects I forgot about. The Lighthouses Podcast for one – not quite forgotten but back burnered at present – but also a few of my other worlds. Ossua has taken a lot of my focus as of late. But I also remembered my idea for the American Revolution… against Rome. I have a lot of ideas.
The problem I often find is one my friends always take great pains to remind me: Focus and Discipline are what make the difference between a hobby and a profession. This is something I’m hearing a lot. Focus is difficult for me sometimes. I’m keeping all of my project ideas and little story nuggets for later days. I have a feeling I’ll have many orphans in my project list. It’s been a struggle to keep focused. But, I’m getting better at picking and choosing my projects. And hopefully this turns the tides. Kanban is helping.
That said – there’s a ton of stuff I really want to get back to. So, I guess I better get started on completing the ones in front of me
And now, for another update of the Creative Dispatch.
I managed to get over the creative hump of writing Ossua. A new chapter is now through its first draft, and the story kickstarted itself back to life. It has its problems, but they are mostly things able to be fixed in post.
I completed my revisions on ‘Take Only One,’ my halloween-themed, horror short. It’s my intent to shop it soon as Halloween will be upon us faster than we think. I initially eyed a particular source for publication, but they are unfortunately closed to submissions at this time.
I’ve also laid down some colors for Ossua’s map (the original pen and ink are here)! I finally got a good digital rendition of it started. Base colors are in place and I should be ready to fill out more details both in terms of locations, cities, and features; and also in more nuanced colorings and graphic flair. See below!
No, the cities aren’t really underwater. Yet.
Work continues toward getting things done in good order, despite life being very difficult in both expected and unexpected ways. I am disheartened by some of it, but I continue to resolutely work toward creative goals.
Keep on checking in. I promise more good stuff to report.
A few years back I took a gamble on a comic called King City, by an artist named Brandon Graham. I’d seen it on the shelf a few times in stores and wasn’t quite sure it was for me. I spoke to my local proprietor of fine books (Between Books in Claymont, DE) and Greg, the owner, talked me into it (as is Greg’s custom). I took the book home and devoured it. It started a very strong love of the author/artist’s work in general.
Brandon Graham’s Strange Beginnings
Art flowers in strange places. In Brandon’s case, it started between two sources – graffiti art and pornography.
Graffiti is unsurprising. It doesn’t take more than a couple seconds to look at the body of his work to see street art gushing out. From his character designs to his backgrounds, everything has this wonderfully curvy kind of flow to it. Everything seems like it originates in the wide movements of the shoulder and elbow. As a designer, I know it’s not the case – when I draw a comic you can pretty much be guaranteed that my fingers are cramping to get precise control. I think most artists do in the medium. Graham applies that big, wide-open wall principle to his designs in the micro-cosm of panel art. The work isn’t always color, but when it is, you see it there too. Solid palates generally rule his roost with little or no gradation or visual clutter to get in the way.
The more surprising aspect of his genesis into comics was his start in adult cartoons. But, when you stop to think about it, it’s perfectly rational. Sex sells. It always has, and Brandon didn’t shy away from it with either Pillow Fight or Perverts of the Unknown. His foray into adult comics opened doors though. The porn years led to Multiple Warheads taking off and his being picked up by Image Comics. Additionally he had a deal going for some time with Tokyo Pop concerning his best work (in my opinion) King City.
Graham’s City That Never Sleeps
King City is, simply put, eye opening. Brandon Graham’s unique style also combines with the absurd, the punny, and the sexy. Here’s the details:
I don’t even particularly like cats, but… this cat is different.
Joe leads a complicated life. In recent years, he completed training with a far off group of mystics who trained him to be a Cat Master. His personal cat, Earthling J. J. Cattington III, possesses the power to do almost anything that Joe can dream up. All it takes is a proper explanation to Earthling, and then a quick injection of cat juice. Despite his newfound abilities, his return to King City after a long absence doesn’t make his life any easier.
The city has its own problems before adding Joe’s. There’s a strange Lovecraftian businessman running through the streets, eating the fingers of Yakuza soldiers, devouring souls, and otherwise causing trouble. Then there’s Joe’s luchador-styled best friend who works questionable jobs for a crime cartel. There’s a sexy, alien plant woman victimized by xenos trafficking. There’s new and incredibly bizarre street gangs (as well as really weird familiar ones). A mysterious femme fatale keeps crossing his path who seems to know something about the monstrous salaryman, too.
Oh, and then there’s Joe’s ex, Ana. Joe and Ana feel like there was nothing resolved in their past relationship, which makes things difficult for both of them when he wanders back to the city after a few years away. Despite lingering feelings, she’s got a new beau who has an addiction to a drug that eventually will transform his body into the same drug he’s using: Chalk. He got that way after using it to drive away the nightmares of his time in the zombie war going on in North Korea.
You can see why I like this so much. Between the style and the over-the-top ideas and action, King City grabs you by the frontal lobe and starts swinging into whatever it damn well pleases. Even the margins and book flaps are awesome, complete with puzzle sections, clever wordplay, and the occasional paper doll cut-out page. The whole package delivers to you a peyote fueled lens of science fiction that mixes in with kid’s pun books and a hint of Douglas Adams styled absurdity.
Art Collections
But, he doesn’t stop there. Brandon Graham is known to put out the occasional art collection, too. Walrus and Escalator are both of the books I regularly thumb through because his work is so fun to look at. In these works he delivers shorter stories, general art pieces, ramblings and other content that doesn’t fit in with his established work. I can only hope that we’ll get more of this sort of thing as his works continue to grow and evolve.
Recent Hits
Right now it’s my understanding that he’s working regularly on a Heavy Metal formatted production called Island. It’s not in the ultra-violent and mammary-heavy side of Heavy Metal; it’s more a collection of three or four stories assembled by Graham’s chosen collaborators over several episodes (Such as I.D. by Emma Rios, now available as its own graphic novel). Graham himself makes his own contributions as well as taking on the management of the effort.
Nice Facts, Poindexter; How Does Brandon Graham Inspire?
The man knows how to open up a world that takes you in. I hear so many creatives tell you that your characters are what the reader latches onto. There’s truth in that, but if those characters are just running around in the world I see everyday… it may not grab my eyeballs or my brain stem. Graham is really good at doing not just the tried-and-true character development stuff, he lets his settings, like King City, be characters in their own right.
Additionally, he does all of these little things – such as the before mentioned liner notes, or impromptu crossword puzzles, and really, really clever (and bad) puns when you least expect them. And then, there’s the sheer absurdity. The older I get, the more I appreciate that flat out illogical nature of our lives, and Brandon Graham knows how to maximize that.
His overall work gives me a high bar to look at and strive for. And if that isn’t inspiration, then I don’t know what is.
You Want To Know More
Of course you do. And you should. So go pay him a visit at his blog. He’s active on Tumblr as well. Or, go ahead and find his work at your local comic book store. If you’re looking for his bibliography, you could do worse than looking him up at Goodreads too.
I promised you a blog post today based on my last post. So, let’s get down to it.
One of the things I’ve wanted to do for a while (over a year, really) is to take some time to go over the storytellers and/or stories that have helped to shape me into what I am. I don’t want to hit anything too heavy (I could probably write a book about Neuromancer at this point) so I thought I’d go with one of the lighter pieces for today. It also helps that I watched this title again with my girlfriend two days ago.
The story in question is from an anime hailing from the mid-nineties: El-Hazard.
What Is It About?
The story is a common one in Manga and Anime: a group of people from our world are transported to another world. In this case, the new world is called El-Hazard. The world has a strange mixture of high-technology and mysticism that provides what falsely appears to be a magical society. Priestesses manage El-Hazard’s advanced technologies, most of which have been lost to time. Everything has an Arabic flavor from the clothes to the environments.
The four new immigrants to El-Hazard have varying degrees of difficulty adjusting to their new world. The main character, Makoto, quickly learns that he is a dead ringer for one of the local princesses (which he finds super awkward). Nanami finds herself in the middle of a desert, having to waitress to make a living. Katsuhiko realizes he’s surrounded by bug people. And their teacher, Mr. Fujisawa… well, he adjusts pretty well at first since it seems he’s been granted great physical skills and unrivaled fighting techniques – so long as he’s sober. Which is kind of a problem for him, what with him being an alcoholic.
Like Mr. Fujisawa… they all gain strange abilities, some immediately apparent, others not. Katsuhiko can speak with the local insect monsters, the Bugrom. Nanami can see through illusions. And Makoto… nah. I won’t spoil that for you. Despite the fact that the Anime is twenty-two years old.
“Oh shit! Someone else is outta alcohol!”
Makoto, Nanami, and Mr. Fujisawa find themselves embroiled in local power struggles after Makoto is coerced by the nation of Roshtaria into posing as their secretly missing princess. Katsuhiko uses his newfound and innate ability to speak with the Bugrom to rally an giant insect army. He pushes the Bugrom and their queen, Diva, to launch an attack on Roshtaria. The reason he does this is because his ‘life long rival’ Makoto is amongst their people – well, that and because he has a massive inferiority complex. To add to the conflict, there’s also the matter of the Phantom Tribe. They’ve worked for centuries to bring the whole of El-Hazard under their rule. Soon enough, devastating ancient technologies are being deployed in a growing war and the mystical powers and long lost relics start making for fantastic fight scenes.
The whole of El-Hazard hangs in the balance, with the four newcomers providing the pivotal thrusts that will decide the fate of millions.
Why This Story?
The story itself isn’t a new one. Like I said earlier, Anime uses the misplaced stranger(s) in a strange land trope frequently, as do most other mediums and genres. El-Hazard simply plays it to the hilt. More importantly, it’s a story with multiple levels. It starts out silly and light hearted, with alcoholic hijinks, gender-bending mistaken identity, megalomaniac delusions of grandeur, and, yeah… a lot of cheesecake and sexual comedy. It also manages a fair amount of drama as well, featuring everything from young infatuation triangles to the impact of what genocide does psychologically to a living weapon that is made to wage it.
The characters all stand out as well. One of my favorite characters is one of the Priestesses of Mount Muldoon, Shayla-Shayla. She’s easily in the top ten heroes list for me when it comes to Anime. She typifies the kind of flawed hero you find in the genre: brash, hot-headed, young, a little too eager to fight because she’s badass. She has issues making connections with people (apart from using her fists) but, she’s always on the right side of the battle. She always fights with style. She’s a character that I’ve used to create RPG characters from. She made for a great Fire-aspected Genasi Ranger In Forgotten Realms.
Shayla is the kind of character that will use fire as their go to solution, just like every good player character should.
Another personal favorite character is Mr. Fujisawa. Personally, I think he could have a series all of his own, letting us all watch the life of a genial alcoholic who gets super powers when he’s sober (and even more powers if he stops smoking). He’s a great bit of flavor for the whole story. Whenever things get too heavy, he’s there to relieve some of the pressure with either a well placed FUJISAWA KICK (you must capitalize this signature move) or an inopportune bender.
I don’t know if he’s kicking or falling here. Either way, he’s probably schmammed.
The rest of the cast aren’t small potatoes either. Nananmi, Allielle, Dr. Schtalhubal, and the other two Priestesses have their own charisma to bring. Even the bad guy, Katsuhiko, is the kind of villain you love to hate – mostly because he’s so catastrophically inept despite commanding Queen Diva, the Demon Ifurita, and the Bugrom.
And then, there’s this guy:
“Bum. Ba bum bum!”
I don’t think he (?) even has a name and he shows up for less than ten seconds. My fellow Otaku (the pejorative Japanese word for fanboy/girl – more benignly used in the US) in the area have always just called him ‘The Ba Bum Bum’ (a name rooted in onomatopoeia – it’s the only noise he makes). He waddles through a single scene. His only purpose is to make Mr. Fujisawa think he has the DT’s. God bless him. I love this… thing.
Given all of the above, I get nostalgia and an inner glow when I think about El-Hazard and the time I was first introduced to it. It’s still out there on DVD, though I’m not sure there’s a Blu Ray release of it just yet – at least not one you can find stateside. But when I find one, oh yeah. Come to papa.
Ultimately, all of the above led me to try to make stories that could have layers, be fantastical as I could make them, and present (sometimes hilariously) flawed characters that readers hopefully come to love.
Bonus Material: El-Hazard Births A True Otaku
El-Hazard wasn’t my first Anime. but it’s definitely the first I took seriously enough to collect all of it. My intake of Anime was limited since it was not as big in the States in 1994 as it is now.
My personal collection back then consisted of two feature films (Akira and Macross: Do You Remember Love?), a handful of incomplete Robotech VHS tapes that were Macek’ed to hell and back, two VHS of Macross II (ugh, my taste was poor), and several Starblazers tapes of truly horrible quality. I’d also seen a few rentals like Fist of the North Star (ugh), Appleseed (an adaptation of a great Manga to middling Anime), Black Magic 88 (another meh entry), and yeah, I’d been scarred by Urotsukidoji (why people watch that kind of shit is beyond me).
Marc was a little older than I was and had built up a wealth of Anime viewing in those extra years. His access to early Anime hubs like Anime Crash (sadly, no longer a thing) and ties to the Otakon and New York university scenes (where fansub culture thrived) made him practically a connoisseur by comparison to me at the time. Delaware was not exactly loaded with Anime at that point.
To put it in the terms of another Anime, Haibane Renmei, he helped me through my new feather phase.
He suggested a lot of great stuff in the fall of ’96 and the year of ’97. El-Hazard was one of the two big series he got me hooked on; the other was Giant Robo, released by Manga Entertainment (arguably the biggest of the production companies back then). When he lent me his Dubbed VHS of El-Hazard… that was that. My Anime collection was on the rise. I’d save money to hit Tower Records or Suncoast Video – two of the only places in Philadelphia where I could reliably find Anime at a price I could afford. When they were in at Between Books back in Delaware, I’d get them there (tax free!). It cost a lot for me to get my own El-Hazard collection (and many other titles) – but it was worth every penny. It was probably the first Anime I bought with my own money and with any kind of regularity. I get warm fuzzies just thinking about it.
More Bonus Material: El-Hazard and the Collapsing Sub / Dub Wars
This also marked the beginning of what I like to call the ‘Pioneer Era’ (roughly between 1995 and 2000). During the eighties and nineties, Otaku were working off VHS tapes, and that had consequences. When you bought a title, you had to make a choice: original audio with subtitle tracks, or english dub and no subtitles. Debate raged hotly between Otaku over which was better – and still does, though it’s an argument that doesn’t involve opening your wallet any longer (thank god for multiple language tracks/subtitles). While I was okay with dubs, many were not – and usually for good reason. U.S. Manga Corp (one of the big producers at the time) was not one to spend a lot on dubbing Anime titles, nor were a lot of other production houses. There were some truly awful dubs out there (the original Captain Harlock comes to mind) if you didn’t want to read your Anime. If you showed up to an anime night with a group of Otaku, the groans would start when one format or the other was revealed. Subbers said the audio translations were poorly made and executed. Dubbers hated having to read an already busy medium. Ideological purity threatened friendships. I know at least one Otaku who will still leave the room at the sound of an English dubbed Anime.
El-Hazard was one of the first VHS dubs that I remember with an audio track that didn’t feel phoned in or waaay off the mark. Pioneer went on from titles like El-Hazard to create excellent dubs (Tenchi Universe, Serial Experiment Lain) that only got better once they turned into the Geneon studio (where they produced great dubs for Trigun, Last Exile, Hellsing). They’re still around, but after the American Anime Bubble finally burst in the late 00’s, they retreated back to Japan where they work on that side of the Pacific only. According to Wikipedia, they’re now owned by NBC/Universal.
Due to Pioneer’s early efforts and the emergence of multi-language DVD options, later production companies would get better voice talent, better translations, and generally and put more effort into their production process.
I’m told by reliable sources that humans are pattern recognizers at our core. It’s not all we are, but so much of what makes us human comes from this basic component of our nature. We find things we can recognize, sort them in our minds for later use, then look back at them critically (or not – look at how we vote/don’t vote).
I’m no different in that I crave patterns. I have daily routines. I have ways things get done. I have some actions thoroughly organized to the point where my consciousness doesn’t even need to think about them hard.
And I need my writing career to build the same kind of rhythm.
Right now, I’m going to set up some internal rules and patterns. And here’s what I want things to look like during the weekday.
Every week day, I spend four hours minimum working on my creative endeavors (both graphic and written). I should be spending at least half of these hours a day writing Ossua’s first novel to a complete first draft.
On Mondays, I blog. Can be about anything. Might be here, might be at HPP. If it is somewhere else, I repost it here.
On Tuesdays, I write something brand new, ideally a short story. I should have at least a thousand to two thousand words. This may seem excessive until I realize how many words I write out on average and how many of them actually turn out to be good.
On Wednesdays, I draw something. Might be a webcomic. Might be a character study for an Ossuan. Whetever it is, I should be at my desk for a little while just to see what falls out of my pencil, pen, or stylus.
On Thursdays, I blog again. Same rules as Monday.
On Friday, I go back to whatever it is I did on Tuesday and refine, extend, edit, or otherwise root out gremlins.
Weekends of course are whatever they are. I want to throw elbow grease in there, I will, but they’re free creatively. I get to do what I want with them. There’s no set hours – as many or as few as I want.
I think this schedule is ambitious. But I also think it’s necessary. I don’t want this to be my hobby. I want this to be my profession. And for that, I need a pattern of behavior and rules to follow.
Let’s see how it works out. I’ll be starting this cycle on Monday. Let’s see what I have to blog about next week.
