"And once the storm is over, you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain, when you come out of the storm,you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about." - Haruki Murakami
Dear Internauts,
Every time I start a project in a new medium, it feels like the first part takes at least five times longer than it should. Like the music video for Pigs on Patrol could've been made in a month and a half—and mostly was—except I spent the six months before that with indecision and false starts. Any time I've tried to write a novel, I'll go in for the first act or so draft after draft and never much finish anything. With this graphic novel, the first chapter, which will be at most eight pages, is proving to follow this pattern far closer than I'm following my script for it. It certainly won't be complete by the end of the month as I'd hoped. Still, the pressure I've inflicted upon myself has led to a more practical stance on story-telling which I can see being perhaps useful in the future.
For one thing, it helps that I continue to be excited about the story at large. When it takes a few hours to design, draw, and color a single panel with my limited artistic skill to anything nearing competence, I can only stay motivated if every captured moment is worthwhile. Not only does the story have to be worth telling, it has to be worth crafting. In that, I look forward to getting better as I gain experience in finally creating something in a medium I've loved for much of my life. Plus, when I'm actually drawing, it's an exercise in visual storytelling that reveals new and exciting lessons with each new angle.
One of many, many inspirations for my current work is the manga series BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei. Visual storytelling is at an all time efficiency in this minimally-worded sci-fi journey. Capturing both an epic and claustrophobic feel with mystery and discovery tirelessly dealt at speed, this great work exists within a city like the inner workings of a computerized MC Escher-scape. Its newly released cousin film by the same name is now on Netflix, and though it greatly expands some minor characters and inflates exposition vastly while somewhat undercutting the almost inhuman, ugly grit of the lonesome wanderer's role...I still loved it. I definitely recommend both the movie and the books.
Further, I've been reading through Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. I had started many times since high school, but always ended up getting distracted by something else partway through. Thankfully, the local library has the collected editions in paperback. Although arguments could be made for so much of his other work, what I find with Sandman is that Gaiman's story-telling is able to shine through the efficiency required as well as the freedom enabled by the medium. Along with reading through Alan Moore's Swamp Thing series for the first time, I'm rekindling a love for the weird in sequential art's narrative power that is a challenge and a boon for my own imagination.
Still not sure what I'll do with my comic as I begin to finish its parts, but at the moment, that is secondary to the creation. As compared to some other art forms, that's actually something of a hidden blessing. With this blog and certainly my song-writing, I'm all too easily caught in the glare of what YOU might think. Not that you haven't been anything but quite cordial about it. I will always remain, I should hope, my harshest and loudest critic. And yet...
Speaking of song-writing, I suppose the word "music" in this blog's title should stand as more than a metaphor for my rasping rants and rollicking rambles, right? Well, on that front, it has been decided between myself and the wonderful producer friend of mine, Joe Casey, that a new goal has been set for the music I recorded with him at the end of last year. As his life is full of the necessary business of being a father, husband, and human being—and I am as yet unable to pay him to work full time on my music alone—we will be proceeding via the release of one song at a time instead of a four song EP. I know this has been a long process, and it may seem like the kinda thing I keep talking about but never actually release. This is news, though, in that the hope is to actually bring you a new single much sooner than would otherwise be the case. We are making this happen.
In the mean-between-time, however, I've got plenty of sweet treats cooking up to bubble, don't you worry. This is why I never make plans. I adopt them, water them, and place them in a bright spot only to watch them shrivel and turn to dust. Instead, I continue to try new things. Like the delivery job that threw out my applications because they got a new manager and thus asked my to apply once again. This is not the the first of such times and won't be the last I can guess.
I'm a lonely soul who desperately misses old friends, but I think what I may miss the most is the feeling of warmth and light and hope and happiness I had when I was with them. Love lost is pain and thus is life, but in the words of A. A. Milne, "How lucky I am to have someone that makes saying goodbye so hard."
Thanks for reading,
Odist
No comments:
Post a Comment