Okay gang,
Quickie Update: Yes, I posted this bat pic before, but this is the FRAMED version of that Bat piece I did that's up for auction...
...to raise some bucks for my pal Terry's University. It's online, and you can bid on it here: www.viu.ca/festival/auction This time it's NOT for some sleezy cartoonist like me, looking to make a few cheap bucks. This time, it's for a good cause (plug plug)... The only two avid collectors of my sam stuff i ask NOT to bid are my mom and my art dealer, Albert Moy. Okay, Albert can bid. But not mom. That's too pathetic! think about it—my own mom buying MY art online, I mean come onnnnn... I *know* her, for pete's sake! :)
Now onto other fun crap...
TROUT MUSINGS
Work on the monumental Trout Books toils on. Nice to cross a few off and know others will follow. Mucho thanks to Vassilis drawing Nola, and Leigh Dragoon doing Lust Police, for sticking with me. Tim Kelly too; he'll still be doing stuff for the Trout world! Here's Leigh's take on Dana and her sister Nola in an upcoming book:
I'll show some sneak peeks from Vass' NOLA trout book next week. It's been hard to let someone else draw a story that's already in my head, already written by me and laid out. It's like I have my own version of the same characters running around inside of me. But it's been awesome seeing what someone ELSE brings to it too... makes them come alive even more when I see another artist's take on them. They have taught me a lot, both as friends and artists.
Not to seem to pretentious, but it's like each Trout-a-verse Character is an archetypal part of me. I basically took 12 phases of my life, assigned them goals, trials, fears and neuroses and some relief at the end of a long tortured life. Then, unlike me, I peppered them with race, age, sexual orientation and various peccadilloes, hobbies, hang-ups and quirks I may or may not have myself... just to make it interesting.
Over the last ten years this has all been percolating inside me. Especially Dana. Mother/Daughter struggles. I wanted to be even-handed to each character, showing no bias in whatever their beliefs, and write about people who I didn't always agree with or even like.
I isolated Dana's figure on this piece of art, not to be clever with layers in photos, but to separate her from an otherwise busy sketch of her I did and to highlight her visually, in your minds.
The main focus is Dana, whose whole life gets FOUR separate graphic novels alone! (Most only get one graphic novel to a character.) And four stages of Dana's life, which somewhat mirror my own. (Minus being kidnapped by feminist, being a lesbian, or being obsessed by trouts and toilet seats.)
Why am I telling you all this crap YEARS in advance of you reading it? Because ...INSIDE of me it's already been *told*. Dana's childhood's a done deal, her adolescence (Lust Police ) is happening right now, her turbulent twenties (Cute), uneasy alliance with her sister Nola and cataclysmic fights with her mother (Dislexic Sex slave) are the stuff of legend. Well... in my head anyhoo.
If I croak today, none of it matters.
Dana's life is divided into the four books, and four phases:
Innocent: In her teens, struggles to rebel (read: differentiate) herself from her mother by writing a dirty story online which catapults her into being kidnapped by various radical feminist groups. It's over-the-top for an opening, but it's too late to stop now!
Orphan: In her twenties, it's about leaving mom for her older lesbian partner, Allie, and a third older wise woman she meets online. Surrounds herself with older women, and either secretly struggles against them, or capitulates and grouses. Either way she 's the architect of her own 'passivity' and steadfast refusal to grow up. She hides in food, erotica, her partner, an army jacket and helmet, and her mother's shadow. She also collects Trout paraphernalia, magic boxes, people who'd seen trouts, etc.
Warrior: After Dana's partner's deterioration, Dana is forced to grow up, butches out a little... cuts the locks and sheds her army jacket for some cool army pants. Creeping up on 40, she's either at the peak of her powers or starting a long slide down. She's also facing down the two most powerful woman in her life, online wise woman and mother, face to face for a change.
Fool: Old age, wheelchair bound, she's a ticky old lady whose phobias have come home to roost. Everything Orphan-like in her 20s now is reclusive in her 60s. Luckily her sister Nola tries to track her down when she wanders the streets, ever in danger of becoming a bag lady. Dana finds hope in a younger woman who transcribes her trout and erotica stories for her, and they drift into a relationship-dependency-kinkery. But can Dana use this last chance to really grow up? or will she just keep milking dependency like an old dusty coat her mother left that she wears, one that she's clearly outgrown?
There! NOW you don't have to sludge your way through all four those graphic novels, huh? :)
STILL SCANNING ART, TONS OF IT... WAY TOO MUCH ART...
Scanning continues...(snore)... nothing sexy about scanning. I figure since it's all on the floor already, I may as well scan the titanic 'Three Volume Art Book' right now too (so it won't be in crappy orange folders, but printed and bound like a really NICE art book)...
...but the Three-VOL sucker will have to wait for now! First up, the waaaay long overdue 'Art of Sam' book...
...which WILL be out by San Diego Con next year, even if i have to drive it from the printer myself! And No, I am NOT going to be at the Con. Ever. Done with cons. Sorry. Nothing personal. :)
Next?
I really like this little gal that sits overlooking my art table. 'The Great She-Elephant' is an idea Dana's mother dreamed up, of a supreme female leader who all women bow down too, which in Dana's mothers mind, is her!
More on that in some other blog, I've wasted enough of your time on this one.
