Monday, October 29, 2007

A silly thing I did two weeks ago.









If you don't get it, don't worry. But read Thomas Pynchon's V. for an explanation.

OK, fine. It's a circuit diagram for a parallel resonating band stop filter, which creates a "V" shaped notch in an oscilloscope readout. Also, it looks like Kilroy.

FINE I'M A GIANT NERD RIGHT I KNOW ALREADY

Sunday, October 21, 2007

The goal - 24 pages in 24 hours, going in without a plan.

The place - An old money garden estate by the lake with peacocks roaming the grounds, long since converted to a museum/school, and often (as last night) used for society weddings.

The people - 8 gals, 22 guys, mostly skewing a lot younger than me (eI'd place the median at early 20s) but a couple other folks my age or perhaps older. Mostly aspirants, a couple pros.

The results - 19 and a half pages laid out and with dialog, in what I can self-flatteringly describe as a 'Short-Cutsesque' style of multiple and somewhat interlocking plot threads linked by the theme of desire that threatens to become dangerous, set on Hallowe'en night. About halfway through that 20th page, I completely ran out of plot steam. I wanted to bring all the threads together and to a conclusion but couldn't do it. This happened about 1 am, eg: a bit past halfway to deadline. So, I went back and started tightening pencils and adding inks. That was where I realized that some of my layouts were not going to take art well, and might not take it at all. Still, I bulldogged it to about 5 am, when I lay down to rest for a bit and woke up two hours later. I kept on until about 10, when I realized I hadn't a hope in hell of finishing, and called my ride.

I'm disappointed I couldn't finish, of course, but I can see that my idea was ridiculously ambitious. Also I got some pretty good writing in and some pretty good art in. It doesn't hang together, but could probably be reworked without too much trouble. Best of all, its the most and best art and writing I've done in ages. I know that I can conceive a project and work on it non-stop for a long time, and that was something I'd forgotten. Lather, rinse, and most important of all, repeat.

I'm sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy.

I'll post the comic itself (incomplete as it is) as soon as I can get to a working scanner, probably later this week.