Never never never never never

Shakespeare wrote the most bleakly beautiful line of Iambic pentameter in the English language (see title). It's a line that gets stuck in my head whenever I try to remember any Shakespeare. Here's James Earl Jones doing the very line, Ian McKellen here, and also Paul Scofield. Each fantastic actor does the line differently, but each with great power.

Out of the three though, I think I like Scofield's mutter the best. That's the sort of reading I have in my head.

I have a short comic idea. The plot wrote itself and unwound 30 or so panels, typed, unpenciled, from my fingertips. I can't think of a better title for a comic about the death of humanity and the destruction of the solar system by cruel time than "Never never never never never."

A title is important. I find I love the writing of Jorge Luis Borges not only for the content and ideas, but also for his titles. If you ever pick up Borges' Book of Sand or Collected Fictions read his Lovecraft tribute "There Are More Things," as wonderful for its Shakespearean title as it is for its abrupt ending.

25

Artists, Mathematicians, Scientists, Writers, people who rely on their plasticity of their minds to make a living, with few exceptions, are said to produce their best works before age 25.

I am 21, with a half-birthday a month and a half away, and I have, to show for my age, a defunct rock band, multiple half baked stories, numerous poor paintings, a handful of vapid poems, a slew of unformed ideas, a lifeless blog, and precious little time to get them out. 

Tomorrow morning I'm going to wake up, walk a dog, eat coffee cake, and read American Psycho some more. Then, I am going to force myself to write something. Perhaps it will go on this blog. Perhaps it will in some aspect be a work of visual art, e.g. a comic or graphic novel segment. Perhaps I will merely email it to somebody.

I have the time if I make the time.

Problems with Representation

I've been advised to keep a journal about my graphic-novel writing process. Considering that I've been working on it for the past three months(ish) and haven't posted anything except for the previous sketch, I thought I'd take a moment to jot down my thoughts.

I have three friends in two states (which two states those are depends on the time of year you talk to them), all three of whom have been kind enough to lend their likenesses to my artistic endeavor and would doubtlessly be okay with me posting their likenesses on this blog.

My idea was to base three different characters in two different graphic novels on my three friends, but as I practiced my portraiture skills, I arrived at a realization.

In sequential art, likeness is not as important as repeatability.

That is, the closer I got to capturing the likeness of each friend, the more difficult it was to draw said friend over and over again. In the context of a comic book, it is best if the face in a panel resembles the same face in the next panel, even if it does not resemble the face in real life.

This is the dilemma I face. As will any problem though, seeking the solution is exhilarating.

A tantalizing teaser

This sketch is a taste of things to come.

I have not finished Beowulf, but I'm making something...