What it's all about ...

I should be working on my writeups for my scholarship applications into ACAD. Four of them, each about 700 words long. Instead, I'm glued to the TV screen (somewhat literally, because I forgot my glasses on top of Jiggy's stereo), watching a Space channel special about the history of comics and superheroes. I'm entranced.

I think that this is more than a little relevant to my future in art. This is what it's all about.

Yeah, perhaps some of my ideas for stories don't involve the more _conventional_ view of heroes (Kuroi Tenshi, Alzander Raith, Kouryou, the Peacekeepers ....), but this is what it all boils dwn to; telling a story. Giving society a little mirror of what's going on, what might happen.

Not all comics are glory and morals, 'truth, justice, and the American way'. Look at Hellblazer. Hellboy. *shudder* ... Cage. Pretty much anything from Vertigo. Even some of the classics from X-Men, Batman, and Superman have grown darker over the years. Deeper.

They may be mortals, aliens, mutants, robots, monsters, gods, godesses, or combinations of such, but they are still human.

I'm listening to the interviews with Alex Ross, Joe Quesada, Joe Kubert, Stan Lee, and I'm thinking, "That's it. That's what I want to be." Maybe I'm a bit old for saying, "I'm gonna be a comic book artist when I grow up," but I think comic books are just starting to shake the image of 'just for kids'. In some sense, I don't ever want to lose that bit of me that will always be a kid. Not a teenager or an adolescent, but a earthworm-loving, medicine-hating, little-tomboy-that-played-with-G.I.Joes-instead-of-Barbies, put-nail-polish-on-my-stick-people kid. That part of me is the idealist, the kind that knows heroes still exist in the world. Everyone needs that kid in the shadows of their brain. The personality that still tries to catch snowflakes in their mouth and stomps in frozen puccles to make the ice shatter and makes a snow angel for the fun of it.

Comic books are not just for kids. Comic books tell some of the greatest stories ever told. Ironically, they are the most readily available and mass-produced sources for literature in this day and age, and so many people don't realize that. They think comic book and draw an equivalent to choldren's stories. 'Grown ups don't need books with pictures'.

With all due respect, yeah-fucking-right.

It's _art_.

You liked The Matrix? Try reading Akira. Ghost in the Shell. Darkminds.

You like K-PAX? Stuff that makes you think about life itself? Try Rising Stars. Midnight Nation. Nightcrawler.

There's stories that I can't posibly begin to describe. The Red Star, Warlands, Shidima, Spider-Man, X-Men, Origin, Battle Chasers, Defiance, Dawn, Bone .... anything.

These aren't 'comic books' in the context of funny pages. These are whole worlds in your hands, stories in your hands that have the potential to do anything ... they are not confined by the restrictions of production budgets, big-name actors, or yet-to-be developed special effects.

These are worlds where imagination is the only rule.

And sometimes, we can relate to them more than you may ever know. Pick up Amazing Spider-Man #36 sometime. Volumes 1 and 2 of 9-11. Moment of Silence.

... exerpt from my scholarship writeup ....

“Art is a lie which makes us realize the truth.”
- Pablo Picasso

As much as I can admire the philosophy of that quote, I do not agree with it. I see that art is not a lie, but truth itself that makes the truth all the more plain. Ironically, that view traps me in a paradox, because art is a matter of perspective, and each witness sees something unique to their own eyes, which they may or may not be seen as the truth.

..... I think I've got a shot.