Someone commented on this blog a while back, saying I shouldn’t cover drug usage in my comics, as that’d be “a bit dark, something your other comics couldn’t be accused of” – I mean I know what you mean ~ my comics do seem to have a ‘light’, joyful kinda overall vibe about them, but also … I think we need a bit of dark. A bit of failure. Stories devoted to impressive people doing only good things are like scifi books of the 1960s and 70s – the worst ones were all like that, the hero was just the strong man being ‘great’. Bit dull.
Then we discover comic characters like Batman or The Punisher, Rorschach, Vee, heck even Moon Knight … people who are both a bit light and a bit dark. Or make bad choices and struggle with them; much more relatable. I’m more into that approach, as can be seen in pretty much all my comics …
… I prefer comics like this because real people are like this. Don’t know if you’ve come across this, but we fail ALL THE TIME! We make mistakes – sometimes on purpose – and we’re bloody marvelous at the same time. The antithesis of this philosophy is a place where life is a competition, and only ‘the good’ are worthy of love, or winning, or happiness. And I think that philosophy is total bullshit which robs people of life, and is probably largely based on retail.
There might be a place for goodies-are-good comics, you know just inspiring others – but I think the most inspiring stuff starts with the reality of us – a little grimy and a little broken – and then describes the wonderful path anyway. Because how can we appreciate the bright light shining, if we’re not at least aware of the dark?
… and as explored in a few other of my blog posts, once we’ve been through the dark and discovered the real light, we can then become advanced enough to start embodying grace, and even journey back into the darkness of reality. Though this time changed and prepared.
… so I think this stuff is important, and I come back to it time and time again, rather than sanitising my comics. After all, how can we write relatable stories if the only people who can relate to them have never made any mistakes? I’m not sure I know anybody like that. I mean I know plenty of people who pretend to be mistake-free, but they aren’t the truly content ones, they tend to be the ones whose marriages (etc) explode, seemingly out of nowhere. We need truth, and unfortunately for all of us, truth does have a touch of darkness.
Only if we are truly known, can we be truly loved, ‘warts and all’. For it seems we all have warts, and I believe we are all worthy of love, so how that is even possible … is worth exploring.
Aaaaaaaanyway, on this topic I’m thinking about releasing my Zombie comic once it’s done (80 pages so far, not sure how much left but I’m probably about 2/3rds done), and I thought I’d better prepare people for the direction it’s going in, because our new hero in this upcoming comic is … very much an anti-hero. They’re a bit of a nob, a bit adolescent in their thinking. At least to begin with. Good times hehehh. Oh there’s no gore though, can’t be doing with actual Zombie slasher comics, this is much more … um … wholesome‘s not the right word … more hygienic, let’s say.
How would you create a story without any friction?
A story is about change. Character starts, something happens, character or something changes.
And if you follow everybody’s suggestions, you won’t write about anything.
I think you have a very balanced style, with appealing characters, good an evil, “journey of the hero” stories and your graphic style is FANTASTIC!
… I heard there are even fan-sites and translations or your stuff…who would have known!!
One of my pet subjects is human failure/error. Not a single step of human progress has been made without failure, it’s innate as any observation of any baby at any time shows. Learning to walk is a good ‘un. The flaw in technology is that if it doesn’t allow for human error, then it’s junk technology. I woke up to this when I got two digits wrong when purchasing a parking ticket. I had a three month battle with the bone headed company who ran the car parking system, who were hell bent on fining me when I had proof that I’d paid. I won in the end, but to this day, they penalise error. AND no boobies. Madness.
Yeah. No one escapes life without scar tissue. Healing the wound means a plunge into causation and, in many cases (but not all, especially childhood trauma), responsibility.
When you are willing confront and embrace that darkness, it transforms. Confront the dragon, get the gold.
It is the darker aspects of reality that challenges us to shift to new terrain, whether internal or external. Jungian ‘shadow work’ or Stan Grof’s Transpersonal Psychology that first used LSD, then shifted to ‘Holographic Breathing’ to process and integrate stagnant emotional patterns (breathwork is an incredible catalyst BTW).
We all journey through dark periods. The love, light and positive emotion only crowd are completely missing the yin-yang boat. It’s what expands us the most, IF we are willing to face it.
To paraphrase an old psychadelic psychonaut, ‘a bad trip happens when you refuse to face what the psychadelic is showing you’. The same applies in life. If you don’t face it, the monster only gets bigger until you can’t ignore it any more.
Drugs? A part of life too. Some are legal. Some are highly addictive and just numb you completely. Some of the most dangerous ones come from a Big pHarma pusher in a white coat. Some bury symptoms, others completely transform them.
The great take-away is that everyone is fighting some battle no one else can see, so be kind. Any accusation is really a confession. So take nothing personally. Look for the wounded rather than listen to the wound and maybe you can help them through.
$0.02 but priceless lessons learned at great cost. And I am grateful for them.
I forgot to add the SAJ Clubhouse password…..boobies. 🙂
That was Holotropic Breathing, not holographic.
No one cannot make mistakes. And anyone who thinks they make no mistakes is mistaken.