Blue
an illustrated novel
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Chapter 4 Leer page1
found lining the highway yesterday morning.
One local official, when asked to comment,
noted that the number of dead cats--four--
matched exactly the number of shopping days left until Christmas.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Chapter 4 Leer: Foreword
To say that Blue owes everything to John Tanner when it comes to the creation of "Leer" would be an overstatement but as a witness to much of the discussion regarding the creative process for the graphic novel, I have been asked to share my perspective. Blue, John and I were sitting around Blue's studio one hot summer night. I had just pounded my eighth St. Pauli Girl in a row after we all polished off a whole Bar-B-Qued chicken each and John was nursing his second. Blue never drank, as I recall, and it is for that reason that I was stunned that he asked me to write this foreword. Regardless, I was sufficiently impressed with the conversation of that evening to have managed to allocate a reasonable chunk of permanent memory to it.
Blue had, to that point in time, never struck me as the comic book illustrator type. I will admit that I have no idea what that type is, I just didn't think Blue was it. I mean, he was such an "artist" type artist. He always talked about Rauschenberg and Johns, Jim Dine and Kurt Schwitters, Duchamp, Dali and of course Pablo. Blue loved to call him Pablo because everyone else called him Picasso and Blue hardly did anything like everyone else. So when he stood up and looked John directly in the eye and said, "I need your help", I couldn't believe it. Blue never asked for help with anything. I knew this was going to be something unusual for Blue. He told John that he wanted to write a comic book, as he put it,"More correctly, I want you to write it so I can focus on the artwork." John became immediately excited by the proposition. He leaped into an interview about plot, characterization, setting, tone, genre, the works. Blue had very little to say about any of that. He said,"John, I just said, I don't want to write the comic book, I want to illustrate it."
I could not imagine a more dynamic duo to create a comic book than Blue and John. Both men are talented beyond their disciplines yet work tirelessly and respectfully within them. However, neither one is encumbered by dogmatic constraints.
The first few months of work were exhilarating to witness. At first, Blue handed John completely finished pages full of unusual and provocative imagery. The concept being that Blue would create a storyless piece and John would fill in the story. The work was spectacular. The imagery was bizarre and unpredictable and the stories were sheer poetry. Unfortunately, none of it held together at all. I told them that they should scrap the comic book idea and make a coffee table manuscript or collection out of the art and poetry but neither would have it. Both men were committed to the idea that they were going to be like Miller and Moore, bringing something different, something new to comics, while recognizing the greatness of heroes like Stan Lee. So they changed their approach. John decided to take a few weeks to write, no meetings, no discussions and no ideas from Blue.
I was in the room when John delivered the first twelve pages of "Leer" to Blue. I can still remember the expressions on his face as he read all the way through the pages, three times. Blue's expressions changed from anticipation, to laughter to intense agreement and approval but in the end his face displayed nothing but awe and admiration for the words that John had bestowed upon him. The same admiration and respect was written on John's face just one week later when Blue uncovered the first of the drawings for the comic book. This awe swap continued for months until Blue announced that he was going to submit the work to a variety of publishers. John wanted to have more written but Blue felt that it was important to get a reaction before they spent too much time barking up the wrong tree. Blue confessed to me later that he probably should have aimed a bit lower with his first comic book rather than make a dozen submissions to the largest, most well established, most influential and least interested publishers he could find. I probably don't have to mention any names here, so I won't but the point that I must make is that Blue and John were turned down cold. The standard response was. "Thank you for your submission to..., However, we do not accept unsolicited manuscripts for publication." The response that kept Blue going, gave him hope and doubled his workload was in addition to the line above, one publisher added this..."The manuscript you have submitted is not in the proper format for production..."
"That's what we're doing wrong!", Blue beamed to John as he laid the rejections out in front of him."All I have to do is redraw all of the drawings in the proper format!" This is the kind of guy that Blue is. He had just spent months working on the most incredible drawings, real works of art, for the book, and he was ready to redo every single one of them. John suggested that Blue try different publishers with the same drawings but Blue didn't want to risk that "Leer" might go unpublished just because he didn't do the drawings in the format he should. So Blue did the drawings over again, in the proper format. John continued writing and in the process discovered that the comic book "Leer" was going to have to be a graphic novel. John simply had too much to say about Leer, Edgar Van and Mona for one comic issue or even three for that matter. Blue had several sketches created for the new pages and, in fact, had more than the original set completed, in proper format, when the inevitable happened. Life.Blue's girl dumped him and John had a Doctoral thesis to write. Blue left town to avoid the heartache of daily visual reminders and John went on to teach something other than writing.
Now, twenty-some years later, Blue has begun to put the pieces back together again and plans to finish "Leer" himself. I have been asked to keep him company on this literary and artistic journey and I hope that you will too. So without further adieu, ladies and gentlemen, I give you "Leer"
Foreword by Barry McMahon
Owner/Artist - DeeperArts, Creators of SymTell
Blue had, to that point in time, never struck me as the comic book illustrator type. I will admit that I have no idea what that type is, I just didn't think Blue was it. I mean, he was such an "artist" type artist. He always talked about Rauschenberg and Johns, Jim Dine and Kurt Schwitters, Duchamp, Dali and of course Pablo. Blue loved to call him Pablo because everyone else called him Picasso and Blue hardly did anything like everyone else. So when he stood up and looked John directly in the eye and said, "I need your help", I couldn't believe it. Blue never asked for help with anything. I knew this was going to be something unusual for Blue. He told John that he wanted to write a comic book, as he put it,"More correctly, I want you to write it so I can focus on the artwork." John became immediately excited by the proposition. He leaped into an interview about plot, characterization, setting, tone, genre, the works. Blue had very little to say about any of that. He said,"John, I just said, I don't want to write the comic book, I want to illustrate it."
I could not imagine a more dynamic duo to create a comic book than Blue and John. Both men are talented beyond their disciplines yet work tirelessly and respectfully within them. However, neither one is encumbered by dogmatic constraints.
The first few months of work were exhilarating to witness. At first, Blue handed John completely finished pages full of unusual and provocative imagery. The concept being that Blue would create a storyless piece and John would fill in the story. The work was spectacular. The imagery was bizarre and unpredictable and the stories were sheer poetry. Unfortunately, none of it held together at all. I told them that they should scrap the comic book idea and make a coffee table manuscript or collection out of the art and poetry but neither would have it. Both men were committed to the idea that they were going to be like Miller and Moore, bringing something different, something new to comics, while recognizing the greatness of heroes like Stan Lee. So they changed their approach. John decided to take a few weeks to write, no meetings, no discussions and no ideas from Blue.
I was in the room when John delivered the first twelve pages of "Leer" to Blue. I can still remember the expressions on his face as he read all the way through the pages, three times. Blue's expressions changed from anticipation, to laughter to intense agreement and approval but in the end his face displayed nothing but awe and admiration for the words that John had bestowed upon him. The same admiration and respect was written on John's face just one week later when Blue uncovered the first of the drawings for the comic book. This awe swap continued for months until Blue announced that he was going to submit the work to a variety of publishers. John wanted to have more written but Blue felt that it was important to get a reaction before they spent too much time barking up the wrong tree. Blue confessed to me later that he probably should have aimed a bit lower with his first comic book rather than make a dozen submissions to the largest, most well established, most influential and least interested publishers he could find. I probably don't have to mention any names here, so I won't but the point that I must make is that Blue and John were turned down cold. The standard response was. "Thank you for your submission to..., However, we do not accept unsolicited manuscripts for publication." The response that kept Blue going, gave him hope and doubled his workload was in addition to the line above, one publisher added this..."The manuscript you have submitted is not in the proper format for production..."
"That's what we're doing wrong!", Blue beamed to John as he laid the rejections out in front of him."All I have to do is redraw all of the drawings in the proper format!" This is the kind of guy that Blue is. He had just spent months working on the most incredible drawings, real works of art, for the book, and he was ready to redo every single one of them. John suggested that Blue try different publishers with the same drawings but Blue didn't want to risk that "Leer" might go unpublished just because he didn't do the drawings in the format he should. So Blue did the drawings over again, in the proper format. John continued writing and in the process discovered that the comic book "Leer" was going to have to be a graphic novel. John simply had too much to say about Leer, Edgar Van and Mona for one comic issue or even three for that matter. Blue had several sketches created for the new pages and, in fact, had more than the original set completed, in proper format, when the inevitable happened. Life.Blue's girl dumped him and John had a Doctoral thesis to write. Blue left town to avoid the heartache of daily visual reminders and John went on to teach something other than writing.
Now, twenty-some years later, Blue has begun to put the pieces back together again and plans to finish "Leer" himself. I have been asked to keep him company on this literary and artistic journey and I hope that you will too. So without further adieu, ladies and gentlemen, I give you "Leer"
Foreword by Barry McMahon
Owner/Artist - DeeperArts, Creators of SymTell
Friday, June 25, 2010
Chapter 3, Odd Jobs (cont) 3
Blue wondered about that flower daily for the next couple of weeks. He was sure it meant that what seemed like a horrible nightmare had actually happened which threw his mind into a spin about the reality of Glurp, Walter and Mr.Nut but he had no intention of taking a trip down "Nightmare Memory Lane." It did make him consider however that there was more to his reality than met the eye, particularly the wakeful eye. The painting, "Defending Champ" did for Blue what the works that dealt with Glurp, Walter and Mr. Nut had done earlier in his life. It relieved his mind, made him feel better about his nightmares and eased his fears. Drawing and painting in general was very therapeutic for Blue and he remained active artistically despite a reluctance to submit his work to galleries for consideration. He had a hard time with the whole process of the "art world" and the steps he would have to go through to display his work, sign with an agent or gallery or both, in his mind "package himself for sale".
Instead he came up with a brilliant idea. He would create artwork where he could be entirely expressive, creative and distinctive, unchained to any one style, free to explore his own unique vision AND be able to sell his work for lots of money, gain adoring fans and live in luxury. Blue decided to illustrate comic books.
Before Blue came to the realization that this idea of his was seriously flawed on a variety of levels, while he was fully enthusiastic, hopeful and committed, he managed to convince his friend, John Tanner, to write the story. The two of them worked tirelessly, generating ideas, sketching out concepts, developing characters and trying different artistic approaches. Ultimately, they created "Leer". The comic grew from a single issue to a graphic novel, or at least it was supposed to, it just never did. However, nothing worth doing should ever be left undone.
"So after over twenty years I'm going to finish "Leer"," Blue said to himself as he stepped among the pages he penned so long ago. "I have to find them all but where on Earth did I put them?" he asked himself as he dumped out boxes of notebooks, sketchpads, receipts, bills, unpaid traffic violations, unopened wedding and graduation invitations, REAL comic books and pornography.
Pornography? "where the hell did that come from", Blue inquired of his own memory because it was true. Blue never did buy any pornography. It wasn't because he didn't like to look at naked women. He really liked looking at naked women, actually, and that's what he spent the next twenty minutes doing, thoroughly forgetting about the fact that he was trying to organize all of the "Leer" drawings into one place. After he finally got finished jerking himself around and got back down to re-establishing his priorities, Blue finally found the original "cover" image for "Leer".
Instead he came up with a brilliant idea. He would create artwork where he could be entirely expressive, creative and distinctive, unchained to any one style, free to explore his own unique vision AND be able to sell his work for lots of money, gain adoring fans and live in luxury. Blue decided to illustrate comic books.
Before Blue came to the realization that this idea of his was seriously flawed on a variety of levels, while he was fully enthusiastic, hopeful and committed, he managed to convince his friend, John Tanner, to write the story. The two of them worked tirelessly, generating ideas, sketching out concepts, developing characters and trying different artistic approaches. Ultimately, they created "Leer". The comic grew from a single issue to a graphic novel, or at least it was supposed to, it just never did. However, nothing worth doing should ever be left undone.
"So after over twenty years I'm going to finish "Leer"," Blue said to himself as he stepped among the pages he penned so long ago. "I have to find them all but where on Earth did I put them?" he asked himself as he dumped out boxes of notebooks, sketchpads, receipts, bills, unpaid traffic violations, unopened wedding and graduation invitations, REAL comic books and pornography.
Pornography? "where the hell did that come from", Blue inquired of his own memory because it was true. Blue never did buy any pornography. It wasn't because he didn't like to look at naked women. He really liked looking at naked women, actually, and that's what he spent the next twenty minutes doing, thoroughly forgetting about the fact that he was trying to organize all of the "Leer" drawings into one place. After he finally got finished jerking himself around and got back down to re-establishing his priorities, Blue finally found the original "cover" image for "Leer".
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