Dead Stars

This is a page out of my sketchbook. At the time, I had this idea where I would fill up the entire page. Every page of the book. Very little space was to be left untouched because somehow it would be a waste.
I suppose it was a militant reaction to minimalism (which does have its merits, but it's been done to death a hundred times over). Possibly equatable to Maximalism. A noble idea, but a little obsessive, time consuming, shallow, and ultimately....pointless.
My sketchbooks have since changed. The lines and characters are similar, but now its a lot freer and more exhilarating to use.

- Chew

Too Dark Park

I would give anyone a cookie who caught the reference in the title of this posting. But you're too late. I ate all of the cookies. They were those oreo double stuf chocolate cremes. They are like crack. Real good with your coffee. Real Good. MMMMMMMMMMM.....
This image is that of a typical inner city park. It's not the large foresty kind like Golden Gate Park, Central Park, or the Grunewald. It's basically just a square for people to gather. The attempted inclusion of trees, however, has deemed it as a "green space". I suppose that there was some sort of grant money, or some political thing where, in order to get moneys for this park, it must be "greeeen". Well, they tried. But due to all of the pollution, the sapplings died. Plus, there's all sorts of weird funguses and mildews and parasites and rots and bugs in this new hothouse of a world. So something killed them.
Anyways, as you can see, there are a lot of vagrants who gather in these public spaces during the day. It's a park, right? And they're not allowed to sleep there...so they have lookouts to let everyone know when the cops are gonna make a bust. But when do they? Many times, if you do'nt see them, they'll drive on by. Bigger fish to follow, I guess. Some private parks will have their own security. This is obviously not one of those.
On the wall in the back are those virtual monitors I mentioned in an earlier post. It's a joke from a college English course. The other one is a secret message in a well known Asian language.
Down below, the usual tomfoolery of homeless people. They will be thrown out of the city one at a time. That time is almost upon them. Because of corruption and apathy, they've been allowed to linger a little too long. What no one realizes is that behind the scenes...way up high in the confines of the government (a shadow government at that! Hey, late 90's here...pre-Sept.11) a coup has taken place. The zealots are now gaining control (sounds like what's been happening recently in Iran! You get the idea, there's been a shift...but in this case, it was unnoticed).
This leads the readers, and the story, into...The Fill (which now has a different name...a secret name).
So, basically, there is alot of conspiracy stuff, urban legends, fear, prejudice/racism, religious ideology/upheavals, science fiction turning into fact (global warming and hybrids), along with crumbling empires that form the backstory of Mandarins.

- Chew

Slums Part 2

This post is an extension of the last post. Remembering all of the crap that was floating around in my head while I was working on this book got me into a bit of a tangent. There was so much background info, that I continually got worked up over one thing or another. Many times, the ideas would not stop flowing, and one concept would lead into five more. Each one of these had to be explored and so on. This is why the thing took eleven years. Why, even at this very juncture, I am starting to salivate over the idea of restarting the the project. It might not be completely dead...but at this point, I liken it to having a very bad crush on someone. The kind where you ca'nt get them out of your head-no matter what. Even when you realize what it is and what it's doing to you. After my last REALLY bad crush, I decided that no matter what, I need to stay as far away from that girl (woman) as possible. Even if she wants me around (but does'nt really want me. you know?). It messes up my head. It is'nt fair to her, to those involved with her, or me.
I feel the same way about this particular comic. I am totally in love with an idea that has no use for me.
Another thing I want to mention about the slum, in the background is a large furnace. It is the centerpiece of a landfill that is supposed to burn non-recyclables. But because of corruption (and apathy), everything ends up getting burned. Including prisoners. Especially political prisoners. There is an even larger landfill to the south of Empire City that is located in present day Texas. Take all of the "Smoking Mountains" in the world (those larger than large landfills which contain whole communities of people) and you're still not even close to the size of it. There is another wall which separates the city from the fill, complete with gunners and guard towers and a no man's land. Many people deemed unworthy to live in the city (prisoners of all sorts who do'nt warrant immediate exceution, perverts, sick people...basically, anyone who can be thrown away) are set loose in The Fill.
This was to be a later chapter in the Mandarins saga.

- Chew

Slums

This is another panel from early in Mandarins. With these city panels, I have been trying to establish the general setting. You see different aspects of the city. You know what the environment is like, so it kind of prepares you for something gritty. It also lets the city itself become a character. This is one of the immigrant slums. They are pretty much all just thrown in there together. I know that various peoples try to organize themselves into these tribal communities (Chinatown, Japantown, Little Ethiopia, Little Armenia, etc. etc. etc. etc.), but this is a case where they did'nt have much of a choice. The government tossed everyone in there, and due to the racial unity (because of the introduction of the hybrids) people find themselves getting alot cozier than usual. They are also breeding more amongst the different racial groups, so that everyone's skin is getting more light brown. They're all beginning to blur together as a species. Well! Is'nt that a rascist's nightmare! It's also a socialist's dream.
The billboards in the poor sections of town are old school. They warp and fade quickly due to the weather....and are usually left in that state for a long time. The nicer sections of town have virtual billboards. "You can live disease free" is another part of the propaganda campaign. Remember the "War on Drugs"? Well, there is a secret government campaign dubbed the "War on Sex". There are some closeted rascists and moralists who have lodged themselves, like parasites, deep within the confines of the government. They have this plan of "straightening" out the populace (i.e. separating the races in order to make it more like the old days and culling the homosexuals and others deemed as perverts. Perverts threaten the "societal fabric". Plus, there's the morality bit, which is ironic, because many of these officials are, themselves, indulging in the very acts that they deemed immoral.Watch Salo, or 120 days of Sodom, and you'll see where I'm coming from. well, without all the sadism. Throw in more absurdity, like religious sex-cults and people who follow talking dogs ("Iloveyou!"))under the guise of frank anti-sexual programs which pass on messages about there being an overpopulation (which there really is, a good cover to hide under) as well as high rates of venereal diseases due the huge amount of people having sex.
On the opposite billboard, old capitalism rears its head in a soda ad. The biggest drink in the land (which is like a super-super size) is Henry the Drink: The King of Colas! This ad was to be seen repeatedly throughout the comic. Somewhere, lurking in the background. On shirts, in reastaurants....
It was part of another campaign, in concert with the gov't, and enacted by heavy industry, to fatten people up for nefarious schemes, which I willnot go into. It was also meant to slow people down. If you have a population who is out of shape, spoiled, fat and lazy, among other things, that...can lead to apathy. What better way to govern people than to make them not care about what is happening? Just feed them crap and make them feel like the world is theirs. Then, you just slip behind the scenes and do whatever you want. You're above the law by being behind it.
Nobody cares that their country is on a downward slope, or even a dictatorship of sorts, because they're too busy watching television, playing video games, watching movies, eating candy, fast food, and drinking colas. I know I'm sounding all moralistic and preachy here, but I meant it in a dark humored state of mind. I felt like I was making fun of modern society, not necessarily judging it. I guess I was in a way...
Oh well, I had so much going into the backstories that I was never able to work all of the kinks out yet. That's the way I left it. Some of the stuff detailed above is metaphorical road kill. I also do'nt like the way some of that makes me sound like an overly pious conservative talk show host. They're full of hot air anyways.

- Chew

The People in Yer Neighborhood

Well, I am feeling depressed. At least I have a little beer and some good music to drown my sorrows in (I'm not getting drunk). I'm just here by myself on a Saturday night with nothing...or no one. Not even a pet around here (not allowed). I was supposed to go to a party earlier, but I just did'nt feel like going over and sitting by myself and having no one to talk to. You see, I'm not very talkative unless I know you. Then you ca'nt shut me up. I determined this morning, in crazy-person thought patterns, that I was just not going to leave the apartment today. End of story. What about the party? Well...sometimes you just drag your feet around before something happens. And something did! The party was cancelled. Just when I was starting to feel guilty about it too. Well, I was'nt feeling that social anyways. But I'm still here. And so is this panel. This is probably, like, the second panel out of Mandarins. I developed these human/mouse hybrid beings that share space alongside humans. There were a couple others too, but they are still being kept a secret. You can see one of the mice-people in the lower left corner (his t-shirt says: BZ...for "busy", as in "busy bee". he's a nerd). There is a Muslim immigrant to the right of him. This guy made a total mistake coming to this country, and now he's trapped. He, like a lot of the other immigrants have bought into the American propaganda machine which is: This is Paradise. So all of those poor suckers who want to make a better life for themselves and their families come over only to find that it is a gigantic walled in slum with no way out. There is constant fear of terrorism (via government insurgents and other hybrids), super-hurricanes (superheated environment, less land, more people, worse weather), as well as the fear of the government itself. Remember, this is a dystopian narrative. I spent the 90's in the trenches of utopian/dystopian novels and movies. Also, I planned alot of this out in the late 90's, and was horrified to see what was happening to this country after September 11. In my mind, I was seeing some of these ideas come to life. It really bothered me. I did'nt tell anyone because it is the signs of paranoia (to which I have finally admitted I have), magical thinking ("I thought it and it came true!" Certifiable crazy-talk...which I do'nt have, but I was afraid of the fear in people's eyes when that particular thought passes through their mind), and yeah, right! you wish! you just want us to think that you're "special". perhaps you think you have a sixth sense. right, sad person?
I kept quiet until now...because now I just do'nt care what people think anymore.
I wanted the crowd to be a highly diverse group of people. A veritable melting pot. I had to throw a mouse in there, too. Another note about them, alot of people hate the hybrids because they see them as half-human. They have largely been relegated to these walled in ghettos. The introduction of a new species of human has brought racial unity to the rest of humanity who see themselves as "normal". I have learned alot about racism, and prejudice in general, since moving here to the south. My disclaimer: the south is not more prone to racism than any other section of the country. I've found it to be, in my journeys, sadly, pretty equal everywhere else. If its not one thing people hate, it's something, or someone, else. I even feel it directed towards me sometimes, and I'm a white male. It's a messed up planet. That what I was trying to inject in this particular comic. Irony and absurdity.
I need to shut up now.

P.S. Due to multiculturalism, SUSHI has become extremely popular in Empire City. You can see a sushi place on the right, in the back, called FISHI. There's also a healthy dose of Ethiopian food.

- Chew

Mandarins: A complete and utter failure.

This is the first panel from my comic called MANDARINS. I began this epic journey 11 years ago. The basic story itself stemmed from a small book I was attempting to make in college (this probably goes back to 1995). I had this fascination with handmade books. My drawing style back then was much tighter and...my work began to get smaller and smaller. I was obsessed with making these tiny little engravings on copper. Then I would print them onto handmade paper (which I did learn how to make). The story was sort of a simple one. This guy would end up walking down an alley, get mugged and bleed to death. The blood pouring out of his wounds would be transformed into monarch butterflies...thus a flight, or a flutter, would take to the skies.
I did not have any copper. I planned to do this in wood engravings, but my tools were so old, that they began to crumble once the points made contact with the wood. I did'nt have any money to buy new tools (which some UNNAMED jackass shoved in my face when he saw what I was doing and then went out and bought himself an expensive sets of tools. You want to find a quick way to get on my badside...forever? That's one way right there). So, the medium changed once again...to linoleum. That, I could afford! I did a couple of prints before the energy went out of it. I cut the rest of the linoleum up into tiny little blocks (I mean, like, 1"x 1 1/2"). This actually made it into a full project. It became the little book of perversions. I only made two of them, so far (in oil based ink. the only way to go). The centerpiece of the original story remained with me. It reconstituted itself in the form of Mandarins...featuring a sad little guy named nicknamed Egg.
You will probably see more of Egg in the future. I am not finished with him. In fact, he has been taken out of a starring role in one book, only to be given a similar stature in a completely different one.
Well, back to Mandarins. It was supposed to be a pre-post-apocalyptic dystopian thriller set in an overheated future. Less land...more people. What is really weird about that, is that during the time that this particular version of the story was formulating...I was sick with some sort of viral infection.It was bad enough that it sent me to the emergency room. To convalesce, I came up with the idea that I would draw a page a day...without mapping anything out. Just take it a page at a time and see where it would take me. But I ended getting too wrapped up with the story. I obsessed over it. I wrote notes and notes and notes and notes. I think I drew over thirty pages...but the additional notes would turn it into something like an Akira. It was just a monster. Plus,my dialogue was horrible. It gave me fits. So I had to work on that over and over and over again. I really learned what it was like to completely lose yourself in an obsession...with little results.
I did find out something interesting later. During the time that this was happening to me, other people, around the world (not too, too many of them) seemed to all become obsessed with the Earth becoming overheated and overpopulated. People drew out maps and spent exhaustive hours charting the shrinking landmass due to the rising oceans. I did this as well...making a map, and moving all of the major U.S. cities inland. Empire City, the new American capital, would be a conglomeration of all of the lost coastal cities. It was to be located on the western coast of the Mississippi Bay. This bay would run up from the southern portion of the states to around Tennessee/Kentucky. Florida gone. Alabama gone. Georgia, peninsula full of cannibal rednecks. Empire City located on the Ozark Plateau.
So here it is. The first panel of a lost comic. A complete and utter failure.

- Chew