Tauromancer

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

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