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<i>Expello vetus vicis<br /><br />Attero preteritus umbra</i><br /><br />Ghosts of the future, bloated carcasses of years past - hear me!<br /><br />No sooner has one of your ilk been finally bled dry and its twitching body kicked over a cliff than another one slides out of the womb of eternity, mewling and grasping at my pants leg.<br /><br />Verily, this last one didn't suck to an unbearable degree, in fact it finished up nicely, but still there was far too much crap of the bull for my tastes. Would that I could request less crap of the bull and be heeded - alas, spirits, thou art <b><i>perverse and sadistic</i></b>.<br /><br />I say to you, <b><i>be gone!</i></b> <br /><br />Seek not evidence of new resolve on my part - you will find none.<br /><br />I make you this pledge that I will sit <b><i>fully on my a**</i></b> and d**k around in front of the computer, yea, without doing one solitary productive thing.<br /><br />No art, be it drawn, written, or musical, shall flow from these fingers.<br /><br />I will abandon all thought to my factory job, giving no consideration to the life it bleeds out of me.<br /><br />O spirits, <b><i>I resign.</i></b><br /><br />Such is my oath! And now, as your new incarnation slides around on unsteady, placenta-slimed feet, I await the inevitable <b><i>thwarting</i></b> of my oath, as has happened <b><i>every such time</i></b> as I have made an oath at the cusp of a calender change.<br /><br />Bring on your long knives and rending teeth. I fear you not.

...and I'm using the term "hack" really loosely, here:

Give it up, ********. I don't know if you just want to loot my account or try to get to be a Mod through my past status, but either way if this is the best you can do, you are tragically stupid and doomed to fail.

Plus I've warned the Mods, so you won't get very far, anyway.

"its an anime site not a pornography..."

Quite a while ago, I posted my "Catgirl and Elf" picture to Gaia Online, which some of you know as a pretty popular site. And though the post went "live" in March of 2006, it has gotten commented on as recently as last month. It's been a while since I last read the comments, but it struck me back then how many people referred to the picture as "porn" (or "hentai" wink . Recent re-reading corrects the impression I had that it was a clear majority of commentors who called it that. A majority certainly did think it had something erotic about it - of that group, some liked it - "HOTTT!" - others didn't - "Too 'cheap slut lesbian porn'-ish for my taste. You're a good artist; but I don't like this at ALL."

I think one of the things affecting my earlier impression was the number of comments that referred to the characters depicted as "lezbos" - in a derogatory way, as if the very fact of lesbianism was dirty and disgusting. Also, a number of comments expressed disgust at perceived erotic content without actually outright calling it "porn".

But, was the picture objectionable? Was it "porn"? Common sense I've lived with for decades would say, "of course not, you'd have to either be smoking crack or a hysterical-minded immature halfwit to think that."

Heroes for Hustler

And so there's this cover, which has probably been beaten into the ground already by anyone who really cares. It's certainly not new ground for me, and I'll probably re-state things from my earlier LJ post. There's genuine reasons to criticize the image - I'm not completely oblivious - but as far as I'm concerned, if Marvel wants to present their characters in some exploitative way, that's their right, even if they are someone's childhood icons. Showing normally courageous characters in fearful, submissive poses? Yeah, okay, maybe not so great. A scene that is reminiscent in drawing style and concept of "tentacle porn"? Sure, probably not what I would have done for a book supposedly aimed at a wide range of viewers.

You'll note, however, that I said "reminiscent of", not "exactly like". Because, unlike some people, I don't consider the image to be porn.

Why not? Well, because despite having many of the elements of porn, it lacks what I think is the one, defining crucial element - the follow-through. The "act". Though threatened, the ladies pictured are not actually being molested by tentacles, unless you count being dripped on as "molested". None of the naughty bits are uncovered - yes, I know anatomically there should be a n****e or two visible, but I'm not going to be so petty as to count stylistic choices or simple rendering mistakes as an attempt at some sort of ninja breast infiltration of the collective subconscious.

For me, to be considered "porn", there has to be some explicit imagery. (Explicit: precisely and clearly expressed or readily observable; leaving nothing to implication.) This is what became a fairly long debate between myself and another LiveJournal user. Because she considers the Heroes for Hire cover porn, as well as other things with more implicit imagery. (Implied though not directly expressed.)

[I am not linking to that exchange between us, or mentioning the other person's name and LiveJournal, since I said at the end that the discussion between us was over and done. I want to avoid reopening the specific disagreement between the two of us, and yet I think there's still some things further to say about the particulars of that argument. I'll be referencing some points she made. If word of this post filters back to her, though, it's without any action on my part.]

Why include the definitions? To emphasize the difference in our points of view. An example she gave featured a picture of a woman (drawn in a Japanese "manga" style, probably taken from the cover of a porn book or DVD), dressed in a business suit, surrounded by tough-looking characters, flinching as one behind her reaches up, squeezing her breasts through her clothes. She considered that "explicit". Now - suggestive of sexual assault, indeed. But at this point, the only assault has been the breast squeeze, and while that's not exactly fit for prime time, it's hardly pornographic. The grope itself is explicit, in that it's clearly shown, but that doesn't make it "explicit porn".

Certainly, it's not hard to imagine a pornographic sequence of events following such an image: the thugs drag her down and gang-rape her.

OR: She jams her heel into a foot, swings a knee into a groin and breaks out the pepper spray and siren keychain. Taken alone and out of context, why should such an image be considered porn?

You are a killer and a rapist.



The above image is from Scott McCloud's <i>Understanding Comics</i>. Using these panels, Scott discusses closure, or what happens in "the gutter", the space between panels. He says:



To apply this to the Heroes for Hire cover: Sana Takeda may have set the scene and provided the props, but it's you the viewer who decides whether to plunge the tentacle in, and where.

Can we let what might happen - even if it is probable - determine what is or isn't porn? Is it thought which makes the crime? If someone with a foot fetish gets turned on by opening up a JCPenney catalog and flipping to the shoe section, does that make the catalog porn? In my opinion: <b>no</b>.

"Linguistics 101"

Having failed to agree on what porn is, our debate continued along these lines: that her definition of porn was the more commonly accepted version.

This is a claim I still have a problem believing, and it is ultimately why I'm making this post.

She claimed that the meanings of words change, and that a definition becomes true when a majority of people use it in the same way. Among her examples was how at one time, the foot was considered pornographic by the Chinese.

Which I don't have a problem with, as far as that that goes. Yes, words change. If the foot was on an equal (heh) footing with the nipples or the genitals, and caused the same reactions, sure. A foot could be porn in that case. The thing is, none of the elements of the Heroes for Hire cover, taken individually, have that same charge to them. Chains? Submissive postures? Fearful or crying expressions? Even a tentacle dripping goo, though symbolic, is not in and of itself something that requires a black bar or brown wrapper to conceal from today's society.

But whether words change isn't the issue as much as whether her particular definition was the commonly-accepted one. Has the word truly changed away from what I consider porn to be? Is there truly a majority that thinks this way?

As proof, she offered the opinions expressed on sites like scans_daily, When Fangirls Attack, and Newsarama.

Problem is, that's not how it works, not really.

Watch the dancing numbers

Anyone who has the slightest experience with polls knows how easy it is to "color" the results by asking questions in particular ways, or of particular groups, or any number of other methods. It is very difficult to get an accurate sense of how the public at large thinks when you cannot establish that the group you ask questions of actually is an unbiased cross-section of the public at large.

Just "comic fans" itself is a group that adds a certain bias to the proceedings. We're not all the same, no, but we have one thing in common that separates us from everyone else - we like comics! And there's not a hell of a lot of us compared to, say, the populations of the United States and Canada, most of whom either don't like comics, or don't care about them all that much. If you narrow that down to superhero comics, then that's even less of a group. You couldn't reasonably expect a specific portion of a specific group to automatically be a true representation of North America's worldview. And even that sub-section isn't unanimous. Sure, a lot of people at those links don't like the cover. "A lot" does not a majority make.

While the site itself doesn't espouse any particular opinion, it'd be hard to call When Fangirls Attack "unbiased". Sure, it features non-feminist opinions - mine, a couple of times, even - but the links are selected by two admitted feminists, and they don't include everything ever written on particular subjects. Not that I'm saying that's the wrong way to run one's site, and I'm not attributing any particular scheme or malice to WFA - but even benign bias is still bias. Filtering out the blog posts of stupid and incoherent people, for example, makes one's selection slanted towards the intelligent and thoughtful, and, well, it could be argued that the world as a whole isn't really all that bright.

You might be able to make the case that Newsarama's forums and a community like scans_daily are more representative of comics fandom in general, but if so, then you have to determine whether a reasonable cross-section of those groups have made their opinion on the cover known. That's difficult to prove - a message board is not a poll. Done right, a poll selects its cross-section and actively asks of it the proper questions; the message board is passive, letting comments come from only those people who feel motivated enough to voice their opinion. Would those unexpressed opinions, if factored in, change whether or not the majority of these groups finds the cover to be "porn"? Hard to say - but that sort of unknown variable is the kind of thing that can throw the equation off - not knowing the value of <i>X</i> means you can't give a definitive answer.

But, even if you assume that the response on those sites to the cover is indeed a representation of all of comics fandom - and again, that group may or may not represent all the world, or even all of North America - then you have to tally the results. And - okay, I don't have the time to actually go count and sort everything said on the sites - but just a quick browsing of scans_daily shows me that while there might be a majority of people who don't like the cover, a comparatively small number of those people actually go so far as to call it "porn". In the same way I misinterpreted the reaction to my own picture above, my debate opponent was representing a dislike for the cover as an overall definition of the cover.

To recap, then: It can't be established from those sites that a majority of superhero fans finds the Heroes for Hire cover to be "porn". And even if they did, you can't reasonably expand that sampling of folks to the larger group of "fans of all comics" - and that group can't necessarily be equated with the English-reading world, much less the entire world. Therefore, claims that the outcry against the cover is sufficient to establish that a majority of people define "porn" in implicit and not explicit terms seems to be little more than wishful thinking. Whether or not the public at large defines "porn" in that fashion simply has not been determined by the facts presented.

And - purely as my own personal opinion - I'd really hate it if the Heroes for Hire cover, and things like it, should somehow by popular vote actually be classified as "porn". It seems... well, regressive to me. If we've come forward out of the Victorian era where bare ankles were scandalous, and the Chinese era of naughty foot pictures, well, that's progress, right? Humanity is less ashamed of certain body parts than before. But if porn has become such that you don't even need to show the forbidden body parts, I don't see how that can be described as anything but a step backwards.

Dear Sir or Madam I wonder if I could take a moment of your time wait don't walk away--

Well, that's what I think. How about you?

Normally, whatever I blather on about gets not much reaction or notice, but hey, let's toss it out there for the lurking Friends list and whoever else may happen to chance upon this post (which I will be crossposting to my DeviantArt site as well as my LiveJournal, not that that'll be much more of a potential audience). This won't be any more scientific or authoritative than anything I've described above, but what the hell.

The question I put to you is: Do you think the cover to Heroes for Hire #13 is porn?

Before you answer, let me make sure we understand each other. The question is not, "do you find the cover offensive?", or "do you think Marvel is stupid?", or "is this a travesty and betrays everything the characters stand for?". I don't care about that right now. We're also not talking about whether it looks like it could be porn. What I want to know is, is the cover, as it stands right now, porn?

A good followup question is: why or why not? Also: do you think your opinion reflects the majority view? (And majority of what?)

It's pretty much that simple: I am giving up being a Moderator on Gaia.

A part of me guesses that a few people, if word of this should filter back to them, would rub their hands in glee like oversized chipmunks, assuming that I have been finally canned by The Gaia Powers That Be for offenses against elitist jerkwaddery. But, the truth is, I have a standing invitation to re-apply if I should change my mind. Un-Modding myself is voluntary, it's all my idea.

Why?

Well, I just don't have the time anymore. I had already cut back my Modding time quite a bit due to my full-time job, and as time has gone on, I've found that even the little Modding I was doing was eating up a hefty chunk of my limited time.

And, frankly, it's time I quit trying to solve everyone else's problems and get seriously to work on some of my own. I have projects of all sorts that need to get moving, and they aren't going to move themselves. Hopefully freeing up this time will help.

I have to confess I am probably going to miss having Mod Powers that let me just move in and fix things when I saw they were amiss; I'll have to report them and wait like any other citizen, now.

But I am not going to miss a lot of things about the job, including how thankless it is the majority of the time... the utter greed and venality of the people who hack other accounts... the stubborn, retarded insistance by some users that they can post whatever they like wherever they like because "it's a free country"... the struggle to find a diplomatic way to explain something to some argumentative, dense 13-year-old who is determined to make me want to set them on fire... the struggle to find a diplomatic way to explain something to that 13-year old's mother, who claims to be 40 but has grammar and spelling and social skills (suspiciously) every bit as lacking as her progeny... the unbelievable scams: both that people expect other people to fall for such stupid schemes, and worse, that people actually do fall for such stupid schemes... the weasely excuses some people come up with in order to avoid punishment for what they've done...

Don't get me wrong, I've had some happy moments being a Mod on Gaia, and for a while there I actually took a bit of pride in helping folks out. But let's just say it was starting to wear me down.

I'll probably still post on Gaia now and then, as I feel like it, but if all goes well, I may be away for days or weeks at a time, letting my creative side run away with me. And it'll be about time.

I'm not sure why, but lately I've been really getting into old LP album covers, like from the 1950s and '60s.

You remember vinyl LPs, right? No? Well, I do.

As I've been working - slowly and painfully at the moment - on my Music album, I've begun thinking about what kind of cover I'll want when I'm ready to take it public.

My original thought was to package it up like a "generic" product, but there's a couple reasons why that might not work so well. One, you really don't see non-branded generic products in the stores these days - at least I don't - where the package is just blank white with some text on it, and just a big bold black title on one side that tells you what it is: CORN, or POTATO CHIPS, or ABSINTHE, or whatever. These days they just have "store" brands, which are as cheap as the "generic" brands used to be, but they're still dressed up fancy. Doing an album cover in that style, maybe nobody would get the joke. Plus, two, Public Image Ltd. already did an album packaged like that. (A good album, too, worth a listen. It's titled Compact Disc.)

One of the other things I've been considering is to dress the album up like one of those old K-Tel compilations. These were the ancestors of things like NOW That's What I Call Music volumes 1 through 879 - collections of the "top hits" packaged together in one album for convenient listening. Since they mostly came out in the '70s, the packaging style was a bit different than today's CDs.

But the idea that's prompted this little display is to make Music's cover in the style of a 1950s-1960s album cover, with some sort of big bold title and a flashy image that does not feature the performer at all. Probably the picture would be of a pretty girl (for no other reason than people like to look at pretty girls). And so I've been looking at albums from that time and seeing how they work. I go to thrift shops all the time and browse through the records there. Most of the LPs are, to me, junk - but every so often I'll see something that is musically interesting, or perhaps some strange spoken word thing, like a lecture or sermon... or an album cover that just catches my eye. The music may be junk, but sometimes I've seen covers that I must have just because they are visually striking. Someone who actually went to, you know, design school could probably analyze these things better than I. All I know is that lately I'm in love with the bold titles and logos and oversaturated photographic color from that time.

Let me show you some of my recent acquisitions, and you can see for yourself whether my admiration is justified.



We'll start with a couple from Lionel Hampton. These albums are pretty mellow compared to his jazzier work like "Flying Home". "Soft Vibes - Soaring Strings", indeed.

"Golden Vibes" is a bit less saccharine, and it has the better of the two covers as well. An understated but striking photo, a black bar above for the artist's name and album title, gives it a warm and strong feel. The other, by contrast, has a lighter look with the white upper space and the brightly colored lettering - and that mixed upper-and-lower-case lettering that has all been given equal height also gives the cover a bouncier, light feel. The photo (yes, it is some sort of photo according to the notes) doesn't do much for me, but otherwise I like the composition of the cover.

In both albums, the title and artist info are large and up-top, like a newspaper headline, and that seems to be the way many albums from Columbia Records were laid out around this time.



Speaking of which.

Jazz aficionados should know the name of Dave Brubeck well. These are two of his classic albums. Also released on Columbia Records.

Like the Hampton albums, these have a large image topped by some flat space with lettering and logos. On Time Changes, it's a pretty basic design, but you can see how they play around with it on Time Out, matching text colors with the painting below. The fonts they use are again very basic and bold, like newspaper headlines.

The paintings they've used are bright and abstract, irregular patterns, which helps suggest the jazzy nature of the music.



More from Columbia? Sure. And check this out, doesn't The Headliners '63 look even more like a newspaper headline? The white space isn't completely up top, but it's there.

It's back up top on The Headliners '65, but the title didn't follow it - now it's superimposed on the picture itself.

And look at those pictures. Film and photography of the time has such a very saturated look to it. But, that's one of the things that makes it so eye-catching, how it's almost realer than reality. Certainly photos were a lot more vivid at that time, despite the fact that photographic technology has improved greatly over the decades. A more realistic color response in film has taken away this quality.

"The Headliners" was apparently a series of albums featuring a variety of artists, sort of like the K-Tel of an earlier decade.

Doesn't the woman in the photo on '65 look just slightly troubled? Perhaps that handsome gent behind her has just whispered something utterly romantic about sniffing her shoes.




From this point, all the album covers have people on them. In fact, with one exception, they're all of pretty girls. To be honest, I find a lot of these images far more appealing than many of the hot divas with CDs out on the charts in the last few years. Okay, sure, dress some babe up in a PVC bustier and a thong and I'll look, but at least on album covers, it seems to me sometimes that they're trying too hard.




Let's start with the exception. The Swingle Singers were a jazzy vocal group who sing classical music with "scat" lyrics - a lot of "la dee" and "ba dum" and "doobadoobada" minimally backed by an upright bass and hi-hat.

Not much about the cover to say, except that big bold orange title really stands out on the black. And I like the font, right out of "The Price is Right".





Back to Columbia and the headline titles! Against black this time, and again, the gold-orange lettering pops right out.

So do the eyes, shot through a Vaseline or gauze filter - all of a sudden I'm interested. Hmm, what's this album? Very sexy. Maybe I'll pick it up and oh no it's classical music IT'S A TRAP--!





Yet another Columbia album - this may be the last - and we've got white space and colored text again. The photo is very eye-catching, nice composition - though from a purely fashion standpoint, that hat looks like a flock of martins exploded on her head. But again, the colors are very vivid.

Get a load of that neck.






Here's a quick comparison for contrast.

Black Satin fits the mood of its title, not only with the (yes) sleek black satin draped over everything including the girl, but with the subdued purple lettering that attracts the eye but doesn't break the overall dark tone of the photo. This makes the skin tones of the girl stand out, and the whole thing has a very rich, luxurious feel.

But Sleepy Serenade uses a lot of white and pale blue, giving it an ethereal tone - and also makes the pink and blond tones of the girl stand out and attract the eye.

You know, I imagine many a teen in 1952 or whenever stared for hours at this cover trying to see if anything could be seen through that sheer nightie.




There was a bit of a Martin Denny mini-revival a while back, as some people re-discovered some styles of music pioneered by him and others - Denny's music was termed Exotica , both after the name of his album, and for its supposedly exotic influences. Lounge music for tiki rooms.

Anyway, Denny's albums follow the pretty girl formula. It's a little telling of their time that the girls are fairly Caucasian on these covers - while these albums generally seek a Polynesian or Oriental feel, I have seen pictures elsewhere of African-influenced Denny albums - featuring blondes on the covers. (Which Africa does she come from, South Africa?)

That aside, the covers do their job well, conjuring romantic and exotic imagery to sell the music. And once more, those hues are pure ultra Technicolor.




Finally: The Ventures.

Most of the Ventures' albums featured them - a surf guitar band - playing songs usually made famous by other people. They played them well, and in some cases very much like the original artists. This isn't really as odd as it sounds, considering how many easy listening artists do albums of standards - other people's popular songs for the most part. They did have a few bonafide hits, and are the most popular American band in Japan. ALL YOU PEOPLE WHO ARE IN LOVE WITH JAPAN AND THEIR CULTURAL OUTPUT DIDN'T KNOW THAT, DID YOU?

But what I know the Ventures for are for album covers with pretty girls. I believe Walk Don't Run is their first album (as well as the name of their first hit), and look at that - the band is in the background, out of focus, and what the camera is looking at is one leggy brunette. That more than anything is the mark of true musicianship.

On Hawaii Five-O, the band doesn't appear anywhere on the front cover - all you see is a cute girl. And look at that heavy bold lettering. This is something that was done a lot in the past, but isn't done now - putting the song titles right there on the front. You don't have to pick the album up to see what songs are in it. None of this arty obfuscation of later decades. HERE'S THE SONGS, KIDS, HERE'S A HOT BABE, BUY THE DAMN ALBUM.

But the Ventures, for me, make the super win of the ages for their Golden Greats album, which features bright colors, bold lettering, and a pretty girl in a shiny gold bikini.



No, it's not a double album, but there is a gatefold sleeve that opens up. So what do we have here? On the front: a hot girl in a shiny gold bikini. On the back: that hot girl in the gold bikini again. And when you open it up? Yep, that gal in the shiny gold bikini. There isn't any real background to speak of, either, just some nebulous area of color she's lounging around in. The heck with Britney Spears. I'd take this girl over her any day.

Well, maybe not, since this album was released in, what, 1969, when I was three. So add 37 years to her age in the picture and suddenly she's a few years shy of my Mom's age. But still, that's one awesome album cover.

Folks, I think I know what kind of cover I'm probably going to have on my Music album.


EDIT and EPILOGUE:

As it turns out, just earlier today, days after originally making this post, I noticed an album on the racks at a Best Buy by Christina Aguilera called Back to Basics. According to Wikipedia, it's a change in her musical style influnced by older soul and jazz music, and in keeping with the "retro" theme, her album cover is almost exactly the sort of thing I've been talking about here. Take a look.

This is very much like the older LP covers, from the old swoopy font style to the "hi-fi" labelling to the vividly-colored photo of the pretty girl. I have no idea what the music is like - I wasn't about to plunk 15 bucks down for a Christina Aguilera album, regardless of the cover. Once some time passes, and thousands of these get sent back to used CD stores at a third of the price, I might grab one for the cover. Maybe.

As you can see, the motif carries on to the singles released from the album, although "Ain't No Other Man" stays truer to the form than the "Hurt" single.

Everything old is new again, and see? I'm not the only one who finds some value in the aesthetic of the older album covers...

Note: I have tried to keep this topic reasonably short and easy to read, so I have kept the details pretty simple. However, I do want to cover as much ground as possible to avoid confusion and misunderstandings. There is more information about various aspects of the project if you follow the links found at various locations on this post. If you have questions, please follow the links. They should have many additional details not found on this front page.

I am currently looking for artists to help me create a large-scale comicbook project. The current working title is The World of Hathere. (Anyone with a better title is free to suggest it.) My idea is to have an anthology book that contains different fantasy stories that all occur on the same fictional "world" (named Hathere). While they are separate stories, the characters from each story could easily meet each other and interact. Things that happen in one story may affect the course of another story. Each issue of the planned publication would feature long (20-25 pages, or more) chapters of each of the concurrent stories. (A single issue, therefore, would be in the neighborhood of 120 pages - possibly more, allowing for text-only pages and pin-ups.)

The logistical problem for me is that I am but one man, and while I probably could perform all the art chores myself if I had to, it would take too long to be practical. My hope is to somehow produce the stories in a relatively swift fashion. To that end, I am seeking people to draw these stories for me.

One possibility is that I could get an artist (or artist team) for each individual story, while I handle the writing tasks. Another possibility is that I could assemble a large team that would work with me on the entire book - some drawing characters, some inking, some doing backgrounds, some applying tones, so on and so forth. It largely depends on what sort of response I get.

PUBLISHING INTENTIONS

This book would be released in a format similar to the "manga" paperbacks found in chain bookstores across the country. (It might also be produced in a larger magazine-style format, depending on publishing options.)

While it would be nice to have a publisher pick up this project and publish it and pay me and the artists involved a decent sum of money, the harsh truth is that I have not yet been able to "sell" the concept to a publisher, and probably won't be able to without a finished product to show. I also do not have the resources to publish on a large scale. Thus, I intend to use a Print-On-Demand service to publish the book; more professional publishing options may occur later. (Read more...)

PAYMENT AND INCENTIVES

I'd like to state right up front that my personal finances are extremely limited, so there is very little chance of any up-front real money being involved. For the right artist, I might be able to scrape up some small pittance as an advance, but it would be a truly insignificant amount compared to professional page rates. In lieu of actual cash, I hope to offer other incentives for artists to work with me. (Read more...)

DESIRED ARTIST STYLES

I am looking mainly for what would commonly be called "manga"-styled artists - however, I am not entirely opposed to certain non-manga styles. I prefer styles that are clean and sharp; I feel that capturing a mood or expression is more important than anatomical accuracy (though the latter is itself desirable). (Read more...)

DESIRED ARTISTIC QUALITY

I have described some styles and named a few artists. Ideally, I would want to work with artists of that caliber; realistically, I understand that this project is more likely to attract a more unproven type of artist.

If this project is to succeed (and especially if it is to have any chance of being sold to a publisher), it must be as professional-looking as possible, and there is a certain level of skill that must be attained. (Read more...)

WHAT ARTISTS SHOULD HAVE READY

You must be able to show me that you can do sequential artwork - that is, that you can actually lay out a story in manga/comic form. (Read more...)

TECHNICAL SPECIFCATIONS AND FORMATS

An artist working on this project must be able to deliver art in a certain format. (Read more...)

Following are very brief descriptions of the stories I'm looking to tell, followed by quick notes on what I think an artist should be able to do for each story. If you've read this far and are still interested, consider which (if any) of these stories you might like most to work on:

The Mystic's Mouse:

Tiriana, a young girl in the city of Tetherton, makes her living as a thief. She is a cat burglar, with an anonymous reputation for getting into places thought to be impenetrable. Much of this can be attributed to her small size. Most folks only know of her as the mysterious "Mouse". However, in Tetherton, all thievery is punishable by death. One day her luck runs out and she is caught in the act, and executed.

An eccentric wizard salvages her body and resurrects her - so that she can become his servant, and steal things for him. Now, however, she is stealing mystical artifacts from other wizards - and maybe learning a little magic of her own on the side.

The first several episodes of this story will take place in an urban city setting, so the ability to draw city scenes (from fancy to filthy) is a plus. Plus there are the arcane and ornate furnishings of wizards, which figure heavily in the story. The star of the story is a young girl, slightly buck-toothed, freckled, with round, somewhat largish ears. She should be appealing and cute in her own way. Prospective artists should keep all this in mind.

(Read more...)

Thorn:

Thorn is part of the royal family of a kingdom of humans. This kingdom exists on a large island, and is divided between the human kingdom, the kingdom of the fair-skinned Day Folk elves, and the kingdom of the dark-skinned Night Folk elves. These three kingdoms hate each other for the most part, and have fought bloody 3-way wars in the past, though currently there is an uneasy truce.

Thorn has the disadvantage of being a crossbreed: His Grandmother was a Night Folk elf, who eloped with the brother of the current human King. Their son grew up and married a mysterious human woman, and their son was Thorn. Humans and elves alike shunned this branch of the family, and they removed themselves to a quiet keep in the woods. Shortly after Thorn's birth, however, the keep was destroyed in a mysterious attack. No trace of Thorn's parents or grandparents was found - only Thorn himself was discovered nearby. The King took in the baby, since he was still a member of the Royal Family despite his mixed blood. However, there was no affection for the child, and Thorn grew up unwanted by not only the humans, but both elvish kingdoms, as well.

As the story begins, Thorn is a surly, restless young man, just having reached adulthood. He intends to leave the island entirely, soon - to make his own way in the wider world as his father did before him. However, he is not aware that a prophecy has come to light - which many have interpreted to mean that a child that Thorn sires will become the one who will unite all three kingdoms under his rule. It is thought that if Thorn's child has a majority of one type of blood or the other, he would naturally ally himself with that race, and that kingdom will rule and dominate the others when Thorn's child comes to power. Each kingdom now seeks to court Thorn's favor in their own way, to facilitate his child being born into one race or the other - but Thorn, unaware of the prophecy, wants nothing at all to do with any of it...

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Tatterlimbs (This story is currently scheduled to be drawn by Ed Bangalan):

Reva Canjain wished to be a mighty mercenary like her legendary father. She trained with warrior monks until she became skilled in the art of war. But she kept the words of her father in mind, who told her that even the most skilled warriors needed an extra edge in a world where wizards and monsters could turn the tide of battle. So she went looking for one.

Unfortunately, she found it. She does not remember traveling to the cave where she woke up one day, nor does she remember what she found inside. But what happened to her can't be ignored.

Reva is now able to cause weapons of great power to emerge from her own body - but as her own flesh comes apart and reforms to create those weapons, it causes her great pain. Now she travels the land, the fearsome warrior she always wanted to be - though she always keeps an eye open for something that will remove this curse from her...

Reva travels many lands, getting into many battles, facing monsters and other warriors, etc. etc. An artist should be able to handle a wide variety of situations.

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The Gentlemen's Ale-Tasting Company:

Somewhere, there are tales told of legendary warriors who fight for justice and righteousness, who defend the helpless, who have fought to save the very universe itself.

And then, somewhere else, very far away, rides the Gentlemen's Ale-Tasting Company. All they want is a steady supply of cool brew and maybe a wench every so often. It isn't their fault the forces of evil keep harassing them...

There's the shadowy trollbreed Arjuna; Derric Cloudpiercer, an exiled dwarf; Ferris Alain, once a mighty wizard, now reduced to minor tricks and hanging around with these guys; Kainar, warrior of the Night Folk, and Jaffar Free Edger, on the run from the monastary of a warrior-god, a student whose powerful magics rarely work properly.

The fact that they stay alive is nothing short of miraculous.

Like Tatterlimbs, this story changes location quite often, so a well-rounded artist capable of handling a variety of situations is needed. A humorous edge is helpful, but as I mentioned, I don't favor the overly distorted slapstick expressions that many manga use in such situations.

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The Fall of Chathiir:

Luzori was the Commander of the Army of Chathiir, the childhood friend of that country's Queen, like a second mother to the Princess.

But disaster struck in the form of a war with a neighboring country. Despite her best efforts, Chathiir was overrun by the invaders. She was unable to prevent the assassination of the Queen and Princess, and in the end, she was herself mortally wounded.

As she was dying, she cursed the gods she once worshiped, and blamed them for not protecting her or her land. This was the last thing on her mind as blackness swept over her...

But then Luzori awoke - alive, somehow.

She soon found out two astonishing things - her body was no longer that of the mature commander she once was, but a young woman who did not even resemble her old form - and she had somehow been taken several years into the past, before the war which destroyed Chathiir even began.

Now she desperately struggles to prevent the loss of all she loved - but is it even possible to alter fate? And would the result be even worse...?

The setting for this story is a desert kingdom and surrounding lands. I envision strong Arabian and Indian influences. Curved architecture, ornate wrought metalwork, cloth banners and tents...

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Each story has a theme or mood I'm trying to capture. Tatterlimbs borrows heavily from old Conan stories - the wandering warrior fighting for their own profit and glory. The Gentlemen's Ale-Tasting Company is a light-hearted Dungeons and Dragons style of adventure, trying to capture some of the wisecracking sessions my friends and I used to have years ago. The Fall of Chathiir is a long quest tale, while The Mystic's Mouse is magical adventure and intrigue. Thorn is a bit of a wish-fulfillment type of story - a young man has spent his youth despised and unwanted; however, as the tale begins, he suddenly becomes important and wanted by the same people who earlier rejected him - and he has no interest in it any longer, so he can reject them in turn.

Overall, the entire book has a bit of violence now and again, and any involved artist must be prepared to draw such scenes. There will be no outright gore or nudity, but there will be blood, and maybe a few moments of suggested adult behavior.

If you are still reading, and still think you may be interested, contact me via this topic, PM, or send an email to stop.him@gmail.com . I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Here, have something bright and shiny:



I've put this pic up on DeviantArt so that I can sell prints. From the Print page:

"You got your elf on my catgirl! Well, you got your catgirl on my elf!"

Lookit this bright and shiny thing! Girls, wouldn't it make a great poster to give to your boyfriend? Guys - wouldn't this make a great poster to have on your wall so that your girlfriend could stare disapprovingly at it?

Catgirl and Elf - two great tastes that taste great together.

A couple instrumental techno-type tracks:

Platzangst - Casing the Joint

Platzangst - Evading Security

These are low-quality mp3s, since the tracks were done for a book/CD set that I want you all to buy when it is released. High-quality versions of these tracks will be on the CD. The book will contain comics and art by myself and 9 other contributors...

It has come to my attention that the "Art Cafe" thread has been removed from the Art Discussion forum. It has also come around to me that some people think I had something to do with it.

For the record, I did not directly have any role in the removal of the Art Cafe. I was out with a bug when it happened. I say "directly" because I may have been involved in a different way, and I'll explain that in a bit.

In general, I have been neutral about the Art Cafe. When the decision was made to keep "chat" type threads out of Art Discussion, I was not against leaving the Art Cafe in place, though I wasn't really "for" it either.

It is no secret that I have had recent conflicts with some people who were Art Cafe regulars. I have had conflicts before, as those who remember DaftPunk well know - and it is likely that as long as I'm on Gaia I will have conflicts again. None of these have really affected my ability to act impartially as a Moderator, and as proof of that I offer the fact that I am still a Moderator after all this time.

But something happened recently that was a surprise to me.

During one conflict, I had barely finished making a statement to one Art Cafe regular when another Cafe regular came into the same thread to chew me out. It puzzled me how this other person had sniffed out the argument so fast, so I looked back at the posts of both parties involved and found that the first person had gone to the Cafe to complain about me and what I'd said, at which point the other person had taken it upon themselves to harangue me - after which they returned to the Cafe to let the other person know about the post and generally chatter about how I was so bad.

To me, this is petty, cliquish behavior - like a gang of girls in school giggling in their own corner of homeroom about how they've hassled some outsider.

A little while later, I wound up talking to another person, and this time, an Art Cafe regular who disliked me so much they put me on Ignore so they wouldn't have to see my words used a mule account so they could chew me out - again, because I had been talked about in the Art Cafe. Not only was this more of the same petty attacking, this was an identity I didn't know, as if a stranger came out of nowhere to yell at me. I sorted out who it was after a short bit, but still, it seemed an awful lot to me like I was being singled out just because some Art Cafe regulars had taken a dislike to me.

At this time, I had to consider whether this was some sort of harrassment against me, as a person or even as a Mod. Since this sort of thing was coming in tandem with heated arguments, I decided that I might not be able to judge this incident objectively, so I went to my fellow Mods to seek their advice.

In doing so, I not only provided links to threads where arguments had taken place, but also links to Art Cafe pages where some of the talking about me had taken place. Any Mod who looked could research the situation and judge the entire story.

Upon getting the advice of the other Mods, I could have had at least one Art Cafe regular warned or banned (depending on any previous incidents already in the user's record) for harrassment, but I decided not to pursue it in this case. But one thing happened, because of this - the subject of the Art Cafe and whether it was truly beneficial to the Art Discussion forum came up again. Debate was sparked. The thread came under closer review and scrutiny.

I did not intend to have the Art Cafe removed, but because I made my report, the Art Cafe was indeed judged and removed. Certainly this time I was less neutral. I did not start the discussion that suggested the Cafe should be removed, but this time around I certainly didn't have much to say in its defense.

Here is irony: Among the things I found that were said about me in the Art Cafe was the idea that I was against the Cafe. It was also said that I saw the Cafe as a conspiracy out to "get" me, and that by acting badly, I was creating a self-fulfilling prophecy, making Art Cafe regulars dislike me.

In truth, however, I had nothing against the Art Cafe until its regulars started using it as a tool to attack me, and the only self-fulfilling prophecy that came about was when their behavior turned me against the Cafe.

It should be mentioned, and repeated strongly, that my conflicts were by no means the only reason the Cafe was removed. Had it only been about me, the Art Cafe would probably still be there. There had to be more there to justify its removal, and the fact that it is gone speaks all that needs to be said about whether there was anything to find.

No doubt some of those whose actions resulted in the Cafe's removal still to this moment do not think what they did - either to me, or to others - was all that bad. I bet some people will refuse to accept that the Cafe's removal was not an act of malice on my part.

I can't prevent this. I can only present my side.