Original Art Sundays No. 375: Inktober '24, part 1

 

 

Crossposting this from my Substack. 

We’re in the throes of Inktober!

3 of the last 4 years, I’ve made it through the entire month. Two of those years have been compiled in the book Spatters. I have 7 copies left, and it will be available at Queer and Trans Zine Fest next weekend.

Here are this year’s Inktober drawings so far.

Inktober '24, Days 1 - 6

• Day One: Batman inspired by John Cassaday

• Day Two: my stuffed Snoopy (that I got the day I met the man) in honor of Charles Schulz’s birthday.

• Day Three: an unusual take on my favorite creations, the Surrealist Cowgirls.

• Day Four: Pirate girl, inspired by my love of Gil Elvgren’s inviting poses.

• Days Five and Six: Moments from the work in progress Captives of Imagination.

I do love Inktober. I never follow the prompts. To me, it’s an opportunity to stretch as an inker, and I don’t like having too many terms dictated to me. However, it does offer something very useful, almost invaluable: deadlines.

Deadlines get things done.

Lecture is given on Wednesdays. Next lecture is on Fridays. Midterm grades are due soon. Zine Fest happens on October 19 and 20. Inktober is every day of the month. If the book is to be done by the holidays, there are printing deadlines.

Deadlines will drive one crazy, but they are so valuable. As Palpatine said about anger and the Dark Side, it gives you focus. And if you have something that has to be done today and a long project with no deadline, you tend to give your time and energy to the former.

But they can be traps too. If one has too many deadlines, everything collapses. I’ve gone through that a couple times. For me, the razor’s edge is having just a LITTLE more to do than I can handle.

However, it’s not just about methodically doing the work and dutifully meeting the deadlines.

A couple days ago, I picked up a copy of Harlan Ellison’s Last Dangerous Visions, published poshtumously, with final edits completed by J. Micheal Straczynski.

I sat up and read JMS’s Introduction and Exegsis, in which he gives personal insights into his relationship to Harlan and into Harlan’s private life, in a respectful but honest way. He revealed Harlan’s mental challenges over his lifetime, and how those challenges inhibited the creation of this volume for five decades.

This shook me. I had the honor of meeting and speaking with Harlan twice, and while I’m sure he wouldn’t know me from Eve, I clung to the conceit of calling him a friend. Some of that also stems from the artifice of intimacy resulting from liking someone’s work. Much of Harlan’s writing was brutally honest, and left the reader feeling like an invitation into the writer’s mind and heart had been offered and accepted. Ellison often wrote of such presumed familiarity as inappropriate, to say the least. I got that, but I still felt it. As such, I was shocked to discover that he wasn’t who I thought he was - or perhaps who HE thought he was. Mental illness is like that, I suppose.

But by choice or design, he got in his own way in completing this work, a work he saw as so important. Too many deadlines, not enough Harlan to meet them. And he took himeslf to task for that, in rather severe terms.

Do we all do that? Mental health is clearly a factor, but I think it’s not the only factor involved. Even creators without mental health issues face what Marvel used to call the Dreaded Deadline Doom.

I hold great rerevence for creators who methodically produce smart, impassioned work. As I discussed previously, I often hold the work in such reverence that I’m afraid to get it done. Sometimes that’s a conceit or an excuse. The deadline comes and you meet it (well, most of the time. I’ve missed more than a few, but made most).

I suspect that my truth is like that of many other creators. The Work is never as good as I aspire to it being, but it’s often better than I think it is.

I’ve been drawing, writing and teaching for so long. I hope to get The Big Work done while I still can. I will never be another Harlan Ellison, but that’s okay.

We’ve already got one, and I am forever grateful for that.

Thank you, Harlan.

Next: the work continues on both Inktober and Sharp Invitations. One or the other coming you way soon...

Original Art Sundays (monday) No. 241: Inktober, days 3 - 10

Posting a bit late again. Two jobs will do that. The work is long done, but due to doing the work catch as catch can, at my drawing board or on break at work (either job), the work was scattered and it took me a bit to get it together and find time to post.

October 3
This was done at break at work, from online photo reference. It's simple ballpoint pen on 20# printer paper. One of my Inktober goals was to push myself stylistically. While I've done nature drawing in the past and have a moderate affinity for it, it's not the first place I think of taking my art. Besides, as backgrounds/environments remain a bit of a shortcoming in my comics, working on this type of art will improve my comics as well.
That's a bit of a sophistry, as working on any art will improve your comics.
October 4

Copying from the masters!
This is a copy from a Hugo Pratt Corto Maltese story.
Materials: previously mentioned ink paper, #6 round flat synthetic brush and India ink.
Pratt's work is so compelling. He can take the simplest line, even a very crude line, and make it ring with the poetry of a desert or of an ocean. Like the best of the so-called simple artists, his work is elusive. As soon as you try to copy it, you begin to realize just how insightful those scrawls can be.

October 5
 Done straight from imagination, thinking about Sheena and about the power of really good Tarzan comics. Such variety, ranging from the Jesse Marsh stuff to Joe Kubert to Hogarth!
I'm not convinced this piece is successful, but I look at it as a draft.I went straight to ink, no under-drawing. Started with a quick sketch at work, bought it home and completed.
Materials:
Copy paper, 20#
Ballpoint pen
Sumi-e ink
#6 round/flat brush
#20 flat brush
Brush Faber Castell tip ink marker

October 6
This one was fun!
Straight copy from the Archie Meets the Ramones one-shot, a comic that's a lot better than it should be. Gisele's art on this one is spot-on. I loved the combination of tight control and rock energy!
Though it is weird, after reading Archie comics for decades, to think of Fred Andrews as a punker....
I did a quick underdrawing on this one, then jumped in.
Materials: Small sketch pad, #4 lead holder, Magic Rub eraser, Sharpie. That's right, Sharpie. As part of this is about control for me, working with crude tools to get specific results is part of the process.

October 7
For this one, I inked an old sketchbook piece.
This was originally done as a proposal for an album cover. A friend of mine was assembling a tribute to the Welsh band Man, and I offered to do some cover art. I took this to pencils, scanned it and sent it off for comments. He had forgotten our conversation and did something completely different!
Ah, well, at least I had the art.
I just inked this up with my reliable Faber Castell brush tip marker. I had some of my usual scanning issues, what with the scanner picking up unwanted gray tones, but for the most part it's successful. I did NOT want this to be a tight mechanical drawing. I wanted the aggression to come through. The guitar strung with barbed wire is a variation on the barbed wire harp that Dali made for Harpo Marx.

October 8
This was just a sketchbook experiment. The original was done in China marker in a 9 x 12 sketchbook with a rather rough tooth.
I went over it with my reliable Faber Castell brush tip ink marker. That's it.
I honestly don't know if this piece works or not. There was a vibrancy and urgency to the original sketch. I'm not sure it's still there after the inking. I was reluctant to push it too far, and chose to keep the underlying sketch intact behind the inks.

October 9
Okay, this one was fun.
I was watching music videos on Amazon Prime and thinking about the Archie Meets the Ramones comic. I thought about Archie as a badass, and for some reason thought about Harlan Ellison's rock novel Rockabilly (AKA Spider Kiss). This image came to mind.
I did a quick pencil sketch and jumped into the inks.
It's all freehand, folks. Even the spotlight behind him is rough and ragged.
Materials: I have an extensive list of the materials used at home, which I will post later. For right now, it's the standards:
lead holder & Magic Rub eraser
Faber Castell brush tip marker
India ink
various brushes
This may be my favorite of the month. Maybe.

October 10
I was thinking about a couple things on this one. I had noticed a tendency to be more blunt in my recent Inktober pieces. While I like the energy and the confidence that comes from not holding back, I do miss doing detail work at times. As I had been thinking about the bullfight my dad took my mother to on their honeymoon (yes, really), and my dad telling me to read Collins and Lapierre's story of the matador El Cordoba, Or I'll Dress You In Mourning, inspiration struck. On break at work, I did a quick search for matador and found some images from which I assembled this piece. Very simple materials. No pencils, straight to inks with this one! Ballpoint pen on printer paper, that's all!
I have a couple more pieces to locate for the next batch, but should be able to post again soon.

Original Art Sundays No. 224: Speedy Recovery denouement (and a Neil Gaiman review!)

Once more, here we go! Last time around for this particular Speedy Recovery book!
The Speedy story is done, at least as far as posting it. But there are some tidbits that were included in the first printing of the comic that I wanted to share here.

Here's the original idea for the front  cover, and the usual somewhat self-congratulatory afterword page. I'll let the text speak for itself for better or worse, rather than second guess copy I wrote 25 years ago(!).
I do like the original cover plan, in some ways better than the final. I would have had to redraw the car/plane to match the final version inside the book. But even though this version is more dynamic, it served as the basis for the last story page (see previous blog post).

And here's the back cover- an ad for the Packard Tesseract! I've been fascinated with Packards ever since I saw Harlan Ellison sitting in his on an episode of the old Anti-Gravity Room, a fun SF Channel series that was mostly young geeks sitting and talking comics. Clearly, part of the inspiration for the Packard was the TARDIS. Bear in mind that at this point in time, the Sylvester McCoy series was just ending in the UK and was only being sporadically broadcast on PBS in the states, so it was a much less known commodity then than it is today.
Process: This was printed out on colored paper, with the illustration down directly on the paper with colored pencil and markers.The cheesy frame on the illustration is just Photoshop stock. The Packard Tesseract is a great idea. I love the conceit that you need a mechanic, a quantum physicist and a poet to build one!
And I did get some reviews of the completed book. I got a kind note from Howard Cruse, who had also liked the Tranny Towers mockup I put together for a Xeric Grant (didn't win- much sadness!), and a brief note from Trina Robbins, who didn't much care for it. However, I'm pleased to report that we developed a friendship in later years.
And I got a postcard from Neil Gaiman.
This may have been one of the last such reviews Neil did. His career was entering a MUCH larger phase, and shortly after this, he stopped reviewing everything that was handed to him (perfectly understandable). But I cherish this postcard (with Charles Vess Stardust art, no less!) and the kind words Neil had for my work at the time.

Charles Vess!

In Neil's own hand!

I find Neil's handwriting quite legible, but just in case you can't make it out, here's what it says:
"Hi Diana-
Thanks for "Speedy"- I enjoyed it (especially the pun names- some were worthy of Will Eisner)- my only real problem was that it seemed uncertain what it was- a parody, a pastiche, a retro-story, a superhero thing, or what, and the storytelling seemed to lurch a bit: right now they aren't yet people- you have to believe in them too.
Congrats on the degree! 
Looking forward to the next Speedy Ricuvveri-
love
Neil Gaiman"
A generous and fair review, I think.
(That's a very old address, by the way. Don't write me; I'm not there.)
A former department chair who became a friend, Tom Haakenson, once said you should never go back. But I don't think that applies here. I do like these characters, I think there fun and exciting, and I need to do more stories featuring them. I just need to take Neil's advice, and make the execution live up to the promise. These are good characters, and they deserve another day on the page.
Next: we'll see.... back to an older story, work on something new... I'm rather enjoying this getting things completely done stuff. I'll see if I can keep that horse galloping!

Original Art Sundays (Friday) Nos. 212 - 215: Speedy Recovery, pp. 8 - 11

Finally back! Working so much. New story on the board, a very ambitious 2 or 3 page thing, but I want to finish posting this one first.
When we left our stalwart group, they were planning to go to Runnovia for a gig, playing big band music for royalty.
Read on...

Notes on these pages:

I love the name Runnovia. It's so Rocky and Bullwinkle!

Page 8 (the airport scene) REALLY would have benefitted from more background in the first two panels. I was going for a remote airfield feel, but there's just too much left out for it to fully read. I do like the flying Packard. It was inspired by Harlan Ellison talking about his Packard on the old Anti-Gravity Room series and by the flying sedan Will Eisner used in a couple very early Spirit stories.

Page 9 (the grand ballroom scene) resolves much better. I had real fun inking those arched cathedral ceilings! I don't know enough about architecture to get every detail, so this is pure swipe file stuff.

Page 10 (the lead-in to the next big moment) also resolves nicely, I think. Speedy's kneeling and the reflections in the floor tiles in Panel One are nice touches. I love Speedy's little "not now" out of the corner of his mouth in Panel Two!

I'm not completely happy with the way the vibrations on the valet are rendered, but I wanted it to be less obvious than simply drawing in a ghost image and speed lines between the two of him. After all, if it were blatantly obvious, Speedy would have seen it right away!

Page 11, the cube dropping over the band, is exactly what I wanted it to be. I particularly like Sandy Beaches, the drummer, passed out over her kit. I like rendering transparencies. We learned in commercial art school that those streaky lines indicating glass or plastic just aren't right, but darn if they don't look right in something like this!

I'm stopping there because the next pages start off with a two-age spread, and rather than cobble it together from multiple scans, I want to wait until I can get to the MCAD large format scanner and get a clean scan of the whole thing. I have a mountain of scans I need to take care of, and will make time for it Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, I think. 

For this section of the book, I had a great confidence in the work, and a conviction that I really controlled my storytelling. That held for most of the rest of the book (posted soon), and was very satisfying. I look back at this whenever I lose confidence in craft. While there are always things that can be improved, looking at your strengths can help you through rough patches, even if they come from 16 years ago!

Next: more Speedy Recovery.

Best Comics of 2014, No. 8: Star Trek: City on the Edge of Forever, the Original Teleplay

Here we go, with the next Best of 2014 Comics entry.
It's no secret that I enjoy a good Star Trek story, or that I admire the work of Harlan Ellison. As such, even in its bowdlerized version, City on the Edge of Forever stands as one of my favorite episodes of all the series and films (I also really like Theodore Sturgeon's two episodes, Shore Leave and Amok Time, but sadly, he's no longer with us to create graphic versions of them).
I've read the original screenplay in two previous iterations- its inclusion in the Roger Elwood edited anthology Six Science Fiction Plays and as a stand-alone hardcover many years later, courtesy of the Science Fiction Book Club.
So when IDW, who did such a great job publishing the comic adaptation of Ellison's Phoenix Without Ashes a couple years back, announced this project, I was on board for every issue.
While I doubt Mr. Ellison would have suffered such shenanigans, this could have been bad. It could have been howling, rabid bay-at-the-moon bad. It's such an emotionally wrought story, the potential is there to do great injury with this one.
But it worked.

Starting with the brilliant covers, offered in two basic formats- a painted cover or a retro design evoking period Pelican books, Leo &; Diane Dillon, some of Milton Glaser's work, or possibly Robert McKinnis- working through the haunting final page (which I won't reproduce, as you really need to read it for yourself), this is as perfect as comics get.

The bridge drug scene

The script by Scott and David Tipton is taut and empathetic to  all characters, even the irredeemable Beckwith. If you're only familiar with the original broadcast version, suffice to say that this goes into more dangerous territory. The aforementioned Beckwith is a dealer in intergalactic contraband, including the narcotic dream jewels (sidebar: this was not much of an issue when Ellison first penned the tale in 1967, but I am SO tired of writers feeling the compulsion to reinvent the everyday just because it's in outer space, or in the future. So many intergalactic drugs, ranging from Star Wars' Death Sticks to Ketracel-white in Deep Space 9 and Spice in Dune. Now, some of these, like Spice in Dune, are integral to the plot, but others are just mildly annoying. Why not just use any of the vast pharmacy of extant pharmaceutical killers? I'm sure heroin will still exist in a couple centuries, since it's been used on Earth in its current form since 1874, and the opium poppy was first harvested in roughly 300 BC.). His foul deeds lead to the non-existence of the Federation and the Enterprise's replacement with the Condor, seemingly a pirate ship (when I first read this part in the original script, I flashed on the later episode Mirror, Mirror, written by Jerome Bixby).
Kirk and Spock must go back in time to undo the damage done by Beckwith. But in order to do so, Kirk must sacrifice the love of his life.
The best moments here involve a different sort of Spock, one with a greater intensity and, dare I say it, a greater empathy than often shown in the first series.

It would be a crime to overlook the brilliant painted art by J.K. Woodward. I enjoyed his work on Peter David's Fallen Angel series a great deal. He's able to remain faithful to the script while innovating, which shows up well in this series. I particularly like his designs for the Guardians of Forever.

Woodward's inspired designs for the Guardians of Forever.

And that last page just makes me ache.
With Mr. Ellison starting to show his years (he had a stroke earlier in 2014), I feared we would hear less from him. But between his collaborations with IDW (including a hardcover collection of this series coming soon) and his self-publishing imprint, I am relieved that his body of work continues to expand rather than contract.
Next: Best of 2014, no. 7 takes us back to the War to End All Wars.

Best Comics of 2013, No. 7: 7 Against Chaos

Really, when Harlan Ellison and Paul Chadwick collaborate, how could the result not make the list?
Chadwick's Concrete remains one of my two favorite superheroes (the other, oddly, is Herbie, the Fat Fury, with James Robinson's Starman as runner-up). And Ellison is - well, Ellison. I'm relieved his health appears to be holding, despite reports of his imminent demise a couple years ago.
Concurrent with the Strange Armor storyline, a Concrete short story appeared in which our heroes visited the home of Dwayne Byrd, a not so thinly veiled reference to Ellison's preferred nom de plume, Cordwainer Bird. The story, Byrdland's Secret, used Ellison's life, work and philosophies as a starting point to muse on the role of art and literature in our lives, and the urgent, almost primal need to cling to a spirit of adventure in those lives.

This story appears at first blush to be old-school space opera- some fun ideas and elaborate trappings. However, as is the case with most of Ellison's work, it quickly becomes something larger than the sum of its parts. An aggregate of strange beings, given singular abilities by the perversion of their forms in the names of profit, politics, power and entertainment, is off on a quest to do - well, something. Only one of them knows their mission at its outset. At this point, it feels a bit like a fairly conventional superhero narrative, albeit a smartly written one.
The plot and its implications quickly thicken.
The stakes are no less than the nature of existence, as a reptilian life form is trying to rewrite not only history, but evolution. Unbeknownst to the rest of the universe, this group of rejects is fighting for the existence of everyone, and should they succeed, nobody will know.
There are several Ellison themes that come into play here. Of course, the humanizing of those considered rejects dates back to his civil rights work, and the classic short story The Discarded. And the tragedy of great work going unrecognized has been a recurring theme in Ellison interviews for decades.

Ellison's proprieties: Sugar & Spike rightly rank with Mount Rushmore in the scope of human achievement!

Paul Chadwick's work here is as strong as anything else he's done. While I cherish the populist notions in Concrete, his vivid imagination is seen in other works, including his The World Below mini-series and one issue of the classic Dr. Strange mini-series, The Flight of Bones. In 7 Against Chaos, he's given the opportunity to stretch thematically and offer some beyond cool science fiction illustration, and he rises to both challenges admirably. The work is reminiscent of the best of the 1960s DC science fiction stories in terms of pure imagination and joy, while holding to a contemporary quality. This is not a nostalgia piece, but it does recognize the value of past works, a challenging balancing act, well executed.
And it's cool to see, and a great adventure to read!
7 Against Chaos begins with a fairly direct, albeit elaborate, scenario and sweeps the reader along to ask complex questions about the nature and purpose of life, all while riding an interstellar roller coaster. In addressing the best of 2013, I've talked about works that have value as pure enjoyment, and works that say something deeper and challenge the reader. This is both. I pray that Ellison and Chadwick collaborate again!
Next: Best Comics of 2013, No. 6, gets lost.

Best comics of 2010: No. 4: Phoenix Without Ashes

In 1973, an awful TV series came out. It was based on a great idea, and was ruined by unnecessary "creative" input from studio executives.
The series was called The Starlost.
Based on a treatment by Harlan Ellison, the beautiful idea was watered down to nothing.
Watch if you're brave.



The premise: a generational ship is taking representative micorocosms of human cultures to another star. Problem is, they've been in space so long they think their self-contained structures are all there is. To compound the dilemma, the ship is wearing out, and may soon fall into a nearby sun.
Great idea, lousy execution.
Ellison wrote (with co-author Ed Bryant) a novelization of the first teleplay, Phoenix Without Ashes. In the accompanying essay, Ellison details the chaotic world of TV executives, and how their pointless interference caused him to fall back on his screen pseudonym, Cordwainer Bird, in the show's credits. The unfilmed version of the first script won a Writers Guild Award as best teleplay of the year.
This year, IDW released a comic book of it. A four-issue miniseries, to be precise.
It's such great vindication. I hope Ellison (who I've met twice and managed not to offend both times, last time we had a great little chat about the difference between having a good story and telling the story well) feels the same way about it. He sets a high standard for adaptations of his work.
But I think this measures up. It certainly did for me.

The mini deals with a young man in a harsh Puritanical dome society discovering parts of the truth of his world, and trying to overcome the Philistine pig ignorance of his elders. So much is at stake: the quest for truth, the transformation of this and potentially many other dome societies, and the survival of the human species.
Here our erstwhile hero, who until now has only known harsh Puritan existence and the punishments of elder scolds, learns some of the truth.

It's about time this wonderful idea was given a proper dramatization.
Alan Robinson's art is innovative and has a hard-edged caricature quality to it. His line style reminds me of some of Ron Cobb's stronger work. And that, my friends, is a compliment!
This is not the first time Harlan Ellison has worked in comics. Far from it.
He's written Batman, the Hulk, the Avengers, a comic book version of his classic A Boy and His Dog (illustrated by Rich Corben), and of course, his Dark Horse series Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor.
His Batman story for Julie Schwartz was a real treat, with Batman unable to find a single crime while on patrol!
There was also the underground comic Harlan Ellison's Chocolate Alphabet. I also rather liked Marshall Rogers' work on Ellison's Demon with a Glass Hand, which was part of a very well done series of DC graphic novel adaptations of SF and fantasy classics. That series was also my first exposure to George R.R. Martin's classic Sandkings.
This is not intended as exhaustive. Far from it. I suspect that Harlan Ellison's written more comics than I've had hot breakfasts.
As reported on Colleen Doran's blog a while back, this year's Wiscon will be Harlan's last public appearance. He has announced that his health is failing and that he's done with the convention and autograph circuit.
It's Harlan's life, and his death, when such a sad day comes. But I'm a fearful, selfish little thing. The prospect of the world without Harlan in it seems a bit more drab.

Tomorrow: best of 2010 No. 3, tie, Part 1: the day it begins and ends.

Top 10 Comics of 2009: # 9: The Lone Ranger #18

How far have we come, if the most exciting books are about the oldest characters?
Dynamite's Lone Ranger series (and its offshoot mini, the Lone Ranger and Tonto, which had a very satisfying circus story for its last issue) have been full of sensitive, insightful writing by Brett Matthews, Joe Kubert-esque art by Sergio Cariello (a very nice guy I met  about 3 years back at San Diego- I'll post the Lone Ranger and Tonto sketch he did for me when I have scanner access again) and some of the best coloring I've seen in comics in a LONG time.

This story is the start of a new arc, and has the stuff in it I like about this comic, the thing that others seem to dislike. It's quiet. the characters have very real conversations about things, while things happen, before they happen, and afterward. The dialogue is sparse and heartfelt. The book takes its time making its points, which makes the ensuing mayhem all the more powerful, even if you do have to wait two or thee issues for it. To me, this is very pragmatic writing. In real life, things don't happen to people at a breakneck pace. With rare exceptions, something huge happens, you have some time to live and reflect on it, and something else happens. The accelerated cataclysms of the superhero world are rarities in human reality. And to see that reflected in contemporary narratives of a character created over 7 decades ago is quite refreshing.
And Tonto is an amazing character here. Centered, self-aware, skilled, and unwilling to suffer fools gladly, even the Lone Ranger himself, who is often a fool in this book- not in a mocking way,  but impetuous. In this storyline, the Lone Ranger is a driven young man whose impulsive nature befits his age. Strong character portrayals all around.
There are some elements of this book I'm not mad for. The romance involving the title character's brother's widow feels a bit forced, despite the new direction it was given in the issue following this one. And I'm so tired of multiple covers, which appear to be done for every issue of every Dynamite book (I couldn't say for sure, since I only read one or two other books of theirs- the Project Superpowers line leaves me cold).
But even with all that, this is a very strong book. I can easily see Matthews' Lone Ranger uttering one of my favorite Harlan Ellison quotes: "If you want consistency, look for it in the grave. I'm just a flawed, miserable human being, doing the best I can."
Tomorrow: #8 on the hit parade.

The Terror of The Magnum Opus!

As I break from working on my book/grant proposal, my thoughts turn to creators who have inspired me in different ways.
Today's venture takes two turns, beyond the already posted notes on the human tornado called Ellison.
Next up is Jeff Smith, creator of Bone, the much neglected Shazam and the Monster Society of Evil, and the sporadic but worthwhile RASL. All Jeff's work deals in themes of common beings surviving their roles in large, mythic battles a la Tolkien or Eddison.
Well, turns out there's a documentary on Jeff.


Then there's Terry Moore.
His Strangers in Paradise is now collected in an Omnibus edition. How he managed to do this and keep on schedule with his new book, ECHO, is beyond me, but he did it.
This invites the next issue.
A Magnum Opus can kill you if you let it.
The idea of creating a single work of such weight and import can be such a heavy burden that it renders the work insurmountable. If you let it be that.
I suspect the way through this is twofold.
First, don't try to create something big. Create pieces of the big thing. Just say what you have to say, using the time you have to say it as well as you can. The 2200 pages of Strangers and the 1400 pages of Bone were all done page by page, the only way it can be done.
It took me 6 months to do a page once, and I did 12 pages in 14 hours another time. It takes the time it takes.
Second, while you must keep at it (or in my case, all the various "it"s), you can't punish yourself if you lose pace. Self-recrimination takes time too, and burns up, wastes, energy that could go into the work.

How sharp can you get?

You know how it can go- life takes a downturn, you begin to doubt this and that. Am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing, why is everything going South, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Like Ray Manzarek said on his first solo album (lyrics inspired by Beckett's Waiting for Godot):
Why ain't I pretty?
How come I'm stupid?
Why do I have this here fear?
Pretty maudlin, huh? Well, you can get over it if you try. With help.
So a couple things come into the melee to help me get over myself. First, a great conversation with someone I trust. Then a forwarded link to this New York Times piece on the very topic. Eminently useful, and I suspect I'll be revisiting it often in days to come.
Finally, the impending screening of the Harlan Ellison documentary, Dreams with Sharp Teeth, on Sundance this coming Monday eve, and the DVD on sale the same day. My buying is way down these days, but hey, it's Harlan. Here's a look, and it's on point with the idea that an artist can determine his/her worth by refusing to agree that the work, and by extension the artist, are worth less, or even worthless.
Time to get a little fire back in your belly!