Hellboy Drinking With Skeletons
Finished the first two volumes of Hellboy at the end of last year but I've only recently gone back and started reading through the rest of them. Volumes 3 and 4 primarily consist of shorter tales and are arguably my favourite so far. They have inspired me to attempt scripting shorter comics myself, maybe writing side stories for some of my larger projects in order to flesh out the characters and world. I love how the universe of Hellboy feels at home in every realm of legend and folklore and somehow gets tied together with Mignola's original mythologies. Everything that happens feels canonical and in keeping with what came before and has me thinking about how I might create characters that work through various stories, situations and arcs. I love Mignola's art and inks and they never drop in quality even for a single small panel. His angular characters and heavy shadows are something I have found myself imitating in my textbook doodles. I've also been enjoying his past work with DC and Marvel recently, like Gotham by Gaslight, his Krypton series' and covers for The Spectre. Triumph & Torment is by far my favourite Dr Strange story I've read and I am looking forward to picking up the coffee table book: DC Universe by Mike Mignola at some point soon. We have also been playing through the Hellboy: Science of Evil game on the Xbox 360 which has been really fun. Its mechanics are simple and the levels are straight forward and linear but the well balanced difficulty and environmental variation have felt satisfying and enjoyable. I also played the PS1 game Hellboy: Asylum Seeker the other day too, though that was pretty terrible.
Jungil Hong & Brian Chippendale
While working on the post-apocalyptic radio host zine, I've been trying to design some visual pieces to accompany the writing. Glitchwords magazine was a primary influence but the major source of inspiration has been the work of Brian Chippendale and Jungil Hong. I'm mostly familiar with the covers for Brian's musical projects Black Pus and Lightning Bolt as well as the National Anthem variant cover he did for issue #6 but everything I've come across so far has been really cool, unique and interesting. I've only recently discovered the work of his wife Hong but all her designs have been equally cool and inspiring. Influenced by them both, I have been experimenting with silhouettes and pastel colours as well as simple line faces that resemble poorly printed comic characters. I have been looking at layering block colours to imitate clouds and landscapes and using scribbles and doodles to create texture. I have also been listening to a lot of Lightning Bolt and Black Pus recently while working and reading comics. The song Dracula Mountain has found its way on most of the playlists I've created in the last year. Here is a video of Chippendale performing in their Hilarious Attic, an art space they share together.
The Man in The Moon
Had J.G Ballard's Atrocity Exhibition on the shelf for years but finally got around to reading it this week. It really came at the right time too, just as I was struggling with pacing, voice and tone of my novel. The short thematic paragraphs that build up a mosaic of ideas and stories was exactly the energy I needed to inject into my story and made me rethink my originally formulaic narrative structure. Its interest in the mathematics of the universe, magic, spiritualism and sacred geometry also reminded me that I write better when doing so with the language of those topics and that I can extrapolate those strengths to better coordinate and explore my own wider story. I read Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities and the shorter, page-long chapters of that book also encouraged me to attempt a similar structure. The short story I am currently writing as an exercise in this technique focuses on the many histories and legends of the man in the moon and its been really fun exploring the different cultural interpretations of this phenomenon across the world and across time (something that has also been inspired by reading Hellboy). Some of my favourites have been the Vietnamese story of Cuội the woodcutter and the medieval Christian belief that Cain is the man in the moon, doomed to circle the Earth for eternity. This quote is from Dante's Inferno:
For now doth Cain with fork of thorns confine
On either hemisphere, touching the wave
Beneath the towers of Seville. Yesternight
The moon was round.
The Warren Commission Report
The Warren Commission Report was the official report established by President Lyndon investigating the assassination of JFK. There's a whole chapter dedicated to the conspiracies and false witness accounts presented in a myth busting like fashion. CONSPIRACY: etc, REALITY: etc. Its a fun read and feels like a complete encyclopaedia on an alternate microworld that only extends as far the perimeters of Dallas and whose only inhabitants are assassins, witnesses and detectives. The biographies and medical reports add a dry factuality to the story that only fictionalises the world further. Its been useful to see a story fully realised by exploring not only micro components like bullet casings, pixelated shadows and wind speeds but also the macro in descriptions of buildings, media responses and character profiles. It has changed the way in which I am approaching the organic and descriptive quality of the town in my novel.
Winifred Philips
Last week, Twitter account Obscure Game Aesthetics posted a clip of the 2006 The Da Vinci Code game for the PS2. Nothing had intrigued me to this game before, but the short bit of gameplay I saw looked pretty unique and cool. The visual style was interesting and the detective, puzzle solving elements seemed genuinely engaging as did the simple rhythm based combat. The soundtrack however really surprised me. I've had it playing recently while writing and reading and found it a perfect accompaniment to work. While listening, I imagine the museum in which this game takes place is in fact a museum in the city of Gotham. The score was composed by Winifred Philips who I found did the soundtracks for the original God of War game on the PS2, and also Assassin's Creed: Liberation, the former of which I have loved for a while now and the latter I have also been listening to recently while writing. I came across this keynote speech she made talking about the process of composing for videogames which was also interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyUju_rmwzc&ab_channel=GameMediaPR
When That Light Hits The Sky The Batman obsession continues after we went to watch the film a second time. We're also making our way through the 60's Batman series which, other than being genuinely funny has some great Bruce and Dick character moments. The show's interpretations of The Riddler and The Joker also feel surprisingly true to their origins as well as to their later depictions in the Animated Series. I also completed the SNES version of the Adventures of Batman & Robin over the weekend which was a varied and fun platformer. It was cute noticing all the nods to the series, especially the riddles in the Minotaur's Maze being the same as in the episode. Started Lego Batman 2 which definitely has some of the best level designs of the Lego games, although Gotham itself does feels a bit empty. Recent comic highlights have been Morrison and Quitely's Batman & Robin Vol 1, All Star Batman Vol 1, Batman The Imposter, Heart of Hush and Batman Damned. The 'My Own Worst Enemy' story from All Star Batman was particularly great. One of the best Two-Face stories I've read and a really original interpretation of the villain's history and mania. The Imposter was written by The Batman (2022) co-writer Mattson Tomlin and as a result carries the same energy of the film. I liked it a lot and is probably one of my favourite comics of the year so far.
Playlist - Instrument Soundtrack by Fugazi
Not a playlist this week but an album of remastered demos and early songs from the 1999 Fugazi documentary Instrument. https://open.spotify.com/album/3tnzZhTTjRTExYc9odG0dt?si=-20kVBcUSp6vyGDr1GXWkw
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