Projects "Spire City Noir"
"Spire City Noir Anthology"
"Spire City/Johnny Saturn Series Bible"
"Johnny Saturn No 18"
"Johnny Saturn Planar Eclipse"
"Medieval Book of Lists"
"Name of the Shadow"
"Requiem"
|
This has been a pleasant weekend in that I’ve gotten to work on several of my projects. Yesterday, for example, I put hours of work into the “Black Dirigible,” lettering, designing, and so forth, only to realize that there is a page missing out of the batch. Yikes!
Today, I arranged my notes for “The Apex Killers,” the novel I had to leave off a few months ago and was never able to restart. It’s confusing to try to work my way back into that mess, let me assure you! Still, I can do it. This project centers around superheroes, vampires, corporate malfeasance, human trafficking, and a heavy overlay of immoral conduct of all sorts. When the villains are the good guys, then just how truly rotten are the bad guys?
I also played more with my 3D art obsession, going further on my creation of a 3D Greg Buchanan. Here’s an example.
Veterin 3D artists will know instantly that I’m at the bottom of the learning curve here, and that’s okay. One problem is that his hair is poking through his ear, and another is that I have not been able to paint his temples prematurely gray yet. It will happen, though. I’m patient.
I’ve also been learning how to use the program Hexagon, and I’ve made progress but I’m a painful newbie at this. Google Sketchup it is not!
Here’s what’s coming for me in 2019, and maybe a little in 2018. After a long absence from self-promotion, I’m about to enter a new promotional period where nothing is off limits. I’m going to be visiting comic and book shops, doing signings, making posters, and publishing a lot of new material. I have a business plan worked out, and I know what I’ll be doing in what order.
I’m planning on doing a comic show here and there, maybe some author days at libraries, and developing my own distribution route. I won’t necessarily be doing it all on my own, either. If other creators and entrepreneurs decide to partner with me, that will be great. I’ve been involved in various forms of comic promotion for a long time, and I believe I have an interesting, bottom up strategy that will bear out results for small publishers like myself. This will be aimed at buyers of comics, books, and collectables.
In this age of self-publishing, the small publisher is not curtailed by a lack of options, but by a deluge of options for everybody. With all those people out there hawking their wares, how does one get their voice heard? How does one find their loyal, niche audience? More on this as it develops.
I have to be at work early, so that’s it for me this evening.
Scott
I’m aware that my fascination with learning 3D art is off the beaten trail of what I normally write about, but heck, it’s all me, and it’s all about our characters.
So, I’m trying to adapt my art style to my 3D work. And, as you might guess, my standard “hero” figure is also my work to achieve a look for Greg Buchanan.
Here’s my initial drawings for what Greg should look like after the last book:
 
This resulted in in this 3D extrapolation
   
And then these resulted in this rather ugly morph for Genesis 8 in Daz Studio
So, for round 2, I came up with this modified drawing. It’s essentially the first drawings, but rearranged with Photoshop’s Liquify tool.
From drawing, I got these 3D images in Facegen Pro.
   
This, imported into Daz3 as a morph, gave me this much more acceptable base face:
So, it’s not perfect yet, and it’s not Greg, but it’s closer. I think the next iteration will capture him.
3-18
I’m beginning to come up with some very intriguing ideas for the distribution and sale of indie comics, prose novels, and art books. it’s fair to say that I may actually be coming up with a new business model. More as this develops.
3-27
Maybe it’s the weather, but I’ve felt like a complete pretender and fake today. I’m battling that by drinking a lot of water (good for fighting off the onset of depression) and jumping back into the writing project that I had to put on hold a couple of months ago.
I figure it’s better to take the proverbial bull by the horns than wallow around in self-doubt.
3-30
All right, cool new computer… Now to download and install all my regular apps. No problem, right?
3-30
All righty, in no particular order, I have installed Daz3d, Hexagon, Flame Painter, Open Office, Kindle Comic Creator, Kapersky Total Protection, Sculptris, Mesh Mixer, Daz Content Cataloger Easy, Daz Installer, and my Intuos tablet.
That’s a goog head start, I think. Lots more to come tomorrow.
3-31
After years of grousing about it, I just made the leap and am downloading a subscription (shudder!) to Adobe Photoshop CC. I haven’t even reloaded Clip Studio Paint yet, but I assure you I still love CSP. But, will Photoshop regain my love? Can it? Will it?
We shall see . . .
3-31
Installing Clip Studio Ex again involved many hoops to jump through. Yeesh. I understand that these applications can be abused by pirates, but gracious it make it hard on the rest of us.
I got all my purchesed 3rd part brushes reinstalled, but now have to re-find all my free brushes and transfer my own brushes back over.
The actual download of Photoshop is going to wait till this evening, because it’s like a six hour download.
It’s going to take me all week to get all my 3d assets re-installed. But, look at the bright side–I am fortunate to have so many 3D assets to use.
I am looking forward fondly to the point that I can make professional grade 3d assets myself. It’s coming.
4-1
Had a lovely day with my family today, being Mom, Missy, and Floyd. Very nice Easter.
Downloading FaceGen Pro, and kind of excited about that.
Photoshop looks different! It’s begging me to personalize it and bring over all my preferences.
Clip Studio Pain ne’ Manga Studio Ex 5 seems to have downloaded the wrong version–must figure this out!
Found brushes I had purchased and forgot to ever install, both for Clip Studio and Photoshop. Goody!
I’ve gained a little weight this week, so that means it’s time to batten down the hatches and get shipshape, counting my calories again. Don’t want to lose all this progress I’ve made!
Daz3D is running a sale today, and I got a great deal on some stuff.
I need to finish the Black Dirigible, then it’s time to put my new business plan into action. It’s daunting but doable.
Yes, I really do think in bullet points.  🙂
Happy Easter everyone!
Hello, Friends, Associated, Well-Wishers, and anyone else who finds this blog post.
STATUS:
I’m alive and well. I’ve had a spate of medical issues to take care, with all the accompanying doctor appointments one would expect, but I’m fine. After that, work complications (it’s our busy season) have eaten up my time. I’m not complaining (online, that is), and I’m happy to have a good job. I’ll just leave it at that.
PROJECTS:
I’m working on hard on my next novel, also set in the world of Spire City and Johnny Saturn. At one point I thought it was done, but since then I’ve picked out areas where it needs expanded upon, and the novelette it was is well on the way to expanding into a novel. This one is not science fiction, but romantic adventure story. I only write science fiction when I have serious thought experiments and theories to share.
I am also hard at work on a personal portfolio. I’m going to publish this as a collected color portfolio, but the pen-and-ink art at its base is going to be illustrations for my new novel.
Recently, I had an epiphany. If I want to create great art, then I have to do great work. I can’t rush through the art and slam it out–that’s what I’ve made a career of doing. Instead, I need to do thumbnails, gather resource imagery, do value studies, make multiple color studies, and use all the resources and time at my disposal to make these pictures great. Will I succeed? Ultimately that is up to others to decide. I’ll show these to the world as they reach the pen and ink stage.
I’ve also been painting an acrylic picture of some dinosaurs. It’s coming along well, and completion is in sight. I’ve always loved dinosaurs, so it’s fun to bring them to life in my art.
MEDIA:
I feed my creativity with a lot of media. I don’t have time these days to read novels, and that makes me very sad. I have been able to make time to see movies, streaming television shows, concerts, and albums.
MOVIES:
Unacknowledged-An Expose of the World’s Greatest Secret: More of Steven Greer’s work into exposing the world’s governments’ attempts to hide the UFO and alien issue.This movie has unsettled some people I know, and shaken their world views at least a little. There is nothing new in here for me, because I followed this subject closely for years. Interesting at best, old hat at worst.
Rogue One-A Star Wars Story: I watched the first half before I lost interest. I was always more of a Star Trek fan, and even that has its limits.
Get Me Roger Stone: Enlightening. It’s easy to admire a cad for being a good good cad, sort of a wink-wink acknowledgement. In other words, I don’t agree with the politics, but I find the man himself fascinating as the subject of this documentary.
Below Her Throat: A charming (and sexy!) lesbian love story. I dug it in a sort of “A Room In Rome” way. It just seemed very sweet, really.
The Truth Is In The Stars: William Shatner makes a long journey to discover how Star Trek and its vision of different people getting along affected the scientific minds of today. I found this heartwarming.
TELEVISION SHOWS:
Embarrassing Bodies: British medical show that uses real-life people with their illnesses and then attempts to diagnose and cure them. There is lots of nudity (not the pretty kind), detailed surgery, and inflamed things on this show. It is strangely fascinating, however, and quite educational.
American Horror Story: I finished season 1, and this show is a real corker. Well acted and written, multi-layered with twists and clever diversions, I found it was absorbing to the max. The sets, the caliber of actors, the lighting, it’s all exquisite–and disturbing. Don’t watch this show if you are faint of heart or easily offended. I’ve watched the first couple of episodes of season 2, and I’m not sure I’ll go further because it’s disturbing. Can I stay away from it? We’ll find out, I guess.
Restoration Home: This is an outstanding British show about restoring old homes that are in danger of collapsing. People with big dreams commit themselves body and soul to saving old buildings to make a family home. It is a fascinating show, and much more gripping than what you would expect from the description. These old houses are always money pits, but these would-be restorers will not be denied.
Castlevania: A pretty good anime series set in the world of Dracula. Enjoyable, although still early enough in the series where the characters seem a bit two diminsional.
Defenders: I enjoyed this team-up show for what it was worth. The acting was good, but the plot holes were big enough to be a distraction. Once again Iron Fist came away as the least likable character. Seeing the characters and their casts all interract is fun too. Still, there are those nagging plot holes. A lot of those could have been fixed with just an extra line of dialogue here or there.
Marvel’s Agents of Shield: I used to love this show, and despite three very strong seasons I was in no hurry to pick this up for season four. I had become enamored in that time of the Warner Brother’s television shows, such as Arrow and Flash, and that just didn’t leave time in my viewing schedule for Shield. As it turns out, season 4 of MAOS turned out to be as monumental and great as season 3, which had heretofore been sort of a high point in the series. It was all androids, virtual reality, and science-like occult, and it was really good. (Yes, hardcore science and magic exist hand-in-hand this season, and it works surprisingly well.)
CONCERTS:
U2: Honestly, I believed my days of huge concerts was over. Too expensive, too loud, to late, too much hassle. On 9-10-17 Benita and I bucked that expectation by seeing U2 play the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. We’ve both been U2 fans for decades, and this was just too much to pass up. The band delivered exactly what we expected with great music, showmanship, and a little preaching. The video show that playing in sync with the band was the biggest video screen I’ve ever seen, wonderfully produces, and actually lent a visual element to the music that made perfect sense. The sound was good, our seats were good, the venue was very nice, the end result almost perfect.
Beck: I’m not overly familiar with Beck’s music–I’ve heard his big hits on the radio, but that’s it. I remember Kanye West stealing the mic from him at the Grammy’s, too. Anyway, I didn’t know the material, and I liked it. Beck seemed happy to be there, happy to be opening for U2, and he delivered well crafted music. In effect, opening bands can often be irritating, but Beck was not. I was impressed enough to decide to give his music some further listening. I will also not that a lot of concert goers were wearing Beck shirts, not U2 shirts. Wild.
Samantha Fish Band: I discovered Samantha Fish on Youtube relatively recently, and I became a big fan of her music almost immidiately. She plays some burning hot guitar, and sings with real heart, and I was won over. Most guys my age are unwilling to really consider a woman to be a super guitarist, and that is their loss. It’s about the music, not her gender. Now, the fact that I raised the gender issue means that I might be dealing with some sort of bias, but if you know me you already understand that I adore women, their power, and their vital role. (I’ll stop there, because I’m sure no one wants to hear me go on a rant about this.)
Governor Davis and the Blues Ambassadors: I’ve seen Davis play numerous times over the years, and he makes me smile every time he takes the stage. I have fond memories of even seeing him in an acoustic set during lunch at the City Market in Indianapolis. He and another musician sat and traded songs, accompanying each other. I was luck to be down there.
ALBUMS:
Neil Young-A Letter Home: At the same time Neil Young was trying to market his super high-definition digital music player, he and Jack White put out an archaic series of covers songs on an ancient recording device. This album sounds like an old album, with tinny sound, lots of overnoise, and no overdubs–they made all the songs in one take, apparently. It’s not easy to listen to, and only a true Young afficianado will really get it, I think. There are still a few good tracks on here, though, so don’t rule it out without listening.
Caveat: After decades of being crazy about Young and his music, I pulled back. I first became slightly obsessed with his work around 1983, but I have not purchased any of his more recent albums. Why this is more about me than about the iconic singer/songwriter. I still love his older music, and still listen to it a lot, but I’ll leave it that.
In the 1990’s, a trend that had been building for a long time reach a natural fruition–drawing all superheroes as super-bulky weight lifters, and all superheroines as porn stars. Before it reached critical levels, men had become almost unrecognizable, covered in veins and with saliva flying from their mouths as they spoke and wildly over-bulging muscles on top of muscles. It looked bad. Some characters, such as the Hulk, would reasonably look like this, but most wouldn’t.
Artists were drawing women with exceedingly long legs, breast implants that hung from the collar bone, waist-lines reduced to miniscule proportions, a conspicuous lack of “saddlebags” on the outer thighs, and tiny feet. Their faces were out of proportions, with eyes too large and too wide apart, chins too small, noses all reduced to little upturned button noses, and great billowing masses of hair that floated freely on invisible air currents.
Some comic artists still cling to these conventions, and it’s time they let them go. Weight-lifters and bulking up got mixed up with being a superheroes, when in fact they have nothing to do with each other. Weight lifters need not be heroic, and superheroes need not be overly muscular to be heroes. Furthermore, the coveted “V” shaped body that weight lifters pursue is not particularly strong. Strength does not come from huge shoulders and biceps. Strength radiates from the fighter’s core, aka the abdoman and hips. This is why ancient gladiators were thick around the middle, because that’s where physical strength comes from. It’s why sumo wrestlers are so dangerous. If anything, superheroes would be all-around fit, much like a professional baseball player, or perhaps a middleweight boxer. This gives the athlete enough mass to dominate, but not at the cost of speed and agility and endurance.
As some might have noticed, I have spent the majority of 2017 with a low profile. There are several reasons for this.
- Much of my professional art work has been for other clients than myself, and thus I am not at liberty to show off what I’m doing.
- Many of my creative projects have taken a long time to complete, or are still in production.
- My day job kicked my ass.
So, here’s what’s on the plate for 2018:
- I’m going to get the Black Dirigible finished and published. My co-creators have waited long enough for this, I can assure you. Initial publication of this will be as the single issues “Spire City Noir” no. 2 and no. 3.
- Before the “Spire City Pulp” material (aka “Hauntings” and “Black Dirigible”) can get the trade paperback treatment, I need to write one more story for a guest artist to draw. I haven’t made up my mind on this one yet.
- The “Spire City Pulp” anthology of prose short stories and novelettes has been on hold a long, long time. Every time I come close to wrapping it up, I think of another short story I need to write to add to it. In 2018 enough is enough, and it’s time to put a bow on this. I am wrapping up my novelette “Skorned” right now, and the story I’ve tentatively titled “Fangs” is well underway.
- I am doing a lot of covers and commissions for other creators this year. In fact, I’m going to make my cover art a more prominant part of this website. I’ve done a lot of it over time, and it’s becoming more and more of a thing. It’s time for me to aknowledge it.
While I cannot say that 2018 snuck up on me, I can say that 2017 went by very quickly. It was a whirlwind from beginning to end.
Strangely, none of my plans have changed. I’ve still got covers I’m working on, I’m still writing a lot, and I still have a couple of other project in the background chugging along.
One thing I have to do this year is learn to make smarter use of the time I have, maximize it. Work has not gotten any less time consuming, so if I want to get stuff accomplished I need to squeeze maximum productivity out of what I’ve got. I’ve made great strides in this, but greater strides yet are on the horizon. I know this challenge isn’t unique to me, but everyone’s answers are somewhat specific to them.
I didn’t do any graphic art in 2017, and I don’t foresee doing any in 2018. However, this does not mean that I won’t be involved in comics! I plan to complete write my part of Planar Eclipse this year, and coordinate it with the parts that Benita has written. I also plan to finish writing and publish the Black Dirigible, and probably write an additional story for another artist to illustrate. The extra story will fill out a Spire City Noir trade paperback. It will include issue 1, aka Spire City Hauntings, and issues 2 and 3, the Black Dirigible, and some other as yet to be determined story.
I’m not sure if I have a social media strategy this year. The whole world is down on social media after the last elections, and I am of the same mind.
In a remarkable fit of misfortune, my recently rebuilt dedicated graphics computer has crashed again. Apparently, it has lost its “BOOTMGR.”
So, until I can figure out what to do, no more illustration work.
I don’t know how serious the problem is, but the computer worked great for about a month but now, then no more…
I’m not as rattled as I was about this last time. When one door closes, then another may open, etc., and so forth.
I got almost all my programs reinstalled on this computer, and it worked great, and I kept all the content off the hard drive. Mind you, even though I’ve lost no content, I have the vast joy of reinstalling Daz3D, Poser, and Clip Studio Paint onto a new computer. These apps are troublesome and time-consuming to reinstall, as you can guess.
I had not gotten around to installing Photoshop yet, so that’s a small blessing.
So, what to do? How to handle this? Honestly, it was less of a hassle to have broken ribs or appendicitis. Ok, I’m exaggerating. A little.
There is no reason for this to hold up any writing assignments I may have.
This is a loss, but I’m still alive, still have my talent and experience to pull on, and another day will come. This is not the end of my illustration career.
(Note: My mom would tell me that I’m being overly dramatic. I’m not. Not much, anyway.)
I’ve had the opportunity to have stories in several prose superhero anthologies, and for that I am quite greatful. In that spirit, here is a list of superhero themes that I believe would make great anthologies on their own.
1) Replaced: The hero has been replaced by a successor, or an imposter, or a version of themselves from another universe or the future, etc. Examples are numerous, such as Wonderwoman being replaced by Artemis or Hyppolyta are good examples, or the Ben Reilly Spider-Man, or the Christophe version of Dr. Doom, or the various Bat Man replacements (Azreal, Nightwing, etc.)
2) Exposed: The hero’s secret identity has been outed to the public, or his archnemesis has discovered it, or a loved one has found out. An example could be Daredevil’s public outing in the comics, or Spider-Man by the Green Goblin.
3) Framed: The hero has been framed and sent to prison, or slandered until the public hates them, or sought for a crime he didn’t commit. All of these have happened to Spider-Man, but even Bruce Wayne and Daredevil have been sent to prison before.
4) Possessed: The hero has been taken over by an enemy, or mind controlled by the same. Dr. Doom once took over Daredevil’s body, for example, just as Dr. Octopus once took over Spider-Man’s body.
5) Broken Origins: The hero thinks he knows his own origin, but finds out there is a whole lot more to the story than he thought. Examples would be such as when Spider-Man found out his parent were spies and killed by the Red Skull, or when the whole Elektra epic was inserted into the Daredevil story.
6) Fallen: The hero has become a villain, or the villain has become a hero. This might be happen because of mind control, or insanity, or trauma, or loss. Superman in the Injustic video games, or Iron Man (several times), etc.
7) Reborn: The hero has returned from the dead, in fact (Superman) or metaphorically (Batman). Or, a depowered or retired hero has gotten his powers or sense of purpose back. Maybe even an exiled character has been recalled home.
8) Crisis: The hero’s world is ending or rebooting, and his version of reality is getting destroyed. It could be a simple retcon, or an universal retcon, but the character has to wrap up his business and say his goodbyes.
9) Powerless: The hero’s powers have become unpredictable, or are fading, or lost altogether, or replaced with a different set of powers. Think of Superman Blue/Superman Red, for example. Maybe the hero has simply been made redundant.
Interesting article about American airships. Educational more than eye-opening.
Black Lightning: This new WB show had an excellent opening episode. The politics of race and Black Lives Matter was a strong element throughout the show, and while some may find that heavy handed, I think these issues should stay in the national dialogue until something is done to correct them. I thought Luke Cage was covered some of this well, but ultimately bad plotting brought that show down, not the politics of race.
Star Wars: I haven’t watched any of the recent movies, not because I’m boycotting them but because I’m not as interested in them as I was a kid. I was 14 or 15 when the first one came out, and it was a mind-blowing cultural super phenomena. It was something new, and as a teen I ate it up. But, 1977 is a long time ago, and I just don’t feel it anymore. Additionally, the fan rancor surrounding the new movies is off putting. I didn’t let the internet hate around the Justice League movie keep me from seeing it and loving it, but for Star Wars it did.
The Scribbler: This is a little known movie from 2014 on Netflix that was surprisingly good, delightfully dark, and very well written. I really enjoyed it. It’s a gem worth searching out.
Superman: So, he’s back to his more iconic costume with the red shorts. Whatever.
Personal: I have not watched nearly as much television on the computer lately because I have been obsessed with writing. A vampires vs. metaheroes story I was writing as a short story for an anthology looks like its actually on its way to becoming a novel. I used to love vampire fiction, so the guts of this story were already lined up in my subconscious and ready to go, apparently.
Personal 2: Benita got me a longbow for Christmas, and I am looking forward to warmer weather so I can go and start playing with it. I don’t hunt, and I have no desire to shot or kill any living thing, but I do love medieval history, and the longbow was key to many great battles (Crecy, Agincourt, etc.) The medieval connection is why I wanted a long bow, not a modern compound bow of some sort.
Sidenote: Arrows are expensive.
Personal 3: About three weeks back I began a campaign to lose weight. I’ve battled obesity most of my adult life, and I was ready to make a change. I should have been ready decades ago, but that’s a story of its own. Anyway, I got a Fitbit and I signed up for My Fitness Pal. It was interesting to find out that I had been eating about 4K to 6K or more calories a day, and had been for years. So, I dropped all processed sugary stuff cold turkey, and brought myself down to a 2400 calory per day goal. The weight so far has slowly been coming off. 9 pounds so far. Maybe by tomorrow I’ll make the first 10 lb. goal. Anyway, I began at 286 lbs, I weight 277 now, and my long term goal is in the 230 to 200 lb range. Weight loss so far has been about 3 lbs per week, which I know is painfully slow, but I believe consistency will win the race.
Side Effect 1: Without all the processed food and sugar, my energy level is up a little bit, and my mind is clearer. That ranks as downright awesome in my book.
Personal 4: 2018 is looking to be my greatest year as a creator yet. I am thrilled with the literary and artistic projects I have underway right now, have great projects lined up, and I am deeply satisfied with the jobs, the process, and ongoing results. After being miserable all those years, I feel almost guilty enjoying it all now and. Happiness is a fragile thing, but right now I am choosing to embrace it and enjoy the ride. Right now does not seem like a struggle or desperate, and I am so grateful for that.
I was just thinking, and I believe it’s safe to say that I am over the critical burnout that just about ended my creative career and did end my comic, Johnny Saturn. Right now I have a full slate of writing, covers, and commissions that I am working on and I feel fantastic about it. This is a happy realization for me.
Burnout is no joke. It’s much like clinical depression, but it can last year’s, and for some people it never ends. Mine lasted for years, and it brought almost everything creative to a crawl. For the first time in years I feel like my head is in the game again.
You’ve read some or all the “Johnny Saturn” stories, in comics or prose, right? Of course you have. If you haven’t just play along.
There were a lot of underlying precepts that went into making these stories, and that’s what this blog post is about.
SEXUAL PREFERENCE, RELIGION, ETHNICITY, ETC.
When I got going on this series, it was important to me to include a wide range of different backgrounds among the characters. Gender, age, sexual preference, religion, ethnicity, political leanings, they all needed to be there. I wanted the full array of human (and inhuman) experience to be at play.
What made the Saturn-verse different from other comic universes is that these differences just didn’t matter all that much. People accepted each other for who they were, or at least they didn’t make those differences an issue. Women weren’t to be patronized or disrespected; LGBT people weren’t stigmatized, or novelties, or misunderstood; Muslims weren’t marginalized; and so forth. If you know me and my own world views then I supposed this approach could be expected. I supposed I was indirectly influenced by Gene Rodenberry and his “different but celebrated and accepted” philosophy from later Star Trek episodes.
How well did this all play out? Sometimes well. I pretty much got no blowback from making the Utopian gay. He was always a popular character in the series, and remains so till this day. I expected some negative reaction, but attitudes in America were changing quickly, but my no-nonsense gay superhero character came off as more quaint than divisive. Even then, I did break my guidelines a little by showing how much Utopian’s father Elect was in denial about his son’s preferences. I did that as much to show generational differences as anything, and even then there was never any doubt that Elect truly loved his son. I suppose we did this for a little humor as well, but mostly to indicate what kind of person Elect was.
I’m afraid I didn’t come off quite so clean on the political divide issue. It was easy for me to point fingers during the second Iraq War, and Titanium Tom’s rampant nationalism and gung-ho military positive attitude were easy targets. Even then, however, I went against steryotypes sometimes to show that even Titanium Tom could be civil or reasonable. His bluster and tactlessness were real, but he was still a human and capable of a little empathy. It would have been too easy to villify the far, far right characters without showing at least a little understanding.
Women hold much of the power and honor in the Saturn-verse. I admire women and always have, so it was natural for me to treat them with respect. I’ve been surrounded by strong women my whole life, so purposeful sexism just isn’t in my nature. How well will my writings hold up by future standards? It’s hard to say. We are products of our time, but I would like to think that history will at least look kindly on my treatment of women.
I should add one caveat–women are great, but I never wr0te them to be indistinguable from men. Our basic biological makeups can make us, in broad strokes at least, different. In general, women can be peace makers, community builders, multi-taskers, caregivers, and pragmatic. I’m speaking in very broad terms, and no individual character fits those steryotypes perfectly. From what I’ve been able to tell about men, the steryotypical man is focused in a way that makes him a good hunter, avid tool users, and given to physical responses to problems. Maybe future science and psychology will call me out on these views, and that’s fine. Histiography in college taught me that it’s impossible for us to completely divorce ourselves free of the times that we live in and the prevailing ideas that we have been born into.
Race and ethnicity is one such issue. Perhaps foolishly, I had always assumed that I was 100% free of racial bias. Now the idea of White Privelidge has been made popular, and I have realized that I am not qualified to think myself free of prejudice. This is humbling and upsetting. Maybe I’m without bias or preconception on these issues, and maybe not. I can’t know for certain, because I’m a white male and thus the beneficiary of all sorts social benefits that other peoples cannot take for granted. I could be patronizing without any desire to be so, and unable to avoid it. This bothers me because it’s not what I wanted or expected from myself.
Being honest with oneself like this is not easy. I may not always like the answers when I dig far enough into my basic life assumptions. Do my good, all-inclusive intentions excuse me from all this, even a little? I would hope, but who knows.
Other precepts and attitudes that made it into the Saturn-verse include a dislike of the “will-they-won’t-they” romance theme. I really dislike overbearing romantic drama, and I’ve preferred to let the characters carry on much of that behind the scenes. Yes, the Saturn-verse characters become romantically intangled just like people do in our world, but I prefer to let them work it out on their own. I never expected Greg Buchanan and Victoria Shelbourne to fall in love, for example–it happened organically, on the comic page, and sort of took me off guard. I didn’t write about their first dates, or first kiss, or doubts about dating each other, or any of that. They did that on their own time, and then I showed the result of their developing union in the comic as flourished.
Well, that’s more than enough for now, and I’ll revisit this subject in the future.
Scott.
|
|
