Some old drawings

The other day, I pulled out my draft of a graphic novel cos I hadn't looked at it for a while (and I always get a laugh out of it), and I thought it could be kind of relevant to what I'm doing now (but it's not really). If you click on the label at the bottom of the post, you can see scans of the draft (except you can't really cos the google overlords seem to have done something deeply stupid to how they display images, possibly completely ruining the blog format [update a few days later: it seems people have whinged, and they've changed it back]).

But here are some other pics I did as part of the research:

Idle typeravings

I keep on coming back to the graphic novel I did a first draft of several years ago, fruitlessly going round in circles.

Where I left off, we'd caused a revolution in Tenochtitlan and had gone flying off into the sunset in our airship. The next thing to do, of course, would be to nip into the future a bit – say 50 years or so – and see how things were going.

Naturally, the answer is badly.

Now, this requires a Plan B. If we can't nip capitalism in the bud, how about we manipulate another crucial turning point? I reckon one of the main reasons the 20th century went so pear-shaped and fucked us so badly is because the wrong side won World War I.

Speaking very generally, even though both extolled God, King, and Country, you can characterise the German side as the progressive, modernist side and the English as the hidebound, conservative side. I mean, just take a moment to compare the two societies on the eve of the War. One was going off, making radical advances in art, science, and technology. The other was resting on its (admittedly not inconsiderable) laurels.

I reckon, if Germany had won World War I, we would now be sweet. We wouldn't have so completely fucked up space travel. We'd have at least one space elevator, and all our heavy industry up in orbit, using resources extracted from asteroids. We would also be establishing viable space colonies, ending our dependence on the Earth.

Instead, we had a stupid, pointless, go-nowhere moon race between the US and the USSR, purely for short-term political ends, and now have a useless space station and an obsolete space shuttle that's only really good for bombing Earthbound targets.

And the thing is that this was our shot, as a species. It's really hard developing a global high-technology society. We're not going to do it again. We've used up all the easily available mineral resources you need on this one. The 20th century was our shot to get our sorry arses off-planet, so we would no longer be able to be completely wiped out by a comet or asteroid strike.

In a few thousand years, if we'd built a big fuck off linear accelerator somewhere between Mars and Jupiter and fired off robot spacecraft to seed other solar systems, even a supernova would not take us out. Unless we met opposition, there'd be nothing to prevent us from creating a Galactic Empire and living into the deep future.

But, no, we had a sordid political squabble instead.

Fuck I hate politics. Left, right, whatever, you can all go fuck yourselves.

Ahem. Sorry about that. I got a little distracted.

So, Plan B is to intervene in World War I to ensure that the Germans win and develop a decent space programme. This would have to include, among other things, mixing it up with the secret agents, revolutionaries, and dadas in Zurich in 1916. That could be fun, eh?

Procrastinating

I've been procrastinating like buggery over the final version of my comic. I'm slow at the best of times, but this has got ridiculous. A large part of it is that it's going to be time-consuming and finicky. No doubt I'll fuck up a page at the last minute and have to start from scratch on a drearily regular basis. The drawing up is okay. It's the watercolouring that'll be tricky:


Before I get stuck into the watercolouring, though, I need to do a little tidying:

The funny thing is, now that I've finally made a start, I've got sick. The gods do so like their little jokes. Of course, it's my fault for crowing that I hadn't yet this winter.

How dare you assume I want to parlez vous with you?

I reckon it's very important, if not vital, that art be made purely for the artist's benefit. There's a range of reasons for this. So I've decided not to make many changes to the comic when I do the final version. If a reader can't follow it, that's their problem, not mine.

Comic-go-round

I'm going round and round in circles trying to decide what to do with my comic. I start by thinking I'll make minimal changes. I then think that a bit more explanation is not a bad idea (such as the somewhat important idea that it was the Spanish gold flooding into Europe from America that allowed capitalism to develop). I then get carried away and start chucking in all sorts of things (I've even drawn up plans for the Time Ship Cassandra - not that it'd be a time machine per se). Then I realise it's got stupidly huge and unwieldy, and decide to only make minimal changes. Then the process starts all over again.

I'll get there in the end.

Final instalment

I've got over my evil mood. (The glorious summer weather may have helped.) It also occurred to me that, if I want you to make suggestions for improvement (which I do), you should probably read the whole thing. To do so, go here and work your way up from the bottom (of the posts, that is, not the pics). I've also included a draft of the cover.

Finished

Well, I finished the graphic novel last night. Cos I'm feeling evil, though, I might not post the final instalment – make you wait for the printed version

Exciting!

I've got half a page to go before finishing the first draft of my graphic novel. With any luck, I'll do that tonight (though I've got a pesky flat inspection to prepare for).

I'm looking forward to getting stuck into some painting for a change. The graphic novel's been fun and all, but pencil and paper just doesn't cut it.

Sixth instalment

Here's a link to the fifth instalment. When we last saw our heroes, they'd defeated the Spanish fleet commanded by Columbus and returned to the New World with new settlers.

Fifth instalment

Here's a link to the fourth instalment. When we last saw our heroes, they'd just capped off a successful speaking tour of Europe by recruiting Leonardo da Vinci. Clink on a pic to see it full size.

Go slow

Time is an illusion, a side-effect of consciousness.

I'm going very slowly on the old graphic novel at the moment. Up till now it's pretty much been writing itself, but now I've got everything in place and need to decide where to from here. I know where I want to get to. I'm just not quite sure how to get there.

More background notes

• The avant-garde costumes and masks used to repel the Mayan soldiers are based on those designed by Sophie Taeuber and Marcel Janco for the Cabaret Voltaire in 1916. The nonsense poem is by Hugo Ball, founder of the cabaret (which was the start of the Dada movement).
• The Taino (who I probably should've called the Arawaks, which is the name they're more commonly known by) did trade with the Mayans, and the Spanish established primitive communication with the Mayans using them as translators.
• Marina is very loosely based on Cortes's mistress. Of course, the historical Marina was part of a group of female slaves Cortes got as part of some dodgy deal in a completely different Mayan city (the Spanish were too wussy to land at Tulum), whereas I've made her an independent woman with a gift for languages (just because I can).
• The Totonacs were Cortes's main ally. The Mexica (the Aztecs) ruled their empire by leaving the local rulers in place but exacting a large tribute, which the Totonacs (who had to provide a particularly large tribute) bitterly resented. They lived on the coast, and were a lot more relaxed than the puritanical Mexica.
• The Mayans were very receptive to foreign influence. Many cities show the influence of other cultures on their art and architecture.
• A smallpox vaccination programme would be very easy to set up. All you need is a sharp stick and a sample of smallpox.
  
• I'm pushing it a bit to set out in 1482, discover the New World and do all that stuff, and still get back before Leonardo da Vinci set off for Milan, but hey.
  

Fourth instalment

Here is a link to the third instalment. When we last saw our heroes, they were doing the bolt from the Totonac city of Cempoala after failing to persuade the priests out of human sacrifice. Click on a pic to see it full size.

Third instalment

Here are links to the first instalment, the second instalment, and some background notes. When we last saw our heroes, they'd been invited to dinner in a Mayan city and then attacked. Click on a pic to see it full size.

Graphic novel background notes

• Picabia's wealth did come from a Cuban sugar plantation. He was very successful until Dada fell apart in the early 20s. He did indeed end up poor and critically maligned, though his reputation has been rehabilitated somewhat recently (one day I'll set out why I reckon he's the greatest artist of the 20th century and why I reckon Duchamp stole all his ideas). Several of Picabia's contemporaries remarked that he was a physical coward (except for when he was behind the wheel of a car). He much preferred egging other people on than doing things himself.
• Claiming that Piero invented double-entry book-keeping is a bit of a stretch. History records that it was Luca Pacioli, who was Piero's pupil. However, Pacioli was accused of plagiarising Piero, and so I've assumed Pacioli stole the idea for double-entry book-keeping from Piero. It's also possible to interpret Piero's Baptism as being about the mystical significance of accounting.
• Columbus fluked the right route to the New World. You need to hit the right latitude for the right prevailing winds.
• We do indeed get barbecues, hammocks, and smoking tobacco for pleasure from the Taino. According to Peter Martyr, 'It requires so little to satisfy them that, in that vast region [Hispaniola, which I've named Libertaria], there is always more land to cultivate than is needed. It is indeed a golden age, [for] neither ditches nor hedges nor walls enclose their domains; they live in gardens open to all, without laws and without judges.' They were completely wiped out within decades of the Spanish's arrival.
• Caciques (chiefs) and bohiques (priests) would take cohoba to cure illnesses, see the future, and talk to the gods. Before taking it, they would ritually purge themselves using specially carved wooden sticks. On cohoba, things appear upside down, movements and gestures are reversed, and you see shifting and intense kaleidoscopic colours. At the beginning of time, the gods overlaid the world with layers of geometric design that can only be seen on cohoba. Destructive spirits rip holes in this fabric and cause illness, crop failure, and hurricanes etc.
• Although the Classic Mayan civilisation had collapsed a long time ago, there were still Mayan cities when the Spanish arrived. The Spanish did, on one occasion, get invited to dinner and then attacked. You'll find out why in the next instalment.
• My working title is The New World: A revenge fantasy.

NB: If you click on the label 'graphic novel' you'll see the first two instalments. The third will probably not be posted till early next week, the way things are going.

Second instalment

Here is a link to the first instalment. When we last left our heroes (Francis Picabia, Piero della Francesca, and me), they had just arrived at a large island in the Caribbean in 1482 and invited on board some people from a canoe. Click on a picture to see it full size.

First pages from first draft

Click on a picture to see it full size.

A novel idea

One of the things I've been playing with over the last few months is an idea for a novel. I've got a plot roughed (and I do mean roughed) out. I was thinking of narrative text with a lot of illustrations, but now I'm thinking a graphic novel. Last night, I started a first draft/storyboard. If I get it together, I'll scan and post some pages.

I'm the main character, and I can travel in time. After visiting the future and seeing what an unmitigated nightmare it is, I persuade Francis Picabia and Piero della Francesca to come discover the New World with me ten years before Columbus rolls up.