David Foster Wallace

Dear David,

I received an email from my friend Harry last night to tell me that you had killed yourself. Harry said he was in tears. Incomprehensible. I searched myself for feelings. Found none and searched the internet for news. Sure enough. You had been found dead three days ago on September 12th. You had hung yourself.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/books/14wallace.html?_r=1&fta=y&oref=slogin

Of course. I don't need to tell you that. But who else am I going to talk to? So I read the news and then I read some obituaries

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/opinion/16tue4.html

and somewhere amongst all that something clicked and I started to cry. And I realised that my lack of reaction upon hearing the news was a lack of knowing how to react. It was shock.

I can't speak for anyone else, only myself. I can only try and understand why I personally feel so affected. But Harry and I shared a few beers this afternoon and talked a bit about you. What little we knew. What little we understood. What more we might ever find out. It didn't amount to much.

Virtually none of your writing appeared personally autobiographical. At least not transparently. Of course, as someone commenting on your suicide remarked, everything you wrote will now be read entirely differently.

And I'd noticed before, when trying to find out something about you after reading Infinte Jest, that there were very few interviews with you available and those there were shed little light on that book other than your saying your aim was 'to write something sad'. Which perplexed me. Brilliant, horrifying, hilarious, complex, compassionate, clever, infuriating. All of these adjectives would have occurred to me before sadness.

I also learned that you had recently married. That it was your wife who had found you. I learned that you were extremely uncomfortable with the publicity that your writing gained you. I knew you were currently a teacher because I had recently read the 2007 collection of Americas Best Essays which you 'edited'. The parentheses yours.

I found a few videos for you on Youtube. One made me smile a lot:

Another was an interview from a year ago (starts 23.30)

You talked about achievements with writing no longer being the 'golden ring' you aimed for. How they didn't change anything. How you were currently in a state of looking for that next 'golden ring'. How writing did not hold the same importance for you anymore. You confessed to feeling lost but end with a quip about 'not being about to jump off a roof or anything'.

Obviously you had your reasons for killing yourself and neither I nor anyone else will ever fully know those. But I wanted you to know that I'm pretty fucking upset and angry that you gave up. You of all people.

And I also wanted you to know that I accept that you did what you did and that you're no longer going to be my favourite living writer. Just give me a while.

In the meantime I'm going to read Infinite Jest again. I just today finished reading 'The Road' by Cormac MacCarthy and it occurs to me that in a way both books achieve the same ends. Just by opposite means. And besides. I have to do something. We all have to do something, right?

Or what's the point?

11:32 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

David Lynch comic

History is written by the winners. Which is why few people are familiar these days with the name of murdered comic writer and publisher Todd Loren.

In the late eighties and early nineties Loren was the driving force behind Revolutionary/Rock and Roll comics which was the vehicle by which Loren published 'unauthorised and proud of it' biographical comics, focussing initially and very successfully on rock bands and musicians. The David Lynch comic was part of a later series of 'warts and all' biographical comics about contemporary personalities.

Rather than a straight historic interpretation of Lynch's life and work, the biography is embedded in a tale of Lynch being brought before a surreal kangaroo court in order to receive sentence for the 'depraved' and 'perverted' content of his films. Lynch, in his own inimitable words, states his case and witnesses are brought forth from both sides…

The fantastical situation Lynch deals with mirrored Lorens reality. At their peak, the sales of Loren's comics were competing healthily with the mighty mainstream comic publishers Marvel and DC. Inevitably, Loren's comics caused upset for both the music and comics industries. At first Loren simply pulled production of the comics that brought him legal threats, but eventually he decided to take a formal stand. Loren argued:

"Comics are an expression that is a form of speech. Look...if I wanted to make money, I would have become a lawyer, not a comic book publisher. But...I want to document the history of rock and roll in comics. What's wrong with that?"

He looked to support from the comics industry and received none. Defending his right to freedom of speech, Loren went to court over his publishing a comic about New Kids on the Block…and won.

In the editorial of this David Lynch comic, Loren, who would be murdered later that same year, talks about the death of EC Horror comics creator, William M Gaines whose problems with the comic industry had not been dissimilar to his own.

In the fifties EC Horror comics were outselling all other comics – including those of young Marvel and DC. When ECs horror comics were publically targeted as a source of juvenile delinquency, Gaines attempted, similarly to Loren, to defend his right to make comics through a defence of freedom of speech. Like Loren, Gaines looked to other comics publishers for support. Like Loren, he found none. Unlike Loren however, Gaines' defence was not successful. Gaines' comics were banned and a censorial charter – 'the comics code' - was drawn up that would make sure they would never be produced legally again. Instrumental in the drawing up of this charter were the publishing houses whose comics complied with the charter and who went on to become the largest comics publishers in the world - Marvel and DC.

In 1992, the same year of Gaines' death Todd Loren was murdered, most likely by Andrew Cunanen, also the killer five years later of fashion mogul Versace. The comic and music industries hands were clean. Depending on your viewpoint.

Lorens approach was to show his readers 'the truth' as best as he were able to present it and allow them to arrive at their own conclusions. Where Fantagraphics and other publishers saw 'a market', Loren saw a readership and issues of artistic integrity. Gary Groth at Fantagraphics still views Lorens work as "shoddy and exploitative". You can read the David Lynch comic below and judge for yourself:

Because if Fantagraphics are the Fleetwood Mac of comics, Todd Lorens Revolutionary/Rock and Roll comics were The Sex Pistols fronted by Larry Flint. I know who I'd rather listen to.

For more about Todd Loren and revolutionary comics see Chapter 11 of 'Can Rock and Roll save the world? An illustrated history of music and comics' by Ian Shirley and http://www.rocknrollcomics.com/History-Revcom.html

1:16 AM - 1 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Out this month...

I seem to find myself appearing in a number of different magazines and publications all out this month. It's my fifteen minutes of infamy...

1. Dazed and Confused

This months issue of Dazed and Confused has a feature on The Sound of Drowning in the 'Hung and Drawn' pages at the back of the magazine. Take a stand against rampant consumerism and read it in Smiths for nothing.

2. Torpedo Fiction quarterly

Just released is the second volume of this excellent literary/graphic
fiction quarterly in which my 'Eyes of Travolta' strip is privileged to
be nestled alongside work by Jeffrey Brown amongst others.  Being an
Australian publication you probably won't find it in many shops this
side of the pond but it's available to buy online at
http://falconvsmonkey.com/store/store.html

3. Stool Pigeon

Another freebie: the June issue of this free tabloid sized music
newspaper features a big one page version of the first 'Charlie Parker: Handyman' strip by myself and Lawrence Elwick. It's distributed all over the UK and in certain places in Europe, so look out for it in record
shops and music venues etc.

4. Blurred Vision

The 4th volume of this excellent New York comics anthology features my strip 'Mexican Surgery'. Check it out here: http://podgallery.com/html/blurredbookspages/bv4preview.html

5. Trespass Magazine

Issue 4 of UK based Trespass Magazine is a special 'comics' issue and features a strip I did at their behest - 'The New Adventures of Donovan' - as well as a very interesting interview with Alan Moore about 'Lost Girls' and an article by Ilya on sexuality in Manga. It's in select shops and also available online at
http://www.inpressbooks.co.uk/magazines_listing.aspx?id=459

and finally

6. Milk and wodka

Milk & wodka 9, is the second special 'rock and roll' volume of this
European comic-art anthology, and features the 'Bird' strip, again by
myself and Lawrence, as well as a very cool free fold out screen-print
by Silky Hoo Doo Girl that you can pin up on your wall to remind
yourself that when nothing else is going right for you there is
always...ALWAYS...rock and roll. More details here:
http://www.cookieluck.ch/milkandwodka/maw/index.html

6:43 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Pleasant Dreams My England

Last year the prime minister wrote a response to the 28,000 people who signed an e-petition calling for the government to abandon plans for a National ID Scheme...

http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10987.asp

Though ten years earlier opposed to the idea, the governement u-turned.  Mr. Blair justifies the governments aims of introducing compulsory ID cards by saying, amongst other things, that we need not worry about the amount of information on them because

"they will contain less information on individuals than the data collected by the average store card"

and

"I also believe that the National Identity Register will help police bring those guilty of serious crimes to justice. They will be able, for example, to compare the fingerprints found at the scene of some 900,000 unsolved crimes against the information held on the register."

and

"The National Identity Register will also help improve protection for the vulnerable, enabling more effective and quicker checks on those seeking to work, for example, with children. "

I could be wrong but I didn't think store-cards generally carried either criminal record information or biometric data. Although it's true that Debenhams do sometimes appear to know more about me than they are letting on.

I digress. Mr Blair also added that

"If national ID cards do help us counter crime and terrorism, it is, of course, the law-abiding majority who will benefit and whose own liberties will be protected. This helps explain why, according to the recent authoritative Social Attitudes survey, the majority of people favour compulsory ID cards."

This social attitudes survey in question being the one of which found that:

7 in every 10 people think compulsory identity cards for all adults would be "a price worth paying" to reduce the threat of terrorism.

And which also found that...you see it coming don't you...

"people were less inclined to support civil liberties when asked questions mentioning terrorism."

Do you see what he did there? Quick., You got to watch him.

Conor Gearty, professor of human rights law at the London School of Economics and joint author of the report's civil rights chapter, said:

"The very mention of something being a counter-terrorism measure makes people more willing to contemplate the giving up of their freedoms. It is as though society is in the process of forgetting why past generations thought these freedoms to be so very important."

It would be funny if it wasn't history.

The survey also found that

1 in 3 people would accept a ban on peaceful protests and demonstrations.

The government themselves say:

"The right to protest is a fundamental feature of a democratic society, encompassing the rights to freedom of assembly and expression, amongst others.  These rights have long featured in British legal tradition, and are protected by Articles 11 and 10 respectively of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). "

That one in three people would give all this away is 'troubling' to say the least.

It's the stuff of nightmares.

Protest is the only means by which people may communicate to government.

People. The plural is deliberate.

Without the right for people to protest, there remains only the rights of the individual left.

Have you ever tried to communicate personally with a member of parliament or a government department?

Have you ever met the person who represents you politically?

Or, like me, do you feel you're somehow representing yourself, siding with no one.

The problem with siding with no one, is that if things do get bad, not that they will, not that they could, not that any of it would really affect you, but if they did…you'd be on your own.

But it's not like they would use the laws they pass to do anything other than what they say they're for is it? That would be deceitful and, well...wrong.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7369543.stm

Smile.

Yet there are still some shreds of the democratic process left. The Joint Committee on Human Rights has decided to inquire into the human rights issues arising from policing and protest. It's worth reading.

7:46 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Hello again Major Tom

5:48 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

I, Axl: An American Dream

Can't urge you strongly enough to check out the genius that is Ben Myers ongoing epic  'I, Axl: An American Dream'

If you ever read 'Heartbreak Hotel' by Jeremy Reed, odds are you'll get what Ben's doing, and you'll love it!

Equal parts biography, fiction, homage, satire and loving piss-take, having been privileged enough to have read some of the later poems I can only tell you that what Ben has posted so far is just the beginning and it just gets better and better, so keep checking back for more.

6:11 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Hispter Geeks. Don’t trust them.

I've always been suspicious of webcomics nation and comicspace and the multitude of other webcomics sites owned and networked by the same companies which includes American Elf Supersite (James Kochalka) and which sites are viewed (apparently) by 4 million people per year. something just smelled...wrong.

Then I was poking around the other day and came across their media kit

http://www.comicspace.com/network/comicspace_media_kit.pdf

which made for disturbing reading, particularly this offer to businesses wanting to buy into the 'hipster geek' demographic (oh please):

"PRODUCT PLACEMENT & SPONSORED STORYLINES to run in existing comic strips with large audiences. For instance, a creator will work a discussion of a movie/show/product into the storyline of an existing daily strip."

Which made me wonder, how much does this happen already in mainstream comics and why did I think that product tie-ins were the exlcusive domain of other areas of popular culture?

A quick search and the truth is out there.

We can all now know what style of Converse Catwoman wears.

http://www.geekanerdblog.com/2007/11/panel-discussion-scans-from-catwoman.html

We don't care any the more...but at least we know.

Does James Kolchanka I wonder.

Could it be that Cute Manifesto was just one long existential advert for Johnsons, cunningly aimed to inspire the 'hipster geek' demographic to procreate and consume?

I don't know. It's hard to know who you can trust these days.

6:52 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

She’s Leaving Home 1

All the b&w mini-comics of the strip by Lawrence and myself having disappeared you can now read the whole strip in colour online:

...click here for the rest!

This strip and others will be featured in the long awaited Sound of Drowning issue that Lawrence and myself are still hard at work on!

10:01 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

The New Adventures of Donovan

Just finished putting together an A4 strip for a forthcoming special comic art issue of Trespass magazine. The brief was to take a 'real life' hero or villain and give them super powers, a costume, motivation etc.

Inspired by an old clip of a bob dylan documentary I remembered from years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj-FNTREsu0

I came up with 'The New Adventures of Donovan' featuring Donovan and other sixties pop icons and song characters as super heroes and villains - Dylan, The Beatles, The Hurdy Gurdy Man, Jennifer Juniper, The Tambourine Man etc

Not sure when the magazine will be out or even if this strip will be in it but other comics artists have also taken on the same brief and the magazine also features work by Rick Veitch and Ilya and an interview with Alan Moore about Lost Girls.

In the meantime here's some of the art from 'The New Adventures of Donovan'.

And a last word from the sunshine superman himself...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuEsggscWnU

6:05 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Second ’Soda’ anthology preview...

Still accepting submissions for the second illustrated anthology of 'those lyrics that get stuck in your head all day'. Above are some of my favourites so far.

Submissions can be in colour, greyscale or b&w at A5 300dpi and will go into a ltd edition print book as well being available online.

Email submissions to thesoundofdrowning@fastmail.fm

Deadline 1st August.

Thanks to everyone who's submitted work so far and is planning to and special thanks to Rupert Bonasera who is currently working on what we hope will be an extremely groovy wrap-around cover!

11:54 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment