White Noise: Dawnbringer’s “Nucleus”

Jan07
by on 7 January 2015

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When I look back at “Sunza,” one of my thoughts is, “Yeah, that’s pretty metal.” There is literally a woman wearing a skull mask within the first ten pages, after all. You can all but hear the rolling gallop of reverberated power chords fading in at the last page where Long John says, “Sunza bitches,” a smoking gun still in his hand. Pretty metal, indeed.

As much as I’ve tried otherwise, I’m a person that must work in complete silence. When it comes to the writing of a comic––including but not limited to brainstorming, scripting, layouts, pencils, or lettering––I need to be absolutely focused because, I’ve learned, I can be easily distracted or discouraged. However, when I’m inking or coloring (which, luckily, take a long time), I tend to get a lot of podcast-listening done or, when I’ve heard enough talking for one day, music-listening. I’ve heard a lot of writers describe a playlist that they wrote a book to and, though I can’t have specific, you know, sounds while I’m writing, music ended up being very present during the creation of Long John.

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Humble Beginnings – Josh Tobey Talk, Part 2

Dec26
by on 26 December 2014

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After many weeks, I bring you the second part of the discussion that was recorded with Josh Tobey––Symbolist painter, old friend, and Long John collaborator on the short, “Save the Bones.” In this discussion (attached to the player at the bottom of the post), we mostly talk about Josh’s beginning as an artist in elementary school and how those early inspirations have extended through to today.

It has been said before somewhere on this site (and it’s definitely mentioned in this interview) that Josh and I met in sixth grade. I first learned of his artistic ability through the mandatory folders all the students in this class had to keep and maintain. Ever the rebel, Josh covered his folder in accurate drawings of baby animals copied from a “How to Draw Baby Animals” book and then covered them with ordnance. Somehow, I was able to procure one of these folders and hold onto it for these twenty-three years.

Josh's 6th Grade Folder, presented here in the interest of embarrassing Josh.

Josh’s 6th Grade Folder, presented here solely to embarrass him.

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Mind in the Gutters – Satoshi Kon’s Opus

Dec16
by on 16 December 2014

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“Mind in the Gutters” is a space for D. Bethel to discuss specific comics without any particular relevance or connection to Long John itself. The first discussion is the incomplete manga, Opus, by late celebrated animation director, Satoshi Kon.

Cover to Satoshi Kon's Opus

Cover to Satoshi Kon’s Opus

It’s not a lie that much of Satoshi Kon’s manga, Opus (published stateside by Dark Horse Comics in November 2014), is basically an action-adventure version of 2006’s Stranger Than Fiction, a drama-comedy directed by Marc Forster and starring Will Farrell as an unknowing protagonist of a novel written by a novelist, played by Emma Thompson, in the “real world.” The major plot point of the film comes when the protagonist and the novelist actually meet and they both realize that they have either much less or more power, respectively, over their lives than previously known, and they are both horrified.

Kon’s Opus follows a similar meta-trajectory with the meeting happening much earlier and the fallout of such a meeting being much more catastrophic, manic, and ultimately absurd. The presence and similarity of Opus to Stranger Than Fiction naturally throws suspicion upon the former; however, when one realizes that Opus was the final long-form manga of Kon’s before he dove headfirst into directing animated works, and was originally published starting in 1995, suspicion is quickly turned on its head. Comparing the two works is not the goal, here. Rather, it is the examination of meta-textual works (specifically those where fictional character and possibly-fictional creator meet) and, despite how often they can be confusing head-trips (though not as confusing or confounding as intricate time-travel, I would argue), their apparent world-breaking nature actually belies a limited array of storytelling options. This is only confirmed by placing these two works––published in different decades, in different countries with different cultures––next to each other. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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