CREEP
by Evan Sokal
RETALIATION by Claire Major THE WHITE BULL
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DINING HALL DUDE by Caroline Miller
MOOSE by Mike Ng
RAM RUCKUS by Christine Stoddard
Comics for the blind.
The Gene Levi Many replicating periods ago, there lived a very sad gene by the name of Levi. Levi wasn’t just your everyday eye-color or shape-of-nose gene. He was a brain gene. In fact, Levi was one of the most highly respected genes in his pool. He held an important job, had a powerful helical build, and was envied by just about every other single gene around. Why, you ask, was Levi so sad? Well, just after Levi’s twenty-first mitosis he met Cor de Roya. She was the most beautiful gene Levi had ever seen. She had a helical curve that was out of this world. Her pyrimidines were made from the purest nitrogen and her carbon molecules shown brighter than ten photons. Cor de Roya felt the same way about Levi as he did about her. He had such strong double bonds and such a dashing array of sugars. From the very beginning, every gene in the pool knew that this was a special relationship. Some of the genes even said that there was more than just hydrogen bonds holding Levi and Cor de Roya together, and indeed it seemed as if they were right. Levi and Cor de Roya had so much in common. They had been replicated from complimentary strands of DNA. Neither had been mutated in any way, something so rare that they felt as if it was in their destiny to be bonded together. Her T’s matched so well with his A’s. Nowhere in the pool was there a happier double helix. They replicated so well together that it seemed as if nothing would stop them from being the most 1
prominent genes in the pool someday.
replicating for the benefit of mankind.
Suddenly one day, without warning, a DNA polymerase I went crazy and began to uncontrollably exhibit its 5′ to 3′ nuclease activity. As fate would have it, this polymerase attacked Cor de Roya’s side of the double helix and broke her into many small fragments. It was a horrible sight, particularly for Levi. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. Replicating period after replicating period he and Cor de Roya had produced such beautiful complimentary strands and now in just a freak moment it was over. Levi drifted aimlessly in the nucleus for quite some time. He could see no use in continuing on. He resolved that the next time he saw a deoxyribonuclease speeding past, he would throw himself in front of it and be degraded.
Levi never found another gene like Cor de Roya, but because of his selfless attitude, there is a little more love in our world today. This story teaches us some very important lessons. First, not all genes are selfish as some people would have us believe. Second, it explains why humans like soft blue genes so much. And finally this story leaves us with a moral: if you are a human and your genes are down, pull them up and the world won’t be such a cold place!
The other genes in his pool, seeing how blue, how down, and how depressed he was, tried their hardest to convince him of his self worth as a gene. It looked as if nothing could change Levi’s attitude, but they kept trying to pull him up out of his depression. His fellow genes reminded him that he was a human brain gene and that even though this in and of itself was important, that he, Levi, was the particular brain gene that gave humans the capacity to love one another. They convinced him that if he stopped replicating that this would hurt the human race tremendously. Levi, being a softy at heart, and having experienced the loss of one to whom he was very attached, knew what the loss of love would mean, so he continued
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> *So...tell us about yourself, as a person and a cartoonist, since these two labels don’t necessarily co-exist ;) Yeah, I like to joke that my hobby is work, but that’s pretty much true. I grew up in a really small town in Washington State called Enumclaw, though it’s now solidly on the map because of three things: Kasey Khane (the Nascar driver), Brian Scalibrini (the Boston Celtics player), and the biggest bestiality ring in north america that got busted due to a fatality, which inspired a very odd documentary movie “Zoo.” Basically it was like growing up in Twin Peaks. When I was 18 I moved to LA for college and ended up living there for seven years, then moved to NYC for a few years, then to New Haven, Connecticut for three years, and now I’m back in California, living in Oakland. > *A B.A. from the same school where Obama spent his first two years. An M.F.A. from Yale. Do cartoonists need to go to school? You’re a ‘successful’ artist. What advice do you have for young artists and writers, particularly ones interested in pursuing a career in comics/cartoons? \ I don’t know if cartoonists need to go to school, but I would recommend it. I think a better understanding of art and a broader variety of subjects leads to you being a better writer and comic book creator. I went the academic route—my undergraduate degree from Occidental is in Art History and the Visual Arts, but I was also taking illustration and design classes at Art Center in Pasadena. My Master’s degree from Yale is in graphic design, actually, and I really think a key understanding of design helps in creating comic books. A good understanding of storytelling, pacing, composition and writing all help. I think someone interested in making comics should be very keen on watching and digesting a lot of storytelling mediums: comics, cinema, radio, books, and very keen on a variety of subjects: art history, philosophy, history. > *Flashback to RACECAR for a sec, when you were fresh to the industry. Please give us a more personalized version of the artist statement and sales pitch. RACECAR was actually my undergraduate thesis paper (at Occidental we called it our Senior Project) in comic book form. My professor at the time joked I was the 1 graduate who ever made money of a only
Senior Project. I had to talk a few people into letting me do my project as a graphic novel, after all, this was 1998-1999, the idea of “graphic novel=art” hadn’t really hit academia yet. But they let me do it. But all that aside, a personalized artist statement and sales pitch. Um. Okay, though RACECAR is really hard to sum up: it’s about a protagonist trying to understand the story he’s been written into, it’s about chaos ruling over order, and it’s about a racecar that can destroy the universe. > *How you’ve grown as an artist since finishing RACECAR? I finished RACECAR just a little over 10 years, and I think I’ve really found my voice as an illustrator and a writer. Or, to be more specific, I’ve realized my illustration voice is a handful of styles I like to mix and match, and a handful of genres I like to write in as a mash-up. > *Now for Runoff...how does it differ from RACECAR? Runoff is a much more direct plot than RACECAR, a lot less heady, and a lot more engaging, I think. It’s a story about a wide variety of people under one very strange situation. > *Why the name Runoff? Ah, that would be too much of a spoiler to give away to those who haven’t read it. In fact, the reason it’s called “Runoff ” isn’t answered until the final book. > *How would you summarize Runoff for someone who hasn’t yet read it? Why should they read it? What do you hope they’ll get out of it? Runoff is partially a love letter to the small town of Enumclaw, where I grew up in Washington State, and partially a no-genres-barred story of, well, people. I wanted a story that encompassed a larger spectrum of humanity, something that packed each genre together and made them exist in the same space. Humor, horror, cartoon, realism – all of it. The town of Range is trapping any one who comes into it, and is also kind of trapping and encompassing all sides of humanity, and forcing them all to live with each other. And humanity includes our monsters, our pets, our cartoons, our fears.
> *Why did you choose this particular excerpt? How does it speak about the comic as a whole--does it? I think it showcases the variety of styles I like to play with when I make comics: both visual and narrative styles. uk > *What’s are the news and views on Eric? Eric was made to be an entertaining head-scratcher. It’s a book about a C-list psychedelic pop star from the 60s undergoing what may be a personal crisis, or he may be front row to some of the key answers to reality. It’s filled with a lot of imbedded references, from surf movies like Big Wednesday, to classic psychedelic albums like Love’s Forever Changes, even the Wall. One thing I don’t expect people to pick up on exactly is that most of the dialogue, and many of the shots are lifted from song quotes or movie shots. If anyone ever decodes all the references I constructed it with, I’d be pretty blown away. It’s kind of like DJ Shadows album Entroducing: it’s a string of samples that form it’s own mood. I put it out knowing it’s not as approachable as Runoff, and that’s proven true. Still, it definitely has it’s fans. > *How do you feel about your career right now? Where do you see yourself headed? How does that direction match up with your philosophies on art and comics? Well, I’m still working with a group of people originally brought together by Nick Nunziata from CHUD and the director Guillermo Del Toro in an effort to translate RUNOFF to the screen. Originally we were thinking the big screen, though we’re more interested in TV now. Guillermo isn’t involved because of the Hobbit, but he was kind enough to leave a good group of folks in his place when he stepped out. Still, no solid deal on that yet. What is coming up next from me in the world of comics is more Eric, though I’m thinking that after this 80 page issue of Eric, I may step back and try and complete the entire Eric story and publish that next. > *Any last words? If you’re interested in making comics, start making them. Go to Kinkos and copy the books yourself. If you have a need to
get a story out, don’t wait on a publisher to give you the green light, just start making. And I should say that while RACECAR is no longer available, Runoff and Eric are both available to order online at robotsandmonkeys.com.
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A Comic Outsider’s Lament By Yasmin Malek
Why I never got in to comics was never really a question I asked myself. someone asked me to do so. felt invited.
That is, until
To answer the question, I never got in to comics because I never
Of course there must have been some sort of formal invitation process that I
missed because every other comic reader seems to have expansive knowledge about comics that is, evidently, unavailable to the rest of us. created Spiderman?
Why else would I have absolutely no idea who
Simple, the information is locked up in an ancient library somewhere and
one needs a personalized swipe card to get in.
I have always assumed that this particular form of expression was for those who could
appreciate word bubbles and art, combined.
Or perhaps, that once I started reading comics
I had to become some sort of die-hard fan who only hangs out with other fans.
This form of
extreme devotion seemed overwhelming to someone with commitment issues such as myself.
And
of course, if I picked up even one comic, there would be no other form of reading after that. Better yet, that I had to own some sort of fantastical collection of comics minted in the early 1900s in order to “fully” appreciate the genre.
Finally, every single comic featured
one of the superheroes I have seen in the movies and if you didn’t like superheroes, there is no room for you in the comic world.
These assumptions, I realize, are ridiculous.
on paper.
Especially when I see them written down
Nonetheless, before writing for Comicality I had never even heard of Maus.
My
form of comic reading was limited to whatever was in the paper, back when people read the paper of course, and Garfield.
I hadn’t realized that comics are not just for fun, or for
those who like to draw, but they can be literary as well.
I think it’s great that schools
like Virginia Commonwealth University assign comics, such as Maus, as the summer reading for freshman. before.
This makes them seem less intimidating to those who have never been exposed to them Although, I still have not been able to read Maus myself, it is top on my reading
list for the summer and hopefully it will give me perspective on something that once seemed foreign to me.
It is with regret that I look back on my misguided, comicless ways and I see now that
the comic world is available to everyone.
By, Yasmin Malek
Invitation received.
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