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BELLY GUNNER, continued

Below are a couple of the pages I recently finished for BELLY GUNNER - finally completed - a story that will be in the next issue of MOME, as well as in my next book of graphic short stories, FOLKTALES. This is my first attempt at writing and illustrating a war story - a genre I've wanted to tackle for a long time, but couldn't quite figure out the best way to handle it. Because I'm deeply interested in the contrasts and similarities of generations of Americans, and because war has played such an intensive role in American culture - particularly in 20th/21st century American culture - I've wanted to capture some of that as an overarching theme throughout the collections of graphic short stories. Because of the glut of war stories out there, I felt hesitant to approach a war story until I watched Ken Burns's "The War", in which the story of Earl Burke, belly gunner on a B-17 during WW II captured my attention. I was so moved by his experience, I decided to recreate it as a graphic short story as exactly as I could. This also ties into my growing interest in the reinterpretation of stories - through folk and blues songs originating from newspaper articles, magazines, books, etc - that happened in "real-life"; how the topical or biographical fits into the greater American Mythological Drama. The trouble with war stories is that I think we've become desensitized to their impact as a result of their proliferation and the sensationalizing of them. What I'm specifically interested in is the human side of these stories: In the case of BELLY GUNNER, how it must have felt to be stuffed into the claustrophobically cramped quarters of a ball-turret at the age of nineteen with all hell breaking loose around you. At nineteen, I was in college. Death wasn't real. I try to imagine how I would've handled the rigors of Earl Burke's experience, and it leaves me awestruck and fascinated. Beyond that, and perhaps very much apart of it, is the generational differences - the general attitude of the WW II generation about "their" war, as opposed to the Vietnam generation's attitude toward theirs. And in more practical terms, even the fact that Boeing designed and constructed a bomber that could withstand the abuses that the B-17 could: When you see the condition some of those planes were in when the returned to England, it's amazing they stayed in the air.

BELLIGERENT PIANO WEEKLY STRIP, EPISODE #47

As with ABANDONED CARS and FOLKTALES, the people inhabiting the environment of BELLIGERENT PIANO are not the only characters. As important (and more enduring) as the character driving the Harley-Davidson in the current scene is the Harley-Davidson itself. Because BELLIGERENT PIANO is my exploration into the Great American Mythological Drama, and involves a narrative method that is more stream of consciousness in style, it gives me the opportunity to digress into subjects in American cultural history that fascinate me: Such as, in this case, the relationship between Harley-Davidson, the United States Army, and the evolution of the custom motorcycle culture that began right after World War II. This current passage in the BELLIGERENT PIANO narrative is not only a kind of dedication to that relationship, but an exercise in my interest in trying to understand the specifics of some of those early customized Harley-Davidsons. Most of us think of those crazy choppers of the 60's and 70's when we think of custom motorcycles. All of that began with ex-GI's buying military-issued Harleys from the Army after World War II and exploring ways to enhance or personalize the bikes they bought. I'm very interested in seeing what some of those early "choppers" looked like. If anyone knows a good source for that kind of material - dealing both with the specifics of early motorcycle customizing and the biker culture that arose from it - please let me know.

BELLIGERENT PIANO DIORAMA PROGRESS: "JACKIE GETS THROW'D FROM THE TRAIN"

Below are the new "advertisements" (a term I use loosely and somewhat irreverently to indicate the design's pop culture influences) for the latest figure in the evolving first ever BELLIGERENT PIANO diorama, "JACKIE GETS THROW'D FROM THE TRAIN". The figure is "ONE-EYED LUNATIC GOON". The diorama depicts a "scene of significance" in the "mythological epic". There are two versions of the same figure, each with different colors. There are also two variations on the left arm to choose from: "ROUNDHOUSE" and "UPPERCUT". ...and number 2... Below are a couple of pictures of the characters assembled and accompanied by the JACKIE figure. Below is the "JACKIE" figure, rearranged to fit the advertisement format:

COMING SOON: "MYTH OF JACK, Vol. 2"

Well, relatively soon anyway. The second in a series of booklets expanding on the "myth of Jack" - Jackie No-name, that is: The protagonist of my "epic and surreal" exploration into the Great American Mythological Drama, BELLIGERENT PIANO. As many of my scripts tend to begin as prose sketches, some of which are meant to articulate the voices of the various characters, I've endeavored to find a place for those sketches - as well as various songs, poems, drawings, etc - as a way to hopefully expound on the characters, sceneries, and moods, thereby giving greater dimensionality to the "myth" that I'm attempting to explore, both in BELLIGERENT PIANO, as well as ABANDONED CARS and FOLKTALES.Below is the cover for the second volume of MYTH OF JACK. As with the first volume, I expect to include a supplementary CD of "radio dramas". Below are a couple influences for the cover - both IWW images from early in the last century. And here's a picture of me taken around 1995 at the tender age of twenty-four, on Florida Street in San Francisco, at a time when I was scouting out the West Oakland Freight Yards in search of a ride to Portland. I add it for no other reason than sentimentality and fond recollection of my own bindle stiff days in seeking the myth of Jack myself. O time, O loss, as Thomas Wolfe might say: All these memories will vanish like tears in the rain.

RIVERFRONT TIMES COVER ILLUSTRATION

Above is a cover illustration I recently completed for the St Louis Riverfront Times. The feature story it depicts involves an East St Louis murder involving a white man with a lengthy criminal record who ran down and killed the African American man with his pick-up truck. The culprit hasn't been charged, and isn't in jail. Because I like the way the illustration turned out, I plan to use it as the cover for HAPPY HOUR IN AMERICA #3, which I'm currently putting together. More details about that later. The concept was influenced by one of my favorite EC Comics SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES covers from the 1950's, illustrated by Wally Wood. See below:

SMOKE SIGNAL #3 "BELLIGERENT PIANO" INTRO PAGE

For the third installment of the BELLIGERENT PIANO story arranged for SMOKE SIGNAL, I've started a new project: A special diorama collection meant to commemorate scenes of particular significance in the BELLIGERENT PIANO story. This first one is "JACKIE GETS THROW'D FROM THE TRAIN", a scene that takes place in BELLIGERENT PIANO, episode one; HAPPY HOUR IN AMERICA #1. With each new SMOKE SIGNAL installment, a new cut-out piece of the diorama set will be made available. Here's the entire first page of the third installment: I will also be making pieces in color, so if you want to download them from the weblog, you can construct the diorama in color. Here's the first piece. It comes with two choices for Jackie's right arm. Here are the 3-D versions: