Here's an old short I did for Meathaus #8 My homie Chris McD was nice enough to send me the files of it he had. I drew this on a trip to LA as my art therapy while going through a break up ---years before this current life of Marian muffin servitude. it's got Frank Zappa and a girl eating a banana in the shower in it. The rest under the cut:
It reads a little over dramatic to me now. Calm down Brandon of 2005, everything is going to be cool. ----------------------------------------------------------------
And Here's a thing out of my sketchbook I did last night. fan art for Enki Bilal's -The Woman trap.
Here's a video of Bilal when he was 33-- the age I am now. I like seeing his desk in this and then he puts on sunglasses and smooths around town while a narrator talks about him.
I was just thinking about Baby Snakes today, in no relation to this post! But because I saw some baby snakes. But also important, have you seen the Baby Snakes video?? So insane, so good.
I think over dramatic in short stories works puts me in mind of how important our own little worlds are. Reminds me a little of Murakami's short stories.
Sometimes, life calls for drama. Dramatic life leads to dramatic comics... nothing wrong with that.
Brandon, I remember being caught off guard in King City 1 with Joe's line about his old girl. "But that girl used to put glue in her hair and jump on the bed and taste like grape candy. How do you get over that?" That stuck with me, it was some good stuff. No one making comics should be afraid of the serious stuff.
Like Bruce said about fighting: "Emotional content. Not anger!"
I remember hearing about how Frank Zappa had to spend a night in a police station cell. He was sharing it with a small bunch of German men who were wearing tight pants, and he wrote "Meathaus" on the wall there.
Those pages are fantastic! Love the opening. But I think the thing that pumps me up the most is that simple collage on the last page. Or maybe the opening exercise. When I get some cash in me I'm going to raid the Meathaus back catalog. So much great stuff.
I love this strip. Was it the first I read from you? Nope. That was escalator. Still, I can't believe this was five years ago. I remember that opening page so vividly; how great it flowed, and how beautifully it was staged, and then... bam. Pull back to the star of the story. It was a wake up call, that there was something happening here in Brandon land. Interesting your biographical notes; I knew something of this insight and empathy COULDN'T read have been written without having lived it... I just didn't realize you were going through it at the time. Tho it gave you one of my favorite lines: "There's a gazillion other girls." "I know. I liked that one." The pessimism of the final panel was also lost on me at the time-- I guess it' s just hard for me to believe someone with your talents ever experiences defeat. I'm glad you came through it all sparkly and fresh. I know the Bilal story pictured well-- I have a crush on the blue-haired gal (Europeans always end up drawing my ideal)-- and at thirty three, I think you've surpassed him. What can I say? I like this one.
I don't care what you say, I loved this comic then, I love this comic now. It's got a fearless, nothing-to-lose raw emotional quality coupled with your outside-the-box comic thinking.
Also, I love that blue lady. I've never read the book(s), but I have been meaning to.
I like to think that when people ask about me, a bunch of thugs are just coming out of old cars and cardboard boxes saying "Kiel West? Yeah I know that MF."
I think it's good that you were able to work during that breakup. I find heartbreak crippling.
after reading the entire thing, squinting at my tiny netbook screen that is positioned too far from my face, i realized i had meathaus 8 sitting on my shelf the entire time. i must have read it when i got it and forgot all about it.
(i got it at the miami book fair a few years back. which i remember made me ~really~ happy)
overdramatic or not, still super good. it's great when we can tell our past selves shit will be cool once again :D
That is one intelligently-produced British documentary about Enki Bilal! We had some kind of intellectual renaissance in 80's TV where fringe interests and underground art were suddenly taken very seriously, and given a lot of space on television. I don't quite understand what started this or why it went away.
i absolutely adore this comic that you made, Brandon. it is crazy-brilliant in so many ways. i'm gushing inside like a little schoolgirl with a crush at how awesome it is. and thats saying something considering i'm a 300lbs lumberjack with a beard that would make even his majesty King Leonidas of Sparta step down in shame.
but what's killing me is that you used frank zappa as your protagonist. FRANK ZAPPA! the man who wrote "Broken Hearts Are For Assholes." i just can't reconcile the two. and that's probably my fault, not yours.
royalboiler
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