A Symphony of Horror in Beirut

This illustration's for the group Masha3, and is to be distributed as a t-shirt and poster at an event to be held at the St. Georges Bay, Downtown Beirut on the 28th of September, 8pm (it's free, public and open to everyone).

The action currently being undertaken is to stop the transfer of 40% of the water front from public property to the property of Solidere (291,800 m2 from Biel to Ajram Beach).

Note: if you're attending, the idea with the shirts is that you bring your own and it gets silkscreened there.

The Runaways

This was my first contribution to F/I/M²/P magazine. Although I was very happy with it when I drew it, it's somehow escaped publication on this blog up until now. It was an illustration for a review of Floria Sigismondi's film, The Runaways. I'll admit I haven't watched it but having to research it got me excited about the prospect of doing so.

The best part about drawing this was the reaction I got from the guys at F/I/M²/P when I sent in the pencil sketch. I originally intended to ink it but upon consideration, I agreed with them that the blacks looked good rough for this drawing (open it in a new tab to see it at full size). I believe it might be the roughest drawing I've ever agreed to let go to print and I'm pretty happy with that decision.

The Rules of Jerky-Boy Engagement

I'm not sure why I thought of Leprechaun II while drawing this.

The character's supposed to live in New Jersey so for the sake of accuracy, I ran this sketch by my trusted guide in the ways of all things Jersey, Daniel Drennan. What follows is a selection from a series of emails on the subject:

Me: Does this sound authentically Jersey?

Daniel: Oh my God. Now you have me analyzing authentic Jerseyness?

Okay, if I think about it, she wouldn't be laughing. She would be sympathetic, empathetic, and the stuff she is saying would be more a corrective; a kind of asking: "What did you do that for?" while understanding it all the same on some level.

Her cursing needs to reflect either a kind of escalation or a de-escalation; and it would be "frickin'" more than "friggin'"...

And contrasted with the "dumb" talk would be revelations of "knowing"...the Jersey debate, as it were... Lucky Charms for example had a leprechaun as a mascot and the tag line "Magically Delicious"...

So maybe:

1) "What are you, a frickin' leprechaun?"

2) "Dude! How many times did you watch Leprechaun II?"

3) "What, is someone after your Lucky Charms?"

4) "Cuz you look "Magically Ridiculous!"

Me: I think I'm starting to get the hang of it...

But... I'm also thinking of the times when I go out of my way to win an argument through sheer douchebagery. Would it make sense for her to be super-mean sometimes or is the standard boilerplate to approach the debate with faux-diplomacy and then invert the nature of the cosmos?

Daniel: It really depends on the nature of the discussion and with whom. If I'm talking with a friend, then I assume the diplomatic stance and let them have it in the debate but with the nuance that shows I'm kidding, and things will de-escalate.

If I'm talking with an enemy, then I assume the diplomatic stance and let them have it in the debate but with the nuance that shows I'm *not* kidding, and that things could escalate.

"Invert the nature of the cosmos" LOL

The meanness in this situation is more to show that the other person has let you down somehow; there's no real gratuitous meanness....when you listen to Glen Jones and XRay burns going at it, XRay will often go way overboard, and the best weapon of Glen is his dead silence on the air, as XRay has to slowly back down....

Me: Considering most of [the story is] just gonna be a bunch of depressed people complaining about their lives, I'm thinking more and more about how to use this escalating/de-escalating as a framework for how the characters articulate what's really going on in their head... Like when one of them goes silent, we know we're hitting a sour note and the discussion doesn't need to go further for the reader to understand what to make out of the jerky-boy discussion that just ensued. So the silent moments punctuate the overall structure of the narrative. Whatcha think?

Daniel: Perfect. It also allows for a projection from the reader into what is going on....I'm very much about the "unsaid" saying more than the "said" these days.

Although I feel like I'm giving away "house secrets"!

* * *

If there's a lesson to be learned about the creative process here, it's that one shouldn't ignore Leprechaun II.